Jesus Must Be Weeping

If ever there was a misnomer in the political lexicon, surely "values voters" is the all-time champ. The use of this term to describe the so-called base of the Republicans' so-called party mainly refers to an extremist, ultra-conservative, strain of so-called Christian conservatives. And what are their so-called "values"? Mostly an irrational hatred of gays, a suppression of women's rights, the assertion that only they are going to heaven and that all those that don't embrace their particular permutation of Christianity will burn (among other things) in Hell!

By their logic, if Hitler accepted Jesus Christ as his personal savior in the bunker, he would be in Heaven while Einstein burns in Hell! What logic! As someone recently said, most of the Republican candidates are claiming Jesus Christ as their running mate and are implicitly working the most intolerant elements of their party who are neither a majority in that party or the country.

So this small, mostly shrill and evil bunch of millionaire preachers and their minions are spreading everything but love, compassion, charity and fairness and they now are, sadly, the most important element of the party of Abe Lincoln.

Jesus must be weeping.

Comments

[longislandlol]

The preachers think we are being attacked in the media, etc.. but we are not- we Christians are really just rolling around beating up on ourselves and using God as an excuse- God doesn't take revenge, start up unjust wars, say "mission accomplished", etc.. he is not the puppetmaster that some people think he is-God really is the good guy that everyone continues to use and abuse when things don't go the way of the Christian "right" minority.

[JimReed]

"the Christian "right" minority."

It was a Christian majority that won the election. Now those who voted for Bush must change.

[GenXLiberal]

How do any of you truly know if God is dead? Or if God doesn't even like us? I sometimes wonder.As for the Hitleristians, Ya, you can easily tell those folks are dimented and filled with hate. If there is a hell, they will make nice firewood.

[JimReed]

When the discussion is about Christianity, God doesn't enter into it.

[Pneumaticus]

Jesus doesn't weep; but apparently he does bleed a lot.

[stephm]

I am not a christian. I believe when you die thats most likely it. I believe it is my personal responsibility to be the best person I can be. Not the richest not the most successful, but the kindest most compassionate.

[wmholt]

The word "evangelical" has come to be synonymous with people that hate everyone and everything that is different from them.

If these rich pastors in their Crystal Cathedrals would ever read their Bible, they would be weeping and ashamed, if they were even still capable of shame.

The death of Jerry Falwell's friend in some sort of bizarre sexual ritual is just one of many examples of why I believe that this is post-Christian America.

When Tom Delay, Ann Coulter, George Bush, and Newt Gingrich hold themselves out to be Christian believers and paragons of virtue, I find myself wishing that there was another word to describe what I believe than "Christian".

Speaking of Ann Coulter, I saw her on "The Big Idea" with Ronny Deutsch. Her idea that Christians are "perfected" is a ridiculous concept that has no Biblical foundation. I think that a simple survey of all that claim to be Christians would pretty much put the idea of "Christian perfection" to rest.

[ripgriffith]

Some of us who are active "Christians" and totaly reject the values and actions of the "Christian Right" tend to refer to ourselves simply as "Believers"

[Mariel]

Crystal Cathedral=Bad Example. Pastor Robert Schuller is not an evangelical in the sense that you are using the word. He is closer to a universalist as GW Bush now is, saying we all pray to the same God no matter what our religion. Some better examples of big bad cathedrals of money would be, for instance, Lakewood Church in Texas, a former stadium, but evangelicals would have a hard time accepting that pastor (Joel Osteen) as kosher. Probably John Hagee's church in San Antonio would be a good example of a mega-church which is truly evangelical in the sense you are using it.

[winterjim]

And George Soros is a paragon of virtue

[ihavenobias]

And that statement is relevant to this topic because?

[swift goat pet for truth]

When you have some time you might check out what Soros does to feed the hungry, and clothe the naked.

[TOOO]

I've always thought that sooner or later, every organization, religion, screed, government, what-have-you becomes corrupt.

Right now, it's Christianity's (and the US) turn.

Belief only works in bad movies, television and bad pop songs.

[xrayman]

Christianity has always had its intolerant and even evil proponents. If I hate gays or kill in the name of Christianity does that make Christianity bad? No. Christianity can't help what I do or say in it's name.

Ultra conservative Christians have made a splash in the media for the past 25-30 years, since Reagan and Bush. Most Christians I know are liberal peace-nicks. I had to cut off communication with some Christian friends in the past 8 years because they tried to persuade me that God picked G.W. Bush.

For Bush, Christianity is just a marketing tool.

[JimReed]

Most Christians picked Bush. He got a little less than 50% of the vote overall, and the rest of us didn't want him, but all those majorities in all those churches across the country put him up close enough that when the other Republican strategies were added in, he got elected. If most of your Christian friends didn't pick him, you are lucky, but you are in a minority.

[peacehappens]

Adam and Eve are in the Garden of Eden with a talking serpent. There are two trees that God has told Adam and Eve to not touch or eat the fruit of or else they will die.

The serpent feels compassion for Eve and tells Eve the truth. "You will not die; God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes shall be opened and you shall be like gods, knowing good and evil".

God is angry because Adam and Eve didn't listen to him. God is also frightened, "Behold, the man has become like one of us, to know good and evil; and now lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever; Therefore the Lord God, sent him forth from the Garden of Eden ...."

1) Like one of us? There are other Gods?
2) We got tossed out of the garden because of what we might do, not because of anything we had done.
3) God lied.

Unfortunately, Christianity is based on the teachings of this angry, jealous, petty, immoral, unprincipled, lying bully.

Judeo-Christian religion is all about making people feel small, helpless, separate, guilty and fearful and it started with this story that has been spun in God's favor. I have never heard any minister say, "God lied and the serpent told Eve the truth".

The teachings of Christ are to love our enemies, turn the other cheek, give more than what is asked of you, what is in our hearts hurts us more than anything that is outside of us, there is more than enough for all if we share, etc. As I understand it, true christianity is about the celebration of life and love. It embraces all and makes no demands.

Amen - the end.

[GoodwithWood]

So, when Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden, if you go for all these fairy tales, that "evil" woman convinced the man to eat the apple, but the apple came from the Tree of Knowledge. And the punishment that was then handed down, the woman gets to bleed and the guy's got to go to work, is the result of a man desiring, because his woman suggested that it would be a good idea, that he get all the knowledge that was supposedly the property and domain of God. So, that right away sets up Christianity as an anti-intellectual religion. You never want to be that smart. If you're a woman, it's going to be running down your leg, and if you're a guy, you're going to be in the salt mines for the rest of your life. So, just be a dumb fuck and you'll all go to heaven. That's the subtext of Christianity.
-- Frank Zappa

[hyjanks]

Thus they are fools who placed their faith in idols for the worship things made by themselves and give the name of guardian to those they guard.

[bansidh]

People just crack me up. Jesus wants this, God wants that, Jesus thinks so and so , you may or may not petition God. NO ONE has any idea what God thinks. Anyone who reads what Jesus said, and takes that for what he thinks could never go to war. No one can say that Jesus told people they could kill others if the cause were 'good' Yes , any Christian who backs going to was is a huge hypocrite.

[andiammisterbones]

Amen, Amen, I say to you...
Real Christians act like Jesus, not like Bush.

[Qbear]

Jesus wouldn't weep for Ann Coulter or Michelle Malkin, he'd say, "get ye behind me," like he did with another demon.

[sweetgreensnowpea]

and while we proffer our comments on the divisiveness of "religion"[are we not all humans? there's only one God, no?], the warmongers­/profiteer­s, robber barons and carpet baggers dance all the way to the bank (in the caymen islands).

[midnight04]

Jesus was kicked upstairs so nobody would have to pay attention to him. What we get from this is the so-called "values voters" who throw feces at the cross with every word they hiss.

[richstue]

When asked what Ghandi thought of Christianity he said,I like your Christ very much,however i do not like your christians. They are so unlike your Christ. Christ loves without conditions and most christians love with conditions. The largest part of the message of Christ has fallen on deaf ears. Look upon the behaviors of James Dobson to see the strikimg opposite of christ like action. Dobson at one time had the parents of a Gay child escorted of the focus on the familys head quarters, Thus speaking volumns.He must have some unresolved issues himself. The sad thing is that so many look to this misguided man for direction. Its as if the blind are leading the blind. May they receive insight. Illusion of seperation permeat this theology. Seperate from God and from one another they create hell for themselves and hope to spread this disease to more thru their ministry of conditional love. the god of their own making rather than the truth.

[babylonandon]

The absolute and utter crap that so many of the posters (and no few of the bloggers) spew about Christians on this site is amazing.

You can say a lot of bad things about Christians. Some of them are true. Most of your complaints have to do with the hypocracy of some Christians and not with Christianity per se.

Unless you are a proud rapist / serial killer (one who gives into his or her every whim proudly cannot commit hypocracy), we are all hypocrites to some degree. It's only by striving not to be a hypocrite that anyone becomes a decent person whatever your beliefs.

Christianity does NOT condemn Jews. Jews are God's chosen people and we are commanded to support Israel (always agree with, no).

According to the GAO, Christians are the MOST charitable members of our society both internally and externally givng in both higher numbers and in higher percentage of their income than any other segment of society and to more places thoroughout the world..

We were giving money, clothing, and bedding to Dafur and many other places long before it and they became the cause de' jour for anyone in Hollywood.

Christians missions and aid organizations have worked for (and died for) the needs of the poor and impoverished in more places around the world for centuries than any other group. I have never seen or heard of Athiests for Cambodian Aid, Wiccans for Zimbabwe, or the Kabala Childrens Fund. Even the Moslem Charities only help Moslems.

Yes we do have bad apples. But unlike many of you, we condemn our bad apples we don't celebrate them (except the Vatican and that's BS and they'll pay for it, too).

[transendentilist]

The author of the article wasn't putting down christianity, he was putting down those who hide behind the cross, to mask their inhumanity.
Who is celebrating "bad apples?"

[JimReed]

"Most of your complaints have to do with the hypocracy of some Christians and not with Christianity per se."

The problem is the Christian voting block. They are responsible for putting Bush in office and causing these global horrors. Votes have consequences. This is what Christianity has done, and you can't blame it on a few bad apples because it was their election, they voted as a group.

[uscitizen]

I'd have to take issue with your premise. It wasn't just the so-called Christian voting block that put Bush in power. In fact, many Christians voted for Gore and Kerry. So trying to pin the blame on Christians fails to take into account other voters who share the responsibility, and it fails to take into account the Christians who voted for other candidates.

Perhaps the safest thing to say is that the people who voted for Bush are to blame for the fallout--especially those who voted for him twice. I could agree to that.

[jackbauer0396]

You're completely missing the point of his post. Believe it or not, I think you and him agree. He's not assaulting Christianity. In fact, he himself calls them "so-called Christians". I think we all know that every religion is, in its original intent, good (See: Islam) but the righteous message of the founders can be obfuscated by those who are using the guise of religion to further their own political and/or monetary worth.

And I patently disagree with your assertion that "Even the Moslem Charities only help Moslems." That's just completely baseless and wrong.

[ukie]

Yes, Christians do give a lot to charity, but the charities they give to tend to be their own churches. When you look at giving to "others", Christians do not lead the way.

Most of us who do not wear our religion on our sleeve, or who are not religious, tend to give to groups like Doctors without Borders, or others like them, who are on the ground helping people rather than proselytizing them.

I have worked with Christian organizations who do a lot of good--CMC in India is a good example--but too many Christian groups seem more concerned with saving souls than with saving lives.

[wmholt]

I think Jesus would say, "Well spoken".

Jesus mocked those Pharisees that were religious. Being religious meant making a show of one's faith for the credit and recognition that it brings.

Doctors without Borders is an excellent example of the type of love that Jesus talked about. While He admonished people to not be like the religious Pharisees, who were like white-washed sepulchres, all clean and nice on the outside, but inside filled with corruption, he praised those that would take risks to help the sick, the poor, and the needy.

Doctors without Borders, and similar organizations, do God's work, while the American pastors do not care for the well-being of their flocks. Instead they suck the life (and the wealth) out of their congregations for their own benefit.

Small wonder that "Christians" are held in such low esteem.

[Donald]

True faith endows its practitioners with a sense of personal humility, so that one might always strive to be a better person tomorrow than today.

Blind faith, on the other hand, cloaks its followers in a shield of personal hubris, so that hey might presently assert their false sense of moral superiority over the non-believer.

Of which do you freely belong?