I’m confused.
I’m told the Founder of “Christian” religion told his followers what his #l principle was: “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another; as I have loved you.” [John 13: 34}
But, I’m confused, as we read the following:
– Robert Jeffress, pastor, First Baptist Church of Dallas, has called gays “miserable,” “Filthy,” “degrading.” “What a lot of people miss is, America is not a church where everyone should be welcome regardless of race and background.” “Islam is wrong. It is a heresy from the pit of hell. Judaism – you can’t be saved being a Jew.” In a 2011 sermon, he called the Catholic Church a corrupt version of Christianity that sprang from ancient Babylonian cults.
– Reverend Pat Robertson: “You say you’re supposed to be nice to Episcopalians and the Presbyterians and the Methodists and this, that and the other thing. Nonsense. I don’t have to be nice to the spirit of the Antichrist.” [700 Club]
– journalist Katherine Stewart attended a “conservative” Protestant conference, went to a seminar called “Understanding and Reaching Out to the Hispanic Child,” where the leader “Devotes the bulk of the seminar addressing the problem of how to subvert Catholic teachings and practices so subtly that Catholic-born students won’t alert their parents…”They call themselves Christians..being Catholics doesn’t mean they are the RIGHT kind of Christians..”
[“The Good News Club”; page 55]
So, I’m confused.
I’m told the Christian Bible has some 2-3,000 references to the poor and duty to help them.
But – we study the reverse Robin Hood tax cuts for the rich and corporations passed by a Party that claims to be upholding “Christian,” “family values.” The 2017 tax cut phased out middle class tax cuts, but those for the rich and corporations are permanent.
But – America has the #37 best “health care” system; medical bills are the #1 cause of ordinary people declaring bankruptcy. Many ordinary people are severely handicapped by college debts. We have a growing homeless problem. We have increasing numbers of people who are “food insecure.” Ordinary workers” income has dropped by about $10,000 annually compared to money earned before 1980.
But – we are told the 2022 Supreme Court. “Dobbs”. decision that removed Constitutional projections for women’s health consequences will fall disproportionally on the poor and powerless. Six “justices” who were all raised in one fundamentalist “Christian” church made that decision.
So, I’m confused.
Looking for guidance, I searched for books. In “What Jesus Meant,” Gary Wills stated: “..the key test for a disciple – treating the poor, the thirsty, the hungry, the naked as if. they were Jesus.” Inside book jacket: “Gary Wills argues that Jesus subscribed to no political program. He was far more radical than that..It is only by dodges and evasions, Wills reminds us, that people blunt what Jesus plainly had to say against power, the wealthy, and religion itself. Jesus came from the lower class, the working class, and he spoke to and for that class.”
So, I’m confused.
Because, some have made the claim America was founded aa “a Christian nation.” Research reveals”
– “Roger Williams, founder of Baptist tradition in America, was a dissident in Puritan Massachusetts who was expelled from the colony in 1636 and went to Rhode Island to form a religiously tolerant society..the notion of religious disestablishment, the absence of a state church.” [Randall Balmer; “Thy Kingdom Come”]
– “As colonists from several different religions and faiths arrived..the Baptist model of religious disestablishment and liberty of conscience looked increasingly attractive…Quakers, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Dutch Reformed, and others – took up Baptist arguments for religious liberty.” [Balmer]
– “James Madison wrote his famous 1785 ‘Memorial and Remonstrance’ to argue against any state endorsement of Christianity. “Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other sects.” {Balmer]
So, I’m confused.
Other research led to Edwin Gaustad’s “Faith of the Founders.” Appendix B, pages 133-145, provides 1776-1800 state constitutions. One learns that 4 states prohibited a “religious test for office” [Article VI]; that 8 states banned an active minister from serving in their government; that virtually ALL had language that IS in Amendment One banning an “established church.” One can also learn 11 of the original 13 states HAD established churches; by 1830- ALL. are gone. The inescapable message: the Founding generations believed whatever YOUR faith was, or none at all, it was a PRIVATE affair.
So, I’m. confused.
More historical research leads to Stacy Schiff’s “The Witches,” about the events of 1692 Salem. 19 innocent people were executed for “witchcraft.” All but one of the prosecutors were ministers. O page 66, we learn the 1641 Massachusetts legal code was based on 3 books from the Christian Bible: Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy. The first capital crime was idolatry, the second witchcraft, the third blasphemy [murder was only #4]
We also learn some current “conservative’ fundamentalist groups envision a society where government posts would be reserved for the “righteous,” so long as they are male. There would be thousands of executions yearly, with stoning preferred because it would turn deaths into “community projects.” “Sinners” marked for death would include adulterous women, women who lied bout virginity, blasphemers, witches, children who struck parents, gay men. Eliminated: unions, Social Security, public schools, unemployment benefits, environmental laws, secular government.
So, I’m. confused.
It seems some “Christians” want to return to 1692. Does this mean they want to make the fictional kingdom of “Gilead” are reality?
I’m confused……….
The Founder of Christianity seems to be saying one thing. His 21st century “followers seem to be saying other things. Much of His message is based around love and compassion. Much of His current “followers” seemed to be concerned with hate and eliminating “enemies.”
So, I’m. confused.
One of the biggest groups of “Christians” is also THE most heavily armed with guns of all sorts. Guns kill people – that is their purpose. The “Christians’ claim they only own guns to “protect their family.” But – if we ALL lived up to the Founder of Christianity”s #1. principle – love. – there’d be no need for guns.
So, I’m. confused.
I do NOT know what it means to be a “Christian.”
With Justice For All 