Christians - A Prologue

Over the next two days I will comment on the Christian Exodus movement. Those comments will be sharply critical. I have already taken a couple of shots at the religious right and there will be many more to come. Before I lock and load for the next salvo, I want to make some background comments about Christians so that anyone reading this blog will know where I’m coming from.

I consider myself to be a Christian, although I'm not in the traditional mold by any means. I don't believe that one must profess an acceptance of Christ (or any other person or incarnation of God) as their personal savior in order to be "saved". I do believe in the moral authority of Christ and honor his teachings as an expression of the will of God. I believe there are many paths to God and many expressions of the will of God. I do not believe that participating in the sacraments of any particular denomination is essential to salvation. I was raised in a home that had no religious affiliation or orientation. I never knew my parents to be in a church for any purpose other than a wedding or a funeral. They believed in God but they were often critical of organized religion and highly skeptical about its proponents; but, that’s where the topic started and stopped in our home. My path to becoming a Christian was a solo journey with some steep hills and hairpin turns along the way. Bits and pieces of that journey will make their way into my commentary here.

As for my fellow Christians, they are a mixed breed. Some I truly admire – they uphold Christian values and principles through lives filled with love, sacrifice, compassion, and selfless service to others. Some I feel good about – they’re good, God-fearing, church-going people who try to live decent lives that don’t impinge on the freedom of others. Some I’m neutral about – they go to church occasionally, but otherwise park their religion in a detached garage. Their approach to life is live-and-let-live.

But there are some who invoke a deep-seeded anger in me. These are the hate mongers; the name callers; the self-righteous, self-appointed judges of all they see and hear around them. These are the fundamentalists, the rabid wing of the evangelicals, the Bible-bashing demigods who are like fingernails on a blackboard in my ears. These are the modern-day Pharisees who uphold and defend their self-defined orthodoxy as the word of God, proclaiming that all who are not with them are against them, that all who do not accept their brand of salvation are lost. These are the pretend prophets who, like spitting cobras, spew their moral venom at everything and everyone to the left of them. These are the sliver-minded, so-called Christians, those who give Christ a bad name; who make him the butt of jokes; who subject him to ridicule; who turn his teachings inside out and upside down and dare to do so in the name of God.

These are the people who look out into a world filled with war, abject poverty, famine, disease, and rampant injustice – and yet all they can see is that the Ten Commandments don’t hang in their local courthouse; that a nativity scene isn’t allowed in their town square; that their local merchants dare to wish people “Happy Holidays”; that their high school football games aren’t opened with prayer; that their personal opinion isn’t taught in every biology class in every school. These are the people who expend their spiritual ammunition in fighting against Teletubbies and boycotting Disneyland because their McCarthy-like minds see gays lurking behind every tree and lesbians hiding under every rock. These are the people who till the ground from which a few twisted minds evolve into messianic criminals who firebomb family planning centers; who beat homosexuals; who drag people of color behind their pickup trucks; who still burn books and crosses in front lawns.

I believe these are the people to whom Jesus would say today, “Get thee behind me!” These are the people Thomas Jefferson was speaking about in a letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush on September 13, 1800, when he said”

“They believe that any portion of power confided to me, will be exerted in opposition to their schemes. And they believe rightly; for I have sworn upon the altar of god, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.” (The last phrase is engraved inside the Jefferson Memorial.)

These are the Christians I will criticize in these entries. I will match them judgment for judgment by holding a mirror in front of them. But in posting this criticism I do not mean in any way to paint all Christians with the same brush. Much good and much evil has been perpetuated in the name of Jesus Christ. I honor and praise the good. My target is the evil.