Christian In Name Only. The notion first came to me after watching "Lake of Fire", a documentary about the abortion debate. But it is more about the wacked out CINOs and their views (abortion was just the issue of choice to highlight the insanity of the fundamentalists). Unfortunately, there are quite a few of these in America, residing in the festering Christian Right (some 50% of the total religious population in the U.S.). They have it so wrong that I find myself utterly without the capacity to adequately describe the degree to which they have it wrong. It is really astounding, very saddenning, and immensely un-settling. Overall, Christian fundamentalism isn't a faith movement... it is a socio-political one... It is (and I don't want to sound too cliche with how much this word gets bandied about) fascism. CINOism can be found is in the so-called evenagelical faiths, and in the more dogmatic, indoctrinated Catholic practitoners.
The killer of Dr. Tiller (and all the apologists for him) believes that people unlike him, who do not share his view and "values" (such that they are), are beneath him. Likewise, if the law does not align with this view, and sense of "morality" (such that it is) then it is flawed and beneath his compliance. This twisted view lead this man to convince himself that he is duty-bound to break not only the law, but one of the 10 commandments. How Christian is that??? Not at all...
To non-believers and those of other faiths and spiritual foundations (including non-believers), please bear with me... I undertand that discussions around the Bible and sin and divine judgement, that I am working into, is irrelevant even ridiculous to many of you... but perhaps there is some openning to undertanding each other, if you allow me to cut through the BS that is the "Christian" Right... which is not Christian at all. They claim to be, and perhaps even think that they are, but really, they use religion (a man-made construct by the way) as a template to tell others how they are supposed to live... Really, I think that they aren't all that qualified to be classified as Americans... or civilized... certainly not rational.
No where in the New Testament (the foundation of Christianity), is it writtent that the followers of Jesus ought to bring harm to others, murder them, marginalize them, impose beliefs on them, deny them their freedom and rights in society. It is not there... If one sins, it is between them and their maker. God possesses the divine right to judge one's soul. Live your own life, because you will most certainly die your own death. The Bible does educates us about sin, BUT so that you as an individual can try to follow a better path... not so that you can judge others and try to force fit them into what you believe is the best path for them.
Jesus says:
- Let he who is without sin cast the first stone (not, punish the sinners yourself, regardless of your own sins... it would be a huge circular firing squad)
- Turn the other cheek (not, go get revenge)
- Do unto others as you would have done unto you (not, be the judge, jury and executioner)
- Love the neighbor (not, love those who look and act like you)
- Worry about the plank in your own eye before you worry about the speck in another person's eye (not, try to knock out their speck with your plank).
Nothing about the Christian Right's agenda is Christian. It is an oppressive regime bent on creating a social order in line with a bigotted, closed-minded, jingo-istic, self-aggrandizing agenda. It is how and why these supposed Christians can advocate torture, how they can commit murder, how they can support it from others and the government, and how they can condemn Jews and Moslems outright.
They support prop 8, but have nothing to say about adulterers (one of the top 10 sins by the way). That is because homosexuals are "them" in the us v. them line of thinking.
They oppose abortion but support the death penalty. Because they view the criminals as the "them". And which, by the way, is why they so strongly oppose hate-crimes and reform on drug laws. They don't want a change in the status of "them" of "us". They don't want any of "us" becoming criminals via hate-crimes laws, nor do they want any of "them" becoming sympathetic decriminalized figures by drug law reform.
They oppose immigration (illegal or otherwise) but support the outsourcing of jobs and hiring practices of businesses. Because the companies are the "us" while the workers are the "them" (don't bring "them" here, but don't interfere with how "us" does business). It is the epitome of fascism, and Glenn Beck may want to educate himself on this alittle as he goes on his little fascism fantasies.
I could just ramble on aimlessly about this matter, as I have done somewhat already, so I just want to close with a final example of this from the "Lake of Fire" documentary that I mentioned. One of the abortion doctor murders was interviewed and asked what he thought of abortion. He said, "I think whatever the pope thinks. The pope says its wrong, so its wrong." However, I add, I don't think that the pope called for murdering doctors (not that I am a fan of the pope, or any such elaborated religious hierarchy), but this guy grabbed onto a religious doctrine that he could use as the means to advocate for his own hatred of "them"... of the "other". We can conlcude that he committed the murder out of a personal fascist world view, and not because of a belief in Christian teachings... because he committed suicide while in prison. The pope also says that suicide is bad... so in doing so, we can see that this guy wasn't just acting in line with any real religious foundations... H was just co-opting religion for his own fascism. I refer you to Pat Robertson, the late Jerry Fallwell, Tony Perkins, James Dobson, Bill Donahue, and Rick Warren (fascism with a smile).
I suspect that if Jesus saw how these men used his name to drive their fascist agenda, and used it to makes piles and piles of cash... well, the "den of thieves" Biblical quote comes to mind...