Monday, July 03, 2006

 

Jesusless: The Church of Rightwing-ism

Historian Robert S. McElvaine delivers a smackdown to those who claim the name of "Christian" while ignoring Jesus' teachings.

In Godless, her latest and most ill-tempered book-length rant, Ann Coulter asserts that liberalism is a "godless" religion. In fact, however, the most fundamental problem in Christianity in America and the world today is that the "fundamentalist" religion that most loudly proclaims itself to be "Christian" is Jesusless. [...] "Christians" of the sort who buy Coulter's books call themselves "fundamentalists," but their emphasis is entirely upon the word's first syllable; they're all about having fun. But when it comes to the fundamental teachings of Jesus, they take a pass. Turn the other cheek? Self-sacrifice? Help the poor? Nonviolence? That stuff's too hard. They replace the Gospel accounts of what Jesus said with the Gospel according to John and Paul (Lennon and McCartney, that is): "Give me money / That's what I want." [...] In my opinion, those who complain about a "War on Christianity" are right. The generals conducting that war include, in addition to Kill-a-Muslim-for-Christ Coulter, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Ted Haggard, James Dobson, and the whole Unheavenly Host of televangelists and megachurch moneychangers and wolves in sheep's clothing who have expropriated the moral assets of Jesus and turned them to their own purposes. They never met a dollar they didn't like. They prefer profits to prophecy and pretend that Jesus did, too. They favor the rich over the poor and invert Jesus to contend that he did, too. They favor war over peace and lie by saying that Jesus did, too. Coulter and millions of her fellow adherents to ChristianityLite -- a "religion" that is the equivalent of a "Lose weight without diet or exercise" scam ("Easy Jesus! Be saved without sacrifice or good works!") -- have aborted Jesus and rewritten his teachings to suit their own selfish desires. Their revision of the Beatitudes -- what we might call the Be-Ann-itudes -- goes something like this:
Blessed are the haughty in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who exult over others, for they shall be further rewarded. Blessed are the arrogant, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for domination, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are those who show no mercy, for they shall obtain the wealth of others. Blessed are the hard in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the war-makers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who persecute for their own sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when you revile others and persecute others and utter all sorts of evil against them falsely on my account.
Onward Jesusless "Christian" soldiers, marching others into war.

Comments:
Yeah, it's interesting to me how the biblical description of the antichrists parallels what we see today. The scriptures (1 John 2) describe people who leave the church, people who claim to be followers of Jesus but are plainly counterfeits because they don't do what He did.

The big hangup fundamentalists have is that they think if they say "I believe in Jesus," that saves them. Unfortunately, the "Jesus" they believe in is pro-war, anti-poor, a servant of Money, etc. In otherwords, they believe in the antithesis of Jesus.

If I say "I believe in weightlessness," and jump off of cliffs, a similar result is achieved, but greater clarity.
 
The Fundies would much rather point out the motes in others' eyes than deal with the vision-obstructing two-by-fours in their own.
 
There is nothing of greater contrast to these types of professed "christians" than the genuine article.

I once had the honor of meeting Reverend William Sloane Coffin and though I am not myself a Christian I agreed with every word he said, and I found him to be quite different from the strident and violent so-called "christians" that soil today's airwaves.

I fear that "Christianity" is a tent under which only certain businesses can thrive, and many genuinely spiritual people will not fit within it.
 
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