Oxymora (I chose the early Latin plural form of oxymoron
versus the more common “oxymorons”) are two or more words placed side-by-side
that are inherently contradictory. There
are many wonderful and fun oxymora: Adult Male, Jumbo Shrimp, Military
Intelligence, Virtual Reality, Holy War, Small Crowd, Hot Water Heater, and so
on. I am inspired to think about Christianity
after reading that Republican Presidential candidates are courting conservative
Christians. Conservative
Christians? Disclaimer: I am not a theologian. And yet for the life of me I cannot fathom the
construct of conservative Christianity.
I do not understand how those two words are used side-by-side by serious
people, much less serious people of faith.
Now that I have some of you jumping up and down and ready to
boil tar and pluck chickens, take a deep breath and let us have a rational
conversation about this notion. Such a
conversation should begin with two topics:
what do conservative Christians believe and what do I believe.
When I say Conservative Christian I am lumping the following
groups together: the religious right,
the evangelicals, and the fundamentalists.
That may not be fair, but from where I sit there is little distinction
in the beliefs and practices of these groups.
They believe in inerrancy, that the Bible is not only the Holy Word of
God, but that there are no mistakes in the Bible and that we must follow
scripture literally. They believe that
the United States of America was founded on Christian principles, that we are a
nation ordained and blessed by God. They
believe that the Bible should serve as the bedrock for all social, political, and
scientific decisions and beliefs. They
believe the tenets of their faith should be enacted into law and policy and
applied to believers and non-believers alike.
They believe that God rewards the faithful and punishes the sinful, and
the reward system is often financial.
And they believe that political solutions to problems, especially those
solutions at the federal level, are wrong and that what we should do is seek
religious solutions to problems. They
oppose what they see as the growth of intervention of the federal government
via the promulgation of political solutions to problems. Such decisions are best left to the ardent
believers at the local level to resolve.
They believe being gay is sinful and a matter of choice, and that
same-sex marriage is really sinful. And
somewhere along the way some of them began to promote the image of the
President of the United States as some sort of evil villain. I may have missed some, but those are what I
see as their core beliefs.
My beliefs are quite different. I believe the Bible is an inspirational work,
but I recognize that the Bible was not only written by human beings, the
content of what we call the Bible was selected by human beings, that means some
stuff got in and other stuff was rejected.
The Bible is anecdotal and addresses issues at certain places and in
certain times, often offering very different advice and very different accounts. If the Bible was dictated by God, was
inerrant and without flaw and not contextually based, why would we have four
gospels and not just one, and why would we have at least two creation stories,
etc.? Further, I do not see the Bible as
the definitive source of decisions or opinions when it comes to what we have
learned via science. That is not the
purpose of the Bible. The Bible serves
as a landmark book describing the pre-Jesus belief system and the post-Jesus
belief system. It is a guide, based on a
new covenant which is based on love, forgiveness, acceptance and grace. It should no more serve as an archeological or
geological or biological reference book than it should serve as computer repair
manual. That is not its purpose and to
argue such flies in the face of all we know.
Have we forgotten Copernicus so quickly, who was persecuted by the
church because the Bible implied that earth was the center of everything the
sun orbiting earth, and Copernicus had the gall to point out that in fact the
earth orbits the sun?
I am further amazed that despite all we have learned about
our universe and this planet and the laws that govern such are denied and
ignored by some. The earth is not 6,000
years old. There is evolution of species
as well as natural selection. The sun
does not orbit the earth. The earth is
not flat. I cannot fathom a current
belief system that so blatantly ignores the facts. Nor can I imagine anyone with any sense
claiming there are no errors in a Bible full of such disinformation. So there, I said it. The Bible is wrong if we look to it to make
scientific decisions and discoveries. I
am no more likely to turn to the Bible for help with my smart phone, adjusting
my telescope, my microscope, or brushing the dirt off the latest fossil than I
am to turn to Greek Mythology. Yes, I am
an atheist. Of all the gods of history I
do not believe any of them exist except the one I believe in. I am an atheist when it comes to Zeus, Caesar,
Pharaohs, Buddha, Mohammed, etc. I do
not believe those were real gods or real messengers, therefore I am an atheist
for every religion save my own. I
believe that is true for everyone.
I am equally flabbergasted by those who believe that the
United States was founded on Christian principles and ordained by God. I strongly encourage everyone who believes
that to retake your high school American History and Government courses. Because this is an important tenet of the
conservative Christian I shall devote more time and space to this belief.
One of the big reasons people came here from Europe was to
escape religious persecution. In Europe
the governments endorsed a brand of religion and everyone was required to
follow it. I cannot understand how
conservative Christians can support doing the same thing here. Further, the majority of the founding fathers
were rational deists, not Christians per se.
It was very important to them that the government and the church remain
totally separate. They had seen what
happened when one brand of belief was adopted as the law of the land, and the First
Amendment to the Constitution was to guarantee that the government never take a
stand pro or con on religious beliefs. “In
God We Trust” was first added to our currency in 1957, our motto e pluribus unum was replaced by the
motto “one nation under God” in 1956, and “one nation under God” was added to
the pledge in 1954. In other words, these
are all recent developments triggered by our fear of communism, not practices
established in the late 1700’s. To get a
sense of what the Founding Fathers thought the following are statements from
the 1700’s:
If I
could conceive that the general government might ever be so administered as to
render the liberty of conscience insecure, I beg you will be persuaded, that no
one would be more zealous than myself to establish effectual barriers against
the horrors of spiritual tyranny, and every species of religious persecution. -
George Washington, letter to the United Baptist Chamber of Virginia (1789)
Question
with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must
more approve of the homage of reason, then that of blindfolded fear. - Thomas
Jefferson, letter to Peter Carr (1787)
In
regard to religion, mutual toleration in the different professions thereof is
what all good and candid minds in all ages have ever practiced, and both by
precept and example inculcated on mankind. - Samuel Adams, The Rights of the
Colonists (1771)
Persecution
is not an original feature in any religion; but it is always the strongly
marked feature of all religions established by law. Take away the law-establishment,
and every religion re-assumes its original benignity. - Thomas Paine, The
Rights of Man (1791)
Congress
has no power to make any religious establishments. - Roger Sherman, Congress
(1789)
The way
to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason. - Benjamin Franklin, Poor
Richard's Almanack (1758)
I
contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people
build a wall of separation between Church & State. - Thomas Jefferson,
letter to the Danbury Baptists (1802)
To
argue with a man who has renounced the use of reason is like administering
medicine to the dead. - Thomas Paine, The American Crisis No. V (1776)
Our
civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions, any more than our opinions
in physics or geometry. - Thomas Jefferson, A Bill for Establishing
Religious Freedom (1779)
Christian
establishments tend to great ignorance and corruption, all of which facilitate
the execution of mischievous projects. - James Madison, letter to William
Bradford, Jr. (1774)
There
is nothing which can better deserve our patronage than the promotion of science
and literature. Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public
happiness. - George Washington, address to Congress (1790)
During
almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on
trial. What has been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and
indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in the laity; in both,
superstition, bigotry and persecution. - James
Madison, General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia (1785)
It remains very clear to me that our Founding Fathers were
absolutely opposed to the interference of religion in our life politic and that
our government should never endorse or support any religion. Further it is very clear that they recognized our young country as one based on rational thought, secularism and education.
The earliest statement we have from an act of
Congress regarding the relationship of our government to Christianity is from
the Treaty of Tripoli in June of 1797, passed unanimously by the US Senate and
signed by President John Adams:
Art. 11. As the Government of the United States of America
is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no
character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen
(Muslims); and as the said States never entered into any war or act of
hostility against any Mahometan (Mohammedan)
nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious
opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the
two countries.
Given the drive by conservative Christians to make legal
their own view of the world creates a reason the federal government has
intruded more and more in our lives, and many do not want to see it. If the federal government had not intruded in
our lives then African Americans would still be property and slaves. If the federal government had not intruded women
could not own property and could not vote.
If the federal government had not intruded makers of goods would not be
held accountable for their products and food producers would not be held accountable
for the safety of their food. If the
federal government had not intruded American workers would work in hazardous
working conditions that threatened their lives.
I could go on and on. The bottom
line is that when faced with a decision, the states historically have not been
willing to make such a decision. The
feds did, and for that I am grateful, not resentful.
The urge to apply social values via law is really no
different than the Taliban banning girls from receiving an education and ISIS
declaring that girls who are infidels, i.e. do not believe as they believe, are
subject to slavery and sexual trafficking.
If we make homosexuality a violation of the law we are doing much the
same. If we make same-sex marriage
illegal we are doing much the same. If
we make abortion illegal we are doing much the same. We simply cannot allow the belief system of
some to become the law of the land. If
we do, we are blaspheming the reason this nation was founded and are acting in
ways that are identical to the terrorist groups we see in operation
world-wide: If you do not believe as I
believe you will be punished.
I believe God has the power to have made us all love Him and
worship Him. He chose not to do so. He gave us free will. I am deeply saddened when I hear folks who
use His name to attempt to require all of us to believe as they do. Such people are not Gods. Such behavior is morally wrong.
Speaking of, the attacks by this group on the President of
the United States are beyond my grasp. I
do not get it at all. Obama is a
Christian, perhaps not a Christian in the same way these groups are Christian,
but he says he is a Christian and how dare anyone challenge such a profession
of faith? And, if he were a Muslim, so
what? If a major reason for the creation
of the US of A was to end religious discrimination, then why would we care in a
rational, secular democracy if our leader was Muslim, or Buddhist, or atheist
or Southern Baptist? (Well, I may now
have gone too far.) I am left with the
feeling that the attacks are racially based, and that is really sad. When the smoke clears I believe Obama will be
seen as one of the greatest Presidents we have ever had. He inherited a huge national debt and has
shrunk it. He inherited two wars and has
dramatically reduced our involvement in both.
He inherited a group of terrorists out to destroy us and led us to the
death and capture of most of their leaders.
He inherited huge unemployment figures and he reduced them. He inherited an economy on the verge of
depression and stabilized that economy, turned it around, and we now witness an
economy even healthier than the one Bush inherited and almost destroyed. And, for the very first time he was able to
forge a national health care system that increased by the millions the numbers
of Americans covered by health insurance. And this man is attacked by our own citizens
in ways that we would call treasonous if said by others. I do not get it. But each of these attacks waged by “Christians”
comes from the conservative side of that belief system all of whom seem to me
to have missed the entire point of the New Testament.
The message of the New Testament to me is to love my God,
love my neighbor, accept my neighbor, forgive my neighbor and not to insist on
having my own way. The message of the Constitution
of the US is that the government will not respect, i.e., recognize, any
religion. Christ spent his time with the
poor, the ill, the needy and many of his messages lambasted the wealthy and
lambasted those who were bigots for one reason or another. I believe if Christ returned and delivered
the same messages He has already delivered, He would be booed by the
Conservative Christians. And, I believe,
He would not deliver such messages from a multi-million dollar mega church or
in the seat of wealth and luxury.
Hence my question: is
the moniker “Conservative Christian” an oxymoron? For me the answer is yes.
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