Seattle Weekly: "Yet the more love-thy-neighbor-advocating mainstream church is not dead. In The American Prospect magazine, Baptist Sunday school teacher Jimmy Carter charges the fundamentalists with 'the abandonment of some of the basic principles of Christianity.' And in his brilliant 1997 book, Stealing Jesus: How Fundamentalism Betrays Christianity, author Bruce Bawer accuses fundamentalism of replacing Christ's Church of Love with a Church of Law, lamenting 'the horrible monster that 20th-century legalistic Christians have made out of their God and Savior and the hateful institution that they have made out of his church.' He notes acidly that the movement got its biggest boost in reaction not to the Supreme Court's 1963 school-prayer ban but to the Carter-era IRS crackdown on segregated Christian schools. 'The Religious Right didn't grow out of a love of God and one's neighbor—it grew out of racism, pure and simple.'
The Right's savaging of Carter has been one of its darker moments. I saw Carter on tv recently and was reminded of what I liked about him and that Christian view. That legacy of racism is one of the others that continues to bug me. Everytime I hear Richard Land brag about racial reconciliation and the "apology" from the mid 90s for Baptist involvement in segregation and slavery, I want to wretch. When it was on the line--when people were dying for civil rights--the Church was on the wrong side. So, it does not surprise me that they might have pulled momentum in opposition to racial justice.
'Kids growing up in Church of Law families nowadays think that the only two sins, or at least the only two really, really important ones, are having an abortion and having gay sex,' Bawer told Seattle Weekly. 'The notion that love, tolerance, and inclusiveness are moral values has been dropped down the memory hole.'
Add "greed" to this mix and I am in total agreement. The differing responses to Bush and Clinton are instructive. Clinton's sins were sexual and became, for the church, unforgivable. Bush's sins are those of greed, arrogance, pride, vindictiveness, and lacking compassion for anyone not born into wealth. The church doesn't see those as sins. Even when Bush spread the rumor that McCain had fathered a black baby out of wedlock. This relates to the point above: had the church proper outrage and perspective, they would have rejected Bush at that moment and said that politics was one thing, but this was horrible. Instead, they looked the other way and clapped when Bush said that his favorite philosopher was Jesus. Really? Hard to imagine Jesus doing that.
A soldier in the U.S. Army e-mailed Seattle Weekly, 'I'm just a citizen who was raised in a Christian community and is tired of having my values hijacked by a conservative movement that only applies them selectively at home and hardly at all overseas.' The soldier asks to remain anonymous.
Perversion of Christian Faith?
'Bush is one of the key figures leading the church away from Jesus,' says Christian author Don Miller, who wrote the nonbluenose Christian best seller Blue Like Jazz. Miller is no pantywaist—he had the balls to run a ministry at Reed College in Portland, Ore., which is so godless that its soccer team is said in campus legend to have once staged a halftime crucifixion in a game against a Christian school. But he couldn't stomach it when, for instance, Texas Gov. Bush not only allowed the execution of his fellow born-again Christian, the penitent ax murderer Karla Faye Tucker, but made vicious fun of her ('Please don't kill me!' Bush said, mocking her prayerful plea for God's mercy). Miller classifies Bush Christians as modern Pharisees—the allegedly proud, rigid, legalistic hypocrites John the Baptist called 'a generation of vipers.' 'The worst condemnation that Jesus has for anybody, I mean the worst, is for Pharisees,' says Miller. 'If you asked Jerry Falwell who the Pharisees are in our society, they can't point anybody out.' There are no mirrors in Bush's church."
All key points. Christians talk about moral values, but are only concerned about missionary numbers over seas--not values or lives. Bush's interview with Tucker Carlson where he mocked Karla Faye Tucker is another one of those pivotal moments where the church had the opportunity to chide him. Think what you will about the death penalty (and I hate it), but there is no excuse for mocking a condemned person--and I am amazed that anyone could read about that and not be filled with disgust. Bush has yet to demonstrate what he said--that Jesus changed his heart--and has provided ample evidence of acting more like Machiavelli than Christ. Everytime Christians tell me he is a good Christian man, they lose a little more credibility.
1 comment:
Steak,
I'm several days behind on your blog, so I hope you don't mind me commenting on an old entry. You stretch my faith and cause me to ask myself some really tough questions. I thank you for that. We need people like you who are willing to ask the tough questions and to remain strong when they are rebuked by those who don't want light to expose that which is hidden.
This morning I was pondering a question posed by a Christian bible study teacher whom I respect. Oddly enough her questions today were tied into this blog entry and several you've written recently. Unfortunately, though, one of her questions seemed to "speak back" the notion that purity is only not swearing, not drinking, not smoking, and not engaging is sexual impurity. She asked the question "Have you renounced all forms of impurity in your life?" For some reason the question pissed me off. Have I? I do like swearing (as you know) and I do like an occasional beer or two. I decided to let the question rumble around for a bit... practicing vigorous honesty with myself (it's hard sometimes).
Truth be told like you I think it's the "sins of the heart" that are far more destructive than smokin', drinkin', or cussin'. Things like greed, lying, spreading false reports about someone, hiding the truth for dishonest gain, selfish ambition, fits of rage, envy, turning a blind eye and deaf ear to one's own "junk", and idolatry, . (I've come to understand that idolatry isn't for me worshipping a physical idol sitting upon my book shelf. For me it's putting way too much weight on something that was never intended to bear that burden. Good things easily turn into idols.... motherhood, education, opportunity, friends, children... you get the point.)
The bible teacher asked another question. She asked us to suggest ways we can turn away from "profane" or "godless chatter" in some examples she posed. One was "Your boss uses profanity when he or she talks to you". My answer was this "Honestly, this doesn't bother me. I'm much more concerned that my boss make right decision that respect employees (their contributions, thoughts, and observations) above financial opportunism." Several people dear to me were recently laid off from the place I work at the same time this company contributed millions and millions of dollars to the state universities. (Not that I'm opposed to corporate citizenship and philanthropy because I am for it). The common thread in this layoff was removing people who had previously spoken up about problems within the organization. Needless to say it's left a chilling effect regarding speaking up about very real problems.
By the way this is NOT the first time that I've observed this in corporations I've worked for. I've seen mergers take place where the top 5-6 executives were given millions and millions of dollars at the same time older workers barely making a living wage were laid off with a few months of severance. Where is the prophetic voice in American businesses?
Amos 2:6-7a : This is what the LORD says: "For three sins of Israel, even for four, I will not turn back my wrath. They sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals. They trample on the heads of the poor as upon the dust of the ground and deny justice to the oppressed..."
Streak, thanks for being one of those "prophetic" voices in the tradition of Amos who is willing to ask the hard questions and tread down paths that are truly worth looking at. Oh I pray that we might live lives consistent with our words. May we watch our life and our doctrine closely.
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