Yes, it is. But the problem is the reduction of the Scriptures to the issue of this one metaphysical point. If all Christianity comes down to hell/not hell, then God is a demon, love doesn't matter, and the only point of human existence is to say the magic words.As a conservative Christian ethicist, minister, Republican, and student of scripture, this is #heresy — eerily similar to what many “Christian” leaders said about allegiance to Hitler. https://t.co/QcZJr2gbWK— Paul E. Martín (@paulosophia) January 6, 2020
Kind of like this, in fact:
The homeless situation in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and many other Democrat Party run cities throughout the Nation is a state and local problem, not a federal problem....— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2020
If the Democrats say "Pretty Please" and petition the king on deckle edged paper hand-written in copperplate appropriate to the high office....well, you see where this is going.....If however, the city or state in question is willing to acknowledge responsibility, and politely asks for help from the Federal Government, we will very seriously consider getting involved in order to make those poorly run Democrat Cities Great Again!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2020
It's all about boundaries; about who's in, and who's out, and whose side you are on? Except that's not Christianity, and that's not America. When they "goats" ask "When did we see you?" in Matthew's parable, it's not a doctrinal question. When Jesus is rebuked by the Syro-Phoenician woman in John's gospel, it's precisely on the point of boundaries, and who is in, who is out; the the point is, nobody is out. When Paul says in Christ we are neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, male nor female, he's erasing boundaries arbitrarily set by people. As Americans we don't save the people who pay us, or who make the request in the approved way, or who particularly please us. We help people. And we don't ask what party they voted for; and we don't decide our politics based in who God will save, or damn. Because God doesn't serve us; but the President does. And that's the difference between us and God; and a President and a king. A President who does not serve us all, equally, is not on the side of God; and he is not fit to hold the office of President.
Jim Bakker would be a retired sleazy vinyl siding salesman if the courts didn't pretend they couldn't tell the difference between a con man and someone who followed the teachings of Jesus.
ReplyDeleteI've got to read David Bentley Hart's book on eventual universal salvation, his argument that Augustine and the others who popularized eternal damnation and various schemes of predestination into Christianity have wrought all kinds of trouble makes sense to me. Bakker is a minor example of it, if he couldn't scare his marks with eternal damnation, they'd probably have a better chance of seeing what a low-level conman he is.
Took me a long time to realize salvation as a metaphysical principle alone was not just a problem but made the basileia tou theou nothing but pie in the sky, and impossible here and now.
ReplyDeleteJesus was teaching about life as we know it, not about some other life after death as we imagine it.
"Jesus was teaching about life as we know it, not about some other life after death as we imagine it." Thank you for this. It illuminates another facet of a favorite quote from a sermon I heard from an Anglican priest,"My faith isn't about hope at the end, but about endless hope now." A faith that works in the here and now, teaches me to love everyone, draw no lines between us and them, to be accountable to everyone. To fall short today and every day, but to live in hope of tomorrow. "Give us our daily bread", to live fully in that, to find it completely sufficient, to share it with all that need. To lay down in sleep in faith and hope for that one days bread tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteToday it seems very far away (the job searches stretches on). To keep faith in the life I try to lead (two rounds of interviews, to be told last week that I wasn't "aggressive enough" for them to hire me). Tomorrow will be a new day.
Ugh. Been there, done that. In spirit, at least, I am with you. God be with you as well.
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