There is a great divide, a moral war, that is being waged in this country right now. However, this war is being waged in the area of society that most people least supect. The war is being waged within the Christian community.
The war is being waged between Christianity, and Christianism.
I fear that the Christians are losing the battle.
Many Americans identify themselves as Christians. This includes liberals, moderates, conservatives, blacks, whites, asians, hispanics, Democrats, Republicans and independents. The values of Christianity closely mirror the values of liberalism that this nation was founded upon, often to the extent that some Christians believe that they are the values this nation was founded upon.
Take poverty, for example. Christ tells us, "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me (Matt. 25:40)". Helping the poor is a Christian value. This is mirrored in the Declaration of Independence when it says that "All men are created equal". Rich, poor, liberal, conservative -- we are all equal. We are all Americans. We should pursue the common good because it is good for all.
However, there is another movement in this nation, which I refer to as Christianism. The term is dervied from "Islamist" -- or those people who claimed to be followers of Islam, but are nothing more than terrorists who do not follow the principles of Islam. There are those "Christians" who do not seem to be following the principles of Christianity -- thus the term "Christianist".
I would pull up some Bible quotes to show the principles of Christianism, but their principles do not appear in the Bible.
Christianism uses Christianity in order to further its agenda, which can be quickly summed up in two goals:
- The establishment of a state religion. This state religion, of course, is not to promote Christianity, but rather to consolidate power in order to achieve their second goal.
- Legislation of their repressive moral agenda. The Christianists plan to destroy the system of checks and balances in the Constitution, and they plan to do this in the name of Christianity. The establishment of a state religion is critical to this.
The Constitituion is Christianism's biggest obstacle. They cannot change the Constitution by using the facilities described within -- there is normally no way that they would be able to secure the votes needed for a constitutional amendment. So they plan on legislating their way around it, by removing the system of checks and balances. We have seen this already in action -- by proposing legislation that would prevent "activist judges" from "creating law" from the bench, which is really a way to keep judges from interpreting the law in a Constitutional manner, which would prevent them from pushing their moral agenda on the American people.
A Christianist America is a frightening place indeed. Already, gay individuals are having their rights revoked. But that is just the beginning. Under Christianist rule, women would lose all of their rights. Not just the right to choose, but the right to vote, or the right to own property. Under some of the more extreme Christianist thinking, women are property.
It seems to me that the Christianists are using wedge issues to promote the change needed in order to push their agenda. We saw this with the "gay marriage" ballot initiatives in this election. Of course, their hypocrisy concerning these wedge issues is clearly evident.
One wedge issue is that they want Creationism taught in our public schools. The argument being that Evolution is only a theory, therefore other "theories" should be taught, including Creationism. Of course, this means that they want Christian creationism taught, because they are using the cover of Christianity to hide their own political agenda. Any proposal to teach Hindu creationism, or Native American, would be met with howls of protest. Another wedge issue is the posting of the Ten Commandments in our public courthouses, because, as the Christianists righteously state, God is the source of our laws. However, if a law were proposed that would put the Five Pillars of Islam in our courtrooms, because the source of all law is Allah, the Christianists would be apoplectic.
9/11 is a good benchmark to show the difference between Christians and Christianists. A Christian, following the attacks of 9/11, most likely prayed to God for mercy for the victims, prayed that peace would come to the families of the victims, and prayed that God would protect the Nation. The Christianists, however, took 9/11 as an opportunity to blast their political opponents, such as Falwell blaming 9/11 on the liberals.
And this is the crux of Christianism. A political ideology masquerading as a religion. They have not only taken over the leadership of the Republican Party, but they are now beginning to take over the control of the Christian community (as was quite evident in the sermon in the church I attended on the Sunday prior to the election, where the congregation was told that voting for John Kerry was a "sin").
The bottom line is that Christianism is going to destroy the America that the Founding Fathers envisioned, adn will user in a repressive nation more along the lines of post-Shah Iran. It is incumbent upon the Christians of this nation to heed the warning, "Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you; they fill you with false hopes. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. (Jer. 23:16)"
America must be alerted to the threat of Christianism. It has to be made clear to Christians that when we attack Christianism, we are not attacking Christianity. THEY ARE NOT ONE AND THE SAME! Christianity is a beautiful religion of hope and redemption, based on the universal love of God. Christianism is an ugly political ideology, based on power, hatred and hypocrisy, whose sole goal is the destruction of the United States of America.
