O, Come All Ye Truly Unfaithful

By NanceGreggs


I don’t deign to speak for everyone. But I, for one, am sick to death hearing from so-called Christians about how hard done by they are at the hands of Democrats, Liberals, homosexuals, civil rights organizations, et al.

I am particularly tired of hearing the allegations of Christian-bashing from people who have completely abandoned the teachings of one Jesus Christ in order to align themselves instead with a president and political party that espouse everything Christ specifically taught against – those who have embraced the politically expedient god of war, famine, pestilence and death, and have talked themselves into believing that Thou Shalt Not Place Any Other Gods Before Me was not really a Commandment, but merely a serving suggestion.

To be as blunt as I feel the situation calls for, if you’re making a living as a whore, don’t feign umbrage when someone starts bashing virginity. You are not, despite your most fervent efforts to include yourself, part of the group that’s being disparaged.

And that is precisely how I feel about the psuedo-Christians who are inundating the news and the airwaves with their cries of persecution. When you’re being thrown into an arena with hungry lions, feel free to speak up. But someone wishing you Happy Holidays doesn’t come close to persecution – and if you honestly believe it does, you might want to watch some vintage footage of what was done to people in Bergen-Belsen or Auschwitz to get a clearer idea of what real religious persecution looks like, up close and personal.

What really sticks in my craw is the fact that the OPCs (Outraged Pretend Christians) were so willingly led to the altar of BushCo and the Republican party – not as mindless sheep too dumb to know what they were buying, but as anxious zealots desirous of having their greed, their bigotry, their homophobia, and their arrogant ignorance validated.

Those who didn’t want to hear that they were their brother’s keeper longed for political-minded preachers to assure them that social programs meant to assist the poor were nothing more than handouts to Welfare Queens living large on their monthly checks. Ergo, no need to support that.

Those who didn’t want to be reminded that torture and the murder of innocents was not in keeping with their Christian beliefs prayed for a modern-day interpreter of the New Testament – like Falwell or Robertson – who would assure them that killing Muslims, or inflicting pain and destruction on those who worshiped God in any way other than donating their money at the local mega-church was completely justified.

Those who put the pursuit of personal wealth above more spiritual endeavors lived on tenterhooks for years, concerned that their greed would lead to their being mounted on the backs of camels, desperately trying to pass through the eye of a needle in order to gain entrance to heaven – and lo and behold, a Christian president came along to assure them that tax-cuts for the wealthy was the godly-and-just reward for those willing to look after themselves rather than others.

It should come as no surprise that the not-so-mindless sheep have suddenly become unafraid to walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death – for the rod and staff of consumerism and the denial of the needs of the homeless, the sick and the hungry shall comfort them – which is pretty much what they were hoping to hear all along.

Christianity, in its true form and meaning, is not dead, nor is it in danger of being extinguished or persecuted out of existence. It is as strong as it ever was.

It lives within the hearts and minds of those who choose not to forget the words of a carpenter who walked the earth two thousand years ago, words which still hold meaning for those who aren’t looking for promises from a political party that, having had their lawyers look into the matter, can assure them that there are at least a dozen legal loopholes that can be trotted out come Judgment Day.

As for the psuedo-Christians – those who have tied up the infomercial call-lines, their credit card numbers at the ready to order the Green Prayer Cloth of Prosperity (because Jesus suddenly remembered that he wants you to be rich, rich, rich!) – you can take your hypocrisy, your pathetic self-absorption, and your religious pomposity and shove it into a place where the truths of the Sermon on the Mount won’t find it – or the speaker thereof simply can’t be bothered looking for it.

O, Come All Ye Truly Unfaithful, and remember that as you do to the least amongst us, so you do unto the Lord you have steadfastly ignored, choosing instead to praise the replacement Savior, a war-mongering, torture-loving, money-grubbing idol who is apparently much more to your liking – simply because he is created in your own image, and is more than willing to bless your pride rather than your humility, your greed rather than your generosity, your sins rather than your virtues.

As far as I am concerned, you can shut the fuck up – and while I realize that such a phrase is not in keeping with true Christian values, I am confident that Christ himself will understand the appropriateness of such an admonishment.

No doubt Jesus would be more circumspect in choosing his words, but – unlike the Moneychangers in the Temple who are passing themselves off as pastors of the flock – I don’t hold myself out as His official spokesperson.

The fact of the matter is that I am not even a Christian. But I do respect and revere the teachings of He who taught that loving one's neighbor was to be held in higher esteem than loving one's self.

And in the grand scheme of things, that makes me a better Christian than those who call themselves such these days - and if their incessant whining is on my last nerve, I can only imagine how pissed-off Jesus is.


Posted in full with author's permission.

Originally posted at democraticunderground.com: http://journals.democraticunderground.com/NanceGreggs/317