Republican Jesus?

by Sherrie Gogerty Geeting

Said Jesus, never.

I am not an atheist, although my personal beliefs align much more closely with those of thoughtful atheists and agnostics than they do with the “Christian Right” which, in actuality, is neither Christian in the commonly accepted theological definition, nor Right, under ANY definition of the term. There are many atheists I have been lucky enough to befriend in the past few years whose belief systems may be in direct theological opposition to mine but whose behavior and attitudes exemplify the best and most spiritual humanity that can be found on the planet.

It is more than merely embarrassing to watch people who make Torquemada’s Inquisitors and the Crusaders look like a pretty accepting bunch of people try to create God and Jesus in their own image, it is horrifying. Westboro Baptist is not a small, unusual sect. Westboro Baptist is but a subset of the Fundamental, Reborn in the Blood, snake-handling maniacs who have appropriated the name of Christianity to demonstrate exactly why the Tower of Babel, The Flood and Sodom and Gomorrah were seen as a Final Solution to the ugliest, most hateful and most unacceptable representation of humanity that can be found on the face of the earth. Change the name of the Deity, and they are in fact no different from the Taliban, up to and including their white guy jihads against the poor, the female, the gay and the non-Tea Party.

These people are not Christians. They are Christopaths.

I can remember a few years back when I used to joke that I had no problem whatsoever with Jesus, He and I got along just fine, but His fan club was REALLY creepy. It isn’t a joke anymore. They have turned into a threat.

A little American history might be in order, here.

It has long been a canard that the Pilgrims came to this country because they were searching for freedom to worship as they saw fit. It is a lie. They came here because they were searching for freedom to PERSECUTE as they saw fit. They were being prevented, in England, from many of their most cruel practices, the unrestrained physical brutality to women and children, the foul treatment of those in their service and other behaviors that verged on the criminal to the point where the British practically paid their way to leave, and waved delightedly from the shores as they departed. A few brave souls who actually believed the lies about freedom of religion and accompanied these maniacs split the scene the second they realized who these people actually were, William Penn and Roger Williams among them, and went on to found much more palatable locations where Cotton Mather and his ilk would never have been permitted to flourish.

Yes, America, we were founded by a group of people three steps away from Fred Phelps, who would be conducting witch-burnings and floggings in the town square if he had his way. There would be stocks in every town square. And there are those who believe wholeheartedly that he is a direct line to God and would be directing construction, although the younger members of the flock seem to be in full flight.

Let’s move on to the Founding Fathers, who would be attacking congress like Jesus driving the moneychangers from the Temple if they were here to see the astounding un-American display of sedition, treachery and treason that passes for governance these days.

Tea Party versions of the Founding Fathers would have us believe they were a combination of Franklin Graham, Joel Osteen and, with hilariously unintended irony, Martin Luther King, Jr. Given the presence of Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann, a little Aimee Semple MacPherson might be thrown in there, too.

Please. While some of the Founding Fathers and certainly many of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution were nominally Christians, the overwhelming majority of them were Deists, which was a popular philosophy of the time. These would include Thomas Paine, whose masterful Age of Reason is a virtual treatise of Deist thought, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, James Monroe, James Madison and Ethan Allen.
To quote Farrell Till, Deism’s “…major tenets included belief in human reason as a reliable means of solving social and political problems and belief in a supreme deity who created the universe to operate solely by natural laws. The supreme God of the Deists removed himself entirely from the universe after creating it. They believed that he assumed no control over it, exerted no influence on natural phenomena, and gave no supernatural revelation to man. A necessary consequence of these beliefs was a rejection of many doctrines central to the Christian religion. Deists did not believe in the virgin birth, divinity, or resurrection of Jesus, the efficacy of prayer, the miracles of the Bible, or even the divine inspiration of the Bible.” [http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/farrell_till/myth.html]

During their lifetimes, the Founding Fathers were roundly reviled and were attacked with everything that wasn’t nailed down for their beliefs. The Tea Party, through their profound ignorance of history and absolutely deliberate refusal to believe anything that isn’t written in the Bible or reported on Fox News, have chosen instead to completely forego any ideas that are contrary to the naïve, simplistic, inbred thoughts that roam unfettered through their empty heads.

Have no doubt that the Founding Fathers were entirely aware of the dangerous wave of fundamental (but fundamentally uninformed) religiosity that hovered over the country like vultures, looking for a weakness to feast upon. Therein lies the genius of the Founding Fathers, preserved forever in the words of wisdom found in the First Amendment.

The First Amendment was not written to assure the safety and freedom of Christians. There are plenty of Christians. It was written to assure the safety and freedom of people FROM Christians. The Founding Fathers knew to what unspeakable depths people would sink in the name of Jesus Christ. They knew world history, they knew Salem, Massachusetts history, and they were unwilling to have this new nation tainted by the stench of the sort of Christianity these people wanted to inflict upon the United States.

You don’t have to look any further than the maniacal Tea Party legislators in the more backward states who crow triumphantly over victory when they pass some sort of law that promotes religion in schools and then react in horror when they are informed that Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and Pagans also are aided by these laws. “But…but…but that’s NOT what we meant!!!” To them there is only one religion that matters, and they have a WAR ON CHRISTMAS to fight. Snopes.com and TruthorFiction.com have pages and pages of “False” answers to questions about attempts by President Obama and “the libruls” to strip the cross from military tombstones and other places where there has never been, nor will there ever be, any attempt to secularize.

In the current shutdown hysteria, Tea Party zealots have again shown the desire to “pick and choose” which portions of the government shutdown have slapped them in the face, much as they pick and choose which Biblical passage they think will make their idiocy acceptable. Making the rounds now are various outraged screeds about the government STOPPING MILITARY PRIESTS FROM ADMINISTERING MASS AND EVERYTHING ELSE!!!! There are two problems with that outrage.

First of all, the shutdown has no effect, none, on active duty Chaplains and Priests. Those persons affected are civilian contractors, pastors and priests who work primarily at remote bases and stations, and the reasons why they are there is directly connected to the second problem.

Those people graduating from seminaries and those protestants who graduate from private universities providing DD Degrees have shown a marked disinterest in joining the military. Even those graduating from such bastions of critical thought as Oral Roberts U. or Jerry Falwell’s Liberty U. don’t have much interest in ministering to those who provide them the freedom to minister. Go figure.

Despite a reference to “our Creator”, the words “Jesus Christ” do not appear anywhere in any documentation pertaining to the founding of this country. Screaming hysteria aside, this is not a “Christian nation” or a “Judeo-Christian nation”. This is a secular nation. Despite the fervent oratory of those who have never demonstrated a Christian thought in their lives, it will always remain that way.

Stay tuned…

By: SherrieGG

"If you can't say anything nice about anybody, come right over here and sit by me." -- Alice Roosevelt Longworth | Sherrie Gogerty Geeting has never had a dull moment in her life. Wife, mother, vet, small business owner. If it wasn't for the fact that her closet is furnished in early Skeletons, she would already be in office somewhere. Waiting for someone to invent an implantable 7-second delay so she'll be ready for prime time.