Please, Just Call Me a Pagan

I’ve been doing some serious thinking lately. I am very concerned with the paths all too many “Christian” leaders are obviously following. From my perspective, many of these purported “Christian“ “leaders” are in fact false Christians. Their public statements, actions and activities have little or nothing to do with the message from Christ I read in the Gospels of the Disciples. Their eyes, souls, and ambitions have been corrupted by greed. Their past successes have sucked them into the black pit of hubris. They have gone where many another successful leader has gone: a belief in their own infallibility and the “righteousness” of everything they think and say. Far worse is their obvious desire for personal political power.

Only once did Christ threaten or condemn anyone for anything that they had done. That was in the Temple. The strongest message elsewhere that I can find is to [stop sinning] “. . .and sin no more.” That is it. No penance. No sack cloth. No ashes. No fines. No penalty of any kind. No lashes. No torture. No branding. No prison term. No punishment.

Think about this. This is not an easy task that Jesus gives to “sinners”. Think about just how hard it is to give up your entire way of life to that moment. Think about just how hard it is to give up your method of making a living, and probably your family and acquaintances. If you do not, you know that it is highly unlikely that you will be able to change your lifestyle. Everyone in your life knows about you. What you have said. What you have done. How you have related to others. Their expectations of and about you make any change you attempt nearly impossible. In practical terms, the only answer is to move to somewhere else, and start life anew. A new place where people can only judge you by what they see “the new you” do. There you can build a new life.

Otherwise you have exactly the same situation we see today with recidivism of many kinds of anti-social behaviors.

So what do I see today that causes me so much tribulation? The Radical Right “Christians” who believe somehow that they have “a message from God”. The “Christians” who are so self deluded as to believe that they are sure that they “know what God wants”. The people who call themselves “Christians” that are prepared to turn half of the human race into nothing more than brainless, uneducated, walking, talking wombs which have as their only purpose to reproduce at their “owners” whim. “Christians” who clearly, obviously, and repeatedly publicly profess to having no respect for any other religion as having fundamental value, even those worshipping the very same God. “Christians” with no respect for the rights and lives of people who are in any way “different” from themselves. The “Christians” who are desperate to seize political power so as to turn the power of the secular state into an official “arm of the ‘Christian’ Church” including by the way the use of “arms” to enforce compliance with “Christian” behaviors and beliefs. These “Christians” simply want a militant theocracy in which they are in charge of every detail of other peoples lives. They really want to be absolute dictators of everyone’s thoughts and smallest behaviors. They want to play at being “God”.

Such “Christians” are radical political revolutionaries, and as such are very dangerous people to our democracy. It seems clear that this group has been able to grab the reins of the Republican Party. The Republicans traditionally were social, economic, and resource conservatives. It is hard to imagine, and remember, that the Republicans invented our National Parks and forests. However, they are not conservative any more. The Republican Party has become theologically corrupted, bathing in the polluting warm waters of the blessings of religion, and as always bowing down to worship before the golden idols of money and power.

I am conservative. I am very conservative. I save. I invest. I also believe that humans ought to be much better stewards of our planet. I believe that the costs of doing only those things that put dollars in the coffers of multinational corporations are far higher than doing what is right for our Mother Earth, and God.

I am not anti-business. I am not anti-corporation. I am not anti-profits. I own shares of corporations. I read annual reports. I like getting dividends. I like growing stock share appreciation. I am in business as an entrepreneur. Corporations have their place. That is good. That “place” should be controlled by national civil governments far more than is now the case.

Large corporations are an invention of government. They were a good and needed patchwork creation stitched together for a specific purpose of a specific time. When the need was over, they should have been drastically trimmed back. They have now become like Dr. Frankenstein’s monster, an artificial stitch work that is destroying national economies and the life sustaining environment of our planet without checks and balances from any direction. The original good has now become horrific and horrid.

The current “Christian” Republican Party is exactly like the Roman Senator under a death sentence who immersed himself in a deep warm water bath, ate a magnificent meal, drank a large quantity of fine wine, and opened his veins so his life could go relatively painlessly down the drain. As a lifelong fiscally conservative Democrat my natural impulse and desire is to assist in pulling the plug on the bathtub.

That way, at least, the suicide will be painful. A painful lesson should follow transgression. I think that the “old” Republican Party was important as a balance against the excesses of my own party. Our country grew strong with a rough balance between the two political parties. The threat of the other party in the contest for power kept each party in better line with working for what was good for the country and the people.

God does not “favor” one political party over another. Just as God does not favor one country in a war over another. God only favors the side in the war with the most guns, ammunition, manpower, resources and determination. Wars are about deliberate destruction, blood, guts, gore, and death. Wars happen between Nation States. A nation’s internal politics is not, or should not, be war.

Religion and theology have no place in our nation’s politics. A theocracy is the most debilitating form of government for individuals. Jesus told us that in several ways. Our Founding Fathers were very familiar with theocratic government and wanted no part of it in America. The Republicans have been wrapping themselves in the cloak of religion for sometime. Obviously the cloak has not been enough to encourage them to govern well. The cloak has not kept them from the corruption of power and money.

Membership in a political party is an emotional thing. Sometimes it is a “family” thing. My Dad was a Democrat. I am a Democrat. I favor tolerance and personal freedom to make all the important decisions about one’s life including sexual orientation, education, occupation, marriage, and reproduction. The long, sharp, wooden nose of government has no place in any of those decisions, or the places where they are made. Government does not belong in anyone’s bed, bedroom, or home. If the Democrats join the Republicans and start wrapping themselves in in the cloak of religion, then both parties do not deserve your, or my, vote when elections come around.

The Republican Party is not, and should not be “Christian”. The Democrat Party is not and should not be “Christian”. Any attempts to convince you otherwise by means of demagoguery, name calling, histrionics, tub thumping, or other kinds of lies on radio and TV and other forms of venal propaganda need to be labeled what they are: an attempt to gain political power by any means.

I have wondered and struggled with the concept of being “Christian” for sixty years. If being “Christian” means to be intolerant, bigoted, and disrespectful of the personal freedoms, beliefs, and consciences and deeply personal choices of others, then, please, do me a favor. Just call me a pagan.

(c) Copyright 2006: George Wallace recently published a book on religion which lashes out at nearly all of the comfortable ideas about God, the trappings of organized religion, and the priesthood. His pithy comments and suggestions for a return to a God-centered personal religion will interest everyone. This article may be freely reprinted so long as all copyright attributions, and the full content of this resource box are included. www.OhGodIsThatYou.com

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