Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Fundamentally Babbling about Faith

The Christian Coalition is a funny sort of club. They claim to profess a love of Christ, yet spit in the face of his teachings on a regular basis. They are the quintessential “do as I say not as I do”ers. It is not a Christian world they strive for, but just an intolerant one and the recent fiasco over who will lead this group proves this point in spades.

Rev. Joel Hunter was to take over the Christian Coalition of America, but has since declined to do so. The senior pastor from Northland Church in Longwood, Fla. said the reason for his departure from the organization was that he wanted to steer the group towards the actual teaching of Jesus. He wanted the group to focus on poverty and the environment. He wanted the coalition to focus on “issues that Jesus would want us to care about.” They did not agree with his preference for these topics over the group’s standard issues of abortion and gay rights and told him that “'these issues are fine, but they're not our issues, that's not our base”.

If I am to understand this correctly, the Christian Coalition of America has just said that the teachings of Jesus are not their issues and do not reflect their base. Instead they would rather continue to focus on divisive issues that Jesus never spoke on either directly or indirectly. They are admitting that they are not a religious organization, but a political one with political, not spiritual motives. They are the American Taliban plain and simple and their declining the leadership of an honest man of G-d proves this fact.

This rise in fundamentalism world-wide is a serious problem and we are ignoring it mostly. We say it is fundamentalist Islam that is causing problems. We say fundamentalist Christians are intolerant. We say fundamentalist Jews are killing innocents. Why do we not see the common thread is fundamentalism and not the faith attached to it? Why can we not see that it is the ignoring the possibility that our side could be wrong that is causing the most damage, and not what it is we believe?

Are fundamentalist Republicans any less dangerous than fundamentalist Islamists? Are fundamentalist Democrats any better than fundamentalist Christians? Or are all these groups equally distrustful and narrow-minded as the other? Grouch Marx once said that he would not join any group that would have him as a member. I urge all people reading this to take those words to heart.

We are each born with a deep-rooted understanding of right and wrong that only becomes vague and complicated as we age and let others alter what we knew and accept their realities as truth. Gay marriage can only hurt your marriage if you or your significant other leaves to marry someone of the same sex. What your neighbors do will not affect your marriage. Abortion only affects you if you have one. If you do not support it then let other people know why you choose not to support it and let them decide. Freedom means sometimes dealing with things you would rather not.

Playground rules are what I am fundamentalist about: do unto others as you would have them do unto you; share; don’t hit; be honest; worry about what you do and let others worry about what they do. These are the truths we are born knowing and that we forget as we age. Life is hard enough living for one.

10 comments:

Victor Allen Winters said...

Okay, I tried to create a link, and Blogger when all Schizo on me. I just wanted to say great post.

Serena said...

Excellent, very well reasoned post, Kan. Any time I hear the word "fundamentalist," I know that I'm dealing with someone who's going to be parochial minded, closed off to thoughtful discussion, and intolerant of any way but his way.

If only everyone would practice your "playground rules," the world would be a much safer and more pleasant place.

Unknown said...

Thank you both. I get nervous when writing about aspects of Christianity. It is not my faith and I know how I get when I read something about Judisim. It is not my place to comment on the inner workings of that faith, but the CC weighs in on all lives so they are fair game.

Rex Zeitgeist said...

The christian coalition is a politcal enitity.......That's nothing new....

But they are not the same as radical Islamic terrorists......that is moral equivlence........

The Christian Coalition isn't teaching children to blow them selves up for virgins, or mutilating the genitals of 12 year old girls, or preaching geniocide......THAT is the Taliban....not Jerry Falwell....


Just because they want to stop abortion doesn't make them the same as dracoinan enforcers of the strictist interpratation of a death cult, like Islamic Mulluhs....


Come on Kan, its time you see who the enemy really is right now.....The ones that want to kill us and destroy our economy....


And its not Soccer'milfs' having bake sales and watching the 700 Club....

Unknown said...

Rex,
There is motive and there is method. Their methods do differ, but their motives are the exact same: the believe their faith to be the only true faith and that the laws of that faith must be followed by all.

My enemy is fundamentalist extremists regardless of what term they put after it.

Unknown said...

Il,
I have nothing but respect for the Christian faith and its ideals. I see all faiths as different paths to the same end. The problem is when one person says their road is the only way. There is always atleast a second route to anywhere.

Rex Zeitgeist said...

Everyone says there road is the only way......EVERY RELGION.....Equating the Christian Coalition with the Taliban is, well, not correct.....


The Talbian beat, jailed, and murdered anyone and everyone that was different from their strict male dominated death cult.....They destroyed every artifact and relgious items in the country not assosiated with the Pedophile god, Allah...

Women were shot to death in soccer field for showing skin on their arms......women were beaten in the street for any minor 'morale' infraction.....

The Taliban joined forced with Al Queda to spread their death cult...And they helped bring death to our shores....

Saying the 'only the mehtod' differs, is like saying one person that goes to a movie theater and buys a ticket to see it, is the same as someone who kills everyone in the theater and watches it for free.....

tom sheepandgoats said...

If a religious group decides to “pronounce God’s judgments,” that can make them unpalatable to some. And it can make them a laughingstock. But it doesn’t make them dangerous. They become dangerous only if they decide to help Him out a little (or a lot) in carrying out those judgments.

The Taliban help him out a lot. Christian fundamentalists help him out only a little. But that could change if social order were to break down as it has in the Iraq and Afghanistan.

It's fine to have people to voice strong viewpoints. But they must be content to let God do the enforcing, except in their own organization, of course, which one is always free to leave.

Joe Erjavec said...

Andrew Sullivan had some discussion on his blog recently about this. The title of "Christianist" was given to describe those who use the Christian religion for political ends, just as "Islamist" describes using the Islamic religion for political ends.

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