What has happened to America’s Jesus?
I remember when Jesus Christ was about religion…. He used to bring people together and give them hope. He wouldn’t have his people get in your face and tell you to fight gay rights or you’ll burn in hell. That’s not what he was about. That’s not the Jesus who made folks such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson rich and famous. He was a different guy from the 21st-century American Jesus Christ.
Time was when my parents forced me to go to Sunday School every week. Eventually, I figured out that they were staying home while they required me to go to church, so my Sunday School career came to a quick and merciful end. I grew tired of being indoctrinated by narrow-minded Lutherans, and I frankly hated having to get dressed up on Sunday morning.
The one thing I do remember from my Lutheran re-education sessions Sunday School experience was the recurring theme that Christianity was a religion based on love, understanding, and charity. God, to this way of thinking, is a merciful, understanding, and forgiving God, and Jesus Christ, as the Son of God, was a chip off the old block.
Of course, things are different now. Given that our government is in thrall to Republican Evangelical Christians, it’s become evident that God is not such a loving, compassionate God after all. In fact, God is a highly partisan, vindictive, inflexible, and mean-spirited God who showers his love on rich, White Christians and generally marginalizes the rest of us.
When I recently visited Sicily, Italy, the old Jesus was all over the place. His statue was on the counter at the restaurant and the coffee house. His image was on the wall at the clothing store and in the hotel lobby. And there was a huge painting of him on the side of an apartment building.
Sometimes he was with his mom and dad, and sometimes he was sitting with his pals - the apostles. Mostly he was hanging from the cross. Whatever he was up to, it was all about religion….
Ah, how naive…because any good Eevangelical American Christian will tell you with absolute certainty that Jesus votes Republican.
But nobody was going on about God, Jesus and religion. It didn’t come up. I saw all that and was reminded that you can be a decent person - a good son, husband and father - and still oppose the war in Iraq. You can be a caring, thoughtful member of your community and still question whether Justice Samuel Alito should have been confirmed. Jesus won’t get mad at you.
Several times during the week, I thought about telling my family what’s happened to Jesus in the United States - how he’s been kidnapped by politicians and preachers who decide what he does and doesn’t think. They speak for him, and it doesn’t always make sense.
They say Jesus is “pro life,” but he doesn’t seem to have a problem with the death penalty. And he thinks stem cell research - something that would save lives - is no different from murdering babies. They say he’s the embodiment of kindness, love, decency and compassion. But he hates gays, lesbians and Muslims. And he’s not too crazy about Buddhists, Hindus and the rest. Jews? He can put up with them if he has to.
I really have to wonder how many of these “good” Christians spend any time reading the Bible and trying to understand the teachings of Jesus. Nowhere in the Bible does partisan politics come into play. And God is NOT a Republican (or a Democrat, for that matter). Just because the GOP happens to be the party in power, it’s not through Divine Intervention. “God’s Official Party”? I don’t think so.
The Rev. Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka claims to speak for Jesus and goes around the country talking about how “AIDS cures fags.” Pat Robertson says it would be a good idea if the United States killed the president of Venezuela. It would be a lot cheaper than starting another war.
All week I went over that stuff in my head and decided not to mention any of it to the family.
It would make America look ridiculous.
Yes it does, doesn’t it?
