What Kind of Christianity Is This?

[marmar]

from Consortium News:



What Kind of Christianity Is This?
January 25, 2012

Though founded by a pacifist, Christianity has justified some of the most brutal slaughters in human history, from the wars of the late Roman Empire to the Crusades to the Inquisition to world wars to genocides against “heathens,” Muslims and Jews. Yet, Gary G. Kohls says the essence of Christianity can still be reclaimed.

By Gary G. Kohls


From time to time, I read about condemnations of religion coming from non-religious groups, especially concerning the all-too-common violence perpetrated in the name of religious gods. Indeed there is plenty to condemn.

Altogether too many religions sects of both major and minor religions, despite verbally professing a desire for peace and justice in the world, are actually pro-war, pro-homicide and pro-violence in practice (or they may be silent on the subject, which is, according to moral theology, the same as being pro-violence).

Obvious examples include those portions of the three major war-justifying religions of the world: fundamentalist Islam, fundamentalist Judaism and fundamentalist Christianity.

I use the term fundamentalist in the sense that the religious person, who ascribes to a fundamentalist point of view, believes, among other dogmatic belief, that their scriptures are inerrant and thus they can find passages in their holy books that justify homicidal violence against their perceived or fingered enemies, while simultaneously ignoring the numerous contradictory passages that forbid violence and homicide and instead prescribe love, hospitality, mercy, forgiveness and reconciliation. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://consortiumnews.com/2012/01/25/what-kind-of-christianity-is-this/

[xchrom]

1. du rec. nt

[DCKit]

2. The Republican race to the bottom is a microcosm of Xian hypocrisy.

We're so shocked. :yawn:

[AllyCat]

3. It's the Christianity label with the registered trademark symbol after it.

[msongs]

4. if you're not a christian you go to hell when you die. what's to "reclaim"? nt

[AlbertCat]

5. Alas! If the "essence of Christianity" he means is....

.... treat your neighbor as you would yourself, or that kind of thing, it is:
1) in all the other major (and many minor) religions in some form or another
2) a secular message

So no need for Christianity per say at all.


All that magic, afterlife, judgment mumbo jumbo is what causes the problems in the 1st place.

Just get free of ancient superstitions.

[Skittles]

6. the usual kind

[cbrer]

7. This isn't Condemnation

This is being gun shy.

The amount of control and manipulation that religion exerts over its adherents produces some real whackos. That much is a simple fact.

The worst result, besides the obvious anti-social actions of murder and subjugation, may be that the human race is generations removed from a true search for spirituality. There's a lot going on that we don't understand.

[Angry Dragon]

8. A god has no need of a church or religion

[provis99]

9. er, no. Jesus was not a pacifist.

[AtheistCrusader]

10. Oh come on, who HASN't attacked moneychangers?

[HowHeThinks]

11. Who hasn't?

Well, the Obama administration, for one.

[Berlin Expat]

12. While it is very true

that one can read a good many holy texts and find justification for the most horrific slaughter, it comes to interpretation.

Look, I'm a Muslim (a Sufi, and student of Sheikh Muhammad Nazim Adil al-Qubrusi al-Haqqani), and I've never once heard the Master advocate any kind of violence toward anyone whatsoever. He emphasizes tolerance, peace, and understanding. He once told me that many passages in the Qur'an have to be viewed in their proper historical context.

As a modernist, this is for me the correct interpretation of things. I can go through the Old Testament in particular and find a good many bloodthirsty, hair-raising passages. The issue is whether you approach these passages in a historic context, or an ultra-literalist frame of mind. The profound dangers of religious fundamentalism, be it Islamic, Christian, Judaic or whatever cannot be over-emphasized. Fundamentalism is a deeply divisive, destabilizing and ultimately retrograde force in any society in which it becomes the dominant theological expression. Fundamentalism can only be combated against with the weapons of modernity; i.e., science, philosophy, and secularism. A secular state is the best guarantor of overall religious freedom; however the secular state must simultaneously ensure that it doesn't go overboard and end up belittling or harassing those of a deeply devout mindset; that ends in the growth of fundamentalism.

It's not easy to find the right balance, but in the end, it has to be found and maintained. Religious fanatics will be the undoing of us all if this balance isn't sustained.

[Festivito]

17. Welcome to DU. Now, on to the article. I see a people's fault, not religion's fault.

I do not think that religion had changed our politics, I think our politics had changed these religions. We became rich and have not used enough of that wealth to properly police our domestic enemies of our democracy which I see as our press being too close with those few who want to steal our wealth. And, these bad few have found an avenue of control in controlling what churches teach by using large donations. This is where the author's idea of fundamentalism evolves churches from teaching love and compassion to teaching that money is good and those who oppose the new teachings are bad.

Many here say that religion causes the problem. I say that they are pointing at something so as to avoid seeing the finger of blame pointing at themselves, because the problem is in ourselves.

[baldguy]

13. If Christ returned today, the first people to re-crucify his would be his supposed followers.

[a2liberal]

14. K&R (n/t)

[chervilant]

15. hmm...

How do the vast majority of Americans assert that they are deeply spiritual (read "Christian&quot while clinging vociferously to their hatred of all things antithetical to their personal beliefs?

And, help me understand the deep, irrational fears of the 'religious' among us. If all these people truly believe in God--in Whom we place our trust and our faith--why is this fear such a powerful, definitive force in our politics? Trust in God with all your heart, we learn in our earliest inculcation into the Christian ideology. Does anyone truly believe the Creator of this Universe would mock us with His Grace?

Furthermore, why fear death? How irrational is this fear? Death is our transition. Again, the Christian ideology trains us to perceive death as our imminent reunion with God. How is this an event to be feared?

Hmmm... Just thinking out loud here. Any responses? Anyone out there?

[mojowork_n]

16. It might be helpful to just consider the historical perspective

Time and Distance

2,000 years is a long time. Here in the United States,
we're a long way -- geographically and historically,
culturally and chronologically -- from the First Christians.

What passes for "belief" in too many churches now
is more a reflection of the collected wisdom of the
tribal elders of the last century or two of "American
Progress."

In other words, too many people have short memories
and are a little too full of themselves, and of the emotional
and spiritual baggage they got from their immediate
past few generational influences.

Not that that's everything. But that pattern's been
repeated over and over so the belief system that had
originally centered around the message, "Love One
Another" (revolutionary in a slave-holder/slave society),
that whole dynamic is something of a dim memory, or
a faint glow in the background.