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A Christian who Fears the Tea Party
Finding you is like a drink of fresh water. Don't get me wrong, I am not a child of the Enlightenment. I am a Christian. I follow in the footsteps of Luther, Calvin and John Knox, pillars of Reformed Theology. The Far Right is wrong not by any yardstick from the intellectual world. They are wrong because they are not consistent with their own Scriptures and their own theology. They have lost their faith or have, perhaps, tucked it away in a corner to go on this grand adventure. Climbing seven mountains is exciting. No, they are tragic figures. I have roughly the equivalent of a year of seminary. So does my brother who lives nearby. We talk about these things all the time and he catches me up on things, as I do to him. I am also in close touch with two other people. One is a former evangelical missionary, forced out when the spouse wanted to move the gay partner into a maison a trois. The other is a prominent pastor, who for various reasons, was largely ignorant until recently of this fetid mess underground. They are feeding me what they find. We would all be happy to see the number of abortions drop by 95% -- by choice. We wish no one were homosexual and would probably recommend a life of total abstinence for them. (Incidentally, I have lived a life to total abstinence for almost 70 years. I know how tough it is. But I also know its rewards.) But those are issues of morality again and I want to move on. The Christian concept of righteous behavior is that it flows from a heart grateful to God for His grace through redemption. How could the Far Right, if they ever set up their theocracy, expect an unbeliever to hold to that same high standard of morality without that divine grace to support him or her, especially in times of crisis? A theocracy will fill the prisons very fast. Without Christian grace people cannot keep the theocratic law. How can so many Christians not know that? Also, the one thing that makes the arrival of a new believer meaningful to God is that it is voluntary. Coersion makes automatons, not Christians. C. S. Lewis, a scholar and don at Oxford and Cambridge, in his still timely little book Mere Christianity makes this point very effectively. All four of us in my little circle believe these things and all four find the Far Right or Tea Pary truly frightening. In that we have common cause. We also believe we can contribute a perspective which goes beyond the two 'big moral issues'. In fact, to us the biggest moral issue is pride in all its forms. It is hard not to wonder how many of these Tea Party good folks are unknowingly on an ego-trip? Big rallies are fun! Being with people just as upset as you is fun! But under the fun is a lot of anger and pride, some of it even in the form of megolomania. To a Christian, the answer is to know one's Bible well enough to start building a framework, which we call theology. That is like a fence protecting the edge of a steep cliff. With the sturdy fence in place, it is safe to go and look over the edge to enjoy the view. With no fence, better stay pretty far back. I think the real Christians on the Far Right got too comfortable on an unprotected brink and are falling to their deaths. So those individuals and churches which know at least the basics of one of the two structural frameworks in the church universal -- the Catholic's Thomas Aquina or the Protestant's Reformed Theology have the protective fence, which gives a great deal of freedom in exploring all sorts of ideas. I would love to get in touch with other evangelicals who share this vision as time goes by. Also, I understand where you good humanists are coming from. I am not here to argue with you. You have taught me my science, math and logic. And very much to your credit, you are the ones who are sounding the alarm bell loudest to a crisis which surpasses our differences. As a new person to the group, I think I have said enough for now.
A Christian who Fears the Tea Party | 3 comments (3 topical, 0 hidden)
A Christian who Fears the Tea Party | 3 comments (3 topical, 0 hidden)
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