Red Letter Christians
Ahh WorldNetDaily. That bastion of conservative news. New column by Joseph Farrah there today talks about "Red Letter Christians" a book by Tony Campolo. He's Bill Clinton's spiritual advisor and since Clinton sinned we all know that that makes Campolo guilty by association.
From the article: "There's a movement afoot to seduce evangelical Christians into anti-biblical, socialist, tyrannical politics – the kind currently energizing Barack Obama's presidential campaign."
So let me get this straight. Inventing reasons to invade a foreign country, making laws that restrict freedoms, spying on your own citizens .... none of these things are tyrannical politics ... but messages of hope are. Got it.
There are some other gems that I'll skip over because then Joe proceeds to tell us what these evil heretics believe:
Let me give you a rundown on what Red Letter Christians believe:
Capital punishment is wrong, despite the clear, unequivocal biblical commandments to take life for life.
Where does it say that? Ah yes, in Leviticus. The same place it tells you not to eat shrimp and that its okay to rape someone if you marry them afterward. Talk to me when you put down the scampi Joe. (mmmmm scampi ....)
Most Christians are too war-like and are guilty of "not loving our enemies."
Who's supporting the current administration? Who's supporting kicking 12 million people out of the country and keeping them in poverty? Who has been vehemently against health care plans for poor children? Are all Christians against these things? No. Do all Christians have racist attitudes? Of course not but are there significant numbers who do? Certainly! Maybe instead of attacking people who point out our collective flaws we should DO something about them. Well .. that is if you can truly call yourself a Christian at all.
Universal health care should be provided by government.
Look there are 100 issues that go along with health care. You're going to be hard pressed to find someone in the country who likes the current system. Who is going to be able to do something about it? The government. This is why we have a government made up of citizens.
Poverty should be eliminated by the U.S. government, not just in the U.S., but throughout the world.
Poverty should be eliminated. What institution is better equipped to take on such a large problem? There are hungry children in this country right now. Obviously the church isn't solving the issue and apparently in general doesn't want to.
The minimum wage should be significantly increased.
I don't think that every one of the people you're talking about believes that. Even if we all did, what about that is "anti-biblical"?
The U.S. should sign the Kyoto Protocol as a step toward solving the phantom crisis of global warming.
And I refuse to have a battle of wits with an unarmed person. Even if global warming isn't real (*snicker*) cleaning up the environment in general has lots of positive benefits ... like less cancer for those poor people you don't want to help, creates jobs and makes things prettier. You do realize that in Genesis God told us we were caretakers of this place? He's going to pissed when he finds the mess we've made.
And Joe, you showed above that you love the Old Testament when it comes to killing people but just like eating shrimp, you have to take the good with the bad.
The U.S. should pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan and address the real problem of terrorism by creating a Palestinian state and addressing the root cause – poverty.
Um yeah. We should. Beats spending money on wars. I guess helping the poor really doesn't sit with you well does it, Joe?
We should make condoms available throughout the Third World to fight AIDS.
Indeed we should because not everyone believes the same way as you Joe and that shouldn't be a death sentence ... although you've proved that poor people dying really gets you going.
We should address the same-sex marriage issue by getting government out of the marriage business altogether, leaving it to churches and other religious institutions to decide who should be married and who shouldn't. (No mention of children in this chapter and the ramifications such unions might have on them.)
Oh there it is. I was waiting for it! We can't do something sane like get the government out of a contract with individuals ... why? ... because of THE CHILDREN. Of course Joe doesn't explain what these ramifications are. Also Joe you can't have it both ways. In this whole column you talk about getting the government out of social programs ... but when we suggest the government should get out of the social contract of marriage and put churches in charge of it ... OH NO WE CAN'T DO THAT! There are churches that don't believe like I do and don't hate gay people!!! Oh and that whole bit about complaining that you don't love your enemies enough. You're a hypocrite on that too.
We should promote tougher gun laws.
We should stop and decide if support or lack there of is going to be on the final entrance exam to heaven (hint: its not!)
We should spend more on government schools.
Well considering that pretty much every other western country is ahead of us in terms of graduation rates and testing scores ... we should definitely do something about our public education system. Depoliticizing it would be a good start.
Christians should be offering sanctuary to all illegal aliens.
Christians should be supporting anti-poverty programs that would curb illegal immigration in the first place. Again though this is a political issue not a spiritual one.
The U.S. should cut the military budget and expand wealth-redistribution programs.
The US spends more on its military than the rest of the world COMBINED. So yes. We should. Just the amount of money the military WASTES would probably feed at least a few million children, or provide healthcare for a few hundred thousand. But again this is a political issue not a spiritual one.
Interestingly, according to Campolo, there is no litmus test for Red Letter Christians on the issue of abortion – some are for it, others against it. (It's a big tent on this issue alone.)
My views on abortion are well known. I don't like it but its necessary. As Christians laws aren't going to help.
Joe seems to be like any other right-wing authoritarian ... wedge issues will keep getting his party elected. In the end its about politics, power and money ... things that Jesus specifically said would pass away. The hypocrisy of this attitude is evident .... it looks like the true Christ followers have a long way to go.
From the article: "There's a movement afoot to seduce evangelical Christians into anti-biblical, socialist, tyrannical politics – the kind currently energizing Barack Obama's presidential campaign."
So let me get this straight. Inventing reasons to invade a foreign country, making laws that restrict freedoms, spying on your own citizens .... none of these things are tyrannical politics ... but messages of hope are. Got it.
There are some other gems that I'll skip over because then Joe proceeds to tell us what these evil heretics believe:
Let me give you a rundown on what Red Letter Christians believe:
Capital punishment is wrong, despite the clear, unequivocal biblical commandments to take life for life.
Where does it say that? Ah yes, in Leviticus. The same place it tells you not to eat shrimp and that its okay to rape someone if you marry them afterward. Talk to me when you put down the scampi Joe. (mmmmm scampi ....)
Most Christians are too war-like and are guilty of "not loving our enemies."
Who's supporting the current administration? Who's supporting kicking 12 million people out of the country and keeping them in poverty? Who has been vehemently against health care plans for poor children? Are all Christians against these things? No. Do all Christians have racist attitudes? Of course not but are there significant numbers who do? Certainly! Maybe instead of attacking people who point out our collective flaws we should DO something about them. Well .. that is if you can truly call yourself a Christian at all.
Universal health care should be provided by government.
Look there are 100 issues that go along with health care. You're going to be hard pressed to find someone in the country who likes the current system. Who is going to be able to do something about it? The government. This is why we have a government made up of citizens.
Poverty should be eliminated by the U.S. government, not just in the U.S., but throughout the world.
Poverty should be eliminated. What institution is better equipped to take on such a large problem? There are hungry children in this country right now. Obviously the church isn't solving the issue and apparently in general doesn't want to.
The minimum wage should be significantly increased.
I don't think that every one of the people you're talking about believes that. Even if we all did, what about that is "anti-biblical"?
The U.S. should sign the Kyoto Protocol as a step toward solving the phantom crisis of global warming.
And I refuse to have a battle of wits with an unarmed person. Even if global warming isn't real (*snicker*) cleaning up the environment in general has lots of positive benefits ... like less cancer for those poor people you don't want to help, creates jobs and makes things prettier. You do realize that in Genesis God told us we were caretakers of this place? He's going to pissed when he finds the mess we've made.
And Joe, you showed above that you love the Old Testament when it comes to killing people but just like eating shrimp, you have to take the good with the bad.
The U.S. should pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan and address the real problem of terrorism by creating a Palestinian state and addressing the root cause – poverty.
Um yeah. We should. Beats spending money on wars. I guess helping the poor really doesn't sit with you well does it, Joe?
We should make condoms available throughout the Third World to fight AIDS.
Indeed we should because not everyone believes the same way as you Joe and that shouldn't be a death sentence ... although you've proved that poor people dying really gets you going.
We should address the same-sex marriage issue by getting government out of the marriage business altogether, leaving it to churches and other religious institutions to decide who should be married and who shouldn't. (No mention of children in this chapter and the ramifications such unions might have on them.)
Oh there it is. I was waiting for it! We can't do something sane like get the government out of a contract with individuals ... why? ... because of THE CHILDREN. Of course Joe doesn't explain what these ramifications are. Also Joe you can't have it both ways. In this whole column you talk about getting the government out of social programs ... but when we suggest the government should get out of the social contract of marriage and put churches in charge of it ... OH NO WE CAN'T DO THAT! There are churches that don't believe like I do and don't hate gay people!!! Oh and that whole bit about complaining that you don't love your enemies enough. You're a hypocrite on that too.
We should promote tougher gun laws.
We should stop and decide if support or lack there of is going to be on the final entrance exam to heaven (hint: its not!)
We should spend more on government schools.
Well considering that pretty much every other western country is ahead of us in terms of graduation rates and testing scores ... we should definitely do something about our public education system. Depoliticizing it would be a good start.
Christians should be offering sanctuary to all illegal aliens.
Christians should be supporting anti-poverty programs that would curb illegal immigration in the first place. Again though this is a political issue not a spiritual one.
The U.S. should cut the military budget and expand wealth-redistribution programs.
The US spends more on its military than the rest of the world COMBINED. So yes. We should. Just the amount of money the military WASTES would probably feed at least a few million children, or provide healthcare for a few hundred thousand. But again this is a political issue not a spiritual one.
Interestingly, according to Campolo, there is no litmus test for Red Letter Christians on the issue of abortion – some are for it, others against it. (It's a big tent on this issue alone.)
My views on abortion are well known. I don't like it but its necessary. As Christians laws aren't going to help.
Joe seems to be like any other right-wing authoritarian ... wedge issues will keep getting his party elected. In the end its about politics, power and money ... things that Jesus specifically said would pass away. The hypocrisy of this attitude is evident .... it looks like the true Christ followers have a long way to go.
Comments
Camps are for wussies.