A woman at work told me a member of her congregation died and she would be going to the funeral. “I’m not worried about him - he was a good Christian,” she said. So what does that mean? That anyone who doesn’t fit her (narrow) definition of Christianity is in peril?
Her church is a little non-denominational (denatured?) group in a town with a population of under 300. The day after a controversial execution in the state of California, we were all having lunch together at the bar and grill when one of us said he’d stayed up all night waiting to see what happened with the execution. “I don’t believe in the death penalty,” I said. The woman from the little town looked disapproving, shook her head, looked down into her lap, and said, “I do!”
She looks down on those of us who don’t share her views. She is pro-death penalty. She is pro-war. She supports the radical right wing politicians that are elected from our area, who not only are not pro-choice, but who do not even support a woman’s right to birth control. And when we die, she will worry about our souls?
I don’t recognize the Christianity in that.
Once I expressed something about forgiveness, and a woman asked me, with some excitement, “Oh, are you a Christian?” I knew she must have meant that undifferentiated fundamentalist mass that is not associated with any of the major Christian religious groups - Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, etc. And I was really pretty darned sure she wasn’t talking about Catholics, as many of the fundamentalists I know are anti-Catholic. I don’t think I ever answered. Where does one even find a common ground for a dialog on these things?
What about feeding the hungry? Caring for the sick? Yes, I know the woman I work with and other like her probably care for individuals they know of who are in need. But what about the social and governmental policies? We know it isn’t because of a reluctance to combine religion and politics.
Look at the United States, a country that is always God-blessing itself and compulsively stuffing Bibles in hotel drawers. In this country, Christianity has been largely co-opted as ideological cover for a mean-spirited right wing that is zealously transferring wealth from the bottom to the top while exporting death in a string of senseless wars. Modern Caesars have nothing to fear from this crowd of “Christians.” If Jesus were like them, he could have died merrily in his bed at a ripe old age. Quote from the From the Co-opted Gospel.