The Death of Jesus

As many of you know I'm a Catholic.  When I bring up religion it's not about trying to covert anyone.  That's why I often say this disclaimer: You do, or don't do, whatever it is you do or don't want to do.

Nor do I talk about being Catholic to give anyone an insight into my life, although I've been very straight forward.  I'm a Progressive because of my Catholic faith.  Frankly I'm stunned anyone can read the Bible's New Testament, especially Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the four books of the Bible which relay the story of Jesus, THE REASON WHY ANY CHRISTIAN IS CHRISTIAN, and be anything but a Liberal.  Feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, taking care of the sick, welcoming in strangers from strange lands...it's all pretty clear.

I primarily talk about my religion for one reason.  The Conservative Right has taken Christianity, a faith built on love, compassion, peace, welcoming and caring, and turned it into a weapon of hate. They use Christianity to push a very narrow political agenda.  What's amazing to me is how the Conservative Right has gotten so many "Christians" to ignore the teachings of Jesus himself, and boiled down Christianity to a handful of angry tropes, primarily 1) Anti-LGBTQ, 2) Anti-Abortion, 3) Pro-death Penalty, 4) Pro-guns.

I bring up my religion to try to stop far right loon balls from mutilating Jesus, his teachings and the Bible itself.

For the record, nowhere in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John does Jesus, THE MAN WHO MAKES CHRISTIANS CHRISTIAN, condemn the LGBTQ community (he doesn't), or demand women should have no choice in their own healthcare (he doesn't say squat about abortion, and by the way the Bible is FULL of questionable treatment of babies and the unborn!).  And it's frankly laughable a man who was publicly executed in a horrific manner would be pro-death penalty.  As far as weapons, Matthew 26:52 pretty much makes any Christian pro-gun argument moot (and just silly).

The Far Right work around on Jesus is to downplay his direct teachings (or outright ignore them), hype up other books of the Bible to promote their point of view (primarily Paul's letter to the Romans, which was Paul not Jesus, and Leviticus, a barn burner of a book from the Old Testament which is a really a double edged sword.  You might want to read that book completely before calling it "gospel."), try to take passages out of context, or outright making up religious passages which have nothing to do with Jesus. 

The reason for this is simple.  The Far Right's politics is far more important that their Christian Faith.  They also know their politics, for the most part, is incredibly anti-Christian, so they eagerly distort the teachings of Jesus to make their politics seem righteous.

This is why I'm writing today.  I can't tell you how many times I've tried to talk to a Far Right Chrisitan about Jesus' teachings, especially in regards to feeding the hungry, healing the sick and welcoming in strangers from strange lands, and EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM says something to the effect of "Oh I'm for doing all of that, but..."  They always have some political excuse which suddenly overrides the religion they say is the most importing steering principle in their lives.

Didn't used to be this way.  This bastardizing of Christianity as a political weapon began in the 1970's in the aftermath of Nixon's resignation, and became a much more prominent movement in the Reagan 80's.  Since then, this Far Right version of Christianity has become more and more focused, forcing many of their followers to abandon large swaths of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and only focusing all of their attention on one or two political issues.

I remember when churches rarely said anything which could be construed as political.  Now it seems politics is constantly being preached in some churches, even occasionally mine!  I remember when former Arch Bishop Nienstedt demanded all priests in the Diocese take an anti-gay marriage stand in the 2012 election. My church's priest, Father Kennedy, came out and said [paraphrasing] "The diocese has given me a list of political things I'm supposed to tell you, but I won't. You're intelligent people, you can make up your own minds about things."  He got a standing ovation for about two minutes.

Considering this deformed version of Christianity has been around for 40 years, you have an entire generation who have grown up around it.  Have the 'hate über alles' Christians been able to resonate with the average person?  Gallup just released a poll which shows not only has this new version of 'hate Jesus' not resonated, but people are abandoning religion as an institution at a stunning rate. 

Starting in the 1930's, when Gallup first asked "do you belong to a house of worship," the results show 70+% of Americans did. It stayed above 70% all the way up until 1999.  Then a change started to happen.  People started leaving organized religion in droves.  By 2018 people who said they belonged to a house of worship was down to 50%, and this year, for the first time ever, we actually have less than 50% of Americans who have a regular place of religious worship, 47%.

I'm convinced this is a direct result of taking the love, compassion, peace, welcoming and caring out Jesus' teachings.  Why would anyone be part of the church when the first thing they tell you is who you have to hate. The church leaders have no one to blame but themselves.  In their strive for political power, they themselves allowed their religion to be mangled beyond recognition. When the people who were supposed to be the keepers of the faith were the ones who were forsaking it, they pushed parishioners out the door, firmly. 

To be fair, the Gallup poll does refer to all religions, but in the US, the only way you are getting this level of decline is if people are walking away from Christianity.  There are many other reasons for some people not belonging to church.  The sex scandal in the Catholic faith was a big reason, but most of that attrition happened before 2015, and these numbers hare still dropping, and fast.  I don't know too many football fans who go to church any more unless their team plays a night game.  But to be fair to sports fans, the question is not how often you attend church, but rather "do you belong to a house of worship?"

Maybe this is why some of the more extreme Far Right Christians are trying to find ways to force Christianity onto others.  Until they stop with the politically butchered version of Christianity, the number of people walking away from church will continue to rise.

I don't see the Far Right stopping anytime soon.