Jesus didn't come to start a new religion. He was not a Christian, nor would he be one today. Isn’t it interesting that the religion that claims so violently to follow after Christ, the "Prince of Peace," shares only a name with him. Values, commitments, theology, politics, and the such that typifies Christianity bear not the mark of God, but that of man.
It irks me to see that so-called Christians are perceived by other believers of faith traditions to be the very embodiment of Christianity, for they are not. It is interesting how vastly different the Christ of the Gospels is to the Christ portrayed by the evangelical community and radical Religious Right.
For some reason I cannot see Christ calling upon the likes of Pope Benedict XVI, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, James Dobson, or George W. Bush to be his disciples; disciples of a message of compassion, tolerance, peace, and love. How can it be that these fundamentalists have highjacked our beloved Savior? When did moderate and liberal, so-called Progressive Christians, loose Christ to these fanatics?
Christ has been captured by the Religious Right, which for the most part is neither. When was hate such an honoured tradition? Christ spoke, "I have come that they might have life and have it more abundantly!" How does a "Christian" bombing an abortion clinic accomplish that? How is a "Christian nation" following Christ by bombing the nation of Iraq and killing thousands of innocence, is that what Christ meant by "life more abundantly?" Or what of fanatics who bar religious service to men and women who refuse to remain celibate, is that "life more abundant?" Better still, what of barring women from the ministry, is that a part of Christ's message? Sometimes I wonder what Christ the Religious Right and evangelical community read about.
Every Christian knows that “God hates fags,” immigrants, liberals, ‘secular’ music, dancing, Jews, Muslims, Al Franken, the Clintons, Democrats, basically everyone other than the Religious Right. When did this happen?
When did God register as a conservative Republican? When did love stop being at the core of our message as Christians? It is truly a shameful time in the history of Christendom when Christians have become the persecutors they so diligently tried to escape in the early history of the church. There is a Catholic Hymn the Divine Chaplet of Mercy that goes, “For the sake of his sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.” And I hope that God would have mercy and those of us who have permitted this maligned, polluted version of Christ’s message to be the definition of Christianity. There is much work to be done to restore Christianity to the faith of Jesus. May we seek to rescue Jesus from the prisons of the doctrine of hate of the Religious Right.
It irks me to see that so-called Christians are perceived by other believers of faith traditions to be the very embodiment of Christianity, for they are not. It is interesting how vastly different the Christ of the Gospels is to the Christ portrayed by the evangelical community and radical Religious Right.
For some reason I cannot see Christ calling upon the likes of Pope Benedict XVI, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, James Dobson, or George W. Bush to be his disciples; disciples of a message of compassion, tolerance, peace, and love. How can it be that these fundamentalists have highjacked our beloved Savior? When did moderate and liberal, so-called Progressive Christians, loose Christ to these fanatics?
Christ has been captured by the Religious Right, which for the most part is neither. When was hate such an honoured tradition? Christ spoke, "I have come that they might have life and have it more abundantly!" How does a "Christian" bombing an abortion clinic accomplish that? How is a "Christian nation" following Christ by bombing the nation of Iraq and killing thousands of innocence, is that what Christ meant by "life more abundantly?" Or what of fanatics who bar religious service to men and women who refuse to remain celibate, is that "life more abundant?" Better still, what of barring women from the ministry, is that a part of Christ's message? Sometimes I wonder what Christ the Religious Right and evangelical community read about.
Every Christian knows that “God hates fags,” immigrants, liberals, ‘secular’ music, dancing, Jews, Muslims, Al Franken, the Clintons, Democrats, basically everyone other than the Religious Right. When did this happen?
When did God register as a conservative Republican? When did love stop being at the core of our message as Christians? It is truly a shameful time in the history of Christendom when Christians have become the persecutors they so diligently tried to escape in the early history of the church. There is a Catholic Hymn the Divine Chaplet of Mercy that goes, “For the sake of his sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.” And I hope that God would have mercy and those of us who have permitted this maligned, polluted version of Christ’s message to be the definition of Christianity. There is much work to be done to restore Christianity to the faith of Jesus. May we seek to rescue Jesus from the prisons of the doctrine of hate of the Religious Right.
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