"Christianity isn't moving people's lives today. What's moving people's lives is the stock market and the baseball scores. What are people excited about? It's a totally materialistic level that has taken over the world. There isn't even an ideal that anybody's fighting for." --the late Joseph Campbell
It's a strange time to call oneself a Christian. What does it mean? Who establishes the definition? And upon what -- or whose -- divine authority do the arbiters judge the veracity of believers?
I've not yet seen Jesus formally bestow an endorsement upon any living person who purports to be Christ's spokesperson or agent.
I'll make an admission: During Christmas seasons of late, part of me falls into a funk. It's not that I don't look forward to festively stringing the lights on the house in Montana, or the build-up to Christmas morning with the kids, or gathering with family and friends, or the candlelight church service on Christmas eve.
I love all of that.
And it's not even that I find society's material emphasis of Christmas--as being all about reviving the economy--to be hypocritically devoid of spiritual meaning.
It's rather the feeling of being adrift from the ideal of Christ himself I was raised to believe in.
I grew up Lutheran, which, I readily acknowledge, holds no strategic advantage over other denominations. There was never any assumption-- presented in Sunday school, during the process of confirmation, while serving as an acolyte or listening to pastoral sermons from the pews--that Jesus was partisan.
My identity as a Christian, and the validity of personal beliefs were not contingent upon having an affiliation with the Republican Party. I'm not suggesting that I think Jesus would be a Democrat; it's that, in the way the Bible was read and interpreted by our pastor, he was neither; having faith in the transformative power of Christ was apolitical.
Dropping Jesus' name wasn't considered a license to condemn others or label them--falsely--socialists, communists or traitors.
I am offended at how zealots more clustered on the extreme right have attempted to hijack my Christianity, imposing subjective litmus tests on other believers, and casting aspersions on anyone who does not share the same political agenda they do.
Particularly repulsive are people like James Dobson who would have us think that if Christ walked the Earth today he would be identified as Jesus, R-Bethlehem. More than that, Dobson's ilk has reconfigured Christ into a gun-toting, free-market, Ayn Rand Libertarian, conspicuous consumer of material goods and rationalizer of greed.
Would Jesus be impressed by the Halloween costume they've garlanded him up in? It's not the compassionate Jesus I immediately recognize.
Some of the partisans argue that Jesus would side with the insurance industry, big pharmaceutical companies and lobbyists to water down health insurance reform.
They claim Jesus would not see health care as a basic human right and that if individuals and families go bankrupt seeking the treatments they need, then tough beans.
They assert that Jesus would condone the outright lies and distortions advanced by opponents of health care reform including Sarah Palin, who claim, absurdly, there's a conspiracy to create government death panels aimed at killing the elderly and forcing abortions on women pregnant with Down Syndrome babies.
They imply Jesus would part company with the pope and a growing number of clergy from every faith convinced by the science that implicates humans as a cause of climate change, and who see it as a looming social justice issue.
They suggest environmentalists plying the principles of St. Francis of Assisi would, in Jesus' eyes, be extremists for seeking to protect nature against rapacious activities that destroy wildlife, habitat and beauty.
And they use Christ as a foil for being bellicose, mean-spirited, self-centered, and divisive, to the point of being willing, it seems, to tear this country apart not because they want to make America better but they simply want a rival political party to fail, regardless of its intentions.
They are the first to say America was founded as a Christian nation, in part to serve as refuge from religious persecution, yet they are quick to persecute those who disagree with their politically-informed interpretations of scripture.
As a deeply flawed Christian who subscribes to the old-fashioned and perhaps delusional notion that Christmas is about espousing the virtues of Christ, I simply want to be left alone to have my own relationship with a higher power, keeping politics out of the sanctuary, religion out of the ballot box and letting God--and God alone-- judge whether I've emulated Jesus' intent.
This column appeared originally in The Jackson Hole News & Guide.
Both religion and politics are about how we live in the world community. Jesus walked the streets, entered the temple (the center of Jerusalem "politics"), engaged in the debates of the day.
I agree with nearly everything stated in the article. Jesus is not a "a gun-toting, free-market, Ayn Rand Libertarian, conspicuous consumer of material goods and rationalizer of greed." But neither does Jesus have nothing to say about how we live our public life together.
For those who believe Jesus to be the Son of God, and who believe the writings about him and the subsequent teachings of his apostles, we are beholden to test the things we are taught--to think for ourselves and weigh a current teaching against the spirit and the context in which the original Scriptures were written.
If more who desire to follow Jesus would do this, and hope to be noble like this group of Bereans, then there would no longer be the costume of Jesus the "gun-toting, free-market, Ayn Rand Libertarian, conspicuous consumer of material goods and rationalizer of greed" that he has indeed become to too many. And we would all see him as he is: absolutely, 100% apolitical.
but Jesus stated values are liberal,
Jesus is against everything conservative.
Enjoy Jefferson's Bibbie, Jesus, and only Jesus.
http://www.angelfire.com/co/JeffersonBible/
Beatitudes: A “Godless” Jesus? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rBhPDctqCg
My interpretation is that they must be greedy or care not about others or both. Other explanations and arguments given are also counter to the teachings of Jesus.
To paraphrase Gandhi - I like that Jesus but the Christians - not so much.
Faith is indeed personal and celebrating should not be limited to a single day or week, or month. Every day is special and every good and decent act is a blessing.
I grew up Lutheran too, but eventually gave up my faith because I couldn't reconcile my own sense of right and wrong with the moral code put forth in the Bible, that says homosexuality is an abomination, slavery is acceptable, and that slaughtering women and children is your moral duty if God tells you to do so. Of course, that was the Old Testament, and Jesus preached a much different and far more profound kind of morality, the one you justifiably accuse many (not all) right-wing Republicans of ignoring.
However, one thing you seem to have in common with these feux-Christians is your willingness to believe something because it FEELS true, absent of any evidence. I respect everyone's right to believe what they choose to believe, but we should all recognize the evil that can (and does) arise from this, whether intentional or not.
First, as a Christian, we must listen to what Jesus said about a new commandment; a new covenant to love and not to take everything in the old testament literally.
Fact is that most of us miss that or fashion that in our own terms instead of his terms.
One can lead a celibate life or a married life Jesus and St. Paul said that both are equal.
in any event, as individuals we must all come to terms with this in our own way.
HOWEVER.....
Ours is a redemptive religion and most who post here or have "fallen away" or who have never believed do not talk about this aspect at all.
Having that in mind, I urge you...if you are so inclined, to google "The Chaplet of Divnie Mercy".