13 Comments so far

1. opeluboy March 14th, 2007 6:08 pm

   Waaaaay past time, Rev. Bascom.

2. liberata March 14th, 2007 7:02 pm

   Marcus Borg in his latest book, “Jesus:Uncovering the Life, Teachings, and Relevance of a Religious Revolutionary,” talks about “the imperial captivity of much of the church in the United States.”

   In other words, we no longer confess Jesus as our Lord and Savior. We confess that our imperial military might is our salvation and that our generals and leaders are our (war)lords.

   In the wake of 9/11, we should have done everything we could to comfort and support the families who lost loved ones … and then figured out what we could do to ease international tensions. Instead, we decided to take vengeance. Our vice president continues to preach this false gospel even today.

   That’s why I left the church I belonged to and joined one of the traditional peace churches, which has not been co-opted by the empire.

3. Stephen V. Riley March 14th, 2007 10:58 pm

   liberata is right on with Marcus Borg. Marcus Borg stands modern day Christianity on its head. Christianity needs to be stood on its’ head.

   Likewise, I suggest reading the writings of Fr. John Dear, Fr. Richard Rohr, Fr. Jon Sobrino, and theologan Daniel C. Maguire.

   We need a revolution in Christianity before we can ever expect justice and peace in the world. Don’t hold your breath though.

4. lpenek March 15th, 2007 2:41 am

   From the beginning Bush has couched his warmaking in Christian and Biblical terms: evildoers, crusades, etc. People thought they saw images of Satan in the 9/11 flames. Is it any surprise that religious rationales were used to justify the war? Unscrupulous leaders know the surest and least questioned route to people’s heart is through their religious dogma, a few key words and phrases liberally sprinkled here and there, and you’ve won them.
   Even Christian apologists like CS Lewis stated the Christianity is a “fighting religion,” ever so subtly hinting that war can be deemed righteous through it. The New Testament allegedly supercedes the belligerence of the OT, but then Jesus said that everything in the OT still applies. And remember, nobody has elided the OT from the bible, as yet.

   In short, don’t be so adamant that Christianity hasn’t sanctioned this war. If you want peace, maybe you shouldn’t look to your religion to get it.

5. lpenek March 15th, 2007 2:45 am

   Even CS Lewis said that Christianity is a “fighting religion”. The OT is repleat with violence and Jesus never countermanded it. As far as I know the OT has never been elided from a bible.
   So…don’t be so shocked that a shallow and immoral leader used Christian rationale to dessimate a Moslem nation. If you want peace, better not look to your religion.

6. concerned citizen March 15th, 2007 8:39 am

   This country needs a spiritual movement one that truly defends the rights of humanity. We should not be subject to the whims of the Christian Right, and their misuse of the Bible and politics, nor should we be subject to Bush/Cheney ideology that has brought deaths, and mistreatment of the American people and those in far countries. The true gospel message of the gospel church is one that provides hope and peace for we know the Kingdom of God is spiritual.

7. jmndodge March 15th, 2007 9:29 am

   I’ve tried to use the term, I’m sad, I’m disappointed, I’m frustrated. Truth be told I’m angry. Angry with my friends and family. The Sunday morning after the 2nd presidential debate in 2004 I lead the pastoral prayer with great frustration that both candidates wanted my vote with the promise that they would kill more terrorists, deader and quicker than the other. My great disappointment in having no viable chance of looking creatively at our world – the state of the world being measured by our care for its poorest, and weakest. Yes, even more than poor people, the environment itself helps define the state of our world. You guessed it, I was a pastor, but after 30 years this was a greater heresy than my congregation could stand. Fellow evangelicals stole the language of my faith, destroyed the message of my Lord, and are desperately working to enslave our world to their perveted image of Christianity. It took six months for my family and friends to put me out. I am deeply disappointed, sad and grieving not for our nation only, but for the evangelical community being so lead astray, and I admit it – I am angry!

8. Steve March 15th, 2007 10:54 am

   To jmndodge: Sorry to hear of your troubles, but, for whatever my consolation to you is worth, I am grateful for your courage to speak out. I consider myself a Christian, but not an evangelical; to me, evangelical Christianity sold its soul a long time ago. Not that liberal Christianity hasn’t done the same thing!

   To lpenek: Your quotation of C.S. Lewis reminds me of why I am not a fan of his. As for Jesus not countermanding OT violence, he may not have done so orally (though the Sermon on the Mount may contradict that), but I certainly think his whole life did. I think Jesus came to show the world what God was really like, to take Israel, and with it the whole world, to a higher stage of religion or spirituality, beyond the primitive views of God as violent, concerned only with one nation, demanding sacrifice, etc., to a view of God as loving Father (or Mother) who does not want sacrifice and who wants all people to “Have salt among themselves and be at peace with one another” (Mk. 9:50, para.).

   Peace to all of you!

9. Earl Simmins March 15th, 2007 1:51 pm

   Luke 6:27-28

10. lpenek March 16th, 2007 2:49 am

    True, Jesus preached a “kinder, gentler” God. Through the ages, today, and probably far into the future, the problem is that for a lot of Christians the OT is always going to make more sense and be more “actionable” than anything in the NT. For example, Bush is basically an OT Christian. It would not be overstating it to say that he has probably never even comprehended anything Jesus said. In fact the entire politics of the Christian right is based on the OT — in spite of the NT. The irony is thick. What do you call Christianity w/o the NT? Surely not “Christianity”. So we have a situation where a group of people don’t even understand the dogma they represent.

11. lpenek March 16th, 2007 2:52 am

    BTW, ignore the redundancy of my previous posts. The second one was just a “make-up” because I thought the first was lost.

12. Nietzsche March 20th, 2007 12:58 pm

    Jesus’ message of love and nonviolence was dead in the fourth century when it was appropriated by Constantine. No religion can survive being co-oped by a State that owes it’s legitimacy to violence.

13. bnxonazewyhu December 12th, 2007 4:04 pm

    tithezucanopy…

    exzupahyhewu…

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