08- On White Christian Nationalism
Forget that love and forgiveness crap. We're gonna kick some tail!
My Facebook feed lately has been filled to overflowing with what I would call White Christian Nationalism. The assertions of this crowd are as follows:
America was founded as a Christian nation.
America is still a majority Christian nation.
We’re using our power as the majority to impose our will on the minority.
Each of these assertions is deeply flawed. Let’s start from the top.
“America was founded as a Christian nation.” Yeah, not so much. America was founded as a land where people were free to worship as they please, or not to worship at all. The majority of those who signed the Declaration of Independence were Christians. However, there was no movement to declare this a Christian nation. One has only to look at Iraq and Iran to see what kind of atrocities are committed under a theocracy. “But wait a minute, Art. That’s Islam, not Christianity.” Very true. Anyone read about the Christian Inquisitions? Bloody Mary? The Salem Witch Trials? This is what happens when religion gains political and temporal power. Pray to God this never becomes a Christian nation.
“America is still a majority Christian nation.” A slim majority of people (63%) would CALL themselves Christian. That doesn’t mean they are. How many of your friends and neighbors are giving of themselves? How many are working the soup kitchens? How many are taking tents and sleeping bags to the homeless? Better yet, how many are inviting those same people into their own homes? It’s easy to pitch $20 in the offering plate and think your charitable obligations are fulfilled. Are you helping elevate the poor? Are you helping those without a voice find their power? Or are you joining the masses in helping squelch the feeble voices of those on the outside? The label of Christian should be either earned or bestowed by others, and never taken thoughtlessly as a badge of belonging.
“We’re using our power as the majority to impose our will on the minority.” I don’t even know where to start with this one. How anyone could construe this attitude as Christian is frankly beyond me. Might makes right? Really? Is that what you learned in Sunday School? Is that what Jesus said as he was dying on the cross? If the majority of people in this country had one OUNCE of Christianity in their soul this kind of attitude would fall utterly flat. Where is the self-sacrificing love of Christ? We apparently can’t hear it beneath the drone of “Onward Christian Soldiers” and “Stand up, stand up for Jesus, ye soldiers of the cross.” Are these soldiers anything like the army Jesus went to Calvary with? Can anyone point me to the scripture that says Jesus rode into Bethlehem on an Abrams tank? This guy Jesus that we call the Christ seems to have been totally forgotten by his followers.
Please, I implore you! Look not for an earthly kingdom to rule. Look inside, for the Kingdom of Heaven is within you.
GOD IS NOT REPUBLICAN. JESUS IS NOT REPUBLICAN.
Jesus said to love thy neighbor. He also warned his followers to watch for false prophets, who are recognizable like trees producing bad fruit. "Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire" (Matthew 7:19, KJV). However much Jesus loves false prophets, he will send them to the metaphorical hot place.
A large number of "Christians" today misrepresent God and Jesus.
Arthur Frymyer says here that a true follower of Jesus would, for example, help the homeless.