Left Behinds

The anti-andrewsullivan.com. Or, the Robin Hood (Maid Marian?) of bright pink Blogger blogs.

Monday, December 19, 2005

Only Fake Christians Get Media Attention

Media Matters has a good article about how media outlets ignored Christian protests of budget and tax cuts.


On December 14, a coalition of religious groups organized by Rev. Jim Wallis of Call to Renewal, a faith-based organization dedicated to combating poverty, and Sojourners, "a Christian ministry whose mission is to proclaim and practice the biblical call to integrate spiritual renewal and social justice," protested Republican proposals in the House and Senate to cut spending on the poor while extending tax cuts that will primarily benefit the wealthy. According to the Sojourners website, the protesters "kneeled in prayer blocking the entrance to the Cannon House Office Building" in Washington, D.C.
It's worth remembering during the orgy of greed called Christmas that the teachings of Jesus were very progressive.



As this adorable British pamphlet from 1985 says,

The Radical Jesus, who preferred the poor and outcast, who regarded women and men as equals, who told people to leave all to follow him, who rejected established Old Testament ideas, who opposed authority and powers, who was homeless and led a wandering life.

Aw, bless.

Anyhow, there's an excellent article in this month's Harpers about the radical teachings of Jesus, called "Jesus Without the Miracles: Thomas Jefferson's Bible and the Gospel of Thomas" by Erik Reece. Unfortunately it's not online, but it's worth finding.

Sort of related, this article in The Atlantic discusses the irony of Republicans becoming the party of crony capitalism. As Bill Moyers pointed out in this excellent piece, perhaps these fake Christians are unperturbed by oncoming fiscal calamity because they know the Apocalypse is nigh. They'll be up in the Kingdom of God while the rest of us are Left Behind to clean up their shit.

(MORE MOYERS AFTER THE JUMP)



A 2002 TIME/CNN poll found that 59 percent of Americans believe that the prophecies found in the Book of Revelation are going to come true. Nearly one-quarter think the Bible predicted the 9/11 attacks. Drive across the country with your radio tuned to the more than 1,600 Christian radio stations or in the motel turn some of the 250 Christian TV stations and you can hear some of this end-time gospel. And you will come to understand why people under the spell of such potent prophecies cannot be expected, as Grist puts it, "to worry about the environment. Why care about the earth when the droughts, floods, famine and pestilence brought by ecological collapse are signs of the apocalypse foretold in the Bible? Why care about global climate change when you and yours will be rescued in the rapture? And why care about converting from oil to solar when the same God who performed the miracle of the loaves and fishes can whip up a few billion barrels of light crude with a word?"


Because these people believe that until Christ does return, the lord will provide. One of their texts is a high school history book, America's Providential History. You'll find there these words: "the secular or socialist has a limited resource mentality and views the world as a pie…that needs to be cut up so everyone can get a piece.' however, "[t]he Christian knows that the potential in God is unlimited and that there is no shortage of resources in God's earth……while many secularists view the world as overpopulated, Christians know that God has made the earth sufficiently large with plenty of resources to accommodate all of the people." No wonder Karl Rove goes around the White House whistling that militant hymn, "Onward Christian Soldiers." He turned out millions of the foot soldiers on November 2, including many who have made the apocalypse a powerful driving force in modern American politics.


Merry Christmas!



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