My beloved country is experiencing a crisis of faith! Our Christian conscience and
action has become twisted, irrational, and devoid of the teachings of Christ.
The Old Testament God is a vile ,vindictive, jealous and self-serving God. Read His words
and compare them to The Beatitudes or the other teachings of Christ. The contrast
is striking.
This is what concerns me the most about the church in this country. The church is embracing the
Old Testament to justify our national aggressiveness and a perceived "Christian" responsibility
to be patriotic Christian Americans. By doing this, our churches are justifying and embracing a gradual
movement away from Christ Himself.
Political leaders have learned how to use religion to a political advantage, and are doing so
at the peril of their own soul. The intentional manipulation and perverse utilization of
the church to garnish political power is blasphemy of the highest order. Likewise, embracing
a particular political party because you 'believe' it is the Christian thing to do is
wrong.
Christs admonition to 'judge not, lest ye be judged' is more powerful in its intent than
first meets the eye. Careful consideration of those profound words will reveal the truth
that in the eyes of the Christian God, we are captains of our own souls, and are not bound
by Him to attend to the needs of the souls of those around us. In this regard, we are not our
brothers keeper, yet many believe that government should control people to make
them conform to their ideology even though that ideology is fundamentally wrong!
I am a Christian first, and an American second, and the two ARE mutually exclusive! Being a
Christian defines who I am, and being an American defines where I live geographically and
nothing more! Being a Christian is by my personal intent, being an American was by
luck of the draw. I go to church to attend to the needs of my spirit and to prepare for the
needs of my soul in the hereafter. I participate in the political process because I
believe America should be concerned about my life in the here and now.
Finally, I am offended by the dogged insistence by many that 'we' are a 'Christian Nation'!
That implies that we live in a theocracy, and there is never a circumstance where a
theocratic form of governance is good for the people under its thumb.
We may be a nation of (primarily) people who identify as being 'Christian' but don't insult
Christ by shouting from the lecturn about America being a Christian Nation. Americas actions
have absolutely no resemblance to the teachings of Christ, in fact, most are in direct
contradiction to those teachings!
