I am further offended and disgusted when Christians fight fiercely and unapologetically to keep their money at the expense of the suffering world. They hide behind economics and the convenience of a capitalist society, endorsing a system of global oppression. While discussing politics with a group of conservative Christian men last month I stated that America has 5% of the world's people yet is gobbling up at least 25% of its resources. These churchgoing men essentially said it was America's manifest destiny and that we are not responsible for fixing the world's problems. (Except for Iraq's, apparently...)
Why is it disgusting/wrong/sinful/dangerous for two men or two women who have loving, supportive, committed relationships to be legally married?
-BUT-
Completely acceptable for a single mother with three children to labor twelve to sixteen hours in a factory seven days a week for pennies an hour?
Some Christians I know would picket gay marriage but still shop at the Gap without a thought.
Christian or not, the real issues facing our country and the world today are not your stereotypical right wing fare of guns, gays, and fetuses. How about environmental destruction? Genocide? Civil war? AIDS? Poverty?
I have a love/hate relationship with the Bible. I believe there is truth in its pages but am not a literalist. When I last read it through I remember feeling a lot of frustration with some of the strong statements that can be found in the famous verses of Leviticus or the offputting rants of Paul. But, while the much cited references to "fornication" and "sodomy" certainly exist, they are trumped a thousand times over by the real theme of the Bible: justice, compassion, and generosity for the poor, downtrodden, ailing, and needy. While a verse about something like sodomy (gasp!) rarely pops up- any reader will find herself constantly tripping over references to the widows, the orphans, the outsiders, the oppressed, the forgotten, the desperate. The worst and most reviled villains of the Old Testament were the ones who cheated and stepped on their people in the pursuit of power and money. (Does this become less wrong in a free market economy?)
Interestingly, the sexual indiscretions of many famous biblical characters were largely spared the rebuke of the writers. Rahab, the prostitute, housed and protected Joshua's men when they were spying on Jericho shortly before overthrowing it. (A whole section of the Bible I take great issue with. George W must love the foolhardy Joshua.) But no one took Rahab aside and counseled her about her eternal damnation. She is, in fact, an ancestor of Jesus. Why aren't more right wing fundamentalists down on Rahab? Is it the whole Jamie Lynn Spears/Bristol Palin conundrum? Bristol Palin's on the holy rolling side, so she is spared the nasty and brutal right wing media attacks that her unmarried pregnant teen predecessor Jamie Lynn received only a few months before her? And Jesus didn't scream at Mary Magdalene and tell her she was going to burn in Hell for being a prostitute either.
Many Christians today ignore their own supposed biblical "history." The pages of the Bible are filled with stories of supposed religious zealots selling out their faith for greed and wealth, and ignoring the exploited and oppressed. The psalms are full of the laments of the abused and the disenfranchised, trying to make sense of their cruel fate. If Jesus Christ were a real dude today, would he give a shit about gay marriage? Do you think he would spit on a little girl who got raped and chose to have an abortion?
I think he would hold her hand while she had it.
Thankfully, I know many Christians and non-Christians who believe their faiths and/or ethics compel them to fight for social and environmental justice and strive for real peace and equity for others, bucking today's consumer culture and the purported virtuosity of capitalism.
Please check out Jim Wallis' blog on Sojourners. He writes about his priorities this election from a faith perspective and fully captures the issues that motivate me as a Christian and a global citizen.
