A Christian Liberal is NOT an oxymoron.

Posted by XT on December 12th, 2007 in Progressive Faith

Yesterday, I started out writing about Tony Perkins moronic rush to blame the media for the Colorado Springs shootings and found a bit of evidence that he may be the living fulfillment of Sinclair Lewis‘ statement about American fascism. I don’t know if it’s intentionally that or not, but Perkins and his brethren are surely Hell-bent on recasting America in a falsely remembered image of Christian nationalism.

I also had on my mind this piece by Pastor Dan. The idea of a church needing an armed guard seems…unAmerican. I remember singing the hymn, “He Could Have Called Ten Thousand Angels” and being told that Christianity was a religion of peace. The martyrs are honored because they refused to betray their teachings by resorting to violence to defend themselves. But I’ve often pointed out that Jesus may have allowed the Romans to crucify him, but he didn’t actually hold the nails for them. If a church school in my town were attacked, would I not be more at ease with an armed guard waiting at the door of my church?

Then I got down to this comment about church supply houses selling metal detectors. In my reply, I pointed out that no one is talking about putting metal detectors in malls, despite the very public shooting that took place last week. I don’t think I’d go back to a church that made me empty my pockets to get to communion. But I’m not sure I’d go back to one where someone had been shot in the foyer, either. How do we, as a community of faith, balance the need for safety and security with the requirement of an open and welcoming faith? I’m afraid I don’t have the answer to that.

Remaining at Street Prophets a while longer, PD had this “crazy” post. It’s always easy to paint things we don’t understand as being crazy. While PD starts by mentioning the way President Ahmadinejad has been painted as being crazy, he moves on to an example of the left being equally dismissive of what most consider to be a core tenet of Christian faith – or is it? The DailyKos diary says:

Believing that you are having a conversation with God is a form of mental illness that leads you to assume that anything you want, or need, can be pursued without reference to the damage done to either other people, or the social fabric of a nation. It excuses any, and all, excess by assigning divine authority to feeding your inner daemons.

That can be taken as a blanket condemnation of prayer. Maybe it is. If not, then the diarist is talking about that minute percentage of mentally ill persons who believe they can hear the voice of God telling them to bark like a dog, eat dirt, or all manner of things (why doesn’t anyone hear God telling them to “Tell Pharoah, Let my people go!” anymore?). I was thinking that it might not – but if one isn’t seeking Divine guidance through prayer (which would necissitate two way communication of some sort), then prayer is a pretty hollow practice. I’ll leave a more thorough discussion of prayer for another day (or else this will get WAY too long).

Then a friend sent me a link to this post. The “War on Christmas“, I suppose, could be identified as the topic. I’ve yet to see a shortage of Christmas cards or Christmas wrapping paper or Christmas underwear for that matter. Americans may be in danger of forgetting that Christmas has a religious connotation at all, but we are hardly in danger of shoving Christmas out of our collective consciousness. I’ve yet to come across one person who objected to being told “Merry Christmas” – even my co-worker who wears a yamulke year ’round (though he did chuckle at it).

The receptionist at our pediatrician did ask us not to shop at Target because they don’t allow the Boy Scouts to beg there. I told her, “That’s the whole reason I go there. Let the boy scouts go door to door.” That’s about as close to any cross-fire I’ve been caught in. The whole idea that someone will tell you, as an individual, what to say is just nonsense. If you are someone’s employee, that’s a different thing altogether. And someone can advertise any way they please – the word “Christmas” is not required (but neither should it be avoided unless you are specifically writing for a non-Christmas-celebrating crowd).

We face a challenge in communicating what Christmas means in our society, not because we are religiously pluralistic now, but because Christmas was, is, and forever will be the event that turns our economy into a boom. Macy’s had Christmas trees up before Halloween this year. I’m willing to bet more Americans can accurately tell the stories of Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reigndeer than they can the story of Mary, Joseph, and the story of Jesus’ birth. More people celebrate Return-the-Crappy-Gift-Day than they do the Epiphany (which is, if we were being true to the story, when we should exchange presents).

In my book, “crazy” is refusing to deal with reality. All of us are a little bit crazy because there are parts of the world that we just don’t want to have to deal with. But most of us are able to go about our lives without our craziness causing undue strife for people around us. Having armed guards at church the weekend after a nearby school was shot-up isn’t crazy. Having armed guards every other day might be. Putting metal detectors in church is. Pretending that the biggest event of our calendar year is being threatened is.

There are enough real problems in this world without drumming up new ones.

Technorati Tags: Tony Perkins, Sinclair Lewis, fascism, Christian nationalism, War on Christmas

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