The More Things Change....
At True Womanhood in the New Millenium, Irene commented,
"As a European, I have trouble understanding the political values of the Christian right in the US.....We often hear classifications such as
such as the ‘god and guns crowd’ used to describe the religious right (by US authors).I’ve always wandered why the two (religion and guns - and all they represent)are linked.”
“….I am concerned that the Christian right does not sem to pay equal attention to how human life - and its sanctity - is affected by a pro-war governmental policy.I haven’t come across sites/blogs where people are deeply analyzing and questioning whether or not all the lives lost and affected by war can really be justified from a christian point of view.”
“Then there seems to be a strong distrust
welfare systems in general. In fact, of anything ‘left’ish (excuse the construction) at all. There almost seems to be an unstated understanding that capitalism (and all that goes with it) is the most godly system.”
Irene, IMO, that’s because the Christianity of the Religious Right is laced through and through with idolatry.
To begin with, the Religious Right seems to see American Christianity as the only genuine sort, or at the very least sees American Christians as being somehow divided from their brethren in other countries, to the point where they place the concerns of their American brethren well ahead of the needs of Christians in other places, because they are, well, American Christians.
( I guess they forgot about Galatians 3:28 –“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” )
Within the context of the Body of Christ, national boundaries should not exist.
But, “God and Country” is a big catch phrase with the RR, as is “God and Guns.” With the RR, it seems to be always God “and” something, and never God alone.
C. S. Lewis called this problem “Being a “Christian and” Syndrome”.
Lewis said that this is what happens “when we link our faith to some other cause to which we are partial and say “this is the center of our faith.” And so we hear from our pulpits that the main focus for us must be Christianity and Marxism, or Christianity and Capitalism, or Christianity and Social Action, or Christianity and Gun Control, or Christianity and the Republican Platform, or Christianity and the Pro-life Movement or Christianity and the Twelve Step program or Christianity and Homosexual Rights movement or anything else you might want to insert there.
And the fact is, that as soon as you add an “And” to Christianity you have lost your focus. A Christian worldview speaks to all of those important issues; but every one of them is peripheral to who we are. We are not Christians AND something else; we are Christians, and we let our faith guide us in all other decisions of life.”
Wise man, that Lewis… and I think that were he alive today, he would see right through the posturing of the Religious Right.
I think that Jesus sees through it too, and through the Left as well (though at least most folks on the Left aren’t making hypocrites of themselves by claiming to be “the Christian party”) — not that many in the Religious Right or Left would accept Jesus if He came among them anyway. In fact, neither the Right nor the Left would have much use for Jesus Christ if He came among them today, incognito.
The Right would have trouble with His saying that we should not lay up treasure for ourselves on earth, but should instead lay up treasure in Heaven, and sell what we have and give to the poor; they would also have trouble with His advice to turn the other cheek and give a man your shirt as well, should he demand your cloak, and they would have BIG problems with His advice in Matthew 6:25, "Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on…;" and the fact that He and His followers held their goods in common would be viewed with deep suspicion.
The Left would appreciate Jesus’s take on feeding the hungry and clothing the naked, but they would likely reject Jesus’s teachings on marriage and divorce: and in the eyes of the Left, Jesus’s statement in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me" would brand Him as hopelessly narrow-minded and intolerant, if not an out and out religious bigot.
Today in America, as in 1st century Judea, foxes have holes, and birds of the air nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head.
Some things just never seem to change.
.
"As a European, I have trouble understanding the political values of the Christian right in the US.....We often hear classifications such as
such as the ‘god and guns crowd’ used to describe the religious right (by US authors).I’ve always wandered why the two (religion and guns - and all they represent)are linked.”
“….I am concerned that the Christian right does not sem to pay equal attention to how human life - and its sanctity - is affected by a pro-war governmental policy.I haven’t come across sites/blogs where people are deeply analyzing and questioning whether or not all the lives lost and affected by war can really be justified from a christian point of view.”
“Then there seems to be a strong distrust
welfare systems in general. In fact, of anything ‘left’ish (excuse the construction) at all. There almost seems to be an unstated understanding that capitalism (and all that goes with it) is the most godly system.”
Irene, IMO, that’s because the Christianity of the Religious Right is laced through and through with idolatry.
To begin with, the Religious Right seems to see American Christianity as the only genuine sort, or at the very least sees American Christians as being somehow divided from their brethren in other countries, to the point where they place the concerns of their American brethren well ahead of the needs of Christians in other places, because they are, well, American Christians.
( I guess they forgot about Galatians 3:28 –“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.” )
Within the context of the Body of Christ, national boundaries should not exist.
But, “God and Country” is a big catch phrase with the RR, as is “God and Guns.” With the RR, it seems to be always God “and” something, and never God alone.
C. S. Lewis called this problem “Being a “Christian and” Syndrome”.
Lewis said that this is what happens “when we link our faith to some other cause to which we are partial and say “this is the center of our faith.” And so we hear from our pulpits that the main focus for us must be Christianity and Marxism, or Christianity and Capitalism, or Christianity and Social Action, or Christianity and Gun Control, or Christianity and the Republican Platform, or Christianity and the Pro-life Movement or Christianity and the Twelve Step program or Christianity and Homosexual Rights movement or anything else you might want to insert there.
And the fact is, that as soon as you add an “And” to Christianity you have lost your focus. A Christian worldview speaks to all of those important issues; but every one of them is peripheral to who we are. We are not Christians AND something else; we are Christians, and we let our faith guide us in all other decisions of life.”
Wise man, that Lewis… and I think that were he alive today, he would see right through the posturing of the Religious Right.
I think that Jesus sees through it too, and through the Left as well (though at least most folks on the Left aren’t making hypocrites of themselves by claiming to be “the Christian party”) — not that many in the Religious Right or Left would accept Jesus if He came among them anyway. In fact, neither the Right nor the Left would have much use for Jesus Christ if He came among them today, incognito.
The Right would have trouble with His saying that we should not lay up treasure for ourselves on earth, but should instead lay up treasure in Heaven, and sell what we have and give to the poor; they would also have trouble with His advice to turn the other cheek and give a man your shirt as well, should he demand your cloak, and they would have BIG problems with His advice in Matthew 6:25, "Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on…;" and the fact that He and His followers held their goods in common would be viewed with deep suspicion.
The Left would appreciate Jesus’s take on feeding the hungry and clothing the naked, but they would likely reject Jesus’s teachings on marriage and divorce: and in the eyes of the Left, Jesus’s statement in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me" would brand Him as hopelessly narrow-minded and intolerant, if not an out and out religious bigot.
Today in America, as in 1st century Judea, foxes have holes, and birds of the air nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head.
Some things just never seem to change.
.
posted by CJ | 10:37 AM
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