My Problem with Christianism

It will come as no shock to anyone who knows me that I view the Christian Right in America with utter contempt. The Moral Majority and its peer organizations are neither moral nor – thankfully – a majority. Jerry Falwell is dead and I will cry no tears.

I have so little regard for these people not because I do not believe in God (I do) or because I do not count myself a Christian (I do). My enmity for them rises for several reasons, first and foremost among them is the fact that they are so arrogant, so deluded, and so blasphemous that they believe that they – and they alone – know the mind of God. God is much too vast for any of us to grasp his – or her – intentions. Anyone who believes that they speak for God is deluded beyond belief. Should he choose to do so, God is perfectly capable of speaking for himself.

From that belief springs my other concerns with their movement. When you believe that God is aligned with you, hating anything that is “other” comes easily and naturally. Hate is at the core of these groups and hate is the opposite of the true message of Jesus. Love others as you love yourself. Focus on your own struggle to do good rather than on the struggle of another. Remember that you are fallible on matters of faith, so leave judgment to God alone.

Finally, when you hate and when you see an “enemy,” moving against the enemy and erasing the “other” is the final solution. People of faith should be smarter than to mix their faith with the corrupting influence of politics. That, however, is exactly what these groups have done, with their ultimate goal being to rewrite the Constitution and to remake America within their own narrow vision of right and wrong. You will do it my way, which is God’s way, and there can be no other way. If this sounds familiar, it is also the view of an Islamist (as opposed to the view of a Muslim).

I have faith in my country to oppose these groups, to see them for the shadowy evil that they are. Yet is not always easy to do so. Hate is apparent when it takes the form of a Falwell rant on why the attacks of 9/11 occurred:

I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say “you helped this happen.”

It is much harder to fight the tide when it takes place quietly, slowly, and often from within our very systems designed to protect individual liberty, but which are subverted for a darker purpose. Such is the calling of the law school at Regent University and its graduates. Many people such as these, including the infamous Monica Goodling, are at the heart of the current scandals at the Department of Justice. They lie, they cheat, they steal, and – though I would never profess to know the mind of God – I believe that they are in no way Christian. It is attacks such as these that make my blood boil every bit as much – perhaps more so actually – than the open blathering of the Jerry Falwells and the Pat Robertsons of this world. They are why I watch. They are why I write.

I titled this piece as I did after a brilliant writing by Andrew Sullivan last year in Time Magazine, which I recalled after viewing the coverage surrounding Falwell’s death. My words are but a rough club next to the smooth rapier of his writing. Sullivan’s My Problem with Christianism is most assuredly worth reading.

Postscript: This past week on Bill Moyers Journal, Moyers interviewed author Bruce Bawer. In the interview, Moyers talked to Bawer about him leaving the US for Europe to escape growing Christian extremism decades ago, only to now be confronted with a rising movement of Islamic fundamentalism in Europe today. I found it most interesting and both video clips and a transcript are available. As always, I recommend watching Bill Moyers Journal every week on PBS.

Postscript 2: In all of the coverage about the death of Jerry Falwell that I watched, it was never noted that the despicable statement that he made and quoted above was during an appearance on Pat Robertson’s The 700 Club. It is worth mentioning that Robertson agreed with Falwell. We are indeed known in part by the company that we keep.