Skip to main content

When Religion is Attacked...for the Right Reasons


Religion, if it’s any good at all, has always been under attack.  Not because of its claim of righteousness, or its attempts at some lofty holiness, or because of its fundamentalism.  Historically, the best religion, the healthiest and courageous and most dangerous religion, has been attacked because of its struggle against systems of corruption, of injustice, of brutality, of exploitation and other crimes against humanity.

Jesus was crucified for these very reasons.  People of religion over the years created these elaborate and complicated and puzzling and sometimes preposterous doctrines and ideologies about salvation and atonement and the rapture and the second coming and eternal damnation and so forth as a way of attempting to interpret scripture.  But Jesus was not killed for any of that.  He was killed for attempting to stand against the cruelty and injustices and inhumanity of the Roman Empire.  He was killed for his impatience with institutional religion and his call to reform it.  He was killed by politicians and the most religious people of his day.

They are still threatened by him.  By the real Jesus.

All of the mean hyped up Christianity of today has nothing really to do with the historical Jesus.   It’s mostly selfish and phony, shallow and close minded, and often harmful and destructive.  Robust Christianity, courageous real Jesus following Christianity, should clearly and courageously be for civil rights, gay rights, abortion rights, and women’s rights.  It should be a forceful influence on government.  It should be a healthy example to society.  But it has no business running the government, which too much of contemporary Christianity seems obsessed with doing.  Government has always worked best when it has been allowed to be a secular, human institution of laws and services for its citizens.  It is weakened and corrupted when it attempts to be the voice of any religious persuasion.

If you are opposed to gay rights, to abortion, to equal rights because of your religious views then fine, stand your ground defending your views—in your church, in your life.  But don’t go be a politician or elect a politician in order to get the government to promote your religious viewpoints.  And if you’re going to be a Christian then at least study the life and teachings of Jesus Christ.  He was not a fundamentalist right wing Republican Tea Party millionaire capitalist.  He was not a person of means.  He wasn’t even married.  He was humble.  He was intelligent and well educated.  He taught simple lessons of compassion and grace.  He fought for the sick and the left out, for children and widows, for people possessed by addictions and mental illness.  He loved others with gracious generosity.  He had no ambition for power, affluence or control.  If you tell me he would turn away gays or women who have had an abortion or people struggling with alcohol or not fight for the rights of minorities, or be callous towards women and their right to care for their own bodies, then I would tell you go back and read your New Testament.  If all you read is the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes (Matthew 5-7), then you cannot morally defend the loud hostile cries of Christians today against the most vulnerable in our nation and in our world.

We’ve been through Easter and Passover and believers are back to the hard task now of living out their faith, of putting into practice all of that death and resurrection and high festivals and holy days, living it out in the home and the workplace and wherever humanity meets them.  That is where the real tests happen and where if you have any faith at all it should unfold in acts of love, of courage, of standing for the vulnerable and the hurting, and standing against the corrupt and angry and selfish and exploitive systems of our day.

The late British philosopher, Karl Popper, once wrote, “I am therefore in favor of democratically elected, constitutional government, which is quite different from rule by the people.  And I am in favor of accountable government—accountable first of all to those who elected it, but also, perhaps still more, morally responsible to humanity.” 

Accountable government morally responsible to humanity.  That is far different from rule by the people, which has become a fascination with fundamentalist right wing religion and politics. 

Religion that stands for the former will most likely get attacked, and for all the right reasons.

© 2013 Timothy Moody
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

We are Made for Human Connection

There are words from Brandi Carlile’s song, “The Story,” that I might sing, and perhaps you, too. “All of these lines across my face Tell you the story of who I am So many stories of where I've been And how I got to where I am But these stories don't mean anything When you've got no one to tell them to” You don’t have to be single or alone to feel the depth of those words. Someone in a longtime marriage or relationship might feel them, too. The voyage through life takes each one of us through an assortment of experiences. Some of them ennoble us. Some crush us. Some lift us beyond ourselves and carry us into the lives of those who need us. And some carry us to those we need. Some experiences are burdens. Others ease and encourage us. Some leave us baffled and unsure. Some build confidence within us and are so affirming that we grow in substance, in courage, in tenderness, and sympathy. As we age, the lines in our faces can represent the hurts we have not yet resolved. Or t
Post a Comment
Read more

If I had five minutes to evacuate--what would I take with me?

If I was told there was a bomb in my building and I had five minutes to evacuate my apartment I’d grab a grocery bag and quickly toss these items into it: 1. A photo of my grandparents, Mom and Pop and me, when I was 15 years old. I learned what love is made of from them. I learned what it is to be kissed on and hugged in arms so tender they felt like God’s arms. I discovered self worth from those two angels in human flesh. Of all the people in my life, they were the ones who made me feel I counted. Honestly, whatever capacity I have to love others came from them. 2. A sentimental, dog-eared, stars in the margin copy of Pat Conroy’s, “The Prince of Tides.” It is a book I have read three times and often return to for its wisdom. It is a harsh, profoundly tragic novel, the story of a family so broken and tortured by such flawed and wounded people that it is sometimes difficult to turn the next page. And yet it is the story of such Herculean courage and endurance that you want
9 comments
Read more

Remembering Dr. Bill Craig

In Memoriam  Dr. Bill Craig January 1, 2020 In the Hebrew Bible, we see from the life of Moses, and the Psalmist, Isaiah and others , concern for the problem of living rather than the problem of dying.   Their primary interest was not how to escape death, but rather, how to sanctify life. Bill modeled that kind of wisdom.  The brilliant novelist Louis L'Amour, who wrote bestselling books about the American West, what he called “frontier stories,” basically said the same thing. He wrote, “The trail is the thing, not the end of the trail.” No one attempted to sanctify life and get more out of the trail than Bill Craig. He was a deep thinker, a gifted veterinarian, a rugged and unbreakable man with the kindest heart and the purest motives.  He was a loving and devoted husband, father, and grandfather. Karen, Shalor and Melissa, Kellan, Nolan and Carter, were his world. They meant everything to him. I guess he had faults, but I don’t remember any of them.  There was o
Post a Comment
Read more