|
Jesus Wept
By Nancy Greggs
Let’s start with the premise that Christians are people who follow the teachings and example of Jesus Christ. That might seem to be a self-evident definition, but if one looks around at who is purporting to be a Christian these days, one can’t resist scratching their head and saying, “Huh?”
And no one has jumped on the Christian bandwagon faster than the Republicans currently in power, along with their born-again president, who only drop their flag-festooned garb long enough to wrap themselves in the vestments of the crucified Lord – when, of course, it is politically expedient to do either.
Like the old egg and omelet story, it seems the GOP can’t attempt to create a Christian nation without breaking a few commandments – well, ALL of them, if you really want to nit-pick.
We recently heard from Katherine Harris on the topic, who reminded us that the separation of church and state in American democracy is a lie, and that if we don’t elect true Christians to office, those nefarious non-Christians will legislate sin.
I guess Ms. Harris (who apparently deemed it necessary to improve on God’s creativity by availing herself of a new pair of breasts) has been too busy with her flailing campaign to take a look at what our present ‘good Christian’ legislators have been up to.
We have an allegedly devout Christian president who encourages torture, who is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent people in Iraq and Afghanistan, and has blatantly lied in order to embroil the country in the conflicts that have caused such casualties.
In addition, we have a Republican-controlled government (fine Christians all, to hear them tell it) that has legislated taking from the poor to give to the wealthy, sending troops into combat without life-saving equipment, denying necessary drugs to sick Americans who can’t afford them, and have gutted every program that aids the poor, the infirm, the homeless, and the hungry.
Now, I do not pretend to be an expert on the topic of Christianity, but I am struggling to understand how any of this fits in with the teachings of Christ. Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve never pictured a modern-day Jesus partying in Arizona while his children drown in New Orleans, and I don’t remember any signing statements being appended to things like loving your fellow man more than you love yourself.
But like I said, maybe it’s just me.
You have to admit that the so-called Christian preachers, who are nestled warmly in the pockets of the GOP, have done more than their earthly share to contribute to the anti-Christianity that is now being passed off as the real deal.
Pat Robertson didn’t let ‘thou shalt not kill’ stand in the way of calling for the murder of an elected leader. And in the aftermath of 9/11, Jerry Falwell was quick to ‘bear false witness’ against his fellow men by putting the blame for the carnage squarely at the feet of the gay community.
Such men, once content to smooth-talk their followers out of their last dime in order to fund their multi-million dollar lifestyles, have now joined their politician partners-in-crime to sway the faithful away from their once fervently held ideas of a loving Christ, and have replaced Him with the Golden Calf of Republican double-speak.
In all of this madness, there is one truth that has been overlooked by those who are now, with such anger and indignation, insisting that a more Christian country should be the aim of every American. The fact is that if America were in the hands of true Christians, the present crop of GOPers would all be out of business.
Real Christians would have demanded Bush’s impeachment the minute he proposed the use of torture, or shrugged off the death of innocent children as ‘collateral damage’. And after his behavior during the Katrina debacle, he would have been driven out of the White House with his head hung in shame.
If our nation were under the control of true Christianity, the elected officials who voted for diminished funding for social programs that aid the poor and the sick could have kissed their political careers goodbye the minute they did so, and those who supported a war that would kill thousands of innocents would have prayed to be raptured just to escape the ire of their constituents. And imagine the drop in revenues for any corporation that dared to pollute God’s most precious gift, the earth itself and the animals that populate it.
I am not a Christian, but I do respect and revere the teachings of Christ. And while I do not support the merger of Church and State, I would be more than happy to see those teachings adopted as a guideline for my government. But that would mean sheltering the homeless, ministering to the sick, respecting all life, not judging others – and you just know the Republicans are never going to go along with anything like that.
The sins of this administration and its party members are many. But one of the most grievous among them is the fact that they have turned what were once God-loving Christians away from their true faith. They have encouraged hatred and intolerance, violence and death, and have done so in the name of He who, through words and example, denounced the very things they now proffer as his Divine Plan.
I understand that the traditional price for betraying Jesus is thirty pieces of silver. Thanks to their lack of conscience and their overwhelming greed, the Republicans have managed to do much better for themselves than that. They have set themselves up like the moneychangers in the Temple, secure in the knowledge that the faithful will continue to be blind to their true intentions.
Maybe they should familiarize themselves with the Bible they pretend to know so well – if they did, they’d know how that story actually turned out.
|
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
