This morning's sermon in the Unitarian Universalist church I attend was about Theodore Parker. Parker was a Unitarian minister from Boston in the 19th century. He was also a prominent Transcendentalist and Abolitionist, and one of the first to speak out in favor of woman's suffrage.
In his sermon, "The Transient and Permanent in Christianity" he wrote:
It must be confessed, though with sorrow, that transient things form a great part of what is commonly taught as Religion. An undue place has often been assigned to forms and doctrines, while too little stress has been laid on the divine life of the soul, love to God, and love to man. Religious forms may be useful and beautiful. They are so, whenever they speak to the soul, and answer a want thereof. In our present state some forms are perhaps necessary. But they are only the accident of Christianity; not its substance.
Our minister used this text and others to discuss the current disconnect between the teachings of Jesus and the moral pronouncements of contemporary Dominant Christianity. It is an argument I have heard here and elsewhere in the past few years. How can those who claim Jesus as Lord and Savior conveniently ignore his doctrine of love and acceptance, of reaching out to the "least of these," of his portrayal of God as loving Father?
Our minister then went on to speak of how we must be witnesses for our ideals, how by our example of loving acceptance and celebration of diversity we can counter the religion of fear and condemnation. When we join with likeminded followers of all religions, and with atheists, agnostic and humanists, we can shine a loving light in the world.
During our "Reflection and Response" period (which follows the sermon) I stood up and said, "Theodore Parker is one of my favorite historical figures. I have been sustained in the past month by this quotation from him `The arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice.' But as far as using religious, moral or ethical principles to sway the Religious Right, you are dead wrong. This is not about religious principles; it is about political and economic power. Jerry Falwell and Osama Bin Laden have that much in common. Religion is the hook they use to enrich themselves both financially and politically. If they could use Shakespeare to justify themselves, they would." (After the service, one of the congregation members said to me "If they could use Guns-N-Roses, they would")
So I've been thinking about this since I got back from church. If this was about biblical inerrancy and Jesus as Lord, why did Jerry Falwell accept a $3.5 million contribution from Women's Federation for World Peace , headed by the wife of Sun Myung Moon?. If this is about ideological purity, why did Osama Bin Laden agree to spare the those Islamic backsliding Saudis from terrorist attacks in exchange for being able to take his family fortune with him out of the kingdom?
I have become more and more convinced that all the talk this election year about moral values is just a smokescreen for a naked power grab by the leaders of the religious right. And no amount of argument or discussion or persuasion on the part of anyone, Christian and otherwise, about real values such as compassion, respect and love will make a dime's worth of difference.
There are fundamentalist Christians who are deeply committed to their vision of Christianity, and whose faith is sincere and pure. I have no quarrel with them. But their beliefs have been hijacked by people like Falwell and Robertson who are using them to shore up a financial and political empire, and if we have any hope of winning the battle against them, we need to expose these charlatans and hypocrites for what they are. They are using the "forms and doctrines" the Rev. Parker spoke of to advance their own fortunes. And when we counter with talk of "the divine life of the soul" they will laugh all the way to the bank.
It is not about morals; it is about money.