America For Purchase

As a Christian man, I have always held my relationship with God as a personal matter and doing some research on issues always used by the Religious Right to make Americans subservient to the those ‘white men’ who pound the pulpits and airwaves with rage, anger and fear-mongering.   It has always both amazed and intrigued me that many people, especially Republicans follow the demagoguery as ‘law’ and take everything they are ‘told’ at face value.The religious ‘leaders’ preach hell fire and damnation and in defiance of IRS rules for non-profit organizations they speak politics as their sermons, pray for financial wealth, warn their fans of the foreboding doomsday when anyone in any national or public office is not a Republican.  Their rhetoric becomes a form of worship for the religion of ‘nationalism’ where followers are worked up into a frenzy and they ‘follow-the-leader’ in condemning other patriotic, God-fearing Americans as traitors if they do not ‘believe’ the claims professed by the Religious Right.

The followers of the Religious Right voluntarily place themselves under the ‘spiritual authority’ of the ‘right-wing’ leaders and accept as truth anything they are told.  Rather than thinking for themselves, these followers accept any Biblical translation of scripture as if it were ‘God’ doing the interpreting, not realizing how easily scripture has been manipulated for gain, power, greed and money as far back as when they were recorded.  These religious zealots have become cultish in their demonstrative attacks on anyone who even questions their position or rightfully challenges their authority.  The Religious Right is a group like unto the Pharisees or narcissistic high priests which Jesus himself had no use for.

When I hear Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell of years past, James Dobson, John Hagee, Fred Phelps, and others, I have to ask the question “what are you hustling today” or “what sales pitch will be used and what misinterpreted scripture will be presented” to fill their financial coffers and scare people into giving or fearing anyone and everyone who does not ‘believe’ as they do.

The Hebrew Scriptures have been used over the years to justify many cruel and violent practices (such as spousal and child abuse, slavery, and war).  And white men in the 19^th century in the U.S. proclaimed:.”[Slavery] was established by decree of Almighty God…it is sanctioned in the Bible, in both Testaments, from Genesis to Revelation…it has existed in all ages, has been found among the people of the highest civilization, and in nations of the highest proficiency in the arts.” Jefferson Davis, President, Confederate States of America and

“The right of holding slaves is clearly established in the Holy Scriptures, both by precept and example.“ Rev. R. Furman, D.D., a Baptist pastor from South Carolina.  These cultish proclamations were adopted by many Baptists and religious zealots while completely ignoring the teachings of Christ, not to mention ignoring Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence that ‘all men are created equal’. 

The same ignorance holds true today.  Any American who does not agree with the Republican Party or the Religious Right is somehow un-American, a socialist, a communist, a liberal.  While there is much published research that many people are ‘born gay’ the same Religious Righters throw un-related scripture to defy a field of scientific and industrial research to such a level that it qualifies as a major societal fear factor, in order to justify their hate, intolerance and discrimination just as they did with slavery or ‘keeping women in their place’ in order to keep them from voting.

Yet these same ‘religious groups’ have ignored their true religious calling, if in fact, they ever had one as American families are torn apart from the bigotry they proclaim and as the divorce rate is over 50%.  As the Religious Right turns their backs on American families, they also turn their backs on the hundreds of thousands of orphans, widows and the homeless and they ignore the failing public school children causing America to fall by leaps and bounds below almost all industrialized nations in education. They teach against safe sex, living in a fantasy land, while unwanted babies and sexual diseases are flourishing in the U.S. and abroad, they torch abortion clinics in self-righteous indignation. Why, because there is no money or power to be gained in addressing the true commission of Christ.

The shame of it all can be witnessed as Americans, mostly Republicans and the followers of the Religious Right have completely been brainwashed and manipulated.  This is by design of the Religious Right.  It produces armchair patriots, a group of people who put ‘fish’ bumper stickers on their cars, ‘Support our troops’ without actually ‘doing’ anything to support them, proclaim family values while they teach their children the values of discrimination, hate and bigotry.  These are the people who place the “W” bumper stickers on their SUVs and blame President Obama for everything real or imaginary from the Swine Flu to the loss of the Vietnam War.  They claim anyone who is not ‘like them’ is a terrorist, unpatriotic and many other colorful derivatives which are intended to demean.

David Kuo wrote a book in 2006 called “Tempting Faith” which exposed the hypocrisy of the Bush Administration using his Faith Based Initiatives only as a means to obtain votes. 

“Now, however, George W. Bush’s White House was doing the same thing: it was deceiving the public, and in doing so it was mocking the trust of the American people. More disappointing, it was mocking the millions of faithful Christians who had put their trust and hope in the president and his administration.” [p. 253]

Rove Described Jerry Falwell as Someone “We Have to Put Up With.”  Senior White House Officials Described Evangelicals as “Nuts” and “Boorish.” “For most of the rest of the White House staff, evangelical leaders were people to be tolerated, not people who were truly welcomed. No group was more eye-rolling about Christians than the political affairs shop. They know ‘the nuts’ were politically invaluable, but that was the extent of their usefulness. Sadly, the political affairs folks complained most often and most loudly about how boorish many politically involved Christians were.” [p. 229]

Senior White House Officials Also Described Evangelicals as “Ridiculous,” “Out of Control,” and “Goofy.” “Political Affairs was hardly alone. There wasn’t a week that went by that I didn’t hear someone in the middle to senior-levels making some comment or another about how annoying the Christians were or how tiresome they were, or how ‘handling’ them took so much time. National Christian leaders received hugs and smiles in person and then were dismissed behind their backs and described as ‘ridiculous’, ‘out of control”, and just plain ‘goofy.’” [pp. 229-230]

How funny the joke was on the Religious Right! If the most powerful man on earth back in 2006 referred to the Religious Right as ‘nuts’, ‘goofy’ and ‘out-of-control’ it says that ever powerful Republicans acknowledge the hypocrisy of these ‘religious idiots’.

There should be an outcry from Americans as religious houses of worship especially Protestant and Catholic, are seeing attendance plummet because the Religious Right has left behind the teachings of Christ in favor of a non-Christian political agenda in an effort to influence, if not ruin the U.S. Government.

Recently the First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas displayed the sermon title “Why Gay is Not OK” on their marquee.  The Rev. Diana Holbert is pastor of Grace United Methodist Church in Dallas appropriately responded “I resolved to champion biblical teachings that offer the opposite message, e.g. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).  On May 17, Rev Holbert preached a sermon entitled “Why Gay is OK,” based on Acts 10 saying “The Bible is a book that has been used falsely to condemn in Jesus’ name – anathema to the One who was said to have come into the world not to condemn the world but so that the world might be saved (John 3:17).  For years, gay people have given up on organized religion because it has condemned them. At Grace this simply does not happen.

For years gay people have had their self-esteem eroded by church and culture.  At Grace all are welcome. All are loved. All are encouraged to grow in faith and service.  “In the end, gay people want what everyone wants, we all want to belong, to be loved, to serve, to look beyond ourselves to purpose and meaning in the world as offered by the grace of God. In the end, gay people want a church that they can call home and be themselves. Grace United Methodist Church surely does offer that – and more.”

Now that, my friends, is a Christian sermon!

Filed under: Religious Right