Contents of this Post
- 1) it protects the robbers,
- 2) Right political-religion does not do much at all to actually help people avoid and escape
- The ‘conservative’ churches seem much more interested in political power than in moral or spiritual power,
- Why does the church think it is holy to try to do all the good deeds that need doing long-distance — keeping the problems at more than arms length —
- If the only real strength of the Christian Gospel is an ability to manipulate the voting public, then who needs it!
Churches have been powerfully deflected. I am against abortion, as my site makes very clear. There is trauma and tragedy and violence for all involved, and it is sickening.
But I also read my Bible — quite a bit, in fact — and I know God is not impressed by pro-life political affiliations that take no account of the moral character and actual results of political movements and leaders. God does not judge by externals, but by what people really pursue, and what they really do to each other.
Martin Luther King said it is wrong to not hold the robber accountable, while arresting the victim. (See MLK quotes on National Park Service site or here on this site.) My problem with rightist religioius politics as practiced in this country is that:
1) it protects the robbers,
refusing to investigate their activities and characters, helping to deflect attention from them by campaigning loud and hard about 1 or 2 other issues;
AND, WORSE BY FAR:
2) Right political-religion does not do much at all to actually help people avoid and escape
even those 1 or 2 moral quagmires by effective, direct, personal efforts. It primarily uses those issues to spread blame and guilt, and to win elections so the government can help to further enrich the robbers.
The ‘conservative’ churches seem much more interested in political power than in moral or spiritual power,
and they are getting what they have been choosing – (temporary) political power, and continuously declining moral credibility and spiritual power. More now than at perhaps any other time in American history it can be said of the churches, “the name of God is blasphemed among the unbelievers because of you.”
Why does the church think it is holy to try to do all the good deeds that need doing long-distance — keeping the problems at more than arms length —
trying to force others to do good through legislation (or the destroying of legislation) or through military destruction?
I am opposed to abortion. I am equally opposed to all the ineffective sanctimony coming out of the religious right allegedly in defense of the helpless. If they cared about the helpless, it would be much more apparent in their local communities.
And there would be much more honesty among them; the scoundrels on the public scene (Rove, Cheney, Limbaugh, Colter, as a very small sampling) would not be honored among them (Isaiah 32). And they would actually be DOING something other than shouting and parading about these issues in political campaigns. I’m not talking about you personally since I don’t know you, but about these churches in general (and I’m right; I’ve lived in them).
If the only real strength of the Christian Gospel is an ability to manipulate the voting public, then who needs it!
But in fact we do need it, desperately. We just need it’s self-proclaimed agents to figure out which kingdom they want to identify with, the Real One, or the one of worldly wealth and political-military power.
Thank you for your feedback. I know you have been poorly informed by your limited exposure to the realities going on in our country. I do blame you for that since we hear what we choose to hear, but I also blame the manipulators and brain-washers that you choose to listen to so exclusively.
May the blessing of God be in your heart, mind, life, and family. And in our country and our world. Amen.
(See the post here Pro-Life: What Do They DO?, or the Category “Abortion“.)
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BJT, where is this “obligation to preserve life” mentioned?
Anon says:
‘ .NOW you want to return to those days! I don’t think so! ‘…..
Who said we want to return to those days? No one. What we have the obligation to do is preserve life where it has been given by God. All life comes from God.
The atheists and agnostics refute the existence of God and that means they don’t understand the gravity of the sin of taking a life.You can’t say, ‘ idon’t reject God, but he will understand if i terminate this human life’. If you reject God then you may give yourself licence to do many things – contrary
to his teaching. That doesn’t make it ‘right’- whatever a secular authority may decide.
Every single pregnat woman deserves to be protected,loved and cared for in the same way as the child she is carrying.All we ask is that that child be given his/her right to live. It’s not a question of moral condemnation for behaviour it’s a question of saving a human life. There is no condemnation in bringing a human being into the world- whatever the circumstances. “Suffer the little children to come onto you”.Little children
are the closest thing we have on this earth to angels; ask a two year old if it is right to ‘send away’
the little brother or sister inside the tummy of its mother/sister/aunt etc.
Just think about it very deeply and ask for guidance from God. If the answer is ‘kill the baby’ i’m afraid you’ve contacted …the other guy.He also exists – and how!
If you or anyone else “cares” about me, then you will show me the respect and dignity I deserve just because I am a human being.
Whether I reproduce or not is none of anybody’s business but mine. Medical decisions [and pregnancy is a medical decision] are my choice as I bear the consequences of those decisions. I work, I pay taxes, I own property and I VOTE. No one gets to make decisions for me, unless I ask them or am judicated as incompetent.
I am old enough to remember before Roe v. Wade and all the misery that illegal abortions caused. . .not to mention the self-hate many of us felt at having little to no control over our reproductive capabilities. Pregnancy was a weapon the state, the church, and society used to “control” women.
It was so common to have young pregnant women put out of school, their jobs taken away, parent ashamed, etc. The prevalent thinking was a woman “deserved” a child, if she had sex. . .as if having a child was some sort of punishment for being a sexual being. Rape was not taken seriously, a woman’s word was always doubted-even if beaten half to death, spousal abuse with nowhere to go was very prevalent. . .NOW you want to return to those days! I don’t think so!
He’s saying what I said last year, that the right is getting away with dishonest gain– all because the people who would normally care about your well-being have been marshalled on a very few puppet issues. I say puppet because if you obsess over them, almost definitely some party pulls your strings. So the victim of robbery would be you or someone like you, the one whose uncertain financial status forces you to consider abortion instead of struggling to raise a child who may not be healthy or happy as a result. And they, the robbers, want to punish you for your decision. It’s just two-faced, that’s all… LukeLuke 11:46 explains pretty well.
“Martin Luther King said it is wrong to not hold the robber accountable, while arresting the victim.” My problem with rightist church-politics as practiced in this country is that… I’m not exactly sure what is being said here, especially with regard to abortion? Are you saying that women, yes WOMEN who have abortions should be investigated and criminalized because they don’t want to reproduce? Since when is refusing to not spread your genes around a crime? I am always amazed at the attitude of the men on the right. . .they want sex without condoms, don’t want “all those kids”, don’t want women to have contraception and don’t want abortions. Well, what do they want? I, my self, want all of these pseudo Christians and conservatives to just go away and leave the rest of us alone. Rockerbabe1