The Party of Avarice and the Sin of Prejudice
History will note that in the early 1980s, there was a sea change in American politics. The evangelistic wing of the American Christian population, led by a few self-interested religious leaders, shifted from their traditional home in the Democratic Party to the newly ascendant Republican Party, and did so with the fervor unique to the converted. In doing so, they handed the Republicans preeminence in Presidential elections for a generation.
It was, however, an incongruous fit. Christians, believers in a distinctively altruistic faith, were seduced into a party of avarice. A party that lavishes tax cuts on those who have the most while cutting benefits to those who have the least. A party that advocates pillaging the Earth’s energy bounty in whatever way benefits our short-term convenience, regardless of the consequences it might have for our children. A party that postulates that deficits don’t matter when they matter only to the future generations that will have to pay for them. A party that believes that now that our ancestors have safely emigrated to this country, we should close the border to those looking to live out an identical dream. A party wanting to abandon its responsibility to rebuild cities ravaged by natural disaster. A party that believes that providing quality medical care to our veterans is important so long as it doesn’t cost too much. A party that advocates voting according to your own pocketbook. A party that believes it is better for other people’s sons and daughters to die fighting them over there than it is for our sense of security to be even remotely compromised over here.
In short, it is the party of me, me, me, and certainly not the party of He, He, He.
And why do Christians embrace this party that speaks words so totally at odds with the words that Jesus spoke? At the last, the appeal of the Republican ideology was built on a foundation of prejudice and bigotry. Not the kinds of bigotry we’ve come to associate with that term—racism, misogyny and rampant homophobia—rather, a more insidious form of bigotry. A bigoted belief that those who are poor are so because of their own failures—even though Jesus, in all his sermons about the poor, never says any such thing. A bigotry that dismisses some people as hippies because of the length of their hair or the clothing they wear, or the courage of their convictions. A bigotry against those with different religious beliefs, whether they be Islamic or secular. A bigotry against people from other countries that leads us to believe that Americans are entitled to special rights afforded to no one else in the world, and that only our ideas could be possibly be superior. An easily coddled bigotry against all those who are different or other.
It appears, then, that the Christian right has sold its soul to the party of avarice in order to indulge the sins of prejudice and discrimination. Worse, yet, it has committed the sin of blasphemy by ascribing its actions to self-conceived desires of God. Politics is the art of compromise and debate, the meeting of the needs of all Americans, some of them Christians, many of them not. In order for any political party to survive, it must fairly balance the interests of all these segments. As such, no party can claim to be totally guided by Scripture, and anyone who argues this his party is so perfectly guided commits the sin of recasting Jesus in his own image, rather than casting himself in the image of Him.
If I have a political philosophy, it is this: When He is hungry, I will give Him something to eat, when He is thirsty, I will give Him something to drink, and when He is a stranger, I will invite him in, for as I do this to the last among us, so too I do it to Him. Thusly, when his life is in peril in a foreign land to save face for leaders who led us to war with reckless abandon, I will bring him home. When the habitat he lives in is in peril because of global warming, I will strive to heal it. When he is sick and cannot afford health care, I will ensure he has it. And when he strives for the American Dream, I will not deny him a fair chance by the accident of where he was born or the tongue he calls native, for I too was once a stranger in the land of Egypt.
There is no contradiction in calling oneself a Christian and a liberal. There is only congruence. The ideas Jesus preaches in the Bible were, in their time, radical and even perceived to be dangerous. It is no less our duty to at times seek radical change and challenge beliefs that are long held but rarely scrutinized. At times we must afflict the comfortable just as we must comfort the afflicted. The mantra of today’s Republican Party is for the comfortable to stay as comfortable as possible. It is a tempting ideology. But it is not Scriptural. Those who claim that is are blinding the faithful for their own prejudices and aggrandizement. Those who see that it is not have an obligation to speak out more adamantly than we have done so far.
We have much work to do before the sun sets on our time here, and tragically, we are wasting precious daylight. Let us not lose another day following the hypocrites in our government and on our televisions who honor Him with their words and immediately dishonor Him with their repeated actions. Let us follow those whose core belief is to make life the best it can possibly be for all Americans, regardless of their circumstance. At let us make that belief our own.
(Yes, I know, it's very preachy. Sometimes I get like that...)
It was, however, an incongruous fit. Christians, believers in a distinctively altruistic faith, were seduced into a party of avarice. A party that lavishes tax cuts on those who have the most while cutting benefits to those who have the least. A party that advocates pillaging the Earth’s energy bounty in whatever way benefits our short-term convenience, regardless of the consequences it might have for our children. A party that postulates that deficits don’t matter when they matter only to the future generations that will have to pay for them. A party that believes that now that our ancestors have safely emigrated to this country, we should close the border to those looking to live out an identical dream. A party wanting to abandon its responsibility to rebuild cities ravaged by natural disaster. A party that believes that providing quality medical care to our veterans is important so long as it doesn’t cost too much. A party that advocates voting according to your own pocketbook. A party that believes it is better for other people’s sons and daughters to die fighting them over there than it is for our sense of security to be even remotely compromised over here.
In short, it is the party of me, me, me, and certainly not the party of He, He, He.
And why do Christians embrace this party that speaks words so totally at odds with the words that Jesus spoke? At the last, the appeal of the Republican ideology was built on a foundation of prejudice and bigotry. Not the kinds of bigotry we’ve come to associate with that term—racism, misogyny and rampant homophobia—rather, a more insidious form of bigotry. A bigoted belief that those who are poor are so because of their own failures—even though Jesus, in all his sermons about the poor, never says any such thing. A bigotry that dismisses some people as hippies because of the length of their hair or the clothing they wear, or the courage of their convictions. A bigotry against those with different religious beliefs, whether they be Islamic or secular. A bigotry against people from other countries that leads us to believe that Americans are entitled to special rights afforded to no one else in the world, and that only our ideas could be possibly be superior. An easily coddled bigotry against all those who are different or other.
It appears, then, that the Christian right has sold its soul to the party of avarice in order to indulge the sins of prejudice and discrimination. Worse, yet, it has committed the sin of blasphemy by ascribing its actions to self-conceived desires of God. Politics is the art of compromise and debate, the meeting of the needs of all Americans, some of them Christians, many of them not. In order for any political party to survive, it must fairly balance the interests of all these segments. As such, no party can claim to be totally guided by Scripture, and anyone who argues this his party is so perfectly guided commits the sin of recasting Jesus in his own image, rather than casting himself in the image of Him.
If I have a political philosophy, it is this: When He is hungry, I will give Him something to eat, when He is thirsty, I will give Him something to drink, and when He is a stranger, I will invite him in, for as I do this to the last among us, so too I do it to Him. Thusly, when his life is in peril in a foreign land to save face for leaders who led us to war with reckless abandon, I will bring him home. When the habitat he lives in is in peril because of global warming, I will strive to heal it. When he is sick and cannot afford health care, I will ensure he has it. And when he strives for the American Dream, I will not deny him a fair chance by the accident of where he was born or the tongue he calls native, for I too was once a stranger in the land of Egypt.
There is no contradiction in calling oneself a Christian and a liberal. There is only congruence. The ideas Jesus preaches in the Bible were, in their time, radical and even perceived to be dangerous. It is no less our duty to at times seek radical change and challenge beliefs that are long held but rarely scrutinized. At times we must afflict the comfortable just as we must comfort the afflicted. The mantra of today’s Republican Party is for the comfortable to stay as comfortable as possible. It is a tempting ideology. But it is not Scriptural. Those who claim that is are blinding the faithful for their own prejudices and aggrandizement. Those who see that it is not have an obligation to speak out more adamantly than we have done so far.
We have much work to do before the sun sets on our time here, and tragically, we are wasting precious daylight. Let us not lose another day following the hypocrites in our government and on our televisions who honor Him with their words and immediately dishonor Him with their repeated actions. Let us follow those whose core belief is to make life the best it can possibly be for all Americans, regardless of their circumstance. At let us make that belief our own.
(Yes, I know, it's very preachy. Sometimes I get like that...)
posted by Ithakid | 9:24 AM
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