Friday, December 21, 2007

Churchianity

"Men never do evil so thoroughly and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction. " - Blaise Pascal
The only consistently harsh words Jesus had were for the religious conservatives of his day. It was they, the strict, pious and brutal - who believed in the inspiration and authority of the scriptures - who had him crucified.

I am persuaded that it is not political liberals who are the enemies of the spirit of christ. It is those on the right, social conservatives who claim his name while misrepresenting his character; who believe they do him a service when they exert political power in order to control their neighbor's small vices; who are certain they can and should create a society that enforces their selective understanding of the morality of the bible.

They assert that we are a "christian nation". But is that not
precisely the U(dys)topian spirit that motivated the architects of Babel?

Genesis 11:4 "...
Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches (attains) to the heavens..."

1 comment:

Carver said...

Good points. It's sad to me how the divisiveness in our culture gets worse, not better. I had such high hopes for "my generation". Similarly, historically there are these points in time where true progress in understanding seem eminent but somehow the tide turns even further the other way.