From the Albuquerque Tea Party on Tax Day (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I’m beginning to be embarrassed by the label of “evangelical, fundamentalist Christian.” I never thought I would actually feel this way and feel the necessity to say so publicly. Unfortunately, this label that I was once very proud to be associated with is now something that I increasingly find myself having to defend, justify, rationalize, and explain due to actions of others who have now made these words ugly, irrational, and anything BUT Christ-like.
Normal everyday Americans now believe that the majority of fundamentalist, evangelical Christians are Tea Party conservative Republicans who approve of what the extreme right of the Republican party are doing in hijacking the government and keeping it shut down.
What these people are doing makes me sick! It’s not Christian; it’s not Christ-like — and it’s repugnant to me!
A picture of a tea partier holding a sign which reads ‘”Cap” congress and “trade” Obama back to Kenya’. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I don’t know how to clarify that just because I believe in the fundamentals of Christianity (fundamentalist) and believe in sharing the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ (evangelical) that I’m not one of these kinds of extreme right Christian believers. I suppose all I can do is attempt to create a new label for myself that doesn’t associate me with these kinds of Christians anymore.
Unfortunately, I don’t fit well into the “Christian left” either. I’m more of left-leaning Independent-type politically, who tries to follow Jesus Christ in daily life, who believes in the bible, but doesn’t want to push it onto others or force them to follow it politically.
I’m just not sure what I can label myself as anymore. “Progressive Christian” doesn’t fit me because I sincerely believe the bible and am against abortion.
Depressed and Rainy (Photo credit: BionicBotanist)
While I lean left, I don’t lean so far left that I’m in favor of what the bible speaks against, but I am loving of all people regardless of their beliefs, and I’m not someone who wants to judge the splinter in another’s eyes when I have enough to deal with taking care of the beam in my own.
All I know is that the word “Christian” is beginning to carry a nasty stigma that isn’t rational, reasonable, loving, joyous, faithful, peaceful, or anything like Jesus Christ said we were to be as Christians; it’s a label that is increasingly associated with conservative right wing politics and I’m ashamed of these kinds of political beliefs. I know these are not the kind of beliefs that Jesus Christ stood for or preached about as a lifestyle.
The following article had me just cringing in shame as I read it; that I might be associated with these people described in this article makes me feel rather ill. I don’t see how I can call myself a fundamentalist, evangelical Christian anymore when that apparently means “extremist” and “irrational.”
How do I let people know that not all Christians think like this? How can I make them see and understand that Jesus isn’t like this and neither is God? I’m just not sure what to do anymore…
These people are giving Christians a bad reputation.
Christian Delusions Are Driving The GOP Insane
“The press often talks about the Tea Party like they’re secularist movement that is interested mainly in promoting “fiscal conservatism”, a vague notion that never actually seems to make good on the promise to save taxpayer money. The reality is much different: The Tea Party is actually driven primarily by fundamentalist Christians whose penchant for magical thinking and belief that they’re being guided by divine forces makes it tough for them to see the real world as it is.
It’s not just that the rogue’s gallery of congress people who are pushing the hardest for hostage-taking as a negotiation tactic also happens to be a bench full of Bible thumpers. Pew Research shows that people who align with the Tea Party are more likely to not only agree with the views of religious conservatives, but are likely to cite religious belief as their prime motivation for their political views. White evangelicals are the religious group most likely to approve of the Tea Party. Looking over the data, it becomes evident that the “Tea Party” is just a new name for the same old white fundamentalists who would rather burn this country to the ground than share it with everyone else, and this latest power play from the Republicans is, in essence, a move from that demographic to assert their “right” to control the country, even if their politicians aren’t in power.”
It’s no surprise, under the circumstances, that a movement controlled by fundamentalist Christians would be oblivious to the very real dangers that their actions present. Fundamentalist religion is extremely good at convincing its followers to be more afraid of imaginary threats than real ones, and to engage in downright magical thinking about the possibility that their own choices could work out very badly. When you believe that forcing the government into default in an attempt to derail Obamacare is the Lord’s work, it’s very difficult for you to see that it could have very real, negative effects.
It’s hard for the Christian fundamentalists who run the Republican Party now to worry about the serious economic danger they’re putting the world in, because they are swept up in worrying that President Obama is an agent of the devil and that the world is on the verge of mayhem and apocalypse if they don’t “stop” him somehow, presumably be derailing the Affordable Care Act. Christian conservatives such as Ellis Washington are running around telling each other that the ACA will lead to “the systematic genocide of the weak, minorities, enfeebled, the elderly and political enemies of the God-state.” Twenty percent of Republicans believe Obama is the Antichrist.Washington Times columnist Jeffrey Kuhner argued that Obama is using his signature health care legislation to promote “the destruction of the family, Christian culture”, and demanded that Christians “need to engage in peaceful civil disobedience against President Obama’s signature health care law”.
The article continues here and is really well worth reading.
http://www.salon.com/2013/10/10/christian_delusions_are_driving_the_gop_insane/
What surprises me is that these right wing Christians are actually making things up about Obamacare as they try to demonize President Obama and his Affordable Healthcare Act. They actually claim that Obamacare will make us all get a microchip implanted under our skin (the supposed mark of the beast). This is a blatant lie! These folks are being dishonest and are acting downright crazy at this point.
What Do You Think? Courteous Opinion Always Welcome!
I’ve loved writing and have been surprised at my stats sometimes. On some days they are higher and some days lower, but all in all, I feel good if I’ve written honestly and said what I’ve felt I was supposed to say. I hope some of it has helped those reading and simply just made some of you think a little more deeply about your own walk with God.
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