Perverted Christianity

For those of you who have been reading my blog you know that I used to be a republican. I was raised as a republican. In high school I rode a chartered jet to Washington, D.C. with my father, Rep. John Kasaich and a several other of his supporters for a weekend of meeting high profile political figures, fancy dinners and tourist activities as a gift for our support. I met Elizabeth Dole, then secretary of transportation, and many other cabinet members of the Reagan administration. I dined at the Turkish embassy and had chocolate covered strawberries at a reception with John Kasaich where I spoke to him about how well he conducted my high school band at the football game that year. I tell you this not to brag but to put my blog in perspective.

I joke that it was not me who left the republican party, it was them who left me behind. This is only half true. Having graduated from Hiram College with a degree in elementary education and psychology and then with a Master's degree in psychology it was difficult for me to support a party with such poor ideas about education and health care and mental health. As a practicing clinical therapist I really had a hard time with the republican treatment of the poor, the mentally ill and women (especially singe mothers). I continued to support the party, however, maybe out of respect for my father or perhaps out of indifference. Partly because throughout my life I had heard such negative things about democrats from my father that I simply trusted his opinion. I remember being particularly upset during the Reagan years about the deficit. Maybe I was so upset because my dad is a CPA. Ironically he didn't seem to have a problem with the deficit, that I remember anyway. I also have always been very concerned about the environment and endangered species which is also at odds with the republican party. So you see it was not all their fault that I left. Partly it was because they never really represented my interests and concerns in the first place.

Bill Clinton played a part as well. I voted against him in the first election and was one of those college students "moving to Canada" if he won. Several years later I had changed my mind. Bill Clinton did amazing things for this country and I believed in Clinton even as I voted the entire republican ticket like a good republican (except Clinton's second election when I voted for him). I opened my mind, saw what the man did for the economy, for mental health, for the poor and I liked what I saw. He balanced budgets and reduced the deficit which was a huge load off my mind (I really did worry about it a lot). It was something the republican's had said could not be done. I loved what he attempted to do with health care and was heart broken along with him when he failed. When he spoke I listened and did not get distracted or bored. I remember listening to his state of the union address in 1998 as my 4 month old daughter swung in her baby swing and we both stared at the TV during the entire speech. I could go on and on but I must say that Bill Clinton made me an independent. I no longer blindly followed wherever the republican party wanted me to go. I started to pay attention, to think and to vote my beliefs.

Then the republican party used my religion to get votes. They used Christianity to justify war and they perverted it's basic tenets to support their radical ideology. When I recognized that they were using Christians to advance their non-Christian agenda I stopped being a republican and I became angry. I became angry at the hypocrisy of using Christianity to win elections and then subverting it at every turn. I could see that they formed the faith based initiative to get votes and then completely ignored it after the election. I could see that tax breaks for companies moving jobs oversees hurt the least among us in our nation. I could see the administration supporting coal companies who made money by ignoring safety regulations and EPA mandates. I could see the administration nominating party hacks to top level positions in the EPA, FDA and other regulatory agencies in order to make these agencies disfunctional and therefore help big business subvert safety regulations and policies. These were not policies of a Christian administration. I became disenchanted.

My husband is a veteran of the Persian Gulf War. His best friend died in the conflict. He kept telling me that George Bush was going to use 9/11 to invade Iraq. I told him he was crazy. I told him that he could not get away with using a national tragedy to invade a sovereign nation who was not involved in any way to 9/11. I was wrong. I under estimated the fear and anger of the people of our country and the willingness of this party to lie and use tragedy to their advantage. I was perhaps naive. Then the republicans committed the ultimate in heresy in my opinion. They used Christianity to support war, torture, and lies. They associated Christianity with patriotism in a way that it made anyone who did not support the administration both un-American and anti-Christian. I'm still not sure how so many Christians followed like sheep as this new form of perverted Christianity took hold in the United States. The Pope tried to snap Americans out of this "God loves us and hates them" frenzy but he was feeble and died right in the middle of the conflict. Protestant leaders attempted to remind people of the basic Christian tenets but to no avail. Far right Christian political operatives had already created quite a following through e-mail, radio and TV. Christ's truth had little chance of getting through.

Now I'm mad. I am a mad that the Christianity of the media and of so many Americans is perverted into something I don't recognize. I'm mad that love of Christ has been so closely associated with love of country and love of president that many Christians can no longer tell the difference. I am mad that the republican party that I once supported no longer exists. At first I thought maybe it never existed in the first place and perhaps I was just stupid or naive. Stephanie Miller was the first to make me feel better. Her dad ran for Vice President with Barry Goldwater years ago and lost. She frequently says that her father would not recognize the republican party of today and would disagree with many of their actions and beliefs. The party used to be for less government and fiscal responsibility. Both ideas are not only forgotten by this party but the opposite holds true for most members. The neo cons are for more government invasion into everyone's lives and fiscal irresponsibility that has no rival in history. After many years of this sort of big government spending, and invasion into personal lives of Americans the old school republicans are starting to speak out. At first, I'm sure, they kept quiet because they figured republicans subverting the ideas of the party are better than democrats in the end. They changed their mind. It started with the Generals and joint chief of staff speaking out about the military policies of the president. All were handily given their walking papers and forgotten. Now former republican operatives, cabinet members and staffers have echoed my belief that the republican party is no longer the party of Reagan and Nixon and others before them. From wire tapping to gay marriage to suspension of habeas corpus they are speaking out about government invasion into the lives of citizens. From government contracts to uncontrollable government spending they are speaking out against the neo cons and attempting to take back their party. I have spent this election trying to get the neo cons out of office but I also, in the process, want to take back my religion.

Just as the old republicans don't recognize their party I don't recognize my Christianity anymore. My Christianity was about do unto others as you would have them do. My Christianity was about what you do to the least of those among you is the measure by which you will be judged. My Christianity is about helping those who can not help themselves and trusting God to take care of you and to stop your enemies. I believe that Christians stopped trusting God on 9/11. They stopped trusting God to protect them and they decided to take matters into their own hands. They decided to forget all of those passages about loving your neighbor and your enemies and they decided that God is no good at protecting the United States. They talk the good talk, about God Bless America and all, but they do not believe it anymore. If they believed God was watching over them and protecting them from their enemies they would not be a pro war, pro preemptive strike, pro torture, pro hate religion. They would not be condoning attacks against gay people and middle eastern people and Muslims. If Christians trusted God they would not be so afraid. They would not be afraid of Muslims or terrorists or secular schools or secular courts or gay marriage or evolution. Christians would trust that God knows what he is doing. That the people who do not believe in Him or follow his commandments will be punished and that we, as mere humans, do not have to do the judging and controlling here on earth. Right- wing Christians no longer believe because 9/11 took away their faith in God to protect us. Christians do not even realize that it happened. Fear silently took hold of their belief and morphed it into hate, revenge and loathing and Christians sat back and said, "look what great Christians we have become. We have taken control of our faith and our country and now we are better Christians." We are not better Christians, we have forgotten Christ. Of course, this is a great overgeneralization. There are Christians out there wondering what happened just as I am. I like to think they are the quiet majority. The media portrays all Christians as the other kind. The America before God type of Christians that are secure in their belief that they are going to heaven and the rest of America and the world is going to hell for daring to believe that all people have rights, that war might be wrong and America may not be on the right track.

The latest republican operative daring to speak out about the new republicans is David Kuo. Below is the publisher's description of his new book Tempting Faith in which he describes his transformation from Christian conservative star to Christian speaking out against the wrongs of the republican party. The following was taken from the Barnes and Noble website:

From the PublisherA memoir of politics and faith, by a rising Christian conservative star, up to and including his years working at the Bush White House.
David Kuo came to Washington wanting to use his Christian faith to end abortion, strengthen marriage, and help the poor. He reached the heights of political power, ultimately serving in the White House under George W. Bush, after being policy adviser to John Ashcroft and speech-writer for Ralph Reed, Pat Robertson, and Bob Dole. It was a dream come true: the chance to fuse his politics and his faith, and an opportunity for Christians not just to gain a seat at the proverbial table but to plan the entire meal.
Kuo spent nearly three years as second in command at the president's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. Yet his experience was deeply troubling. It took both the Bush White House and a severe health crisis to show him how his Christian values, and those of millions of Amer- icans, were being corrupted by politics.
Instead of following the teachings of Jesus to serve the needy, Kuo found himself helping to manipulate religious faith for political gain. Public funds were used in battleground states, for Republican campaign events. The legislative process was used as a football, not to pass laws but to deepen purely symbolic fault lines. Grants were incestuously recycled to political cronies. Both before and after 9/11, despite lofty rhetoric from the president claiming that his faith-based program was one of his most important initiatives, there was no serious attempt to fund valuable charities.
Worst of all was the prevailing attitude in the White House and throughout Washington toward Christian leaders. Key Bush aides and Republican operatives spoke of them with contempt and treated them as useful idiots. It became clear, during regular conference calls arranged from the White House with a key group of Christian leaders, that many of these religious leaders had themselves been utterly seduced by politics.
It is time, Kuo argues, for Christians to take a temporary step back from politics, to turn away from its seductions. Tempting Faith is equal parts headline-making expose, political and spiritual memoir, and heartfelt plea for a Christian reexamination of political involvement.

I can only hope that his book reaches the hearts and mind of those who have left Christ behind but do not realize he is missing. I hope that by telling his story David Kuo can help people realize that they have been used by a well tuned political machine to advance an agenda that had little or nothing to do with Christianity and had everything to do with power. The other day I was speaking to someone at my son's Christian school. A very nice lady who, I'm sure, by any measure would be considered a "good Christian woman." We were talking about public schools and children with learning problems when she said, "You know it was after the last election that I became politically active." I immediately perked up because I too had the same experience. She then said, "You know they are trying to take God out of the classroom and out of the court houses..." I then knew exactly what she was talking about. Do not get me wrong. I do not think that the followers of this train of thought are bad people or bad Christians or evil. I simply think they are being used and their views about faith are being perverted slowly into something that Christianity is not. Something that America is not.

Taking God out of the classroom and the court houses is something that is called a wedge issue. There are lots of these issues out there. Flag burning, abortion, etc. They are actually non-issues. They are issues that will not be resolved or changed in my life time or the life time of my children. Wedge issues are a way to con people into voting for you when you intend to do nothing about the issue for which they are voting. For example, there is no great conspiracy among the democrats to remove the ten commandments from court buildings where it already exists. I believe there was one court case in Kentucky regarding this and the court basically said you can not build new government buildings with the ten commandments included. This is a perfectly legitimate decision given that the country has that pesky freedom of religion clause that our forefathers felt was so important that they put it in the constitution first. If democrats are elected the court case will stand and if republicans are elected the court case will stand. If it goes to the supreme court the court case will stand. Unless you change the actual constitution of the United States and amend it in such a way to remove the freedom of religion then the law will stand as it is. Voting for Bush or Kerry or Brown or DeWine will not change the law.

There is no great democratic conspiracy to try to get a majority so they can start removing the word God from our money. These right wing republican organizations send out irritating e-mails telling their faithful followers that people are trying to take the word God off the money and out of the pledge. My well meaning mother used to forward them to me all the time. Is this based on truth? Perhaps one guy somewhere in Idaho or Maine or wherever sued the government to make a point about freedom of religion. However, that one guy from Idaho is not running for Senate or Congress and even if he did he would never get a proposal of this sort through the house or senate for a vote. It just will not happen. It is a non-issue. It is a scare tactic, a way to get voters fired up enough to go to vote for republicans. Even if the word were removed I doubt churches would have to close for lack of people just because they no longer see the word God on their money. Have you ever seen legislation about this? Republicans have controlled the house and senate for over a decade now. They have controlled the executive branch for 5 years. Have they made any progress on these wedge issues? Of course not. First of all they are non-issues. Secondly, if they pass legislation on abortion or putting the word "God" on money what in the world would they do to get you to vote for them again? They would have to run on things like tax cuts for the rich and creating jobs oversees. They would never be elected again.

This year as Iraq became a quagmire of death and destruction, the Katrina victims continued to have no where to live and energy prices soared our government's agenda included a week of discussion about flag burning. Really! An entire week discussing flag burning. Has there been a recent outbreak of flag burning here in the United States that has not been covered on the news? When is the last time someone burned a flag in America? Is this issue really worth a week out of the 97 days that congress was in session this year? Of course not. Why did the republicans insist on putting it on the agenda? They were performing for their base. Those people out there in the U.S. that think that flag burning is such a burning issue (a little pun there) that they will vote for their Congressman because he introduced an amendment about flag burning. By the way, it did not pass although the republicans are in the majority in both houses of Congress. Wonder why?

Wake up. Christianity has absolutely nothing to do with America's government. Look at my past posts for more historical information if you like but regardless of what your e-mail or televangelists have told you our fore-fathers were against religion being involved in the government. Many were Christians but they deliberately made religion separate so that no one religion, including Christianity, could make the rules for all people. The pilgrims and colonists fled to this country to escape religious persecution by other Christians. Our fore-fathers did not want a king telling everyone which denomination to follow and which customs and beliefs to follow. They set the system up so that a Catholic president could not make divorce and birth control illegal or a Pentecostal president could not make talking in tongues a requirement for Congress. Rather than thanking our fore-fathers for protecting their right to believe crazy, wacko things like pre-emptive war is approved by God, our right wing Christian groups are simply telling everyone a different version of history. Then they tell everyone that if you do not support the president's actions you are not a good American nor a good Christian and therefore you are against the United States and against Christianity. This type of broad generalizations and circular thinking has worked remarkably well by using these wedge issues as political ammunition. For example, if you do not want to make abortion illegal in every circumstance then you are for killing babies. If you are not for taking over a sovereign nation and bombing innocent women and children then you want to help the terrorists kill your children and you are not a Christian. Why does it seem so absurd as I type it but does not seem absurd to people when the administration and FOX news say it over and over again?

I'm tired of Christianity being perverted into something it is not. Christianity should be based on the Bible. It should be based on what Christ said and what Christ did and what Christ taught. Christ did not die so that Americans could spread democracy. He actually did not talk about spreading freedom and democracy to all parts of the globe as some Christians would have you believe. Jesus did not hang an American flag in his hut nor did he feel the government should step in and decide what is morally right or wrong. Jesus did not encourage his disciples to go and lobby Rome for stricter laws regarding homosexuals, divorce and prostitution. He said, "go and sin no more." He did not encourage his disciples to forget their own sin and do something about all the homosexuals running around Israel. Jesus felt the greatest sin was the hypocrisy of the pharasees and the greed of the tax collectors. My husband told me that he saw a bumper sticker the other day that said, "The last time the conservatives persecuated a liberal Christ died." At the end of Jesus' life it was the pharasees who the people believed. Who will you believe?