Sarah Palin recently claimed that American law should be based on the Ten Commandments. Glenn Beck addressed the graduating students of the late Jerry Falwell's Liberty University saying that "God's finger ... wrote the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution."
The Ten Commandments, the story goes, were written nearly 5000 years ago by the finger of God for the theocratic nation of Israel. I'm totally unaware of any political manuscript, whether in Scripture or otherwise, that purports to have been written by "God's finger," possibly excepting, in a figurative sense, the Koran.
I suppose one might conjecture that the documents of the founding fathers were influenced indirectly by God via Enlightenment and Deist thought parsed with the relics of Reformation dogma -- but to suggest, even as a metaphor, that they were written by the "finger of God," thereby granting America the status of a chosen theocracy, is innovative, to say the least.
Kurt Vonnegut's take on the use of the Ten Commandments in American law:
For some reason, the most vocal Christians among us never mention the Beatitudes. But, often with tears in their eyes, they demand that the Ten Commandments be posted in public buildings. And of course that's Moses, not Jesus. I haven't heard one of them demand that the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, be posted anywhere ... "Blessed are the merciful" in a courtroom? "Blessed are the peacemakers" in the Pentagon? Give me a break!
The advent and ascension of the fundamentalist Evangelical Right in America, as represented by Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck, presents an odd syncretism of religious sentimentality and political ideology that is no less a synthesis than the practice of Voodoo, which is a cultural concoction of polytheistic, animist African tribal belief and the religious ethos of exoteric Roman Catholic ritual.
The Evangelical Right doesn't accurately represent either authentic Christianity or traditional conservative thought. The end result is an insidious conflation that combines apocalyptic fears with political zeal posturing as religious fervor, a fundamentalist voodoo that is as superstitious and credulous as the Voodoo practiced in Haiti or in some sections of New Orleans.
There is a lot to deconstruct here, including my own bias. I am a former Evangelical who in the late eighties more or less swallowed it wholesale. The people I knew were not religious or political leaders. They were not crackpots, crazy, or stupid. They were, and are, normal people with normal jobs, families, ambitions, and lives. They are often very intelligent, sincere, and compassionate. They are people I still know and love and respect. They were, and are, the base that unwittingly allows authentic spirituality to be politicized by very cynical people, or perhaps incredibly deluded people, who play upon our abstract (and often misguided) doctrinal commitments, as well as on our fears.
The evil in the world that is out to get us, per the ethos of fundamentalist voodoo, always uses the tyranny of force, comes in the guise of government, bloodthirsty for the gray equality of an egalitarianism that lowers everyone to the level of dust and ashes. It wants to kill our babies and grandmothers, destroy our marriages, restrict our rights to life and liberty, our freedom to pursue happiness (which, by the way, Mr. Beck, was a code word God used in the Declaration for "private property"). They want to annihilate us, per George W., because they are jealous of our freedoms. Or, they want the power all for themselves, gradually leading the world, it stands to reason, to embrace a one-world government controlled by the Antichrist.
It isn't that there isn't some basis for fear, given the bloody history of Enlightenment atheism played out in the twentieth century under totalitarian governments. Tens of millions of people were murdered, after all, thrown into concentration camps and gulags, subjugated to terrible indignities and personal restrictions of liberty. And we did, moreover, experience a monumental attack in 2001 that claimed thousands of lives. Moreover, Christians around the world are still being persecuted every day (but usually not by secular governments).
However, there is a difference between reasonable caution and jumping at shadows. People like Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck make a huge personal profit, both politically and monetarily, by playing on the fear of the credulous, and claiming this equals that when it plainly does not. Add to this the promise of manifest destiny, the clearly heretical doctrine that God wrote the founding documents of our country, the notion that we are a unique nation chosen by God to be a Christian nation whose laws are based on the Bible (never mind the actual history), and the Voodoo works its strange magic.
The most malevolent evil, though, per Palin, Beck, and cohorts, is the government. There is apparently nothing more demonic than the Nazi-like, fascist, and Antichrist political desire to steal our money via taxation. The irony here is thick. Love of money, according to the Scriptures, is the root of all evil. Failing to love God and one's neighbor, and more, according to Christ, failure to love one's enemy, is immoral. Investing your life in the abundance of your possessions (the endless pursuit of private property) is foolishness and idolatry.
St. Basil put it this way in the fourth century: "The bread in your cupboard belongs to the hungry man; the coat hanging unused in your closet belongs to the man who needs it; the shoes rotting in your closet belong to the man who has no shoes; the money which you put in the bank belongs to the poor. You do wrong to everyone you could help, but fail to help."
In the end, it turns out that fundamentalist voodoo may well be a convenient smokescreen that hides the real enemy in our midst, while jumping at pretend shadows in the dark. The real enemy isn't fascism or socialism or communism or any ideological "ism". The enemy isn't the quasi-religious/political zealots, either.
According to Jesus, who said that it is out of the heart of the man that proceeds his evil deeds, the real enemy is our own greed, lust, and the desire to hold on to our things in which we put our trust, even if it means other people are dying all around us because they do not have what we have -- money, housing, food, health care.
That may well be the crux of the point. It's far easier to politicize spiritual life and to blame and scapegoat someone "out there" -- the homosexual, the socialist, the leftist, the fundamentalist, the African American, the atheist, the Jew, the illegal alien, the other -- than it is to blame oneself, and to actually strive to be virtuous.
As Alexander Solzhenitsyn writes in The Gulag Archipelago, "If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?"
Follow Eric Simpson on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ejsejsejs
[Letter to John Adams, April 11, 1823]
"In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own"
[Letter to H. Spafford, 1814].
A) Do you believe in these?
B) Do you believe these simple constructs are not sufficient to found a government?
Playing any other "game" is a form of avoidance.
Blaming either Atheism or the Enlightenment for Pol Pot's butchery or China's massacres or Stalin's purges is more than a stretch. It's a fabrication.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/max-blumenthal/the-witch-hunter-anoints_b_128805.html September 24, 2008
(Fear-mongering preachers persecuting "witchcraft" in Africa are causing endless murders, beatings, and child abuse and abandonment)
Palin and Beck have come to personify a cult of personality based on propaganda and evangelical zeal that is so far removed from what is good, and what is healthy, in humanity. I can't wait for the whole ugly chapter in politics to come to a close.
But, I am with you on those priests and the continuing cover-up of the church on this abuse.
14: For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods.
15: And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey.
16: Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same, and made them other five talents.
17: And likewise he that had received two, he also gained other two.
18: But he that had received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord's money.
19: After a long time the lord of those servants cometh, and reckoneth with them.
20: And so he that had received five talents came and brought other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me five talents: behold, I have gained beside them five talents more.
21: His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. (CAPITALISM)
22: He also that had received two talents came and said, Lord, thou deliveredst unto me two talents: behold, I have gained two other talents beside them. (MORE CAPITALISM)
cont...
24: Then he which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew thee that thou art an hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed:
25: And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth: lo, there thou hast that is thine.
26: His lord answered and said unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not, and gather where I have not strawed:
27: Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury.
28: Take therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten talents.
29: For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.
30: And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
The thing is, when interpreting scripture you have to do it in the light of the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The parables illustrated and illuminated Jesus' more direct teachings, and nowhere in Jesus' birth, life, death, and resurrection do I find anything that supports the idea that the Parable of the Talents was Jesus giving his blessing on capitalism.
Moreover, the thesis of the article is that Mr. Beck and Ms. Palin are using the Christianity to get rich--twisting it from a message of hope and peace to one of fear and dispair. So even if the Parable of the Talents did mean Jesus mandates capitalism with a 100% return on your investment, it isn't really on point.
My suggestion? Go read the Beatitudes (Luke 6:20-26 and Matthew 5:3-12) and the Woes of the Pharisees (Luke 11:37-54 and Matthew 23:1-36), and see who is blessed and who is condemned.
Mr. Eric Simpson, how very "Christian" of you. As someone who not only lives in New Orleans, but practices the ancient African traditions that go back more than 6 millinia I find your comparison comment particularly ignorant. Really, who the F*ck do you think you are judging an entire belief system that has outlasted more persecution than even the Jews. Yet your flippent attempt to attack those just as ignorant as yourself, destroys your credibility as anyone serious about religious tolerance and "peace."
If I were paint such a broad brush with Christianity, I'm sure you'd be the first to jump up on your chair screaming "not fair." In fact, I believe the point of your article was preemtive strike against such a claim. In truth, you've just proven the same brush Palin and Beck use, it also yours.
I got your point, unfortunatly, you missed your own.
Jefferson was not - he despised the notion of the Trinity, did not believe in the divinity of Christ, or the Resurrection. George Washington was a nominal Anglican (which is the tradition I worship in) and he refused to receive Holy Communion! When he was admonished by his parish priest for this he just quit attending anytime Holy Communion was offered. Most were Enlightenment DEISTS. John Adams and the Senate make clear in the Treaty of Tripoli, Art. 11. "The Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion".
None of this abdicates a Christians personal duty to "love your neighbor as yourself", to feed and clothe the naked, to turn the other cheek, to be peacemakers, and to be humble. You can't legislate every aspect of morality! In fact this is the POINT of Christianity - the LAW could never change a man's heart.
Perhaps Christians aught to take personal responsibility by leading humble and loving lives, living by example. They aught to read Romans Chapter 13. Christians are commanded to respect those in government and to pay their taxes. (Which was to a hostile Roman Emperor!)
Some day it will be recognized as a real disease.
He healed people on the sabbath. Jesus stated that the Sabbath was made for man, not man made for the Sabbath.
The fundamentalists of his day were just the same as the fundamentalists today, not guided by Jesus' commands to love one another, show mercy, turn the other cheek, lend to all those who ask to borrow, etc. etc.
They are guided by the old testament rules, an eye for an eye.
Its as if Jesus and the New Covenant never existed.
Perhaps the evangelicals, despite their claims, still in fact need to be intoduced to Jesus. They know not who he is.
Fundies are all about the 10 Commandments and Eye for an Eye. Yet when their Lord and Saviour corrects them saying "You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.' BUT I TELL YOU, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." These folk need to read St. Mathew's Gospel chapter 5 which starts with The Beattitues, then commands Christians that harbouring hatered is the same as murder, and to pray and love your enemeys.
Authentic Christianity is a real bitch, isn't it.
and if you want to see religion really used to frighten and confuse people, read the kids versions of the 'left behind' novels.