Wednesday, April 28, 2021

A Flickering of Evangelical Hope

 ALL IS NOT LOST regarding the morality, or lack thereof, of the American evangelical Christian community, despite its blatantly immoral support of Donald Trump, among other concerns. Most, but not all. Several years ago the president of the Christian Coalition urged its members to make environmental protection a prime factor in voting choices. That's a start. Better than denying that the environment needs human protection. Several dozen evangelical leaders signed a statement challenging the Bush administration to do something about global warming, a vast improvement to leaving it up to the lord. This is refreshing, considering that many conservative evangelicals devote unproductive energy to bashing gays, lesbians, and transgenders, supporting tax cuts for the wealthy, and give their endorsement to Donald Trump, while repeating his lie that the election was stolen from him. Perhaps evangelicals are at long last beginning to dimly perceive that most folks are far more preoccupied with how to pay the water bill and how to obtain medical attention for their sick children to how to convert gays to heterosexuality or whether Democrats go to hell. Anyone who calls herself "pro life" should bear in mind that life is possible only on a habitable planet with a heathy ecosystem in a society in which more than  a few people have enough cash to pay for basic living expenses. There is not a single word in the Bible about abortion. The vast right wing conspiracy to deprive women of control of their own reproduction is not scripturally based, contrary to the false claims of conservative Christianity. Of more immediate moral concern are the issues of wealth and poverty, and anyone who opposes the redistribution of wealth have not embraced the teachings of Jesus, who was a hard core socialistic money sharing advocate. (go they way, sell whatsoever thou hast, give unto the poor).  he said not a word about the personal accumulation of wealth through hard work, investment, or any other way. Not much of a capitalist, Jesus. Though the Bible is full of homophobia, it contains nary a word about gay marriage. Those opposed to it are on their own. It has plenty to say about the bizarre, bloody ritual slaughter of animals to appease the lord, and clearly endorses slavery, but is silent on abortion and gay marriage. We are left to our own devices. Poverty and economic justice are mentioned more than three thousand times in the Bible, each time against the former and in favor of the latter. Left wing evangelist (yes, though rare, they exist) Jim Wallis, who like some twentieth century Thomas Jefferson, who himself cut up a Bible for the purpose of separating the wisdom from the nonsense, each of which he found in abundance, cut out every reference to economic injustice, and what he had left over resembled a pile of confetti. Economic injustice is defined biblically as allowing the impoverished to remain so. You'll recall Jesus's estimate of the chances of a rich man entering into heaven. Imagine what HE would think of Donald J. Trump, and those who support him. Evangelical Christians are potentially good people who become evil monsters only when they embrace modern American political and economic conservatism, ideologies directly opposing the teachings of Jesus, who most certainly did not advocate a free market sink or swim winner take all capitalistic dog fight. Politically, economically conservative Christianity make a mockery of the teachings of Jesus, and, by extension, God.

No comments:

Post a Comment