2006 Interim (Essay #3)
August 21, 2006

"GOD AND I AGREE"

Religion is taking a hit. Fundamentalists of several faiths claim their strident voices and action are the true faith. Faithful people are hesitant to object.

In the U. S., persons with a political agenda get away with declaring that their message from God overrules other views of the Christian faith. I object. The abuse of scripture is an outrage. I call upon Christians to pull together to object to the misuse of religion in general and the twisting of Christianity in particular.

The misuse is driven by complex emotions and is difficult to address in brief terms. So this is the first of three essays on the misuse of scripture and faith by politicians. I will quote a wide variety of Christian voices, all in strong protest, and hope that some of the thoughts will generate conversation in your circle of friends.

Righteous-minded folks can, on almost any subject, come up with scripture backing. Radicals will claim their opinion was initiated and shaped by scripture. The fallacy of that simple claim by extremists is the cause of much mischief among us. The ‘believing public’ is often misled by high flown ‘religious’ speeches and low level diatribes, complete with scripture.

A prominent TV preacher (Kennedy) is regularly protesting that we will not have DIVINE RULE in the U. S. if we continue to hold to the separation of Church and State. Cal Thomas, a secular (?) columnist wrote his formulation of orthodox Christianity and then boldly claimed that to even tolerate any other belief than this, which is ‘God-given,’ is a heresy. The Rev. James Dobson (Focus on Family) announced this month his plan for focus on Republicans, to mobilize congregations in eight states for that party's get out the vote campaign, with voters guides on who to vote for.

Gary Wills illustrates the attitude. He calls it blasphemy when Under Secretary of Defense Lt. Gen. William Boykin repeatedly said God made Bush president in 2000. Wills goes on to state it would not remove the blasphemy for Democrats to imply that God wants Bush NOT to be president. "The institutional Jesus of the Republicans has no similarity to the Gospel figure. Neither will any institution Jesus of the Democrats."

O Lord, deliver us. However, God does not deliver us and the deception continues. Obviously, it often begins with self-deception. "If I know something for a fact, would not God know that too?"

We have the general who claims to know who God wants elected and how our country should operate. We have a president who says his presidency is an expression of divine will. We have promoters of legal action, as the proposed "defense" of marriage act, who claim "God agrees with me." These two subjects (1. God's political directives and 2. legal action which is God's intention), will be the focus of two future essays, to illustrate a problem which has many subjects.

My statement is not an objection to the variety of political opinions, or personal opinions, or religious opinions. I do not object to the expression of a multitude of opinions on marriage, personal values, sexual relations and/or one's political priorities. It is a free country, as we love to say. I am grateful our freedom is more than a cliché.

My offense is with anyone, of whatever political position, who claims scripture as the authority for a personal opinion and who noisily claims that opponents of that opinion have abandoned the Bible. If they are sincere in their statements, I frankly feel laziness contributes to their confusion. A fresh study of scripture would be time well spent.

This offense is not new. Slave holders used it big time, and held "Bible believing" churches hostage for decades in the United States. They found Biblical evidence that God wants slavery and does not want women to be in charge of almost anything. Historians noted in the sidebars that women seemed to be more offended by slavery -- so it was indeed a political fit. Before that it was the flat earth society, when persons were burned alive for "opposing" scripture. Then of course we have both those who support the use of beverage alcohol and those who oppose it .... united in quoting scripture with stern voices, proclaiming opposing messages.

These three essays are written with bias and I must state it quickly and plainly. I am a Christian. I am a follower of Jesus, both as my model for living and as a teacher for thinking. I accept Hebrew and Christian scripture as my guide. All of it, not just selected verses. This provides enough mystery for anyone! When there is conflict in scripture, which has wonderful points of tension, Jesus is my teacher.

Further, I find wisdom in other faiths and do not doubt that God shares Word and salvation through many faiths. That is God's job and I trust God to do it well. From my perspective, which is a product of my experience, Jesus has been God's best communicator.

That is enough to help you understand that I am deeply offended by some political religious protagonists. For example, Jim Wallis, evangelical theologian, points out that in the 2004 elections we heard over and over about a Christian faith summarized in four tenets: 1. This war is right. 2. Abortion is wrong. 3. God loves success. 4. Gays are bad.

This is a summary of the Christian faith, in any version? Not in the real world, where serious Christians remember that Jesus never spoke for any of these "values." The Bible student knows that Jesus and the Hebrew prophets spoke in support of the poor more than any other subject. For Jesus and the Hebrew prophets the second powerful subject was justice. In the next essay I will ask how we can possibly accept any politicized faith statement that omits these core values.

The "defense" of marriage (federal and Nebraska action) is a cynical expression of presumed knowledge from the true God, with the added negative of trying to trash a segment of our population. That God is offended by homosexual orientation is clearly the creation of someone's feelings. That God would be a part of the trashing of any part of God's creation is a flat denial of a core theme of scripture summarized in Genesis 1:31: "And God saw everything that God had made, and behold, it was very good." More another time.

We all know the dangers of proof texting, which is the tool of the literalists and fundamentalists as they insist their ideas are God's present word. I hesitated a long while before taking on obvious errors, but when I see the damage fundamentalist politics is doing and the offense to scripture in the headlines I do feel each of us is obligated to put some words to our objection.

Mary Gordon, novelist, states that she finds two adversaries in her practice of faith: fundamentalism and "money is everything." She nails it. My protest is to giving any authority to those two forces among us. If Jesus means anything, I am to see Jesus in every person. In the flesh. Not flattened out to fit a two-dimensional world created by self-centered persons who think the government is their financial playpen.

We have colleagues from centuries past. Origen, Christian writer in the formative years of the church, objected to infallible claims in the third century: "The source of all heresy is a literal reading of the Bible." He went on to say that scripture is spiritual (not simply words) and that the true Word of God is Jesus (not the words).

In 1942, Claremont Lovington summarized what he could see coming. Strident voices would shout, "We are Orthodox, therefore you are not." That brings out the Orthodox claim in the ‘you’. Each side claims its own teachings are the teachings of Christ and true Christianity, and consigns the teachings of the other to the lower regions. This mode of thinking gave us the Inquisition. A church or a state that believes that it rules by divine right adds to the violence in the world, which is a direct contradiction of the gospel of love. We have Christian right speakers who openly appeal for support of Israel in order to bring on Armageddon, with the total destruction of Israel and the end of the world. This is an offense to the spirit of Jesus and Christians' hope and prayer for a world of peace.

Used as a club, "The Bible says" creates a barrier to discussion, reflection and prayer. O Lord, help us.

Cheers,

Lowen

Note: Garry Wills, Northwestern University, in a New York Times op-ed, "Christ Among the Partisans," states "There is no such thing as a ‘Christian politics.’ If it is a politics, it cannot be Christian .... Jesus brought no political message or program ......"

If you want the article, please request it by an email to me. Jim Wallis book: "God's Politics: Why the Right Gets it Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It" (Harper, 2005)