Read This Book

Note from the LuapHacim, 11/14/2012: The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect my current beliefs and convictions. Even if they do, I would almost certainly express them in different words today. Time changes people, and I am not exempt. Nonetheless, because of its historical value, I will not modify or remove this post. It tells you (and me) something important about where I've been. Read on at your own peril.

Check out this post over at Talk2action.org. It's by Michelle Goldberg, author of the book Kingdom Coming, who writes some very important things about Christianity, U.S. nationalism, and their very disturbing intersection:

The iconography of Christian nationalism conflates the cross and the flag. As I write in "Kingdom Coming," it "claims supernatural sanction for its campaign of national renewal and speaks rapturously about vanquishing the millions of Americans who would stand in its way." At one rally at the statehouse in Austin, Texas, a banner pictured a fierce eagle perched upon a bloody cross. For a liberal, such imagery smacks of fascist agitprop. But plenty of deeply committed Christians also object to it as a form of blasphemy. It's important, I think, to separate their faith from the authoritarian impulses of the Christian nationalist movement. Christianity is a religion. Christian nationalism is a political program, and there is nothing sacred about it.

I feel quite strongly about this; I am one of the committed Christians to whom Goldberg refers, and I am both shocked and saddened at the blatant misinterpretation of the Constitution and the doctrines of Christianity that abounds in our culture. Some of the most serious offenders include Gary Bauer's Family Research Council, D. James Kennedy's Coral Ridge Ministries, and James Dobson's Focus on the Family. Because of the way these people interpret the Bible and U.S. history, I can say without very much exaggeration at all that their views are perilously close to those of Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church.

What about things like allowing moral choice? What about things like showing God's love and letting people decide what to believe?