McChurch - Killing Two gods With One Prayer

It has been a subject of debate for some time as to whether the Christian Right were using the Republican Party for its own agenda, or whether the GOP were using the Christian Right for its toehold on power.

I suppose the question is a moot one, as prostitution customarily involves a mutual satisfaction of desires. For the GOP, having long since abandoned the core principals of the Republican Party (fiscal responsibility and self-determination), the god of pop-Christianity has fit well into its agenda. For the Christian Right, “Who needs patience, perseverance and faith when, with a flick of the mouse, you can change GOD to GOP?”

I wrote some years ago that this unholy alliance would result in the rejection by the GOP of the Christian Right. I was wrong. These two addictive systems likely are joined at the hip from now until Jesus comes, which, according to some, is so imminent as to obviate the need for public policy on such incidental matters as poverty, the environment and peace.

But hold on; something else is developing. The two-thirds majority of Evangelicals who wrestle with matters of faith and practice are showing signs that they have had enough with the pandering of their more vocal brothers and sisters to the culture of fear. Is it possible that this could become a trend?

E .J. Dionne, Jr., on Friday, March 16, published an editorial in the Washington Post entitled, “Christians Who Won’t Toe the Line.” It centered on the recent decision by the National Association of Evangelicals (of Rev. Ted Haggard fame) to tell the power brokers of the Christian Right, in a nice way, to get lost. You will recall that the conflict was that such matters as poverty and the environment would detract from the key wedge issues of abortion and homosexuality. The old guard Moral Majority wants to divide and conquer; the new guard wants to try love of neighbor, of all things.

The best line came from Rev. Rich Cizik, NEA’s VP for Governmental Affairs: “Tell the parents of children who are mentally disabled from mercury poisoning - tell them that the environment is not a sanctity of life issue!”

Author Dionne calls this development the beginning of a New Reformation. Imagine a world in which Evangelical hegemony begins to self-destruct as the money dries up or the leadership shrivels. With the exception of a crucifixion or two, the results should work to bring things back to some semblance of sanity. Too much to hope for, I suppose.

For the moment, however, the Christian Right, with its emphasis on the Old Testament law, has put America on a collision course with history. Two gods have been sacrificed with one prayer - “Even so, Lord Jesus, come now!”

The first god to be sacrificed is Christ Himself. If you can say “Premillennial Dispensationalism” without your lips leaving your mouth, you may be one who believes that there are two ways to get into Heaven - Judaism and Christianity, Judaism being God’s first choice. Never mind that Heaven is not an objective for most Jews. Under this scenario, the person and work of Christ is of diminishing significance as Jews head back to Palestine.

For the record, the Christian Right is overwhelmingly Premillennial Dispensationalist.

The second god to be sacrificed is America. So long as the Christian Right kept their convictions within the confines of religion, it flew beneath the radar of most Americans. With the merger of the Christian Right and the Republican Party, however, Armageddon, the final battle between good and evil on the Plains of Jezreel, becomes politically viable. America is positioned to become a key player in this thrilling adventure that will wipe out 2B people. Evangelist Hagee is calling for an invasion of Iran to trigger this “blessed event.”

Can’t you feel the excitement already?

Where God has failed in His feeble efforts to prepare the world for Christ’s return, America is now poised to succeed. What happens to America or to the Jewish people in this slaughter is of little consequence to those evangelical scions and politicians whose Bible dictates the nature and timing of international policy.

There are many fine minds being exercised over the timing of all this. There are other, not so fine minds, that are consumed with cutting the timing short.

We’re in trouble, folks. God may have stopped being amused by all this.