Suddenly we were immersed in the pathology of a “holy war” as defined by fundamentalists on both sides. You could see this pathology play out in General William Boykin. A professional soldier, General Boykin had taken up with a small group called the Faith Force Multiplier whose members apply military principles to evangelism with a manifesto summoning warriors “to the spiritual warfare for souls.” After Boykin had led Americans in a battle against a Somalian warlord he announced: “I know my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God and his God was an idol.” Now Boykin was going about evangelical revivals preaching that America was in a holy war as “a Christian nation” battling Satan and that America’s Muslim adversaries will be defeated “only if we come against them in the name of Jesus.” For such an hour, America surely needed a godly leader. So General Boykin explained how it was that the candidate who had lost the election in 2000 nonetheless wound up in the White House. President Bush, he said, “was not elected by a majority of the voters - he was appointed by God.” Not surprising, instead of being reprimanded for evangelizing while in uniform, General Boykin is now the Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence. (Just as it isn’t surprising that despite his public call for the assassination of a foreign head of state, Pat Robertson’s Operation Blessing was one of the first groups to receive taxpayer funds from the President’s Faith-Based Initiative for “relief work” on the Gulf Coast.)
We can’t wiggle out of this, people. Alvin Hawkins states it frankly: “This is a problem we can’t walk away from.” We’re talking about a powerful religious constituency that claims the right to tell us what’s on God’s mind and to decide the laws of the land according to their interpretation of biblical revelation and to enforce those laws on the nation as a whole. For the Bible is not just the foundational text of their faith; it has become the foundational text for a political movement.
True, people of faith have always tried to bring their interpretation of the Bible to bear on American laws and morals - this very seminary is part of that tradition; it’s the American way, encouraged and protected by the First Amendment. But what is unique today is that the radical religious right has succeeded in taking over one of America’s great political parties - the country is not yet a theocracy but the Republican Party is - and they are driving American politics, using God as a a battering ram on almost every issue: crime and punishment, foreign policy, health care, taxation, energy, regulation, social services and so on.
What’s also unique is the intensity, organization, and anger they have brought to the public square. Listen to their preachers, evangelists, and homegrown ayatollahs: Their viral intolerance - their loathing of other people’s beliefs, of America’s secular and liberal values, of an independent press, of the courts, of reason, science and the search for objective knowledge - has become an unprecedented sectarian crusade for state power. They use the language of faith to demonize political opponents, mislead and misinform voters, censor writers and artists, ostracize dissenters, and marginalize the poor. These are the foot soldiers in a political holy war financed by wealthy economic interests and guided by savvy partisan operatives who know that couching political ambition in religious rhetoric can ignite the passion of followers as ferociously as when Constantine painted the Sign of Christ (the “Christograph”) on the shields of his soldiers and on the banners of his legions and routed his rivals in Rome. Never mind that the Emperor himself was never baptized into the faith; it served him well enough to make the God worshipped by Christians his most important ally and turn the Sign of Christ into the one imperial symbol most widely recognized and feared from east to west.
Bill Moyer September 2005
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Bill Moyer seems way too judgemental for my blood. How can he wrongly attack Operation Blessing when they are doing so much for people hit hard by Katrina? Moyers states “leaving the poor neglected” when the government is helping churches help people who are poor? To me this is commendable. Why have government do what the churches can do? At least help the churches do as much as they can in conjuction with government doing the smaller task. He talks from both sides of his mouth on this one and shows his extreme bias. His idea is that people need to do more for the poor but only within his perameters. To me that is a joke. dh
It’s amazing how far modern American Christianity has strayed from real discipleship. When did Christ assert that political power ought be the foremost goal for believers?
No one is saying that political power is the formost goal for believers. In fact when we see modern Christians doing dramtic things to the power they get ridiculed but when government does it it isn’t. This really shows something beyond just modern Christian but an anti-Christian idea that seems strange. The bottom line is what does the most for the poor and the church has a responsibility and needs assistance with that responsibility. I personally feel faith based initiatives are a good way. It can’t hurt and is better than doing nothing. Why attack the means when the end is better? Again Mr. Moyers is talking from both sides of his mouth. Once a person has a relaionship with Christ we need to be obedient to what God says in His word. So I see modern Christianity focusing on relationship by inviting people to have a relationship and then discipleship thereafter by being obedient to what God says. Do people not do these things? yes but that doesn’t change the standard for the standard is still there that is established by God. Do all Christians need to be Republican? no and no one is saying this. However, I do think there are things in culture that are going way out of wack and need to be reeled in. At the same time more needs to be done for the poor. It is a balance and it appears currently that we are doing are best and the other side continues to complain no natter what is decided. It is a lose/lose. Basically the other side is being just as political in their complaints. It is called a double standard.
Nobody is saying it, but many are living it. I am so grateful for Bill Moyer and others like him who hate the way the faith has been perverted and manipulated. How long before this madness ends, and discipleship is restored?
How do you know how people are living it? Do you know the people personally? You mention discipleship. How about personal responsibility and acknowledgement of things that are truly wrong rather than condoning things that are wrong? You mention manipulation. How about the manipulation to say things are okay when in fact they are wrong? Isn’t that a perversion of Faith? I’m reminded “What shall we say then? Shall we continue to sin that Grace may abound? God forbid! How are we who are dead to sin live any longer in it?”
I guess I don’t seeit manipulation that Operation Blessing is spending millions to help the people in Katrina and the like. What do you want them to do nothing? Can’t people acknowledge the good rather than be clouded by other things that have no bearing on people being helped?
Bill Moyers is doing the manipulation and pervertion by saying things are okay when they aren’t and not acknowledging the wonderful way churches as the Body of Christ CAN and should help the poor as obedience and as a way of teaching the discipleship.
Discipleship is helping people to “go and sin no more” that goes individually, socially and the like as well as thought, word and dead as a group as well as individuals. It isn’t one to the exclusion of the other when it comes to group and individual dynamics. It is both equally not one to the detrimate of the other like Moyer AND ultra fundamentals (not Robertson but worse) portray.
How do I know people are living it?
How do you know that homosexuality exists?
It is people like Bill Moyer who bringing to light the way Christianity is being perverted… I pray God sends more like him.
How is it being perverted when Christ said “go and sin no more”? I know homosexuality exists because people say they are. People are living it by helping the poor and when I see Operation Blessing helping people on a millions of dollar scale and people are coming to Christ from that then I say that truly is living it. For me those actions speak louder than the words that people go over the top on. (If you get my drift). To me it is manipulation and pervertion to say what Operation Blessing is doing is wrong or to say that the government can’t help that organization help people which is the call of the Body of Christ today? How is it a pervertion to help the Body of Christ help the poor which is the call of the Body of Christ today? Seems strange to me. Also, when the Bible says certain things to be sin and Bill Moyers says it is okay how can that not be a pervertion of Christianity as well?
DH:
You can check Operation Blessings ratings on any reputable site.
Operation Blessing gets a good management rating for short term relief effort.
Having said that, you are well aware many charity rating sites also put up criticism.
And the problems OB have had and have are real, documented and aren’t going away. You might not like the fact much of criticism is valid and documented, but it is.
Deal with it.
Moyer is looking at the US historically, anthropologically, experientially and from a sociological and faith perspective.
Homosexuality and perversion are your obsessions and you are getting repetitive. It’s your rut and you are stuck in it right now. I do happen to think you are more than one dimensional, and can do more than play a resident fundamentalist. I’m annoyed with the repetition, don’t push your luck.
Politics is about identity DH. Think that through. On your own. By yourself. and. not. on. my. bandwidth.
Enough.
If Drina would like to respond to you, she is welcome to.
You are done on this thread.