Politics Bad For Religion
Michael Gerson in a preview of the forthcoming book "American Grace: How Religion Is Reshaping Our Civic and Political Lives" by Robert Putnam and David Campbell, has this to say:
The politicization of religion by the religious right, argues Putnam, caused many young people in the 1990s to turn against religion itself, adopting the attitude: "If this is religion, I'm not interested."And this is a surprise? Well Jesus would not have been surprised. Evidently among wide swaths of so called Christians Jesus is no longer with us.
Posts
2 comments:
All such comments overlook the effect of the hurricane wind of disapproval emanating from the Media and Entertainment people concerning religion. Almost 100% of news and entertainment stories come from people who are already hostile to religion because they grew up in liberal environments where it is the "cool" thing to be hostile to religion.
Of course they are not hostile to ALL religions. Just the one's that they can rebel against. Islam still garners respect among the mainstream media.
Spoiled rotten little children driving a meme hostile to a specific religion that created the prosperity that allows them to be so foolish.
Of course the results of this is that people will write books and make comments perceiving religion to be a bad thing.
The herd moves.
David
David
Religion is not an unalloyed good.
Millenia of the persecution of the Jews. The expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492. The Inquisition. Persecution of witches.
All of that came about due to the junction of politics with religion.
And so with Jews in the entertainment and "information" industry out of proportion to their numbers in the population the hostility shows up every where. They are getting their revenge. God is ultimately just.
And BTW I'm Jewish and celebrate the current interest of Evangelicals in Israel.
But that is relatively recent for me. I used to HATE Christianity for forcing me to sing Jesus songs in public schools. Another intersection of religion with politics.
And where were the Evangelicals when it came to Bush's spending spree? Not in evidence. Bought off by Bush's Faith Based Initiatives otherwise known as subsidies for churches. Which makes the churches in on the scam just as corrupt as any politician. What ever happened to Just Say No?
So we have corrupt government and corrupt churches.
Now government I can understand. But churches? CHRISTIAN Churches? It is like they never got one of the main messages of Jesus: mixing church and state is bad business. They should have listened to Jefferson and maintained a strict wall of separation. No subsidies, no tax breaks. Nada. Then they can say what they want.
But Christians have been deriding the "wall of separation" idea for decades. As if the message they have couldn't get out without involving themselves with government. Forgetting the first 200 years of Christian history.
Note: you might want to read up on the history of the Catholic School System in America. The Protestants had captured government schools and the Catholics didn't want their kids indoctrinated.
In fact the public school movement was conceived as a way to indoctrinate Southern Europeans (Catholics) coming to America.
And now look. The socialists have driven the Protestants out but the indoctrination continues. Same plan. Different religion. God is just.
The Socialist School System is God's Revenge on those who didn't get the message. Heh.
It is not Godless Socialists that should be your biggest worry. It is Godless Christians.
Post a Comment