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Friends, Family & anti-Christ: Jesus Would NOT Run This Kind of Shop

(Admin comment.)
In the permutations of this site structure over the last 9 years I have lost the usernames of some guest contributors and some commenters. That saddens me. And I apologize to them and to visitors who read those articles (such as this one) and comments.
Friends, Family & anti-Christ: Jesus Would NOT Run This Kind of Shop

GOD, AND “GOD’S NATION”, SWITCHING ROLES

This is ironic. I’ve been accumulating reasons to be sure the USA is evil, while all these religious people are praising the system, praising its latest caretakers, because

  • “it’s the best we can ask for”
  • “it’s no better anywhere else”
  • “we should be happy to have all this”
  • “what else do you want?”

I can’t get through to them. They continually ascribe God-like righteousness to a human endeavor and when things go wrong, blame it on sin. Yea, sin’s there and we cause problems. But it’s still there when things go the way we wanted them to.

All I can think of when people ask me what I would have them do about it is: “TELL THE TRUTH.”
Mainly, it seems more appropriate than ever to TEACH EXACTLY WHAT JESUS TAUGHT.
Now, thanks to the religious right, the line between God and “God’s nation” is so fuzzy that the two are trading sides, so that God serves the nation by affirming that it is Just. It’s not hard to spot the error. How is “God’s nation” absolutely good when all their (rather hollow) arguments in its favor are pure relativism? Now we have a majority of Christians blind to the real problems we cause and certain that the entire machine is pure. Well, there are bad elements, but they’re Democrats. That’s why God made sure Bush won twice. He’s going to clean us up.

These aren’t bad people, but they are indeed comfortable. Just as Morpheus told Neo, people in the system that enslaves them will die to protect it. I believe that when you Americanize Christianity, you get antiChrist. Perhaps not the Antichrist, but certainly anti-Christ in nature. And many Christians that I know seem to be far more American than Christian. So now the religious right is protecting the enemy.

EXAMPLES: FRIENDS & RELATIVES

These aren’t bad people, but they are indeed comfortable.
A certain pastor, when I confront him and his neopatriotism by pointing to the evil taking hold of this nation, states his belief in the power of the Holy Spirit to prolong the situation beyond my (admittedly fatalist) view, and to improve it for the good of everyone alive. But it looks to me like our war machine, especially Bush”s War on Terror, is doing a lot for global dictatorship. Is that how God is working, in reverse? Apparently he doesn’t get that Bush’s leadership is not going to preserve anything, or see the difference between what God can do for peace and what Bush does against it. Voted for Bush (& the war machine).

A nice lady here wants to believe that corporations are good because “they give us jobs.” What kind of far-right nonsense. They delete jobs as fast as they can, it makes the money spread a lot thicker (on the people at the top). Pretty sure she voted for Bush.

I made a remark to another somewhat nice lady that the “Christian Coalition” voter’s guide – spelling out how Kerry is this (suggested evil) and Bush is the opposite – was propaganda, reinforcing the false idea that there are exactly 2 parties worth caring about. She took it the negative way (ok, I meant it the negative way too), and got on my case for a moment. We ended up sharing some more words, with her becoming more and more upset for the following 15 seconds. I made a comment about being spoiled on American freedom (that wasn’t directed at her). She left in a hurry, and I heard about it later. I can assume that she voted for Bush.

I know exactly one Christian person who even mentioned other parties and their candidates (besides Kerry) last year. I wonder if he’s at all bothered that they merely couldn’t afford to get the exposure and coverage that the 2 mainline parties enjoy. And he voted for Bush anyway.

I flew through a list of my problems with this country’s misbehavior and the people blindly supporting it, for a half hour, with a nice guy who’s cool anyway. He seems to agree with a lot, but not the big picture. How can people maintain a picture of America that makes it a godly state in spite of everything it does to its own people, and – to an ever-increasing degree – the rest of the world? How about when the people driving it call themselves Christians?! He voted for Bush, proudly. The same guy listens to Rush Limbaugh and knows for sure that the Democrats want socialism, when you get through to the core.

Well, the Republicans want fascism just the same, and I’m no Democrat.

I asked another nice guy what he thought about Vietnam once I learned that he was there, open-ended question. He wasn’t happy about it, knew it was a waste, knew a lot of people died for nothing. Yet he probably didn’t make the connection to a certain corrupt Republican that was supported by the religious right, since he voted for Bush too (and will get upset if you say anything bad about him or the government in general.)

My good friend is lamenting the ignorance in his family, who mostly voted for Bush – probably on the terrorism & fear platform rather than anything Christians are concerned with. He tells me how he confronted them with the basic lies the Bush crew is telling, and they brush it off as if all politicians are liars anyway, and so it goes! They EXPECT it.

I’ve had many long discussions with another Christian man, the most open one yet. OK, I admit I did most of the talking, and again, he mostly agrees. But this was a person who recommended that I read Francis Schaeffer. He believes that the government is our resonsibility right now, and voted for Bush.

GIVING CAESAR WHAT IS GOD’S

This is a disaster. We are teaching each other to give to Caesar what is God’s – starting with infallibility. Imputing infallibility isn’t the same as forgiving. How can you forgive an entity, a framework that changes faces every 4 years? So you see it as infallible. And wouldn’t it be clever to change out the people in charge often enough to keep people happy that the overall system is worthy!? Remember Orwell? “A ruling group is a ruling group so long as it can nominate its successors.

THE TRAP OF PLAYING BY THE ACCEPTED RULES

I realize that I’m going out on a limb, concluding that these few, the best of all churchgoers I know, aren’t receiving their guidance from God. It’s probably because they are all following the party.
To be honest, I didn’t vote for a president, and all these same people like to tell me that “then, you can’t complain.” I have concluded that people only say this because it’s what people say. I’m complaining that my “voice”, as in, “making my voice heard” has become choosing between a knife and a gun. I refuse to let them limit me in that way. I refuse to let anyone buy my vote by saying the right thing. My voice is going to be much stronger than responding to a multiple-choice questionnaire about who I want to be in charge.

I refuse to play the game by the accepted rules when that’s exactly how we got this far! The harder we try, the worse things get. And the church wants to believe that we’re doing the Right Thing. I realize that I’m going out on a limb, concluding that these few, the best of all churchgoers I know, aren’t receiving their guidance from God. It’s probably because they are all following the party. The party claims to serve God’s wishes, and commandeers millions of votes and millions in funds.

WHY NOT JUST TELL THE TRUTH?

Of course that’s not very solution-minded; but all I can think of when people ask me what I would have them do about it is: “TELL THE TRUTH.” Mainly, it seems more appropriate than ever to TEACH EXACTLY WHAT JESUS TAUGHT.

That’s NOT the same as all this legalism we’re teaching today, in order to pass on the Correct- Voting- Habits- According- to- God’s- Word. A lot of people are going to be glad to find out that Jesus would NOT run this kind of shop, and He is terribly misrepresented in America.

Tell the truth. And that can’t go along with making excuses for the president, the government, or any evil thing that might rise. Romans 13 does not teach us to follow the state into hell.

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