God Hates. God destroys. God is jealous. But God is perfect.
The reasoning of an anthropomorphic God is an undeniable contradiction: a
perfect being who created an imperfect being "in His own image." Yet
anthropomorphizing - downsizing God to human characteristics, if you will - has
been the moralizing strategy of religion since the beginning of time. Why?
Because completely spiritualizing God, making him another entity totally
foreign to ourselves does not relate to the uneducated masses: few cultures are
equipped with such esoteric concepts and the ones that are, have become
demonized by today's major religions.* With a God of human characteristics,
it's easier to set morals, it's easier to control the actions of others.
And if there's one thing religion is about, it's about control.
Today's Christian Right is having a difficult time controlling people - or,
more correctly, obtaining as many people as it wishes to control. More young
people are turning to atheism than ever before, eager to be released from the
confines of Fundamentalism. Media pundits like Bill Maher and Jon Stewart of
The Daily Show chip away at the rock of Fundamentalism continually, leaving
only a small, shallow bit of rationality, while the CR lashes out with more
anthropomorphic images and pronouncements of doom from Dominionists like David
Barton and Cindy "Japan-is-shaped-like-a-dragon" Jacobs. They point
to a segment of the populace who still believe in Adam and Eve and a male God
who talks to Pat Robertson. They bombard the airwaves with pronouncements of
how much God "hates" liberals, feminists, gays, illegal aliens,
Muslims, atheists and socialists. They refer to the Old Testament of pain,
retribution, sin and wrath more than to the New Testament of love and forgiveness.
To the human Jesus they attach hate and vengeance to make Him seem more like
His Father: "Rambo Jesus" is preferred over "Gentle Jesus Meek
and Mild." They do nothing to dispel the physical image of an old man in
the sky sitting on a throne passing judgment and contemptuously handing out
physical favors like so much candy to adoring children.
Indeed, the image of children is what the Christian Right sees in its various
"flocks", hoping that those children never grow up. For when they do,
they might stray from the "true" God, the one adorned with lightening
bolts, not the esoteric YHWH that cannot be depicted on canvas or in
stone, not the God adored by the early Christians Tertullian, Origen, or the
Gnostics.
And certainly (in fact, most importantly) not the God of the dreaded Deists.
The Old Man, The Throne, And The Penchant For Power Through Government
It is the purpose of Reconstructionism, Dominionism, or the New Seven Mountains
Theology to establish exact Biblical law on earth in all countries, using their
own electoral and legislative processes. But in order to establish Biblical law
as concrete, Reconstructionists need to give the common electorate something
physical to fear and pay homage to: shock and awe can only be necessitated
through something tangible. Images of God seldom show Him smiling (a few - very
few -children's cartoons notwithstanding). They must never hint at any gender
other than MALE, nor must they ever indicate anything other than a kind of
benign contempt for His creation: His rules MUST be obeyed OR ELSE! God is
strictly business and rarely compassionate. FEAR is the only rule of law. God
has PHYSICAL power and PHYSICAL might! He can smite whole countries with one
wave of His HAND!
Might. Power. Strength. Vengeance. Jealousy. Hatred. Fear. All of those
exceptionally human traits are surely signs of God. A spiritual, esoteric God
cannot control his creation. An ethereal, cerebral God is for wimps.
Pacifistic wimps.
It is telling how close the image of the Christian Right's very human God is to
any other civilization's God of war: militaristic analogies abound,
encapsulated best in the term "Soldiers for Christ." "Might
through God in government" might be a standard set upon currency.
A Human God Is A Political God
There was a time in America during its founding, when men tried to perceive God
as something more than just a stern Father figure. In their attempt to separate
God from man, they placed Him at a distance that was unreachable, unknowable
and aloof. That was a mistake, but one for which we shouldn't be paying
the price; the price being Fundamentalists seizing an opportunity to take
control (that word again) of the country's moral and political worldview. It
was Jerry Falwell's Moral Majority that produced a strong attack on politics
from which we may never fully recover. And Falwell, ever the Fundamentalist,
made certain that we were mindful of the watchful eye of God - a very vengeful,
very jealous, very human God.
"The abortionists have
got to bear some burden for this [9/11] because God will not be mocked. And
when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad."
So God hates ... and reacts just like any of His human creations. But if He has
all these human emotions and traits, suffice it to say that God might
"hate" being used as a political tool. For in controlling man through
God in politics, the Christian Right is controlling God as well, getting Him to
fit the image of a strong, vengeful, (and therefore) imperfect man.
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