True Christianity is Under Attack in America: But From the Right Wingers

Next time a person of the Religious Right says Christianity is under Attack in this Country, I may just shock them and agree. But I will say...
" Yes True Christianity is Under Attack and those Attacks are coming from the Far Right Religious Extremists who call themselves Conservative Conservatives. They are not Christians in their words and deeds. Their intolerance and discrimination tells me differently".

Yeah Christianity is under attack as they have taken Christ out of Christianity.

• I refuse to call them " Christians" because that lends legitimacy to them. That word is far too precious to those of us who follow the religion. How dare they use that word to describe their very Un Christian like words, actions, and hatred! They are not Christians in my book no matter what they spout. How dare they hijack this religion. Liberal Christians, Stand up and Shout, Hell No, You will not Get away with this !
  
• Jesus preached love not hate. It seems all they do is spread hate, bigotry, and fear. Jesus preached hope  and faith and love. And he said to love our neighbor as ourselves..that means everyone..do you hear that Religious Extremists..everyone..Not just those who agree with you!
  
• Jesus was very repetitive and insistent on taking care of the poor. He did not mince words. Yet I see few Religious Right Churches actively involved in Soup Kitchens, Homeless Shelters, and other worthy causes that help the least of these, our brethren. They are more concerned about making money for the church, spreading their message of exclusion, and judging others.
  
• When Jesus' Disciples started discriminating and dissing those who sought out Jesus, they were firmly rebuked and told Judge Not that Ye Be Judged. He straightened them out but Good. We need these folks to be Straightend out but Good.
  
• The Religious right preaches the Gospel of Prosperity. As Discussed in another diary today, no where can I find that in the Bible. It is sure not in the 4 Gospels that details the Ministry of Jesus of Nazareth.
  
• They support Republicans with such zeal knowing full well that Republican oppose measures and programs which help those most in need. And besides, the GOP uses them.
  
• No where does Jesus talk about Homosexuality or Abortion. Yet those are their two issues. They meld scriptures throughout the Bible and tear out the portions of the Bible they do not like, to justify their prejudice and discrimination.
  
• True Christians are tolerant, patient, kind , and accept and love our neighbors. We do not demand our neighbors conform to our belief system. The Religious Right insists on that or they shun their fellow man. But it goes beyond telling their fellow man they are going to hell, they do all in their power to ruin that person. They want NO rights for Non Christians, especially Gays..none at all.
  
• They will tell you they oppose violence but the Religious Right are quite the War Mongers and they love and support the Death Penalty. The Prince of Peace would be appalled.
  
• They choose to ignore most of the teachings of Christ. They think those who  have money are blessed, those who are poor do not have enough faith. They can show that to me in the Bible but they have to rip out a lot of it to prevent us from debating those scriptures which show them to be hyocrites on this. They are the Pharisees and  I remember Jesus saying, " Woe to Your Scribes and Pharisees" on more than one occasion. :)
  
• Any social services or help they provide to the needy comes with strings. Jesus had absolutely no requirements.
  
• They oppose abortion but they seem to support child abuse  ( see Dobson). But Jesus said, " Suffer the little children to come unto me ". He loved children..and by suffer he did not mean parents should make their kids suffer. But as a psychologist, I have seen these Religious wingnuts abuse their children physically and if not physically certainly many abuse them mentally and emotionally.

No true Christian wants to be associated with these Religious wackos who pervert the Christian Religion. So I say, tell Religious extremist fundies..And I am very angry for another reason. These religious wingnuts mention the name of God far too casually.

Have they no respect, Have they no decency? What happened to Reverence for God and not throwing his name around for political and power purposes? They should all be ashamed.
And those who are gullible should all wake up.

* They preach loudly and angrily on TV every chance they get and pray on street corners. Jesus said to guard against this but pray in secret. Be alone with God where no one can hear your prayer. He preached against Pride and Beating your chest to brag about what a good christian you are.
The Religious right does nothing but Judge and Brag.

Hey Religious wingnuts..Some of us Want You  to put the Christ Back into Christianity. In the meantime do not use the Name Christian and quit using Christ's name in Vain by doing so.

Ok my rant is over.  May the True real God of Peace and Love bless you.

•  Jerry Falwell regarding 9/11:

  "I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped this happen.'"

  And there you go.  Case solved.

  by sunbro on Tue Nov 29, 2005 at 10:55:54 PM PDT

  •  Yes

    A Friend of mine was having her last chemotherapy and was watching the news when Falwell made this statement. She was so mad, her blood pressure went up and the nurse asked if she was OK. She said I will be fine but I have to shut the TV off. Chemo is not given me fits or causing nausea, but this jerk is.

    by wishingwell on Tue Nov 29, 2005 at 10:58:24 PM PDT

•  What are your thoughts

  and feel free to recommend or not recommend..
  Have a good day.

  by wishingwell on Tue Nov 29, 2005 at 10:56:31 PM PDT

•  liberal = tolerant

  look it up in the dictionary, these bozos represent a abomination of my faith, it makes me sooo sad they are in the millions. God help us all .    God save the republic

  by cognitive dissonance on Tue Nov 29, 2005 at 11:01:40 PM PDT

  •  Amen

    And I am sick and tired of them perverting my faith and thus the diary.

    by wishingwell on Tue Nov 29, 2005 at 11:11:52 PM PDT

  •  They don't even respect

    tolerance. They say it with a sneer. That's one of the problems imho.

    -5.88, -6.82

    by Debby on Wed Nov 30, 2005 at 07:41:23 AM PDT

•  Fundies

  protesting a Wal-Mart in North Carolina for eliminating Christianity from their "Holiday Sales" advertisement.  I love it.  If only all of them would protest Wal-Mart.  And remember, it is not what is "politically correct," they are only concerned with what is "biblically correct."  I find all this frightening.  And now they want to determine what I watch on television...

  by formalist on Tue Nov 29, 2005 at 11:14:50 PM PDT

  •  Funny

    Right wing economists met right wing ministers. Republicans should have a fun convention.

    by Tux on Tue Nov 29, 2005 at 11:22:29 PM PDT

  •  Their faith is not strong enough.

    They require the validation of the local HugeMart, and they get very cranky when it is not forthcoming.

    by SFOrange on Tue Nov 29, 2005 at 11:27:08 PM PDT

  •  but

    they also use the Bible and rip out the pages or ignore the pages that do not serve their purpose.
    So when they say they base their actions on the Bible, I find that highly skeptical.

    by wishingwell on Tue Nov 29, 2005 at 11:29:32 PM PDT

    •  but

      wal-mart is discussed in the Bible.  yes, it is discussed in the new edition edited by jim demint and published by bob jones university press.  i recommend you read it; it is the most important piece of literature published in the twentieth century.  and it is the real version of the bible.  jesus actually said jim demint should be elected senator of south carolina.

      by formalist on Tue Nov 29, 2005 at 11:31:47 PM PDT

      •  wallmart=new temple?

        maybe in america ?

        by cognitive dissonance on Tue Nov 29, 2005 at 11:38:57 PM PDT

        •  marx

          once wrote about a temple where all the commodities would congregate.  i recommend you read his Das Kapital, vol. 1.

          by formalist on Tue Nov 29, 2005 at 11:39:41 PM PDT

          •  dont need marx

            to understand where this is heading weather comm or fasc

            by cognitive dissonance on Tue Nov 29, 2005 at 11:43:50 PM PDT

            •  i believe

              marx was writing on capitalism.  i recommend you read him again.  facts first, opinions later.

              by formalist on Tue Nov 29, 2005 at 11:45:13 PM PDT

              •  yes , peace

                but dont both end up at the state store.  peace  .

                by cognitive dissonance on Tue Nov 29, 2005 at 11:49:24 PM PDT

•  Jesus also taught that what you say or pray

  is not going to get you into heaven.  In the sorting of the sheep from the goats, the only criteria is your conduct toward other people, especially those less fortunate or weakened by poverty and disease.

  If American Christians taught the beatitudes (New Testament) instead of the ten commandments (Old Testament) then America would look a lot less scary to the rest of the world.

  One of the most vivid memories I have from my time in Iraq occurred at about 3:00 a.m. one night. I shared a bottle of scotch (a very rare treat in that part of the world) with an old military intelligence hand who had been active in Iraq for decades.  He said that his favorite line from the Bible was, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God."  He saw his role as building a stable peace to protect the lives of the marginalised Kurds, Marsh Arabs and  Shia in Iraq so they could all prosper in a future Iraq.  

  What a difference from our own CIA and the regligious Right!  I often wonder what his take on the events since that night in 2003 would be now.

  by LondonYank on Tue Nov 29, 2005 at 11:16:44 PM PDT

  •  excellent post

    Thanks for this...well said.

    by wishingwell on Tue Nov 29, 2005 at 11:30:06 PM PDT

•  The War on Christianity

  The Religious Right is fairly open about their War Against Christianity. Rush Limbaugh claimed that liberal (By liberal, he means any Christian not in the religious right) Christians "worship a different God" than do "true Christians".  That's basically open war. Pat Robertson called the Episcopalians, Presbyterians and the Methodists the "spirit of the Antichrist."

  by A Citizen on Tue Nov 29, 2005 at 11:26:34 PM PDT

  •  Hmmmm...

    The way in which Pat Robertson declared Episcopalians, Presbyterians and Methodists to be outside the fold of Christianity reminds me of the way al-Zarqawi and his cutthroats think that they are the only true Muslims, and that Muslims who oppose them are really infidels who can be killed with impunity.

    I would refer to people like al-Zarqawi only as "takfiris", never as "Islamists" (an Islamist is anyone who supports Shari'ah law, not necessarily a terrorist) or as "jihadis" (the word "jihad" had a possitive connotation for Muslims just as "crusade" does for Christians).

    Is there a Christian term analogous to the Muslim "takfiri" (which literally means "excommunicator"), and which has the same connotations of evil as "takfiri"?

    by GCarty on Wed Nov 30, 2005 at 05:46:46 AM PDT

•  Might I suggest that...

  you leave the wackos with the religion they call Christianity.  There is a lot of stuff that was put into that religion centuries ago which no longer makes sense.  Take the teachings of Jesus and start a new religion from scratch.  It might take 400 to 500 years to accomplish but it might be worth the effort to get it started.

  The "Far Right Religious Extremists" will never be driver out of Chrisianity just like the "Extremists Muslims" will never be driver out of Islam.  We should leave Christianity, Islam, Judaism to the extremists in each of the religions.  We should take the best and start again.

  by nwsound on Tue Nov 29, 2005 at 11:57:52 PM PDT

  •  good point

    That is an idea!

    by wishingwell on Wed Nov 30, 2005 at 12:32:12 AM PDT

•  Jesus says it best, and plainly

       Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  You shut the door of the kingdom of Heaven in people's faces; you do not enter yourselves, and when others try to enter, you stop them.
       Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You travel over sea and land to win one convert; and when you have succeeded you make him twice as fit for hell as you are yourselves.
  -Matthew 23:13-15

       Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You pay tithes of mint and dill and cummin; but you have overlooked the weightier demands of the law - justice, mercy, and good faith.  It is these you should have practiced, without neglecting the others.  Blind guides! You strain off a midge, yet gulp down a camel!
       Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You clean the outside of a cup or a dish, and leave the inside full of greed and self indulgence! Blind Pharisee! Clean the inside of the cup first; then the outside will be clean also.
       Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You are like tombs covered with whitewash; they look fine on the outside, but inside they are full of dead men's bones and of corruption.  So it is with you: outwardly you look like honest men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
  -Matthew 23:23-28

  What they are doing isn't just misguided, it is specifically against what Jesus taught and therefore is an incredibly vile and evil practice that is taking place.

  by PubPolSanford on Wed Nov 30, 2005 at 01:16:49 AM PDT

•  Seperation between church and state

  People often talk about the negitive effect religion has on politics, but it's nothing compared to what effect politics have on religion. The modern Christian Bible was assembled on Constantines behalf more than 300 years after Christ died. What was included and omited were based upon what was relevent to Constantines reign as emperor, thus a religion of peace became a religion of war. The Gnostic and Essine texts (Jesus was an Essine, FACT)  were omited, as were the Gospels of St. Thomas, (my favorite) Mary Magdeline, His mother Mary, and St. Bartholemule. These were the more esoteris texts, similar to the Tantric Buddihism, Kabbalahistic Judaesm, and Islamic Sufis. Instead we got the Book of Revelations (scare tactics) and Book of Romans (political propeganda), both of which were written by people who never met Jesus, or had even heard of him until after his death. Various other edits were made over the years, some passages omited simply because other religions said the same thing.
  I'll put my own soul on the line here and say that God dosn't give a shit about double taxation on corporate dividens, dispite what Pat Robinson tells you.

  by McGirk SF on Wed Nov 30, 2005 at 03:05:01 AM PDT

•  I realy wish

  Pat Robinson would use the phrase Evangelical Christians, since he dosn't represent Catholics, Presbyterians, Episcopelians, Mormans, Baptists, Christian Scientists, Jehovah's Witnesses, or even Snake Handelers. Evangelicals, Southern Baptists, and (some) Born Again Christians are the fundementalists, yet they combine to make up only 17% of all Christians in this country. Catholics alone outnumber all three.

  by McGirk SF on Wed Nov 30, 2005 at 03:21:53 AM PDT

  •  Down here in Texas,

    not far from the Creationist Museum, there is a little tussle going on.  Some fundamentalists have taken to calling themselves evangelicals and some of the evangelicals are pissed.  Since I am not a Christian, I do not understand the distinctions, but I overheard some folks talking about the problem at a Senior Center Bird Club meeting.  To me, they are the same.  Both groups, and some others, knock on my door at the most inconvenient times.  But they are trying to save my soul, so...

    by hestal on Wed Nov 30, 2005 at 05:56:35 AM PDT

    •  Yeah

      That battle has been raging for a few decades. I remember when Evangelicals were liberal to moderate and often Democrats in the 60s to mid 70s. The Fundamentalists were the ones so strict and people like Falwell were speaking out politically even way back about Christians needing to be more conservative. Evangelicals did not like that and found him not inclusive or tolerant enough. That changed in the Reagan years..huge..Evangelicals caved.  I wrote an diary about it a long while back..the battle I remember

      http://www.dailykos.com/...

      by wishingwell on Wed Nov 30, 2005 at 09:30:36 AM PDT

•  I agree with you.

  I am not a Christian but I live in the heartland of Texas Fundamentalism.  From what I can see most of the churches around me practice the sins you describe above -- they practice them religiously.  In any case I would like to know the name of a church that you think practices True Christianity.  Jimmy Carter resigned from the Southern Baptist church so I guess that they are not True Christians.  Anyhow do you know of any True Christian churches that may have outlets in Texas?

  by hestal on Wed Nov 30, 2005 at 03:57:02 AM PDT

  •  I suggest looking into

    • The United Methodist Church
      
    • The United Church of Christ
      
    • Presbyterian Church USA ( not to be confused with the Evangelical wing that is conservative, that of the Presbyterian Church of America )
      
    • Episcopal Churches
      

    to name some possibilities.

    Of course, I am finding even among these churches, they vary but are safer bets than the Southern Baptists. But my liberal friend does attend a Baptist Church that is not at all conservative but it is not aligned with the more fundie Baptist churches.

    by wishingwell on Wed Nov 30, 2005 at 09:24:25 AM PDT

    •  Thanks for the list.

      One of my lifelong friends, one whom I admire, is a member of the United Methodist Church and there is a United Church of Christ in a town about 30 miles from here.  I will attend one of them this weekend.  Thanks again.

      by hestal on Wed Nov 30, 2005 at 03:29:58 PM PDT