A Time for Heresy

[Sapphire Blue]

A Time for Heresy
Bill Moyers
March 22, 2006

Bill Moyers is President of the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy. This is the prepared text of his remarks delivered on March 14 upon the establishment by Marilyn and James Dunn, of the Wake Forest Divinity School, of a scholarship in religious freedom in the name of Judith and Bill Moyers.

(excerpt)

We are dealing here with a vision sharply at odds with the majority of Americans. These are people who want to arrange the world for the convenience of themselves and the multinational corporations that pay for their elections. With their fundamentalist medicine men twirling the bullroarers in the woods, they would turn America into their petri dish – a replica of the Marianas, many times magnified: A society “run by the powerful, oblivious to the weak, free of accountability, enjoying a cozy relationship with government, thriving on crony capitalism,” in the words of Al Meyeroff, who led a class-action suit in behalf of the worker on the Marianas and learned what they were up against. Let this, too, sink in: If the corporate, political, and religious right have their way, we will go back to the first Gilded Age, when privilege controlled politics, votes were purchased, legislatures were bribed, bills were bought, and laws flagrantly disregarded – all as God’s will.

So, my friends at Wake Forest, there is work to do. These charlatans and demagogues know that by controlling a society’s most emotionally-laden symbols, they can control America, too. They must be challenged. Davidson Loehr reminds us that holding preachers and politicians to a higher standard than they want to serve has marked the entire history of both religion and politics. It is the conflict between the religion of the priests – ancient and modern – and the religion of the prophets.

It is the vast difference between the religion about Jesus and the religion of Jesus.

Yes, the religion of Jesus. It was in the name of Jesus that a Methodist ship caulker named Edward Rogers crusaded across New England for an eight-hour work day. It was in the name of Jesus that Francis William rose up against the sweatshop. It was in the name of Jesus that Dorothy Day marched alongside auto workers in Michigan, brewery workers in New York, and marble cutters in Vermont. It was in the name of Jesus that E.B. McKinney and Owen Whitfield stood against a Mississippi oligarchy that held sharecroppers in servitude. It was in the name of Jesus that the young priest John Ryan – ten years before the New Deal – crusaded for child labor laws, unemployment insurance, a minimum wage, and decent housing for the poor. And it was in the name of Jesus that Martin Luther King Jr. went to Memphis to march with sanitation workers who were asking only for a living wage.

This is the heresy of our time – to wrestle with the gods who guard the boundaries of this great nation’s promise, and to confront the medicine men in the woods, twirling their bullroarers to keep us in fear and trembling. For the greatest heretic of all is Jesus of Nazareth, who drove the money changers from the temple in Jerusalem as we must now drive the money changers from the temples of democracy.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/03/22/a_time_for_heresy.php

[Warpy]

1. Yes, Calvinism is heresy

and the Calvinism today is one with an infusion of Rand, making it doubly poisonous.

Simply put, it's a determinist perversion that states those who inherited riches are blessed by gawd for the simple reason they won the genetic lottery and inherited riches. It says they are superior to the rest of us and can do no wrong. It says salvation is independent of good works in life, and that the "saved," those who give ample lip service to Jesus, need not follow any of the teachings, can commit any heinous sin, and still have their tickets punched for heaven.

It's very seductive to folks who fall far short in tolerance, charity, honesty, and temperance. It's also the religion of the rich, and a form of it was prevalent among the Divine Right kings of old, even though Calvin had not come along and given his name to it.

In short, Calvinism has succeeded in purging every bit of Jesus from his religion save his name.

It is impossible to kill a bad idea, but it is possible to discredit them into oblivion. Look at human sacrifice and the batches of gods the Greeks and Romans came up with for examples. Christians need to rise up and do this to Calvinism. It's a soul destroying perversion and needs to be exposed and ridiculed into disrepute.

[Sinti]

2. Well said, Warpy! n/t

[heidler1]

3. In the final analysis will Bush's legacy be that he so over did capitalism

that even the rich/religious will be forced to disown Bush's abomination of governance? Lets hope maybe yes, but don't hold your breath.

[Proud_Democratt]

4. Are you describing Calvinism?

quote....Simply put, it's a determinist perversion that states those who inherited riches are blessed by gawd for the simple reason they won the genetic lottery and inherited riches. It says they are superior to the rest of us and can do no wrong. It says salvation is independent of good works in life, and that the "saved," those who give ample lip service to Jesus, need not follow any of the teachings, can commit any heinous sin, and still have their tickets punched for heaven



-This is how I would describe the Fundamentalist Christians.

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

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[TallahasseeGrannie]

6. Damn.

I thought this post was "a time for Hershey."

My bad. Wrong room.

T-Grannie