Finally. A frame that fits my portrait of Jesus.

[PDittie]

Or more specifically, the snapshot of the practice of American politics and religion.

From now on, as Andrew Sullivan has established and Phillip Martin has advanced, "Christians" will be replaced with Christianists and "Christianity" is discarded in favor of Christianism.

You're going to have click on the links to get the frontstory. Here's my summary: the new words most accurately describe the co-optation of selected religious tenets by the Republican Party and their various acolytes in order to advance their political agenda, but which betray the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Christianists, in short, are hypocrites, and I believe Jesus said they made him him vomit.

Here's a few examples of what I'm talking about:

* Christianists like Bill Frist -- and his buddy James Dobson -- really don't give a cat's ass about poor people.

* Christianism is Tom DeLay grinning through his mugshot, letting us "see Christ through him", while lobbyists pour champagne on his daughter in a hot tub.

* Christianists like Rick Perry go to church to sign a bill that outlaws marriage except between heterosexuals while Texas children go without the proper schoolbooks to pass the state-mandated tests to advance to the sixth grade.

* Christianism is when Greg Abbott argues before the United States Supreme Court that a monument to the Ten Commandments on the grounds of the state Capitol doesn't violate the First Amendment. And a majority of Justices agree.

* A small group of Christianists gathered just this past weekend to choose the man -- sorry, Dr. Sekula-Gibbs -- who will try to fill the golf shoes of The Hammer. The Seven District Twenty-Two Apostles, minus the Sugar Land mayor who was saved from the dead by prayer, dutifully answered their questions (.pdf).


Gee, I'm sure there's more examples of Christianism but I haven't even Googled yet.

Can you think of any?

[acmejack]

1. This early in the morning?

Maybe after I finish my coffee, I will be motivated to suffer some outrage. I am positive you are right, there are literally hundreds of more outrages out there waiting to be exposed...

[WestHoustonDem]

2. Ok here's mine

Christianists like Pat Robertson are more outraged by homosexuality than injustice

[Texaroo]

3. Christianists like Pat Robertson advocate murder.

Recall his stance on Hugo Chavez? The defining pattern of Christianism is to ignore the teachings of Christ while extracting only gospels of hatred and exclusion. It's like they read the New Testament, but leave out the parts about Christ, forgiveness, love, rich men, etc.

I like this - I think "Christianism" has legs...

[lastliberalintexas]

4. Christianists like Pat Robertson do business

with homocidal (genocidal?) dictators of third world countries in pursuit of the almighty dollar, all the while using and abusing the people who are forced to work in their diamond mines. Remind me again what the bible says about the love of money?

[Redbear]

5. Christianist GW Bush

Who demanded abstinence-only education leading to Texas having one of the highest Teen Pregnancy rates in the U.S.

<http://www.teenpregnancy.org/america/statisticsDisplay.asp?ID=3&sID=18>