Diary: There Is No Christian Right

We are at a point in our history where we should stop referring to " the Christian Right" or "conservative Christians." There are no such things. We have a "Religious Right", but no "Christian Right" which is only an oxymoron to the nth degree, as is "conservative Christian " or "compassionate conservative."

Christianity is not a conservative movement, it began as a progressive struggle. It was to free ancient Hebrews from oppression from conservative masters who served the whims of colonial Rome just as our 18th-century progressive movement freed us from our oppressors in Great Britain 232 years ago. Christianity grew out of reforms believers like Paul envisioned for dissatisfied Jews, whose leaders had abetted the Roman occupiers and dared not protect or aid the downtrodden and oppressed. In fact, the transformation from Saul to Paul on the road to Damascus is a story about reform; a reform of one man but which helped reform an entire belief system. The evolution into Christianity came about through efforts to correct the failures of conservative Judaism and was similar to our national evolution from reactionary to progressive brought about with FDR addressing the failures of capitalism and saving it and democracy in the process.

(Brief aside: It is interesting that a progressive Christianity has evolved over 2000 years into a right-leaning anti-Christ movement, in many quarters; while a conservative Judaism has evolved over the same time period into a mostly progressive faith, which may be why Ann Coulter, right-wing slime mistress, thinks Jews need to be "perfected". And since Jesus was a Jew, Coulter must be saying he needed to be "perfected". That's an anti-Christ statement if there ever was one, because wasn't Christ the only "perfect" human being to ever exist?)

Recently read a rant by a right-wing Bible-thumping true-believer from the American South who claimed she found no mention in the Bible that tax money was to be used for government programs benefitting the poor, abandoned, excluded and oppressed. She must not have been reading the Bible real Christians use. For it has Jesus telling his followers that they must "render to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's". Caesar is a reference to the state, and Jesus was telling his followers to pay their taxes to the state without complaint. Then in Matthew 25 he scolded the nations of the world for abandoning the disadvantaged people of their lands saying that their actions also abandoned him. Put the two together and we see that Christ was endorsing the use of taxpayer money for beneficial social programs to benefit the underprivileged. Opposition by conservatives to such programs is anti-Christ, and another reason right wingers cannot be Christians.

But Jesus's statement to render unto Caesar and unto God also carries deeper meanings. He was telling his followers that there must be balance in human lives. We are to be secular and we are to be spiritual ~ balance the two. In your secular life, you obey man's law; in your spiritual life, obey God's law. You can be private and you can be social ~ balance the two. You can be self-centered and you can be altruistic ~ balance the two. We must be family oriented and individualistically aware ~ balance the two. You can love yourself but you must also love your neighbor ~ balance the two. You can be tolerant and you can be contentious ~ balance the two. We can even wage war (defensively, of course) but we must strive to wage peace.

But we have in the modern Religious Right a preponderance of people who reject any thought of balance. They want religion in all aspects of life, no secularity at all. They want selfishness to dominate (they call it free-market capitalism), no altruism allowed, that's denounced as "socialism". They claim to focus on the family or have family values, but abandon all families but their own. They want to serve the privileged while abandoning the downtrodden. They would wage war continuously hoping to bring on a Rapture in which they would disappear into thin air to meet their Christ in a heavenly paradise.

Jesus was the impetus for reform, rather like our Founding Fathers. The image of him was not as a conservative, but as a leftist through and through. He had no use for power, wealth, position, or prestige ~ inherited or otherwise ~ controlling the majority of the population to benefit the few at the top of society. Had be been born in the 20th century he would have been denounced by America's political right, including the so-called Christian Right, as just another communist, socialist, pinko, fellow traveler or any other derogatory appellation righties throw at their betters.

Christianity is based on the teachings, philosophy and actions of Christ; nothing more, nothing less. In it, Christians are to follow Christ's path, emulate what he stood for. What he embraced, Christians must embrace; what he rejected, Christians must reject; what he ignored, Christians must ignore.

Here is what he embraced:

Christ was foremost for peace, for feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, giving shelter to those without. He advocated tolerance, acceptance of others, forgiveness, mutual sharing and love; your basic liberal philosophy. He was friend and defender of the poor, the needy, widows and orphans, the oppressed, the downcast, those who need healing. This is a pro-Christ agenda.

Here is what he rejected:

He rejected money changers in the temple, which may indicate professional preachers. He most certainly was against war, hatred, racism, sexism and bigotry of any sort. He rejected authoritarianism, exclusion, unwarranted punishment, vengeance, cruelty, lack of empathy and us-versus-them; in short, a conservative or anti-Christ agenda.
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Here is what he ignored:.

Christ ignored homosexuality; never said a derogatory word about homosexuals; he didn't condemn them and he didn't single them out for privilege. They were to be accepted just as others were accepted, as equals before him.

Christ never said a word about a women terminating a pregnancy; what we call abortion. In fact the only mention of abortion in the Bible relates to an animal experiencing a miscarriage, because abort only means "to cut short."

Jesus never said that evolution was wrong or anti-god. And right-wing evangelical pastors and theologians who rail against evolution are not representing the Christ or the Bible. The Bible actually says that evolution is reality, as explained in the article "WHAT THE BIBLE TELLS ME" at:

http://www.opednews.com/maxwrite/diarypage.php?did=4537

The present-day campaigns the misnamed Christian Right wages against homosexuals, abortion and evolution are purely their own making; they are not of Christ. As something added to the teachings and philosophy of Christ, they are "abominations before Jesus" and anti-Christ in all their aspects.

The "Christian Right" has nothing to do with Christ's teachings, philosophy or actions, therefore it is not Christian, and we should stop using that terminology; always use the correct "Religious Right," just as there is no such person as a "conservative Christian."

A recent story in the Dallas (Texas) Morning News said that during the Sunday sermon on September 30, pastor Robert Jeffress of the powerful and influential First Baptist Church said:

"Mitt Romney is a Mormon, and don't let anybody tell you otherwise. Even though he talks about Jesus as his Lord and savior, he is not a Christian. Mormonism is not Christianity. Mormonism is a cult."

The newspaper added that "some in the large crowd began to applaud as Dr. Jeffress continued with his remarks."

It should be clear that no conservative religious movement is Christian, therefore Jefferess's comments would apply to himself just as much as he intended them to apply to presidential candidate Romney.

Gail Collins wrote in a recent New York Times column:

"And while Mitt Romney has changed everything but his name in order to make them happy, a sizable chunk of the Christian right cannot seem to forgive him for being a Mormon. When Bob Jones University Chancellor Bob Jones III endorsed Romney, he couldn't resist insulting Mitt's faith in the process. ('As a Christian, I am completely opposed to the doctrines of Mormonism...')"

Anyone familiar with the messages of Jesus Christ can tell us that Jones or anyone else of the "Christian right" is not a real Christian. Jesus warned us about these people when he said, "Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ(ian); and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them." in Like 21:8 with similar statements in Matthew 24:4&5 and Mark 13:5.

It should be obvious that there is an Antichrist, but he isn't a living human being, as many on the right claim. Some even say the Antichrist is a Jewish politician presently living in Europe ~ they just don't know which one ~ but they are wrong. The Antichrist is a distorted and disturbing version of the real Christ; the Christ conservatives pray to daily.