[Mb-civic] interesting "no longer a christian" take..

[Hecate Gould]

Published on Monday, October 25, 2004 by CommonDreams.org
No Longer a Christian   by Karen Horst Cobb

I was told in Sunday school the word "Christian" means to be Christ-like but 
the message I hear daily on the airwaves from the “christian” media are 
words of war, violence and aggression. Throughout this article I will spell 
christian with a small c rather than a capital since the term (as I usually 
hear it thrown about) does not refer to the teachings of the one I know as 
the Christ. I hear church goers call in to radio programs and explain that 
it was a mistake not to kill every living thing in Fallujah. They quote 
chapter and verse from the old testament about smiting the enemies of 
Israel. The fear of fighting the terrorists on our soil rather than across 
the globe causes their voices to be raised as they justify the latest prison 
scandal or other accounts of the horrors of war. The words they speak are 
words of destruction, aggression, dominance, revenge, fear and arrogance. 
The host and the callers echo the belief in the righteousness of our 
nation's killing. There are reminders to pray for our “christian” president 
who is doing the work of the Lord: Right to Life, Second Amendment, sanctity 
of marriage, welfare reform, war, kill, evil liberals. . . so much to fight, 
so much to destroy.

Let me tell you about the Christ I know. He was conceived by an unmarried 
woman. He was not born into a family of privilege. He was a radical. He 
said, “It was said an eye for and eye and a tooth of a tooth, but now I say 
love your enemies and bless those who curse you.” He said, “Blessed are the 
poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who 
mourn for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek for they shall 
inherit the earth. Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the 
children of God.” (Matthew 5: 3-9) He said, “All those who are called by my 
name will enter the kingdom of heaven." He said, "People will know true 
believers if they have the fruit of the spirit--love, joy, peace, patience, 
kindness, goodness, gentleness, self control.“

He knew he would be led like a sheep to the slaughter. He responded with, 
“Father, forgive them. “ He explained that in Christ there is neither Jew 
nor gentile, neither slave nor freeman, neither male nor female. He 
explained that even to be angry is akin to murder. He said the temple of God 
is not a building but exists in the hearts of those called by his name. He 
was called, "the Prince of Peace." His final days were spent in prayer so 
that he could endure what was set before him, not on how he could overpower 
the evil government of that day. When they came for him, he was led away and 
didn’t resist his death sentence.

This is a stark contrast to the call of the religious christian right who 
vote for war and weapons and suggest towns and villages be leveled to bring 
freedom and peace to the people. They proudly boast this country’s 
superiority, suggesting God has blessed our nation. Today, as I listened to 
a popular christian news network, I was reminded that in the last days even 
God’s elect will be deceived (II Timothy 3:13). When the religious media 
moguls preaching prosperity spout their rhetoric, I am reminded of the 
difficulty Jesus described of a rich man’s ability to enter the kingdom of 
God (Matthew 19: 24). (http://www.4religious-right.info/rr_economics.htm) 
Some who believe they are fighting evil will cry to the Lord and he will 
say, “I never knew you” (Matthew 22). They will have a form or godliness but 
will deny the power (II Timothy 3:5) to move mountains through prayer 
(Matthew 17:20). Jesus explained that he has not given us a spirit of fear 
but a spirit of power, love, and a sound mind (II Timothy 1:17). I wonder if 
the innocent moms and dads, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, and 
grandmas and grandpas who were the victims of US military weapons (the never 
reported collateral damages we are protected from [learning of] in the 
“liberal” nightly news) felt the love of Jesus [along] with its shock and 
awe. I wonder if the surviving family members now understand His radical 
love and that they no longer have any need for weapons or defense.

The solutions to the social issues used to manipulate good, decent people 
have no resemblance to how Jesus responded to the social concerns of his 
time. He never once mentioned the “right to life”. [In] the year he was born 
King Herod ordered the execution of all babies (Matthew 2:16). He knew that 
passing laws does not change the heart. As a follower of his teaching, I 
believe in the right to life, including [that of] children in Iraq who 
stumble onto land mines, cross the street at the wrong time or who are 
snuggly tucked in [alongside] the warm bellies of their wounded or grieving 
mothers as US fighter jets fly overhead. These are living, breathing 
children. The killing of these little ones is never even reported and our 
tax dollars pay for these bombs. I believe in the right to life for those in 
the United States who are unwanted and impoverished. I believe in the right 
to life of the naive kids who were promised by the recruiter they could 
choose a desk job and still get their education paid or they could see the 
world or accelerate their life or play a very realistic video game from a 
cockpit.

I've worked at a shelter and I know first hand the reality of unwanted 
children. I know the reality of this right wing rhetoric when week after 
week I begged and pleaded with people to give up only one night every three 
months to sit with these unwanted living children for a few hours while the 
overworked house parents had a night off. Of the few I found, many changed 
their minds when they discovered that they would need to wear rubber gloves 
to change the babies’ diapers. These “believers” stand on street corners 
holding right to life signs and then vote against medical assistance for the 
mothers and their unwanted children, creating an impossible existence for 
them. The few of these abortion activists who might adopt some of these 
unwanted children generally want the white and the healthy. The ones with 
hydrocephalous, tracheotomies, emotional/ mental problems and communicable 
diseases along with their life long medical expenses can be someone else’s 
problems.

I cringe as many christians vote for policies that deny help to the poor in 
our own county, who vote to support the war and military strength, assuring 
the latest weapons are developed and that the heavens will be dominated by 
the military of the United States. We develop electromagnetic weapons to 
shatter skulls, split the earth (http://www.raven1.net/emr13.htm) and 
silently destroy a body as a thief in the night. Studies are even now 
searching for the frequencies to override freewill. These unbelievable 
technologies are a reality and DNA specific weapons can or soon will target 
a specific nationality 
(http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/981116/1998111619.html ). I weep 
as the waters Jesus walked on become contaminated with uranium 
(http://www.greendove.net/resources3.htm). I grieve as the missiles fly 
through the atmosphere on the continent where Jesus rose into the sky, 
defying death and the grave, and where the Holy Sprit first descended. I cry 
out at the horrors of war and the indignity of the prisons so close to where 
He took captivity captive. So I am no longer a christian if Christianity has 
become what is presented to us by our christian president and christian 
media. I cannot support the right of the United States and Israel to develop 
and use the most heinous weapons ever imagined. I want no part of a temple 
built on the blood of the innocent. The sheep have been lead astray by the 
teachings of prosperity and misinterpretation of the final battle between 
good and evil. Many no longer can recognize the voice of the good Shepard.

Some “good christians” even work at weapons facilities. It is not a stretch 
to say that a woman who tightens a last rivet on a shiny new missile just 
off the assembly line might be the same woman who licks the gold star on the 
attendance chart in morning Sunday school. The missile could be launched by 
the kid in the youth group who reads the invocation and it will find it’s 
destiny at a “target of interest”, which might or might not have been a 
result of good intelligence. The collection plate circulates as children are 
taught to love their enemies and bless those who curse them.

The statements and lifestyle of Jesus are difficult for me to understand. 
What would he say to evil dictators? This God would not justify 15,000 or 
more deaths. Even the wrathful jealous God of the ‘Old testament’ spared 
whole cities for a few righteous souls. For christians to support mass 
killings as a way to prevent future deaths is not at all like Christ. He 
would not say, "When I am talking about war I am really talking about peace" 
like the self professed christian President proudly states. Who but God has 
the right to determine what price a people should pay for their freedom? The 
religious leaders on the airwaves today respond to the voices of the few 
brave peacemakers who dare to speak out. They say that pacifism is insane 
and that it doesn’t make sense but what is forgotten is that logic and faith 
are separate entities. I believe in the example of Jesus and his admonition 
to love your enemies and bless those who curse you. Do I understand how this 
works on the global scale? Do I know what Jesus would say to all the world’s 
leaders? No, nor do I totally understand how the example of Christ’s life 
and his message of love works in the world today. That’s why I need faith. 
Am I always correct in my assessments and actions? No, that’s why I need 
grace. Am I brave and unafraid? No, that’s why I need the perfect love that 
casts out fear. Some put trust in Chariots and some in horses but I will 
remember the name of the lord our God--the Prince of Peace. Perhaps politics 
has no place for imitators of Christ.

Who will show the face of Christ to the world? Who will speak His radical 
message? I hear from these so called imitators of Christ that the pacifists 
are a collection of kids, hippies, socialists and communists who haven’t got 
a clue. Some of us, however, have come to our beliefs as a result of careful 
and prayerful study of the scriptures and admonishment from our elders. Many 
are Mennonite, Amish, Quaker and other Anabaptists whose ancestors did not 
resist their torturers and were drowned, burnt at the stake and flogged for 
their pacifist stand. They truly followed the example of Christ and their 
resistance against the catastrophic effects of the merging of church and 
state cost them a great price. Churches today have signed onto the 
government’s plan and have agreed to look the other way in exchange for tax 
free privileges. The true message of Christ still exists to some degree in 
the quiet of the land to peacemakers but sadly there are good people being 
deceived by the angry words from a righteous sounding religious media 
majority broadcasting in cars and trucks and tractors all over our land, 
ironically preaching the “good news of war for peace” and the convincing, 
24-7 “liberal” bashing. I suspect there are many who share my sorrow at the 
loss of what it means to be Christ-like but our voices are seldom heard. The 
blaring rhetoric drowns out the still, small voice of the mighty God. Peace 
used to be the opposite of war. Conservative used to mean the tendency to 
conserve resources. Liberal used to mean kind and generous and Christian 
used to mean like Christ.

So I am no longer a christian but just a person who continues trying to 
follow the example of Christ. I’ll let him call me what he wants when I see 
him face to face. Until then, I will pray that someday people like me will 
be able to reclaim the meaning of Christ’s identity and the world will see 
the effects of the radical message of Christ‘s love--the perfect love that 
casts out fear.

Karen Cobb is a freelance writer and artist in Santa Fe, NM and can be 
contacted at cairnhcobb at msn.com.