Dear My Twin - 06

 Dear My Twin, 

I think often, that the BIG issue with Christianity starts way back in the 3rd century. When Constantine decided that he needed a good luck charm to win a battle. So on the soldier's shields, he painted Christian crosses. They won the battle, Constantine converted, and then forcibly made Christianity the state state religion. 

We all know the saying, "Power corrupts," and that has been true of Christianity as well. Married with political power, things have just continued to go south, past Antartica, and way off the planet. I'm not sure if south has meaning once you're off Earth, but wherever South is, off planet, it then kept going. 

The schisms. The splits. That one time there were THREE popes and they all excommunicated each other. 

Even the Pilgrims! Coming to America to practice their religion (by the way, other nations frame it differently. Instead of the pilgrims leaving to find "freedom for religion" they were leaving to "practice their weird religion." Sounds like a cult to me.).

And then. Sigh. America. Bless its heart. 

Do something with it. 

Aside from the horrific genocide, both passive (infectious disease - except for when white people deliberately gave out disease infested blankets to indigenous people, 'cause that AIN'T passive), and deliberate, Christianity has been married to and gained power and has desperately tried to keep power. 

Christians working tirelessly to keep slavery legal. Yes, you read that right. While many Christians were abolitionists, there were also a huge amount of people striving to keep "the Lord's way" of slavery, and white Christian mastery and superiority over black people. 

The Fundamentalist papers at the turn of the1900's were a response to evolution, and other movements gaining popularity. Very quickly, people started identifying themselves as "Fundamentalists" - aka "the REAL Christians." (Sound familiar?) 

From there, Christianity has continued to grow in power and response to various "culture wars" (often so-named by Christians looking to keep or gain political power). The civil rights movement, interracial marriage, was blocked and challenged by Christians in power, seeking to keep power. 

"Christian schools" were started as a response to integration. When I learned that, it hit me hard, since my parents ran a Christian school. 

The Christian response to the "sexual revolution," beginning the Moral Majority. The response to the 80's career woman, and "feminism" beginning the Council of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, and even spawning a specific translation of the Bible to uphold their view (It's the ESV, in case you were wondering. Also, please note: ALL translations are done with a point of view, and a slant of intent. It's the nature of translation.) 

The purity culture movement, which effected so many of our generation! 

And constantly, constantly, the rhetoric of "We have to protect our way of life!" "We are in a war!" "Godless heathens will take over the country!"

One of my favorite quotes from C S Lewis is, "You defend God the same way you defend a lion. You get out of His way." 

That is not the American way though. 

Christian men in power use constant rhetoric about how we have to defend our Christian rights, defend marriage, defend this that and the other thing. 

Jesus said, "Turn the other cheek."

Jesus said, "Who is your neighbor?"

Jesus was led like a lamb to the slaughter, "saying not a word."

The Bible says "we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities..."

We say we have to fight the LGBTQ+ agenda.

We say we have to fight against Critical Race Theory. 

We say we have to fight against secularization in our schools!

We say we have to fight against feminism!

What are we protecting? 

God doesn't need protection. 

We are desperately trying to protect power. To protect our ability to control our nation, our social order, our neighbors, our family, and each other. 

This is why abuse is so rampant in the American evangelical church. We are driven by fear to protect ourselves, our institution, our "way of life." Our lack of faith has written power and control into our very theology, impacting our interpretation of scripture, our practice of faith, and demands our adherence to political parties, or our faithfulness is questioned. 

Fear and control are the driving motivations of abuse. 

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