I was one of the people in attendance of the Freedom & Faith Rally at Central Presbyterian Church Sunday here in Louisville, KY. I got there right at 2:30 PM and was seated in the back-right corner next to the TV cameras. The
diary by
mad ramblings of a sane woman summarizes the event perfectly (with pictures too, none of me however). Please read her diary before joining me below the fold for what I took from this event.
We are at war. I don't mean Iraq, I don't mean Afghanistan, and I don't mean the several places where we have covert operations taking place across the globe. Right here within the United States of America there is a war raging, yet only one side has been shooting. The barbarians have sent sappers to the walls and are training siege weapons on the gates, meanwhile the Left is trying to start a dialog with them: "Can't we just talk about all of this?" The Left has been trying to promote Peace In Our Time™ and has achieved Neville Chamberlain's results — the fascists are doing an end-run around the Maginot Line known as the U.S. Constitution and are preparing to march through L'Arc de Triomphe.
The time for talk is over. The days of dialog are done. The Religious Right has no interest in a discussion and they don't value the thoughts of those who are not themselves conservative in their Christianity and loyal to their leadership. Proof-positive would be how Judge George Greer — the judge who presided over the Terri Schiavo case, a Southern Baptist and a card-carrying Republican — was effectively cast out by the people that he'd previously called brothers and sisters. These people are not looking for a dialog and they will not respond to a request for discussion — they intend on total domination and they must be defeated. Right now.
So how do we defeat them? While a study of The Art of War is always useful, the nature of this war is twofold: this war will be fought on both the secular and spiritual fronts, and that requires two different armies. Much the same way that America and England attacked the Third Reich from the west while the Soviets attacked from the east, religious liberals and atheists/agnostics will need to attack the Religious Reich from a secular POV (i.e. Constitutional grounds) while religious conservatives attack the Religious Reich from a spiritual POV (i.e. Biblical grounds). In order to be effective in our method and discipline, religious liberals should steer clear of attacking the Religious Right on biblical grounds because the Right will be able to eviscerate the Left biblically. Also, religious conservatives should steer clear of attacking the Religious Right on Constitutional grounds since that will dilute the focus of the Biblical argument. It is not that liberals can't argue Biblically or that conservatives can't argue constitutionally, it's just that if we are to be effective then one has to hit them high while the other hits them low. We need to be disciplined, and that is always a problem for the Left - getting all of us marching in the same direction to the same cadence isn't something that we do well. These cats don't herd easily.
One thing that we must remember is the nature of the battlefield, the earth upon which we will fight. We are fighting for the hearts and minds of men and women in this country, and that is battleground upon which this war is being waged. We have to persuade the persuadable that we are right and that the Religious Right is wrong. We must not waste resources on Don Quixote-esque quests to talk sense into those who would call Dobson or Mohler their pope. We have to reach those who can be reached and transform them from passive observers into active combatants. That requires each of us to personify the moral law, such that we can mobilize people to fight the good fight when they are needed. Most people don't have the time or energy to pay attention to politics the way that many of us do, but each of us needs to be a center of influence — a commander — that can bring many people to the fight when called upon. As Nancy Jo Kemper said at the rally yesterday, we don't need activist judges, we need activist citizens.
THE SPIRITUAL ARGUMENT
The secular and Constitutional arguments against the Religious Right have been pretty-well hashed out here on dKos so I won't repeat them here, but I would like to delve into the Spiritual Arguments and work through some lines of thought that I gleaned from the Freedom & Faith Rally yesterday. When asked about the greatest commandment of all the Law, Jesus said:
'YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.' This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.
Matthew 22:37-40
The Religious Right violates both commandments through their practices, and that is where they can be attacked and defeated.
You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind
This hearkens back to the first Commandment where God said, "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me." (Exodus 20:2-3) The Religious Right, however, puts the United States of America before the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, before the Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If you go to most any Church of the Religious Right you will find a flag on either side of the pulpit - the Christian flag to one side of the pulpit and an American flag on the other. Disregarding positions of honor (such as flying the American flag higher than the Christian flag — see the picture to the right), why is an American flag flown anywhere on church grounds and especially in the sanctuary? Is nothing sacred? Do you think there was a porkchop's chance in Mecca of the Roman standard being displayed anywhere within the Jerusalem Temple during Biblical times? You would sooner see Free Republic endorse Barney Frank. The American flag has about as much place in a church's sanctuary as a crucifix belongs in a U.S. courtroom, yet the Religious Right bows down before both flags. That violates the spirit and the letter of the first commandment — the Bible refers to that practice as Idolatry — and the Religious Right needs to be called on it.
The Separation of Church and State goes both ways — and was brought about in large part due to Baptists who were concerned that the Anglicans/Episcopalians and/or Presbyterians would become the state religion. It was to protect the Church from the state. Moreover, one of the Baptist distinctives is our insistence on the autonomy of the local church — we don't believe in bishops or presbyters or cardinals or popes. Be that as it may, it certainly seems like certain Southern Baptist leaders have been imbued with the authority to speak Ex Cathedra. Who in the SBC would presume to criticize the great and powerful Al? Anyone? Anyone? Mohler? Not only does the Religious Right violate God's command to have no other gods before Him (or along side Him — see Matthew 6:24), the Religious Right violates the core of what it means to be Baptist — the autonomy of the local church and the priesthood of all believers. We have no pope: our high priest is Jesus Christ, not Al Mohler.
The Religious Right has abandoned its stewardship of God's Creation, known to the secular world as Environmental Protection. Fortunately, the good people of the Evangelical Environmental Network are working to take the Religious Right down on that point — any Evangelical Christian who can help in that effort should.
Hypocrisy. This charge gets much more use than it should, but it is accurate when applied to the Religious Right. Homosexuality and abortion are indeed issues of moral values, but as Jim Wallis pointed out at the Rally, fighting poverty is a moral value. Taking care of the environment is a moral value. Telling the truth and seeking justice regarding war is a moral value. In each of these issues, the Religious Right finds itself opposed to Biblical values; i.e. in sin. They must be called on that every time — they do not represent the whole counsel of Scripture, for if you listened to them you would came away believing that Jesus was Pro Rich, Pro War, and Pro American. He was not, is not, and will not be so inclined. Perhaps they missed where Jesus told Pilate, "My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm." (John 18:36) The day will come when Jesus returns and every knee bows and every tongue confesses His lordship, but that's His fight to win then, not ours to fight here and now. Here and now true Christians and true Americans need to work together to fight those who are neither truly Christian nor truly American and yet claim to be both — the Religious Right.
You shall love your neighbor as yourself
They don't. We could truly leave it right there and that would say everything, but the evidence of their sin is massive and needs to be brought to light. Why oppose stem cell research but not the fertility clinics that produce the embryos that produce stem cells, other than the obvious fact that to do so would be political suicide? If you stand on principle then political calculations should not play a part in your position, and if political calculations play a part in your position then you cannot claim to stand on principle. Why oppose gay marriage under the guise of supporting the "Institution of Marriage" when it is divorce that destroys the "Institution of Marriage" and premarital sex that cheapens the "Institution of Marriage." If the Religious Right is to be consistent then they should seek laws abolishing divorce and extramarital and/or premarital sex — that would "protect the Institution of Marriage." The honest answer is that to do so would be political suicide, but such propositions would be consistent with the "values" espoused by the Religious Right, and if they truly stand on principle and not political pragmatism then they ought to espouse such policies to solve their perceived problems. The point here is that when they talk about standing for their values as a matter of principle, they are guilty of trespassing the commandment not to bear false witness against one's neighbor — they're lying through their teeth.
They want to dismantle Social Security as if they've never read Mark 7:6-13 where Jesus said to the Pharisees of His day:
Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: 'THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME. BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.' Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men.
You are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition. For Moses said, 'HONOR YOUR FATHER AND YOUR MOTHER'; and, 'HE WHO SPEAKS EVIL OF FATHER OR MOTHER, IS TO BE PUT TO DEATH'; but you say, 'If a man says to his father or his mother, whatever I have that would help you is Corban (that is to say, given to God),' you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or his mother; thus invalidating the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down; and you do many things such as that.
Honor your mother and father. Simple. Apparently it's too simple for today's blind Pharisees to see. Jesus told them to "first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also." They seek external adherence to the commands of a King to whom most Americans have not submitted, Jesus Christ. If people have not submitted to Jesus' lordship then external observation of Christian-like behavior is meaningless. Much as faith without works is dead, so too is works without faith, as the writer of the book of Hebrews points out, "Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him." Why do those who say that they honor the Bible act as if they've never read it? I think Cyprus Hill put it best: "Here is something you can't understand!" I just don't get it.
What I do get is the need to stop today's Pharisees dead in their tracks, and the best way to do that is to get them fighting with today's Sadducees — those who only believe a limited portion of the Scriptures. Once they've trained their weapons on the Sadducees, Scribes like me can flank the Pharisees and wipe them out — eliminating the Pharisees' effectiveness in the public square — with a few Biblical broadsides. Like Sun Tsu said, all warfare is based on deception. The Religious Right needs to be deceived into thinking that their enemy is attacking them from the Left, when the kill-shot will be coming from their Right — from Evangelical Progressives like myself in the Black Church.
That's the way I see it and I welcome your comments and suggestions. Take care and God bless.