NanceGreggs: The Republican Christian – a Contradiction in Terms?

[babylonsister]

The Republican Christian – a Contradiction in Terms?
By NanceGreggs, on June 12th, 2012


If you know anything about Christianity (which I do) and you know anything about the current GOP’s political positions (which I unfortunately do), you can’t help but notice the glaring disconnect between the two.

The Republican party, as currently constituted, continuously berates the Democrats for wanting to strengthen social safety nets whereby “the least among us” are cared for – the sick, the dying, the down-and-out, the imprisoned – which is exactly what Christ taught his followers to do. And yet the Republicans decry these very things as evil, while holding themselves out as the real Christians in our society.

Of course, the GOP powers-that-be frame their rhetoric so as to validate non-Christian behavior, by suggesting that when Jesus reminded his flock that they were indeed their brother’s keeper, he actually meant it as merely a serving suggestion, not as a global admonition to do the right thing for its own sake.

The Republicans never fail to trot out the concept of Welfare Queens, who (in some alternate universe created out of whole cloth) are living large on their welfare checks and food stamps. What they never address is the millions living in poverty who rely on such safety nets to feed, house and clothe themselves and their families. The GOP finds it more expedient to encourage the belief that the welfare rolls are full of lazy, undeserving parasites – and the so-called Christians among their ranks are more than happy to accept this notion without question, followed by a sigh of relief that their preferred politicians have proffered a valid excuse for not doing what The Nazarene specifically told them to do.


more...

http://www.democratsforprogress.com/2012/06/12/the-republican-christian-a-contradiction-in-terms/

[NYC_SKP]

1. Huggzz to NanceGreggs!

Come on back, girl!

[Swede Atlanta]

2. I couldn't agree more........

The Republics want us to believe that anyone receiving any form of public benefit (unemployment, food stamps, SSDI, etc.) are freeloaders who are fully capable of working and could find a job if they just got up off the sofa and stopped watching TV.

I fully support the idea that public assistance cannot be a means unto itself. It must be a means to get people on their feet to stand tall and provide for themselves. That is why job re-training, job counseling, etc. are so critical. But there are others that simply cannot re-enter the work force due to health or other issues.

Jesus weeps at the modern GOP. They are heartless, unforgiving and hateful. I think the current GOP will find themselves facing a very disapproving Jesus on judgment day.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. Another great read from our Nance!

Thank you, my dear babylonsister, for bringing her all-too-wise words here for us to read and savor...

for you, my dear Nance!

[freshwest]

5. +1

[gademocrat7]

4. K&R

[Baitball Blogger]

6. Thank you Nancy Greggs!

[longship]

7. R&K for NanceGreggs

[annabanana]

8. Nance Rants like no one else!

She is always spot on.

[Scurrilous]

9. K & R

[jwirr]

10. Thank you Sister and Nance. This needs to be put forward more. They need to be called out.

[Number23]

11. 23rd rec!

[chknltl]

12. No, not a contradiction in terms.

I am told that 'knowledge is the coin of the empire' these days...although impoverished, I at least know the term for todays republican Christian can be found in my Funk and Wagnals in the H section, under the word hypocrite. Oddly enough, Wikipedia no longer cross references the two terms, which may explain the confusion.

On edit: a related term, 'God Damned hypocrites', describes their pastors, preachers and leaders.

nuff said

[ladym55]

13. Spot on!!!

Having listened to two earnest young Christian women share the following ...
1--America doesn't have poor people. It has lazy people who should be ashamed of themselves.
2--Poor people don't live in America. True poor people live in Africa. All Americans have big-screen color TVs. They aren't poor.

I wasn't sure if the bible I read growing up was replaced by a new version where Jesus spent his time damning abortion and bashing gays.

Like Nance, I was raised Catholic, so I know those verses about "the least of these" and loving my neighbor. I keep wondering what happened to them and why they are apparently no longer valid for U.S. "Christians." The pastors are too busy urging their parishioners to beat their gay children and explaining that the parable of the vineyard workers is God's stand against unionization.

As comedian John Fugelsang reminds us regularly, "Jesus never asked a leper for a copay."

Thanks, Babylon Sister, for bringing Nance to us. I miss her thoughtful columns so very much.

[dimbear]

14. So real Christians are all good, eh? Where does that leave people who aren't

Christian at all? Sort of outside looking in? Or is it actually that religion and being good or bad aren't really related at all?

[bluesbassman]

17. In much the same way that being a Democrat and being good or bad aren't really related at all.

You are what you are, but the idea Nance is illustrating here is that Republicans have co-opted the Christian faith as part of their professed ideology, yet fail to adhere to the foundational tenets of the faith. Nance never says that all Christians are good, she just infers that if one was a true believer in the gospel of Jesus Christ, one would not adhere to the policies the current batch of Republicans do. Least ways, that's how I see it.

[calimary]

15. Ms. Nance! Appreciate your writings SO much!

Damn glad you're on our side!

And isn't it just so ironic that the loudest holier-than-thous never seem to preach about The Beatitudes. I've never heard anything remotely like The Beatitudes from ANY of them. Not once. You'd think it'd be one of their most basic, foundational, defining proclamations - like the Gettysburg Address. Or Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech. Or the US Constitution. In my opinion, as a life-long Catholic, it's The Jesus Version, the primal Christ-ian manifesto - based on everything I ever learned about Jesus and His most significant Utterances. And nary a quote from It passeth past their lips.

Go figure.

[denvine]

16. Excellent!

Thank you so much for posting. I am not a religious man, but I get and believe that Jesus was a good guy. When I think about the Republican Party, a good guy would have nothing to do with them. Jesus would definitely not be a Republican. Please let their hypocrisy be exposed.

[Angry Dragon]

20. Jesus was a liberal and a Democrat

[daaron]

26. No he wasn't - that's going rhetorically too far.

Jesus was (if he existed at all, which is debatable) a King-Priest-to-be who was denied his rightful throne by the Romans. Democracy was not just an alien concept in Judea at the time, it was a Greek concept that was little known except among the Hellenized of Alexandria and other centers of Greco-Roman culture. Moreover, it was a failed concept at the time - as the Greek democracies all fell flat on their faces fighting each other to death.

Need I bother mentioning that the concept of "liberal" would need the Enlightenment to have any meaning?

[pacalo]

18. Another keeper!

[Angry Dragon]

19. Welfare queens

Welfare queens are the corporations and the wealthy -- 'the welfare rolls are full of lazy, undeserving parasites'


What we need are all the Christians to all sit down together and come up with a definition that does not change so we all know what the term 'Christian' really means .....

[From The Ashes]

21. This quote is apropos...

[Brigid]

40. Is that quote really from . . .

The gentleman in the photo? To quote his buddy, "Me likey."

[From The Ashes]

42. I think so...

the picture was iirc, on facebook first and someone posted it here. I googled it and found it attributed to Stephen Colbert. I dug a little deeper and found this:

.
It definitely sounds like him.

[Brigid]

43. Yep, definitely sounds like Colbert.

Thank you for that. Colbert and his buddy Jon Stewart are national treasures.

[DesertFlower]

22. K&R.

come back my dear sister.

[Major Nikon]

23. Since when have most Christians ever really followed the teachings of Christ?

Almost since the inception of Christianity, the religion has been a political tool used to manipulate or force people into a certain social order. That is and always has been its primary purpose.

[tomp]

27. agreed. nt

[Doc Holliday]

24. This is the sort

of quality read that keeps me hanging around this den of liberal iniquity, with its crack-and-anal-sex orgies, blood-drinking and consumption of human flesh at every meal.

K&R.

[Brigid]

39. You mean there have been parties around here . . .

And I wasn't invited?

[Martin Eden]

25. Don't forget "Bomb Thy Neighbor"

Warmongering Christian is another oxymoron.

I'm not sure if there's anything in the bible about stewardship of God's green Earth and the diversity of life upon it, but I suspect DrillBabyDrill Christian is an oxymoron too.

[daaron]

28. Will the Real Scotsman please stand up?

Hey, I love the Stephanie Miller Show more than the next guy (yes, I said "more" heheh), and think Fugelsang's 'Ecclesiastical Mook' bit is helpful for dealing with folks on the left and right who see the world through religious lenses. She also keeps Ward 'Voice Deity' around for the conspiracy kooks, and Chris around to step in, knowledgeably, about atheism. They make a good team.

But it's going a bridge too far, I think, to suddenly start trying to reclaim Christianity for the liberal left. That boat has floated folks, and we weren't on it. If liberal Christians, which I can pass myself off as in a pinch, want to really help push back against rightwing fundamentalism, they can best do so by quietly aligning our/their support with labor, women, LGBT, immigration reform, and separation of church and state.

Channeling Fugelsang, before we get too excited about liberal Jesus, we should remember two red-letter passages: Matthew 6:1-6 and, well, everything attributed to the return Christ in Revelations.

[raouldukelives]

29. Not only are they not Christian.

If I'm recalling correctly the only way to really make a sin worse is to invoke the name of God into it. That is to say, if your engaging in a sinful act and claim to be doing it for or because of God, then your in like double pinky dare territory. But I think the Bible does mention something in that vein. Just as changing any words in the Bible is a no-no.

If Satan or evil was an actual force in this world. If it wanted to operate with the largest possible net and to ensnare the most sinners as possible. How would it operate?
Would it be pulling the strings of drug dealers? Would it be using all of its power to manipulate people into shoplifting? Or would it aim higher? Would it be working hand in hand with the most powerful bankers, brokers & leaders of men?

If money is truly the root of all evil because it calls people to worship it above Christ. That its evil is in making someone choose their own profit over the good of the many. Where does that leave your standard Conservative Christian and the global entities they align with? When your entire agenda, top to bottom, is about constantly attacking. About abusing the gifts of God. Plants & animals. Squandering them for a buck. Literally driving Gods creations to extinction. Polluting and destroying nature. Not only no stewardship but outright abuse. About making cuts to the least, about declaring war on people who have done nothing and killing 100's of thousands, about torture, depleted uranium, the manipulation of media, propaganda, arrogance, hate. You know the list. We see it every day. We have outrage fatigue. All for money.
So anyway, if I were a Christian (which I are) and I had to sit back and ponder who the most evil and despicable people on the planet were. The ones who were leading the flock to its demise. The choice wouldn't be difficult. Heck, they stuck a golden calf out in front of it.

I can't fathom how so many avowed Christians can sit back and watch these outrages being committed in the name of God and not feel a tinge of the sickness that I do. I'm not saying my party is necessarily that much better in this respect either. But they are better. Or at the very least, pretend to have the desire to want to be better, to gain enlightenment and to create a cleaner & healthier planet. To provide care & love for the least among us. To not only not kill our enemy but to bless them.
The forces of evil consider such talk the greatest heresy of all.

[Scootaloo]

34. Yes, I'm afraid they are Christians

The standards for membership are pretty simple; believe that God had a son who died for the sins of humanity. Buy that, and you're a christian. Same as all that's needed to be a Muslim is acceptance that there is but one god and Mohammed is his final prophet.

Perhaps these particular christians really really suck at being "christlike." They're still christians. The religion itself has no requirement to be a decent human being, and at many points seems to contradict human decency.

They're christians who are horrible people, and you're a christian who, for better or worse, lacks authority to revoke their membership.

[raouldukelives]

37. Very true. They are Christian and they are the worse because of it.

They are what one might describe as Anti-Christian. If it is possible to be such a thing they are the epitome. It'd be better if they weren't Christians at all judging by their works. Since only a self avowed Christian is capable of the greatest sinning they are also the only ones capable of being the most anti-Christian.
If they were just open and honest about the works and ends they desire it wouldn't be such an affront to Christ and his works.

[The Wizard]

30. The Tealiban

would make Jesus vomit, then demand a urine sample in the name of smaller government.

[fxmakeupguy]

31. Awesome!

I just LOVE to see such a well-written response to those "pseudo-Christian" hypocrites who somehow manage to convince so many of their "faith" while not adhering to its tenets. I only wish I had the ability to be one TENTH as concise and eloquent in my writing. Thanks for posting this!!

[stupidicus]

32. that's been obvious for a very long time

outta the dozens of times I've addressed it, it's mostly been in a "which is worse?" kinda way, them seeing themselves in possession of the moral high ground despite that undeniable (well, to sane/reality-based folks) record, or seeing themselves as the "smartest people" after having been on the wrong side of history and just about every issue of significance, and even in recent times, like global warming, wmds in Iraq, the efficacy of the Bush tax cuts, etc, etc, etc.

Not only are they getting progressively more stupid (or sinful -- however you wanna look at it), they are also getting more immoral/amoral as well.

The simple fact of the matter is, the two things are inextricably intertwined, much like their denials of it and their deflections, projections, scapegoating, etc, are. It's all about ego-preservation and shame avoidance that JC would surely heap upon the denizens of the darkside if he was around today.

[WiffenPoof]

33. I Miss You Nance...

...You left your shoes and your keyboard under my bed again. Do you want me to forward them to you?

-P

[DearAbby]

35. Miss you so much, Nance...n/t

[Plucketeer]

36. Contradictive?

No more so than the oxy-moranic phrase: "Compassionate CONservative". IF I'm wrong and there IS a God - and IF there come to pass, some great recall of souls to ascend to that gods nirvanah - there's gonna be one HELL of a bunch of dazed and disappointed folks left behind.

[cbayer]

38. Excellent. Send my best to Nance, babylonsister.

[Brigid]

41. I have been wondering for a while lately . . .

If there isn't another bible circulating out there that I don't know about, even though I've been a Christian for many years. The one I have in my house speaks of loving one's neighbor, helping the poor, not judging others; etc. It's almost as if the Christian (?) Right is reading another one they got hold of somewhere that speaks of contempt for the poor, bashing those who are different, and picking fights with those who actually do try to follow Christ's commands. I hope I never do see a copy of that one.