I don't usually cross post
The Daily Pulse, except on Tuesdays, but this column is too important to miss. No pself-professed "Christian" could read this and still believe Dobson, Robertsion, and Falwell, or Santorum, Frist, and Bush, were the good guys. This was written by a Catholic priest in Georgia.
John the Baptist's "brood of vipers," the reiligous professionals tormenting him, have their most obvious brethren in today's Republican leaders, Santorum, Frist, and others. Their definition of "Christian" within "the anorexic boundaries of abortion, same sex marriage, and displaying the Ten Commandments" is small minded, evil, mean, and utterly un-Christian. And present day Christians' rejection of "losers" is, without a doubt, rejection of everything Christ ever taught. No real Christian (for the record, I am not among that group) could read these words and still believe that Bush and Co. are the good guys.
This Catholic priest exemplifies my understanding of what a Christian is supposed to be. As a result, he puts the lie to every Dobson, Robertson, or Falwell out there. I tried to edit it down, but there were very few words not worthy of repetition. This is one for the ages, one worth saving, to disseminate every time we have to respond to the "brood of vipers" demanding a Christianity within the "anorexic boundaries" they set for us.
Albany (Georgia) Herald
Religion not a tool for poor politics
John the Baptist rightly felt lonely in the desert wilderness of hypocritical religious professionals. He described them as a "brood of vipers" who seriously needed to repent -- that is, turn around and stop depending on political power. He told the government employees to repent -- stop cheating people. He told the soldiers, who were sincerely looking for direction, to repent -- stop misusing their authority. He rightly felt lonely in that jail cell waiting for his head to be chopped off because a political puppet thought more of his ego than his responsibility to the common good.
I am one of the U.S. Christians who feels lonely today. The media and the politicians of convenient morality have shoved me, my faith, my spirituality and the faithful with whom I fellowship right into the Gehenna of "theocratic incorrectness." ...
The media won't let me be a Catholic, Orthodox or Protestant Christian if they perceive my "morality" goes beyond the anorexic boundaries of abortion, same sex partnership and displaying the Ten Commandments. When I insist that the lives of the babies who were birthed are as important as the ones waiting to be born, the media and the theocrats snatch my Christianity away and dump me in the garbage can of "left-leaning, commie-pinko liberalism."
U.S. government statistics document that children die of starvation in the U.S.A. every day. On the bitterly ironic other side are the American children who suffer so severely from obesity that they are chronically ill before finishing primary school. The Bible calls this violation of children a sin -- not politics. ...
The politicians of convenient morality only have millstones to hang around the necks of those whose violation "of the little ones" (Luke 17:2) somehow takes place between the navel and the knees. Christians who worry about children starving, overdosing or being shot are clearly backsliders, seduced by the Evil One. ...
The politicians made the choices that lost that [Vietnam] war. The soldiers paid the price over there and back home. Although the biblical Jesus was "anointed to bring good news to the afflicted, liberty to the captives and freedom to the oppressed," (Luke 4:18), it was amazing how many "Christians" had no time for "losers."
As a Christian I worried about the righteousness of the pre-emptive war in Iraq and I still do. Pope John Paul II challenged the war, and I don't believe he was a "left-leaning liberal." As a person who has studied "religion" as a way of life and as a Catholic priest who had to study and know the horrific effects of bad religion and bad politics, I have to wonder about the theocrats who sincerely believe it is even possible to have this kind of war in Iraq without causing all Islam to fear "Christian" aggression.
As a Christian, I must support our dedicated men and women in uniform in every possible way. As a Christian, I also must challenge and confront the Herodian arrogance which once again is sacrificing innocent life rather than taking responsibility for a well-intentioned but woefully incorrect choice. The mothers of our soldiers did not carry and birth these children so their lives could later be aborted by theologized politics.
No one has to agree with my understanding of "life issues." And no one of the theocrats or the media moguls has a right to steal my Christian faith, because its moral commitments include more than abortion and sexuality. Authentic faith struggles to practice the Ten Commandments. Politicians of convenient morality stage media events to enshrine them. (Matt. 23:29-32).
The Rev. Clif Marquis, who was born in Chicago in 1942, is pastor of St. Mary's Catholic Community in Americus. He was ordained in Washington D.C. June 7, 1969. He has served in a skid row parish in Cleveland, Ohio, as jail chaplain in California, vocation director, working out of a seminary in Washington, D.C., and pastor in California. He moved to Georgia in March 2003 to Blakely to evaluate Hispanic ministry in this area. He is fluent in Spanish and can be reached at clifmarq@yahoo.com.
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