Friday, May 06, 2005
American Christians Persecuted?
While the Christian Right rambles on about how they are being persecuted here in the US, there are christian folks who are really being persecuted on other countries. Wake up little pee-pants Right Wing Christians, you would not know persecution if it came up and kicked you in the nuts. Your little pampered suburban lives, driving your SUVs with God Bless America and Support Our Troops bumper stickers, listening to god forsaken Christian Rock, is not persecution. You can read your bible, pray, say amen, whenever you want to. You can preach on the street corner, by christian alternative music, etc..., without a single glare or even the possibility of the state police breaking down your door and dragging your lame asses out to be beaten. So, quit your whining and take care of your own family. Oh, and shut up about your "persecution."
You probably wonder why I am always taking the church to task in regards to their overreaching and ultimately unchristian battle to institute christianity in our government. Well, let me tell you: I grew up in and around the church. Not the Catholic Church or some liberal church, but the very fundamentalist churches that are attacking the very liberties that we have fought so hard for. I left the church over the ignorance that is rife within it's congregations. Not that I expected debates on postmodernism or whatever weighty academic tropes you may desire, but over the selfish turn that it has taken. Over the relentless bigotry that they engage in. No longer do they get down in the dirt just for the sake of helping people who are less fortunate, but the help has been predicated on the acceptance of Christ as their savior. The praying for earthly riches, such as fancy cars, fancy clothing, while they are working a low paying job and have no food on the table, nor the education to raise themselves up out of the dead end manufacturing job they work. The Megachurch phenomenon has destroyed the church. 15,000 members is not community, it is a small city. The early church met in their homes and established relationships that bordered on family. They looked after each others needs. How does the Huge megachurch with a food court engender that type of real community? It doesn't. It is a huge tax shelter and money making machine. More dangerously, it has become a political force that wishes a return to a pre-enlightenment world. That is because they refuse to engage in the world. They pick and choose which verses in the Bible they need to heed, which usually is some Old Testament stoning story. Forgotten are the Beatitudes which highlight the christian duty to remember the less fortunate. These truths are hard to get their head around, because they believe that they are under seige and they feel they are the least of these that Jesus talked about. It will be a sore awakening when they go to meet their maker.
Slacktivist takes the Christian Right alarmists to task for their faux cries of persecution right Here.
You probably wonder why I am always taking the church to task in regards to their overreaching and ultimately unchristian battle to institute christianity in our government. Well, let me tell you: I grew up in and around the church. Not the Catholic Church or some liberal church, but the very fundamentalist churches that are attacking the very liberties that we have fought so hard for. I left the church over the ignorance that is rife within it's congregations. Not that I expected debates on postmodernism or whatever weighty academic tropes you may desire, but over the selfish turn that it has taken. Over the relentless bigotry that they engage in. No longer do they get down in the dirt just for the sake of helping people who are less fortunate, but the help has been predicated on the acceptance of Christ as their savior. The praying for earthly riches, such as fancy cars, fancy clothing, while they are working a low paying job and have no food on the table, nor the education to raise themselves up out of the dead end manufacturing job they work. The Megachurch phenomenon has destroyed the church. 15,000 members is not community, it is a small city. The early church met in their homes and established relationships that bordered on family. They looked after each others needs. How does the Huge megachurch with a food court engender that type of real community? It doesn't. It is a huge tax shelter and money making machine. More dangerously, it has become a political force that wishes a return to a pre-enlightenment world. That is because they refuse to engage in the world. They pick and choose which verses in the Bible they need to heed, which usually is some Old Testament stoning story. Forgotten are the Beatitudes which highlight the christian duty to remember the less fortunate. These truths are hard to get their head around, because they believe that they are under seige and they feel they are the least of these that Jesus talked about. It will be a sore awakening when they go to meet their maker.
Slacktivist takes the Christian Right alarmists to task for their faux cries of persecution right Here.
