Welcome to the LiberalChrist Blog. There is a misconception in the United States that Liberals are not Christians, at least not proper Christians. This blog will address topics both current and historical, highlighting how the Liberal perspective is often more Christian than the Conservative. We will take the Conservatives to task over a myriad of issues and support appropriate Liberal causes. We will do this with our Bibles beside us. Read on!
Not so long ago, I was homeless. My wife recently found some copies of television shows we made after we founded our homeless assistance organization “Homeless Not Hopeless, Inc.” I’m too busy to write much this weekend, so I thought I would share these videos with you. The two videos are two halves of one episode of a show called “Hearts for the Homeless” and provide a good nutshell version of what we’re about. Enjoy!
First half:
Second half:
According to the most conservative estimate I have found, twenty eight Muslims died as a result of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Many, many more have died as a result of Al Queda attacks in Muslim countries. According to factbook.net, there are about one million eight hundred thousand Muslims in the United States. Now Muslims want to build an Islamic center near Ground Zero. Notice I said “near”, not “on”. If this were any kind of Christian church, there would be no debate. If it were a Hindu or Buddhist temple, there would be no debate. Should we ignore the grief of Muslims? Should we be content while they die and only be concerned when certain “kinds” of people die? Do we remember Adolph Hitler and Nazi Germany?
Our elected President made two statements about this mosque that echoed my sentiments exactly and the public is represented by the press as seemingly aghast. Muslims have a right to build there, but the wisdom of the decision is another matter. What an earth-shaking idea! Jesus went to the Samaritans when no one in Israel would set foot on their land. Have we learned nothing?
According to an article on the Christianity Today website, a few days ago author Anne Rice (Interview with the Vampire) stated that she “quit being Christian”. This is someone who apparently was raised a Christian, became an atheist, and then returned to the Faith after realizing how empty atheism is. The statements made by Ms. Rice that are quoted in the article are very representative of the problems of Christianity today (no pun intended). Read article.
Rice’s decision was clearly not made in haste; she has written several books with Christian themes in the past several years. What seems to have broken the camel’s back for her, however, was this story about a gay-hating ministry and this story about a child taught to hate. These stories are chilling in their implications. She states, “No wonder people despise us, Christians, and think we are an ignorant and violent lot. I don’t blame them. This kind of thing makes me weep. Maybe commitment to Christ means not being a Christian.” In a later post, “Today I quit being a Christian. I’m out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being “Christian” or to being part of Christianity. It’s simply impossible for me to “belong” to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten years, I’ve tried. I’ve failed. I’m an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else.” After checking out these stories myself, I’m just happy Ms. Rice had the wisdom not to give up on Christ Himself.
This blog exists in large part because of the pervasive influence of misguided Christianity. The radical right in this country seems to quietly enjoy the support of people like this until the light is shined on it by the media. Ms. Rice sums this up nicely in still another post, “In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life. In the name of Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen.”
Her point in all this is that a lot of the Christian world is simply anti-everything without providing sensible solutions. The solution offered is to simply cut people out. This is the same as Hitler’s “final solution”. Once we start down this path of pointing fingers and judging people and classes of people, we have lost our own salvation. This sort of radicalism is why the Bible teaches, “Judge not lest ye be judged”.
If you’ve been paying attention to the news for the last week, you have seen the Tea Party get in trouble. This is not altogether surprising for a radical right group. I’d like to weigh in on this one. If you are not familiar with what happened, look here.
The National Tea Party Federation expelled Mark Williams and the Tea Party Express for repeated racist comments. The article mentioned above explains enough to make any normal person sick, so I won’t repeat it here. I suppose the Tea Party should be applauded to some degree for this action, but what is painfully clear is that they did not act until forced by the publicity generated by the NAACP. The Tea Party leadership has been entwined with the Express since the beginning, but did not see fit to distance themselves on their own.
This is where the rubber meets the road. Everybody listen up, Republicans too. I meet several new people every day, many of them in their own homes. I see Sarah Palin’s book on their tables and in their book shelves. It is often prominently displayed along with other popular conservative titles. Because I am light skinned with a gray beard and speak with a softer southern accent, they are generally pretty open with me about their politics. One thing strikes at the core of my being in these encounters. Many of these people are racist; some of them, directly and openly so. I have no evidence whatsoever that Ms. Palin is racist, but many of her followers clearly are. Until the Republican party calls a spade a spade, as it were, and condemns this right-wing, fascist nonsense that is the Tea Party, it would endanger this country to vote for them. There are plenty of conservatives, Republican and otherwise, who are not racist. They are intelligent defenders of their fiscal and social philosophy. These are the people who need to step up and take control of the GOP, or it runs the risk of becoming irrelevant. In the meantime, we Liberals need to point out the errors of their ways and support our President.
For a good portion of my life, I have read so-called Biblical arguments in support of racist agendas. They claim that God separated the races for eternity and there should be no intermixing. I’m a little tired of hearing this rationalization. The Bible is clear on these matters. The nation of Israel was to keep itself pure as God’s own. There is no support for “white people” to somehow purify themselves the same way. A Gentile is a Gentile. With the advent of Christ, even this point becomes moot. Galatians 3:28 says, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” The Bible solves these problems for us, if we would only let it! Once again, the Liberals are closer to the Biblical truth than the Conservatives.
When I look out into the wide world I am inundated with material to write about. Sometimes, I am so overwhelmed that I can’t make up my mind. Alas, I can only take on one thing at a time. I think the following is a worthy subject.
Conservapedia, a conservative Wikipedia clone that serves as another Republican propaganda outlet, has been retranslating the Bible, citing what they consider “liberal bias” in modern translations. They developed a rationale that should guide their efforts. I quote this from their website —–>
As of 2009, there is no fully conservative translation of the Bible which satisfies the following ten guidelines:
1. Framework against Liberal Bias: providing a strong framework that enables a thought-for-thought translation without corruption by liberal bias. For example, the Living Bible translation has liberal evolutionary bias; the widely used NIV translation has a pro-abortion bias.
2. Not Emasculated: avoiding unisex, “gender inclusive” language, and other feminist distortions; preserve many references to the unborn child (the NIV deletes these)
3. Not Dumbed Down: not dumbing down the reading level, or diluting the intellectual force and logic of Christianity; the NIV is written at only the 7th grade level
4. Utilize Terms which better capture original intent: using powerful new conservative terms to capture better the original intent; Defective translations use the word “comrade” three times as often as “volunteer”; similarly, updating words that have a change in meaning, such as “word”, “peace”, and “miracle”.
5. Combat Harmful Addiction: combating addiction by using modern terms for it, such as “gamble” rather than “cast lots”; using modern political terms, such as “register” rather than “enroll” for the census
6. Accept the Logic of Hell: applying logic with its full force and effect, as in not denying or downplaying the very real existence of Hell or the Devil.
7. Express Free Market Parables; explaining the numerous economic parables with their full free-market meaning
8. Exclude Later-Inserted Inauthentic Passages: excluding the interpolated passages that liberals commonly put their own spin on, such as the adulteress story
9. Credit Open-Mindedness of Disciples: crediting open-mindedness, often found in youngsters like the eyewitnesses Mark and John, the authors of two of the Gospels
10. Prefer Conciseness over Liberal Wordiness: preferring conciseness to the liberal style of high word-to-substance ratio; avoid compound negatives and unnecessary ambiguities; prefer concise, consistent use of the word “Lord” rather than “Jehovah” or “Yahweh” or “Lord God.”
Thus, a project has begun among members of Conservapedia to translate the Bible in accordance with these principles. The translated Bible can be found here.
It is very important to translate the Bible correctly. As it is written, “I warn everyone who hears the prophetic words in this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words in this prophetic book, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city described in this book” (Revelation 22, 18-19).
<—As of this writing, a considerable portion of their task has been completed. This does not appear to be a joke. We should take the above agenda seriously. Let us then analyze a bit. As a Christian, I am always concerned that the Bible be translated as accurately as possible and in a way that makes it comprehensible to its audience. Bias of any kind is not acceptable. Mistakes in translation, on the other hand, are just human failing. Their “Framework” assumes a “liberal” bias. Is it a “liberal” idea to try to reconcile perceived reality with spiritually inspired documents? It is apparently not OK to change language with regard to gender, but is fine to use a less descriptive term like “gamble” to describe a specific activity or “use powerful new conservative terms” to slant the scriptural meaning their way! They want us to “Accept the Logic of Hell” when careful study of the whole Bible leaves this subject particularly ambiguous. There is a real reason why theologians argue over these matters. I certainly doubt that Jesus had any intention of expressing “Free Market Parables”. Conservative Christians tend to live by the King James, but these folks even want to exclude some of that as well, choosing which of the ancient sources they prefer to believe. The warning they quote from Revelation so audaciously certainly applies equally to them.
If any of this seems outrageous to you and you don’t want to believe it’s happening, here are the links: The Agenda and The Translation.
This is exactly what I’m ranting about! For far too long the Conservatives in this country have presented Christianity as their personal property to present to the public as they see fit. It is high time for real Christians to tell the truth!
The recent passing of Senator Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia should give us pause to consider the role of Christianity in our government. As time passes, it becomes less fashionable to speak of our faith in public. Separation of Church and State has become nearly complete, so it is even less fashionable to speak of it in Congress. It is from this modern environment that Senator Byrd has passed leaving one less voice of faith in the public arena.
For people under fifty, it must seem that Robert Byrd was part of the landscape – an unbeatable and unshakable liberal voice. He showed himself a man of the people, playing fiddle on “Hee Haw” and pork-barrel politics on the Senate floor. Part of his staying power was, of course, his more moderate voting record. He never let his party affiliation get in the way of his good judgement, though he was certainly not opposed to striking deals with fellow congressmen when he felt he could gain an advantage for his state. On a few subjects, however, he never wavered. Among these were the importance of the Senate and his own Christian faith.
As much as any public figure in our history, Byrd was grounded in history. He read voraciously to educate himself about all aspects of government. He was considered a scholar without equal concerning the Senate and its rules. He even wrote a multi-volume history about that body. Lost in the mists of time to most people was his time spent preaching in his youth. How hard would it be today to elect a preacher to the Senate and expect him to chair the Appropriations Committee someday. Truly, an era passes with Robert C. Byrd. Godspeed!
For the inaugural post, I can think of nothing better than a quick review of some of the things Republicans have done for us. I came of age during the Nixon era. Richard Nixon was simply a criminal. When the most notable item on your resume is Watergate, even your own political party wants to forget you. This was my first taste of a Republican President. Gerald Ford followed this with a pardon for Nixon. Many say that Ford must be forgiven because of what criminal proceedings would have done to the country. I can only say that I will never get that kind of consideration. Neither will you.
After a brief flirtation with sanity in the form of four years of Jimmy Carter (an outspoken, Bible-believing Christian), the electorate went Hollywood amid allegations that the challenger, Ronald Reagan, made a deal for the hostages in Iran to be held until after the election. Ronald Reagan is the greatest hero the Republicans have ever known. He is touted as the savior of our country and the slayer of the Soviet Union, though it was really collapsing under its own weight. Reagan did contribute by supplying Islamic Extremists in Afghanistan with arms to fight the Soviet Army. Yes, these are the same people who are killing our young people today. Another wonderful Republican of that era was Oliver North who conspired with the Reagan Administration to trade arms to Iran in exchange for the release of hostages held by Hezbollah. We are still dealing with all the same characters Reagan left us with. North painted his involvement as being that of a patriotic soldier just following orders. As a result, he became another Republican hero.
Following Reagan, of course, was his VP George Herbert Walker Bush. He set about pardoning all the people involved in Iran-Contra and then decided to respond to the Iraqi takeover of Kuwait by launching Desert Storm. Looked upon as a success by many, Bush’s decision to leave Saddam Hussein in power left the US with another war to fight. What should we expect from a former CIA chief?
We then embarked on eight years of Bill Clinton, who oversaw the strongest US economy in history. Republicans, predictably, still try to give the credit to Reagan though he had been out of office for four years! The electorate memory again failed as we welcomed another Bush to the White House. George W. Bush will be evaluated for years to come. He will likely go down as one of the worst Presidents ever, due to palpable ineptness and, possibly, criminal malfeasance. We are still trying to dig out of economic hole he dug for us.
Common among the Republican Administrations in my lifetime has been the idea that, if you deregulate businesses in this country and remove the ability of the working class to respond (i.e. unions), everyone would prosper. Instead, the gap between the rich and poor is greater than ever and the middle class has been gutted. In all these years, the conservative movement has managed to identify itself as the friend of believing Christians. Nothing in the way they have tried to run the country could be further from the truth. It is ironic that the only President in that time who espoused both Christian values and acted in a Christian manner was the Democrat Jimmy Carter.
If you wonder why I’m a Liberal, it’s because my memory is long.
Webstats
Get your RSS feed!