The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Another Refutation Of The Heretical ‘Statism Is Christianity’ Notion

Posted on | March 31, 2011 | 48 Comments

by Smitty (via Digg)

PoliticsUSA cranks up the wretching soundtrack with “Christian Conservatives Turn Political Judas On Christ’s Teachings”, followed by an image of a button featuring “Jesus for Congress” by someone named Rmuse.

No.

Whoever you are, put everything down and go read any of the four Gospels, and rate the political content of Jesus’ ministry on a scale from 1 to 10, 10 being highest. I’ll give you a 1, for the fact that Jesus did meet Pontius Pilate at the end, but even then, dare you read His words, He’s disavowing temporal political ambition.
And then re-read the Gospels. It’s good for you. Tell me how they, or anything in the rest of the New Testament, constitutes Political Science. What are the main objects under discussion? The Church, and the individual. “Christian Nation” is an oxymoron. With the exception of the odd Samaritan or Roman, Jesus dealt predominately with Jews, at a level below the nation of Israel. Oh, yeah, he weeps over Jerusalem: woo hoo, a city!
At no point does Jesus ever seem to view

governance. . . the rule of law as an instrument of human redemption.

Al Gore was picking up that un-Constitutional line connecting church and state from the other end, but the Progressive falsehood is bi-directional.
Now, in the name of tolerance, if the Progressives want to call themselves Christians, and attempt some wildly false re-branding of the Gospel to support their State-is-God aims, I can promise you two things:

  • A vigorous dose of ridicule from this blog, and any others who cling joyously to the Word.
  • A tragic and eternally determinant scene along the lines of

    Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
    And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
    —Mat 7:22,23

And what form does this iniquity take?

There is no end to the horrors the deceptive conservative Christians in America have committed. In churches all across America, the clergy preaches that Jesus said love your neighbor, clothe and feed the poor, practice peace, and give your belongings to the destitute. After the sermon though, the clergy tells the congregation which policies to support and who to vote for at election time. It is astonishing that parishioners can quote scripture and verse propounding the virtues of Christ’s teachings about love, peace, and charity, and then proceed to deprive their neighbors of basic human rights.

Use of the word ‘parishoners’ may be a tell that Rmuse is targeting Roman Catholics with this horrible conflation of the Gospel and ‘basic human rights’. Mankind’s existential estrangement from the essential goodness of creation in God’s image* is a theological problem. The interaction of the individual with the State is a political problem. The United States Constitution strives to keep the two problems as de-conflicted as possible. And for good reason: if you want a theocracy, Rmuse, repair to Iran, where such awaits.
Really, Rmuse seems to be using the Alinsky tactic of trying to hold the other side (Christians) to what he understands their standard to be.  In so doing, a sad caricature of the Gospel emerges.  Let us all pray that Rmuse comes to understand both the life-changing love of Christ, and the utter impotence of the State to assume that role.

Update: Little Miss Attila ‘lanche!

*To paraphrase Tillich. Ironically, Tillich was a Religious Socialist, so using his formulation of man’s condition here may not be in keeping with the rest of his thought. But I like the formulation, and prefer Christ to Tillich anyway.

Category: Progressivism, Religion

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