The abuse of Christianity by the religious right is beginning to be exposed and understood more thoroughly. But more needs to be done. Critically, we have to rescue the concept of faith from the hands of fundamentalists, of all kinds. They have turned Jesus’ message into its opposite, as this reader recognizes:
"Didn’t Jesus tell his followers to love their enemies? Didn’t he tell them that God does not choose sides, but like the sun, shines his love on all, sinners and innocents alike? Would Jesus recognize Delay and the Republicans as being on "His" side? Did Jesus have a side? Obviously not. If Delay and Bush and the Christianist Republicans would truly ask themselves the question "What would Jesus do?", wouldn’t the answer obviously be to love your enemies rather than separate oneself from them and fight them? Wouldn’t Jesus see both Democrats and Republicans as one people whom he loved equally, and not take sides at all, or see either of them as enemies? If these people truly see themselves as bringing Jesus’ mesage into the world, and living a truly spiritual relationship to Jesus as the basis for their personal and political lives, wouldn’t they bring this same loving embrace of equality and charity for all into the political sphere? That kind of "Christianizing" of America would be a wonderful thing."
Yes, it would. And it still can be. Another trap is to play into the hands of fundamentalism and try to defeat their version of faith, rather than working, daily and hourly, on improving one’s own morality, bettering one’s own soul. Opposing one ideology with another is simply to perpetuate the same mistake. I admire Karen Armstrong’s work a great deal; and in this profile, the intrepid breadth of her own faith journey comes through. Money quote:
"It’s a mistake to define God. I gave it up a long time ago …’To define’ literally means to set limits. That is a travesty to try to define a reality that must go beyond our human thinking. The idea of a God overseeing all of this death and despair is untenable. That’s the antithesis of God. If you looked at the history of the 20th century, who is overseeing this? Elie Wiesel says that God died at Auschwitz. That’s just one human idea of God as overseer, and it’s a childish idea of God."
The Dish 