Frank Schaeffer on the un-American Religious Right
And I say, Right on, Brother Frank!
Far-Right Evangelicals And The Campaign Against Obama
Above all, ordinary Americans—and especially religious people who seek faith rather than power—need to understand that the evangelical right is basically unpatriotic and anti-American.
As I have said before, the Religious Right has turned the nation into an idol and now worships the scriptures of The Constitution and The Wealth of Nations. So I’d say they’re also un-Christian….
May God deliver us from all who advocate nationalism in place of the humility and charity of Christ. Amen!
AAARGH!!!! (Or, Two Idolatries for the Price of One!)
Are you effing kidding me????
Here’s the publisher’s description:
THE ONE BIBLE THAT SHOWS HOW ‘A LIGHT FROM ABOVE’ SHAPED OUR NATION. Never has a version of the Bible targeted the spiritual needs of those who love our country more than The American Patriot’s Bible. This extremely unique Bible shows how the history of the United States connects the people and events of the Bible to our lives in a modern world. The story of the United States is wonderfully woven into the teachings of the Bible and includes a beautiful full-color family record section, memorable images from our nation’s history and hundreds of enlightening articles which complement the New King James Version Bible text.
Quelle horreur!!!!! 
I’m glad I didn’t know about this before July 4th. I had to give the opening prayer at church the following day and this information would have really set me off!
Thankfully, a lot of people are seeing this in the same way I do–as idolatry. (more…)
The GOP, Empathy and Christian Values
I ran across this article from The Daily Kos, which reflects many of my own complaints against my former political party: a seemingly complete lack of compassion for other peoples, especially for peoples who have been prevented from having equal access to opportunity and/or denied their status as full human beings, and who are in many ways still aren’t given a level playing field.
To go one step further than Kos, I believe that empathy is a Christian value, and it’s one of the reasons I get so annoyed by hearing people on the Right spout off about Christianity this and God that. I left the Republican Party because I realized that the Bible seems more supportive of the values found today amongst the left: charity, compassion, humility, respect for differences, etc. In leaving behind the GOP, I broke out of the restraints that kept me from truly loving others.
The post also contains another thing that REALLY grates on my Christian nerves: American exceptionalism, as seen in the passage quoted from Liz Cheney. I first noticed the ugliness of this belief years ago in a copy of The Limbaugh Letter, and I still can’t see how you can justify it as Christian. My Bible is quite clear that nationalism is a rebellion against God, a sure way to bring judgment upon the nation. (Just in time for July 4th–huzzah!)
May God have mercy on us and not deal with us as we deserve. Instead, may God instill within our hearts that compassion, humility and generosity of Christ Jesus. Amen.
Familyolatry in the Church?
Queer Brit over at Queermergent has a nice piece on a topic I’ve been wondering about a lot the past few years: the idolization of the family by the church. We hear it from several corners: marriage and the family are the foundation of Western civilization and without them, our culture will crumble. This sounds nice, but in effect, it makes the family into a kind of god — an idol.
Queer Brit writes:
From the beginning Christianity was radically about a new form of extended community, as a visible expression of the invisible kingdom of God. This is the reason why the early church was persecuted, because in so doing, these little Ecclesia’s challenged the power of the Empire which sought to disempower minority groups, which the church, counter-culturally, sort to include. If you look at the book of the Acts, where people shared a common purse and lived together in extended friendship groups – it is all completely different from the ideal of conservatives with their 2.2 children, man at work and woman at home….
I’ve been reading the same thing in Kierkegaard: the family is not a Christian value, and there is no Biblical way to claim that it is.
I see this idea from the perspective of the Gospels and Paul, but it is hard to reconcile it with the Hebrew scriptures, which value family fairly highly — think of how many of the miracles have to do with having children. So, how do we find a biblical understanding of family that values them properly without making them the idol on which civilization is built?
