Time to Take back the Cross!!!

[mtnester]

I accidentally ran across this web site, and this Christian woman really says it all...I have always maintained that we need to "out Bible" the fundamentalists...any time they distort, we should be shoving it right back at them.

Some snippets:

"I have the uneasy feeling that the right wing Christians are misquoting, quoting out of context, reaching false conclusions, and otherwise distorting the Bible. I feel that in my gut, in my heart. That this is not the Jesus Christ I love, the face they are showing to me, this is not the religion that has inspired and solaced good and great people. This is a twisted and ignorant version of the most profound message of my life. I believe the Bible is something finer than what they're saying, I'm sure it is. But I think Christians like me need to be able to quote the text. Cite places in the Bible that support our views. Refute false interpretations based on the actual text. Time to study the book, for me."

<snip>

"Thoughtful Christians need something like a "take back the cross" movement, or call it "take back the church," or "take back the Bible." Jews need to take back the Old Testament. Muslims need to take back the Koran from the extremists who have captured the leadership of their faith. All of us people of good will can search for the more enlightened members of our own religions and align with them. In the 16th and 17th centuries Europeans fought wars over religion, but finally learned religious tolerance and stopped fighting over that. Many religious fanatics aren't interested in history, though, which they suspect of "liberalism." Educated people can also stress the importance of tolerance from a religious perspective, which may be the only way to communicate with fanatics who respect nothing but religion. Currently the right wing Christians accuse the educated of being liberals and the liberals of being godless, and they are getting a lot of unearned mileage out of that. The fact is, all religious people must refrain from arguments (and shouting matches and exchanges of insults and wars) about "my God is better than your God," if we are to survive as a civilization. There may indeed be reasons to fight wars, but "my God is better than your God" is not one of them.

Think of the religiosity of Jimmy Carter, so different in its good will and good works from the oppressive Christianity that is growing in influence and power now in the U.S. Jimmy Carter's Christianity is the face of American religion too! The expansion of the religious right in the U.S. is dangerously like what has happened to Islam, where the extremist elements also took over a religion, and the hearts and minds of a people. In the United States, extremist Christianity is making great strides because it is unopposed on the grounds that matter to these people; the haters make their claims to have God on their side, unopposed. Let's take back God, whether we are Catholic, Jewish, Protestant, or Muslim, from people who think they own God and who think that anyone who doesn't go to their same church doesn't have values or morals. Let's convince the people this is not the true message of a good religion. "

She really summed it up for me..website here:

http://www.literaryhistory.com/Bible.htm

[BeTheChange]

1. Good luck with this crowd ;)

No, seriously.. I agree with you. But to do that we would have to break down the paradigm of the current religious system in several parts of the world.

[mtnester]

2. I hear you

For some reason this womans' words just fit like a glove when describing the current climate. Wish I had written it...

[Stinky The Clown]

3. I have to believe there are many, many people of faith and religion

who see the right wing religionazis as anathema. Is there any way we can get them to start a movement to smack down the righties?

They're the best ones to do it. I mean, folks like me (Roman Catholic by upbringing but lapsed for 35 years) can probably do a credible *factual* job of smack down, but we have no bona fides in this area. I'm not capable of much more than calling them bigots or zealots, or whatever, and that will do no good whatesoever.

People of faith? You out there?

[BeTheChange]

4. Im still waiting for the next MLK.. or Ghandi..

Or someone.. some great man or woman to step foward with some sense of spirituality.

My future father in law is an Assemblies of God pastor. I wont say who he voted for. But it amazed me :)

My future mother in law thinks Bush is going to overturn Roe vs wade. She thinks Kerry is for abortion with no abandon. She cant understand that he doesnt advocate having abortions but isnt going to make the decision for other people.

I dont think we need to over turn abortion. But I do think we need to reevaluate the importance of life all over the Globe and make the number 1 priority getting the heck out of this quagmire. If we dont, there isnt alot of hope one way or another.

[w4rma]

6. Don't wait for a "messiah" and just DO what needs to be done, yourself!

This is my religion too and I'm not happy at all about what is going on. This is going to take hard work from everyone of us. We all have a hard long slog ahead of us.

[tanyev]

5. Your thread title made me think of

Rev. Moon's "Take Down the Cross" campaign that I read about a while back. Weird stuff.

http://www.tparents.org/UNews/Unws0304/cross_mj_overview.htm

I wish we could create a greater awareness about how the Reich wing and the fundies are in bed with Rev. Moon. True Christians would be horrified. Heck, even a lot of fundies would be horrified. It might make them start questioning some of the things they accept so blindly.

[maxsolomon]

7. don't hold your breath

moderates are going to take back the bible from the extremists when moderate iraqis take back their country from the insurgency.

you can keep the cross, and the old testament to.

i'll hang on to the sermon on the mount.