I have to admit I'm not fond of evangelists, especially not given what I've seen of them over the Bush years. In many ways American evangelists came to mirror George w. Bush and he them. Not all evangelicals mindlessly followed their leaders as this item shows. It is written by Charles Marsh, a professor of religion and director of the Project on Lived Theology at the University of Virginia. Marsh himself is an evangelist:
In their enthusiastic support of the White House's decision to invade Iraq, evangelicals in the United States practiced an ecumenical isolationism that mirrored the prevailing political trend. Rush Limbaugh may have pleased his "dittoheads" in mocking the dissenting pastors, archbishops, bishops, and church leaders who stuck their noses into our nation's foreign policy, but the people in the United States who call themselves Christian must organize their priorities and values on a different standard than partisan loyalty.
These past six years have been transformative in the religious history of the United States. It is arguably the passing of the evangelical moment -- if not the end of evangelicalism's cultural and political relevance, then certainly the loss of its theological credibility. Conservative evangelical elites, in exchange for political access and power, have ransacked the faith and trivialized its convictions. It is as though these Christians consider themselves to be recipients of a special revelation, as if God has whispered eternal secrets in their ears and summoned them to world-historic leadership in the present and future.
In a German concentration camp in 1944, the theologian, pastor, and Christian martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer pondered the future of the church in Germany as it lay in the ruins of its fatal allegiance to Hitler.
"The time of words is over," he wrote. "Our being a Christian today will be limited to two things: prayer and righteous action."
It is time to give Bonhoeffer's meditations a new hearing. With many other Christians in the United States and many more abroad, I have watched with horror in recent years as the name of Jesus has been used to serve national ambitions and justify war. Forgetting the difference between discipleship and partisanship, and with complete indifference to the wisdom and insights of the Christian tradition, we have recast the faith according to our cultural preferences and baptized our prejudices, along with our will-to-power, in the shallow waters of civic piety.
Sometime after Operation Iraqi Freedom began, I made a remarkable discovery. I had gone to one of my local Christian bookstores to find a Bible for my goddaughter. On a whim, I also decided to look for a Holy Spirit lapel pin, in the symbolic shape of a dove, the kind that had always been easy to find in the display case in the front. Many people in my church and in the places where I traveled had been wearing the American flag on their lapel for months now. It seemed like a pretty good time for Christians to put the Spirit back on.
But the doves were nowhere in sight. In the place near the front where I once would have found them, I was greeted instead by a full assortment of patriotic accessories -- red-white-and-blue ties, bandanas, buttons, handkerchiefs, "I support our troops" ribbons, "God Bless America" gear, and an extraordinary cross and flag button with the two images interlocked. I felt slightly panicked by the new arrangement. I asked the clerk behind the counter where the doves had gone. The man's response was jarring, although the remark might well be remembered as an apt theological summation of our present religious age. "They're in the back with the other discounted items," he said, nodding in that direction.
Franklin Graham, the evangelist (and son of Billy Graham), boasted that the American invasion of Iraq opens up exciting new opportunities for missions to non-Christian Arabs. This is not what the Hebrew or Christian prophets meant by righteousness and discipleship. In fact, the grotesque notion that preemptive war and the destruction of innocent life pave the way for the preaching of the Christian message strikes me as a mockery and a betrayal.
But if Franklin Graham speaks truthfully of the Christian faith and its mission in the world -- as many evangelicals seem to believe -- then we should have none of it. Rather, we should join the ranks of righteous unbelievers and big-hearted humanists who rage against cruelty and oppression with the intensity of people who live fully in this world. I am certain that it would be better for Christians to stand in solidarity with compassionate atheists and agnostics, firmly resolved against injustice and cruelty, than to sing "Amazing Grace" with the heroic masses who cannot tell the difference between the cross and the flag.
Taken from the Boston Globe: http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2007/07/08/god_and_country/?page=1
5 comments:
Wow! Thank you for that.
I'm not in the least religious, but I do believe we all have a common goodness and an inate belief that we are all the same, until we are taught otherwise, through religion most often, but not always.
I sincerely hope that this "reason", becomes more common.
I hope there is truth in that.
In the past 10 years I have went from being tolerant of religion to actively vocalizing against it.
I have no qualms with personal beliefs but when its used as part of foreign policy and in making decisions regarding my life I have to be alarmed. This place is for everyone.
In another ten years I hope I can look back on this period as a bad dream.
Jay, my man. What can I say? You have to live in hope, eh? Never look back on this decade as a bad dream. Never dismiss the reality of what we've seen as a bad dream. If that happens, we may be asleep and unable to stop it when it starts all over again.- Regards
Although I’m an atheist, like many perhaps, I used to be content to “live and let live” when it came to religion, limiting my criticism to mocking all the fraudsters, con-artists and hypocrites like Popoff, Swaggart, Jim Bakker and that ilk, but having seen it perverted and sincere (but misguided) “values voters” crassly exploited by many evangelical leaders in the service of the extreme right-wing agenda of “movement conservatism” as a means of advancing their own theocratic ambitions, I’ve become increasingly strident in speaking out against the “poison” (as Hitchens calls it) of much of what passes for religion in North America these days. (In addition, of course, to the other dangerously nutty religious fanatics and extremists of different creeds around the world.) These people really are ruining everything and sowing untold destruction in their wake.
It’s a relief therefore to hear from saner voices in the religious community. They do exist! Let’s hope more people start listening to their call and get back to the roots of their faith which should be concerning itself more with achieving peace and seeking enlightenment, not marching us all back into the Middle Ages.
Mound, I liked the article and your comment about viewing this as a dream. Very true.
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