I still feel abiding affection for Jesus

[sophiaserpentia]

...but i'd rather see Christianity eradicated entirely than watch it continue to be hijacked in the name of bigotry, greed, and sexism:

The Northern Marianas Islands are a U.S. protectorate (so it can label goods "Made in the USA") in the Pacific being used as a sort of labor gulag, with workers imported from China and elsewhere and paid pitiful wages. Jack Abramoff had a contract with the government of the Marianas to lobby against stopping the flow of immigrant labor to the islands and to prevent a minimum wage bill (mandating a level higher than the island's standard $3.05 per hour) from getting to the floor of the House.

The islands are home to classic sweatshops. In 1996 and 1997, Abramoff billed the Marianas for 187 contacts with DeLay's office, including 16 meetings with DeLay. In December 1997, DeLay, his wife and their daughter went on an Abramoff-arranged jaunt to the Marianas. DeLay brunched with the Marianas' largest private employer, textile magnate Willie Tan.

Tan had to settle a U.S. Labor Department lawsuit alleging workplace violations. According to the book "The Hammer" by Lou Dubose and Jan Reid, among the violations common on the islands is forbidding women to work when they are pregnant, thus leading to a high abortion rate.

Evidently, DeLay didn't have time to look into such allegations, since he was busy playing golf and attending a dinner in his honor, sponsored by Tan's holding company. According to The Washington Post, it was at this dinner that DeLay called Abramoff "one of my closest and dearest friends." He also reminded those present of his promise that no minimum wage or immigration legislation affecting the Marianas would be passed.

"Stand firm," he added. "Resist evil. Remember that all truth and blessings emanate from our Creator." He then went with Tan to see a cockfight.

This is why DeLay's professions of Christianity make me sick. He was there. He could have talked to the workers. Instead, he chose to walk with the powerful and do real harm to the very people Jesus mandated we especially care for.

from Molly Ivins: DeLay's sins

Speaking of Tom DeLay's profession of being a Christian, let's see some notes from a conference he attended recently in DC, alongside Senator John Cornyn, Gary Bauer, Alan Keyes, Phyllis Schafly, and others:

Beginning with the premise that there is a war on Christianity, conference organizers and participants were eager to issue calls to arms in response. “We are under spiritual invasion!” intoned Rod Parsley, an evangelist from Ohio. “Man your battle stations! Ready your weapons! LOCK AND LOAD!” (The audience responded to these imperatives with a raucous and exuberant standing ovation.) Parsley also claimed that those Christian churches not sharing the perspective of the Christians represented at the conference constitute “the devil’s demilitarized zone,” naïvely and fatally embracing “peace at any price.” Meanwhile, Laurence Wright, a Lutheran pastor and co-president of Vision America, announced that the time of a peaceful and contemplative Christianity is over; that Christians have been AWOL (“absent without Lord”) in the battle; and that “We must attack the evil now where it is strongest” in order to restore America, the city high on a hill.

... Perhaps the most explicit call to arms came from Ron Luce, the president and founder of Teen Mania, a Christian revivalist youth ministry, and the author of Battle Cry for a Generation, a multimedia campaign that deploys military images and language to recruit soldiers in Christ’s army. Toward the end of his speech, Luce invoked the biblical story of the Levite’s concubine in Judges 19. (In the story, the Levite’s concubine is gang-raped by men who wanted to do sexual violence to the Levite. When the Levite’s host refuses to deliver the Levite to the assailants, he offers them his own virgin daughter and the Levite’s concubine instead. When the assailants reject such an exchange, the Levite simply expels the concubine from his host's house, leaving her to be raped repeatedly throughout the night. The following morning, upon finding the concubine’s dead body on his host’s doorstep, the Levite dismembers her and sends her body parts out to the twelve tribes of Israel as a provocation to revenge.) “I kind of feel like the Levite,” Ron Luce confessed. And then he uttered a battle cry of his own: “CUT UP THE CONCUBINE! CUT UP THE CONCUBINE! CUT UP THE CONCUBINE!”

from Notes from the War Room (thanks to _raven_ for the link)

Comments

Re: I swear to God this is an honest question, not sarcasm

[sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com]

The liberal religious leaders are not the "good guys."

Hah. Well, they are not making money sending out fundraising letters to millions that encourage hatred of me, they are not agitating against laws that protect me from discrimination, and they are not generally saying bad things about me and the people i care about. So they may not be the good guys per se, i have my share of qualms with them, but i much prefer them to the conservatives.


I think the answer lies not in finding the Christians who share your ideology.

I have had an extremely hard time finding Christians who don't share my ideology who are willing to dialogue with me in a compassionate and respectful way. For the most part, i have not found such people to be willing to listen to even the most basic points. My experience of conservative Christians has mainly been them shouting at me for one reason or another. It's not particularly inviting. After years of extending the olive branch to have it mostly batted away, i've finally given up entirely on meaningful dialogue with Christians who don't share my ideology. My discussions with you are one of the very few significant exceptions to that.


If you only appeal to "liberal" Christianity, "conservative" Christianity will just find it all the easier to denounce you ..

How could it be any easier for them to denounce me? It doesn't matter what i do or say, most such people are not going to like me. I see something in the news every day about one Christian leader or another complaining about gay people, and at least once a week i hear it about transsexuals. The best i can do really is to offer the witness of the bravery of just living my life.


But any true support you will get from Christians is going to come from the Christ, not a remade Christ. And it is going to come to you as a person, not your ideology.

This sounds rather like the belief/faith distinction i've drawn in recent posts (correct me if i'm wrong).

Sadly, at the moment i don't have much hope or faith that what you are saying will come to pass. Most Christians i encounter do not seem willing to come out to the wilderness where i am to meet me, nor even to meet me halfway; they insist that i do all the sacrificing, all the compromising, and come to them. I just want to know that my story and those like mine are at least being heard, but i don't even see much indication of that. Voices like mine have just not been much welcomed within Christianity.

Re: I swear to God this is an honest question, not sarcasm

[badsede.livejournal.com]

My experience of conservative Christians has mainly been them shouting at me for one reason or another.

That's my point. Whether self-identifying as "liberal" or "conservative," they have already stepped away from the message of Christ, the very source of the compassion you desire. I won't defend "conservative" Christians, and it pains me that people can even imagine that they could be representative of my faith. Christianity in this country is in a shambles, and I see a rallying together of Christians of all denominations who find both "liberal" and "conservative" ideologies increasingly antithetical to the message of Christ. But that is the consequence of putting your politics before your faith.

How could it be any easier for them to denounce me?

I meant dismiss. The syncretism, relativism and rampant disregard for the ancient beliefs of Christianity - and I am not even talking about moral issues here - make "liberal" Christianity a less than credible voice within Christianity, "conservative" or not.

My discussions with you are one of the very few significant exceptions to that.

That is truly sad. But I must admit that it has become increasingly hard over the last year. I find that the wilderness has gotten larger and larger, and my points of view that were once tolerated have met increasing hostility. I understand why it has happened and find that even more sad. But this is why I suggested looking elsewhere within Christianity, to non-political Christianity, neither liberal nor conservative, people who do not find it necessary to agree with your position to have compassion or to defend your human rights .. even if our differences may go so far as to conceive of what are actually human rights differently. ;)