Christianity and politics

I have this tendency, based on my years as a Christian believer, to think that nothing could be more foreign to the teachings attributed to Jesus than the marriage of Christianity and American politics, with Supply Side Economics as best man. President Obama and all of those who want to take his place are openly, aggressively Christian. Admittedly they come from various sects, with the Protestants and the Catholics debating whether or not the Mormon among them is actually a Christian, and the Republicans debating the idea that any Black Democrat could be. Regardless, it is impossible to imagine the figure of Jesus actually approving of any of them. Imagine the same person who told the story recorded in Matthew 25: 31-46 standing on stage during a Republican primary debate. Even if your vision has him dressed in a proper suit and tie, clean shaven and hair all properly trimmed, just repeating those words would get him run off the stage.

Or how about the character described in the second half of John Chapter 2? “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” Are you serious? America worships markets. "Render unto Cesar..." Pay TAXES? Without complaint?

"The meek will inherit the earth..." "Blessed are the peacemakers..." "Judge not that you not be judged... but I tell you, don't swear at all (so much for the pledge not to raise taxes)... be careful that you don't do your charitable giving before men...Don’t lay up treasures for yourselves on the earth...Whoever receives one such little child in my name receives me (21% of children in the US live in poverty)...it is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God (What is the net worth of the candidates?)... You shall love your neighbor as yourself (no hint what religion, race, sex or nationality that neighbor might be)... for all those who take the sword will die by the sword (Cut defense spending anyone? Anyone?)

But then I remember. These are a few of the words attributed to Jesus, reflecting (in my opinion) some of the best of the main themes of the teachings. But there are other words, words that praise the violence of landowners while condemning the violence of laborers, words that reflect the Divine right of Kings, words that talk of plucking out eyes and cutting off hands. And of course all the words of Jesus are a minute fraction of the words of Christianity; words of interpretations, historical content, words of Peter and Paul and John and Luther and Augustine, words of countless unknown prophets set against the words of countless other unknown prophets...there are uncountable volumes of words...and every Christian who has ever lived picks and chooses the words they like the most.

I abandoned Christianity when I realized that truth, and when the American Christian church largely started to worship the words that I could not find room for in the heart of a supposedly loving and just god. Words that told of hell and eternal torment, words of judgment for divorced or ill or gay people, words that invoked money and riches as gifts from a god, and poverty as his punishment for the children of the lazy, words that ignored the discoveries of science and inquiry, words that praised ignorance and faith, words that worshiped war, words that rejoiced in the murder of others who emphasized different words, and words of the dominance of man over nature. (Those words, by the way, are being completely ignored by nature; much to man's surprise and leading possibly to mankind's extinction.)

Once free of belief and able to look at religion with a bit of detachment, I realized some other things. The Church has long served the powerful and the rich, set up Kings and supported aggression and war. The church revels in monuments and cathedrals, loves the metal gold (some of which can be found in every church building in the land) and the idea of gold (churches existing mostly to generate money for those who run the churches). American Christianity and American politics is actually a very good match. Though I might regard the current crop of Christian / Religious / Political leaders as worshiping nothing much more than themselves and power, they don't actually see themselves that way. There is no reason to assume they are not actually Christians if they claim to be so. Afer all, they are following in the footsteps of thousands of years of Christian Church leadership.

Unfortunately the realization makes it very hard to be optimistic about America's future. If I could rationalize these folks as being hypocrites, as deliberately misrepresenting their religion and their beliefs in order to bamboozle the public into voting for them, it would seem much more likely that they will fail. But I fear they are true believers, and truly believe the things they claim. Some truly think the universe was created around humanity, that the stars and mankind are roughly the same age. Some truly believe that god honors the rich and punishes the poor and righteously insist that imposing an American Christian Democracy on the world is the will of god. They believe in a hell for gay people, liberals, socialists, and a woman who terminates a pregnancy by choice. They think an anti-christ is really coming (if not already seated in the White House) that Israel is the focus point for an Armageddon, that a god is going to save us from ourselves. If they are wrong, (and they most certainly are) and there is no one to save us from ourselves OTHER THAN ourselves, then they are almost guaranteeing a harsh future for our children's children.

Seeing as most Americans share some basic parts of the religion, it seems likely we are committing a kind of mass, religious, social suicide. Worshiping the worst parts of Christian ideology, waiting for a god who is never going to show, and electing people with whom many share an honest delusion, the society will die pursuing a misplaced piety.