I want to rip on Christians a bit.
But understand, that like most of my rippings, the point is not to tear apart one of the world's most important religions or denigrate it's followers, but rather to examine what has become of this religion in the eyes of Americans. I want to discuss a division within the Christian faith and how it's affecting American's understanding of what it means to be a Christian.
First, a note on the social conservatism overall.
The current atmosphere in politics has conservatives feeling disenfranchised and in many ways betrayed by the Republican party. This has lead to the tea party movement. I've written before, and continue to believe, that the tea party is an internal revolution within the Republican party who just happens to share a common enemy in liberal politics. The new movement has tried to differentiate themselves from the GOP by becoming even more conservative – radically so. The reason for this isn't hard to grasp; Classically, those who disagree with the Republican party are quickly painted with the liberal brush. They are not 'true believers' and therefore they find themselves under the doubtful eye of their fellow conservatives as a whole. To avoid this, those unhappy with the conservative political environment can't really step back and assess where they should be objectively. Instead, they drop away from RNC endorsed candidates and run further down the conservative road, taking often ridiculous stances on social issues that alienate the general voting pool.
Christianity has long been one of these bastions of social conservative politics. Issues such as abortion, church & state, and homosexuality are all children of Christian right. The genesis and debate over these subjects was historically framed as a question of ethics among Americans. There was a tacit assumption that America was Christian, and therefore the religious right was calling to, and preaching to, its flock run a bit too afield in tolerating certain kinds of diverse views or the exclusion of the church from political discourse.
In short, the Christian right saw itself as the pastor trying to reign in the flock.
But something changed.
You can blame the Internet which made it impossible to believe in a model 'American' family or household or even language. You can blame globalization which meant children were growing up exposed to other countries, governments, religions and a thousand times more options and ideas than they their parents. You can also blame the Church, who short of a few exceptions, became lazy preaching tired sermons and rites to the large, aging baby boomer population while mostly ignoring Generation X and younger. However wherever you end up pointing your finger, the result was a schism over Christian morality where one side decided that being 'American' was being one of them no matter where you lived or what your citizenship status was.
This first group – the loud one – believed in what I'll call exposure control. They wanted American society to adhere to a set of Christian values, and wanted exposure to information and practices contrary to those views eliminated. These Christians stopped believing in a diverse America, and rather took the position that their country was a certain ideal taken from their own experience that was now under siege. To them, there was a bitter culture war going on that required them to fight back against encroaching alternative views and to control government to ensure America remained a Christian nation. These Christians fought PR and legislative wars against the classic evils such as abortion, homosexuality and pornography, but also began pushing back against anything that might expose them or their children to things that made them uncomfortable. In the name of Jesus, they also fought condoms, sex education, Dungeons & Dragons, and Judas Priest. They're also currently the primary force behind the political agitation of the current anti-muslim movement.These are the Christians you see on TV these days. They come across as irrational, uncaring, cruel, borderline violent, and frighteningly intolerant. In short, they sound a lot like the Islamic terrorists they seem to frightened of. With the advent of the Tea Party and the even further shift to the right, this group has started saying things that even scare Conservatives. (Abortion should be illegal even in cases of incest, rape and the imminent threat to the mother's health as an example).
But there's another group. They're more numerous than those depicted above, but they are generally quiet. They grasped the gravity of what the world was turning into, or maybe they just always practiced their faith this way. To this group, exposure is inevitable. You can't protect your child from condoms or sex or drugs or porn or D&D or anything else, really. What you could do is build a Christian ethic and a set of Christian values into the lives of the faithful and equip those people with the tools to handle that exposure responsibly. Yes, this means that perhaps a 14 year old in group two will see a woman's breasts before one in group 1, but the teenager in group two has had a meaningful talk about sex and arousal with his parents and understands the Christian approach to such things as it's understood in his faith community. This means the teenager in group two can handle the exposure whenever and wherever it might happen instead of being under lock and key, forcing the adults or preachers or congregation to keep a watchful eye on an evil world lest a boob slip through.
The reason we don't hear as much about group two is that political control is not as important to them. It's not about enforcing Christian values on non-Christians. It's about equipping Christians with what they'll need to witness through their example. Understand these people are not politically passive. They vote. However they understand something that the their fellows in the first group do not: Jesus did not create a world-sweeping religion by converting the priests and political leaders so that these powerful figures could tell the Jews what to do. Instead, Jesus created the awesome power of one of the world's most influential religions by spending time breaking bread with tax collectors, prostitutes, and peasants. Christianity was, and remains, a religion of the heart spread by example – not a religion of rules imposed by a government.
Christians need to remember that this religion has no need of political structure to survive or succeed. It certainly didn't have it when it was a handful of Jews living under Roman rule wandering around sleeping under olive trees. This isn't to say Christians shouldn't be voting or working for change, but enforcing Christian values on those who do not believe is the fastest way to close hearts and minds. Take it from the Spanish Inquisition, you can't force someone to love Jesus or his values. However that's exactly what Christians we hear most from today seem to want. The result is that tolerance of Christians is on the decline because it's being associated with an enforced agenda, not a experience of divine love.
Christians hold a lot of political power in the US. So to my Christian friends, I urge balance. Be careful that you do not support laws and policies that try to skip the process of conversion and just 'get to the good stuff' of telling people how to live their lives. These laws will only serve to isolate and injure, both those affected and the Christians who pass them.
To my non-Christian friends, I would remind you that the loud and often radical voices you hear on television and in the media do not reflect the spirit of this great religion. Those who practice control over conversion aggravate the divides between us, and it's a stretch to see how what they do follows the example of Jesus. There are numerous Christians out there who see the beauty and power of the religion and practice it as it was meant to be; A faith EXPERIENCE shared with those around them.
At the end of the day, exposure control cannot prevail. You can't shutter out the information flow that is now central to our lives. The question is how much damage will Christians determined to do just that do to the faith and American's understanding of it before they finally throw in the towel.
But understand, that like most of my rippings, the point is not to tear apart one of the world's most important religions or denigrate it's followers, but rather to examine what has become of this religion in the eyes of Americans. I want to discuss a division within the Christian faith and how it's affecting American's understanding of what it means to be a Christian.
First, a note on the social conservatism overall.
The current atmosphere in politics has conservatives feeling disenfranchised and in many ways betrayed by the Republican party. This has lead to the tea party movement. I've written before, and continue to believe, that the tea party is an internal revolution within the Republican party who just happens to share a common enemy in liberal politics. The new movement has tried to differentiate themselves from the GOP by becoming even more conservative – radically so. The reason for this isn't hard to grasp; Classically, those who disagree with the Republican party are quickly painted with the liberal brush. They are not 'true believers' and therefore they find themselves under the doubtful eye of their fellow conservatives as a whole. To avoid this, those unhappy with the conservative political environment can't really step back and assess where they should be objectively. Instead, they drop away from RNC endorsed candidates and run further down the conservative road, taking often ridiculous stances on social issues that alienate the general voting pool.
Christianity has long been one of these bastions of social conservative politics. Issues such as abortion, church & state, and homosexuality are all children of Christian right. The genesis and debate over these subjects was historically framed as a question of ethics among Americans. There was a tacit assumption that America was Christian, and therefore the religious right was calling to, and preaching to, its flock run a bit too afield in tolerating certain kinds of diverse views or the exclusion of the church from political discourse.
In short, the Christian right saw itself as the pastor trying to reign in the flock.
But something changed.
You can blame the Internet which made it impossible to believe in a model 'American' family or household or even language. You can blame globalization which meant children were growing up exposed to other countries, governments, religions and a thousand times more options and ideas than they their parents. You can also blame the Church, who short of a few exceptions, became lazy preaching tired sermons and rites to the large, aging baby boomer population while mostly ignoring Generation X and younger. However wherever you end up pointing your finger, the result was a schism over Christian morality where one side decided that being 'American' was being one of them no matter where you lived or what your citizenship status was.
This first group – the loud one – believed in what I'll call exposure control. They wanted American society to adhere to a set of Christian values, and wanted exposure to information and practices contrary to those views eliminated. These Christians stopped believing in a diverse America, and rather took the position that their country was a certain ideal taken from their own experience that was now under siege. To them, there was a bitter culture war going on that required them to fight back against encroaching alternative views and to control government to ensure America remained a Christian nation. These Christians fought PR and legislative wars against the classic evils such as abortion, homosexuality and pornography, but also began pushing back against anything that might expose them or their children to things that made them uncomfortable. In the name of Jesus, they also fought condoms, sex education, Dungeons & Dragons, and Judas Priest. They're also currently the primary force behind the political agitation of the current anti-muslim movement.These are the Christians you see on TV these days. They come across as irrational, uncaring, cruel, borderline violent, and frighteningly intolerant. In short, they sound a lot like the Islamic terrorists they seem to frightened of. With the advent of the Tea Party and the even further shift to the right, this group has started saying things that even scare Conservatives. (Abortion should be illegal even in cases of incest, rape and the imminent threat to the mother's health as an example).
But there's another group. They're more numerous than those depicted above, but they are generally quiet. They grasped the gravity of what the world was turning into, or maybe they just always practiced their faith this way. To this group, exposure is inevitable. You can't protect your child from condoms or sex or drugs or porn or D&D or anything else, really. What you could do is build a Christian ethic and a set of Christian values into the lives of the faithful and equip those people with the tools to handle that exposure responsibly. Yes, this means that perhaps a 14 year old in group two will see a woman's breasts before one in group 1, but the teenager in group two has had a meaningful talk about sex and arousal with his parents and understands the Christian approach to such things as it's understood in his faith community. This means the teenager in group two can handle the exposure whenever and wherever it might happen instead of being under lock and key, forcing the adults or preachers or congregation to keep a watchful eye on an evil world lest a boob slip through.
The reason we don't hear as much about group two is that political control is not as important to them. It's not about enforcing Christian values on non-Christians. It's about equipping Christians with what they'll need to witness through their example. Understand these people are not politically passive. They vote. However they understand something that the their fellows in the first group do not: Jesus did not create a world-sweeping religion by converting the priests and political leaders so that these powerful figures could tell the Jews what to do. Instead, Jesus created the awesome power of one of the world's most influential religions by spending time breaking bread with tax collectors, prostitutes, and peasants. Christianity was, and remains, a religion of the heart spread by example – not a religion of rules imposed by a government.
Christians need to remember that this religion has no need of political structure to survive or succeed. It certainly didn't have it when it was a handful of Jews living under Roman rule wandering around sleeping under olive trees. This isn't to say Christians shouldn't be voting or working for change, but enforcing Christian values on those who do not believe is the fastest way to close hearts and minds. Take it from the Spanish Inquisition, you can't force someone to love Jesus or his values. However that's exactly what Christians we hear most from today seem to want. The result is that tolerance of Christians is on the decline because it's being associated with an enforced agenda, not a experience of divine love.
Christians hold a lot of political power in the US. So to my Christian friends, I urge balance. Be careful that you do not support laws and policies that try to skip the process of conversion and just 'get to the good stuff' of telling people how to live their lives. These laws will only serve to isolate and injure, both those affected and the Christians who pass them.
To my non-Christian friends, I would remind you that the loud and often radical voices you hear on television and in the media do not reflect the spirit of this great religion. Those who practice control over conversion aggravate the divides between us, and it's a stretch to see how what they do follows the example of Jesus. There are numerous Christians out there who see the beauty and power of the religion and practice it as it was meant to be; A faith EXPERIENCE shared with those around them.
At the end of the day, exposure control cannot prevail. You can't shutter out the information flow that is now central to our lives. The question is how much damage will Christians determined to do just that do to the faith and American's understanding of it before they finally throw in the towel.
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