Health and Diet Scottish Recipes Ferret for Ferrets


Re: [pf] Christianity/Progressivism
by Molly Williams
03 December 2000 18:32 UTC

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Julia,

Thank you for the essay on your mother and her faith.

> My mom became a born-again Christian 15 years ago, when my father had a
> really miraculous healing from lung cancer, without benefit of radiation or

> 15.  She considers her anti-abortion beliefs consistent with a true
> "pro-life" stance that includes opposition to the death penalty, mandatory
> sentencing and the explosion of new prisions, a national income subsidy that
> will guarantee a living wage, universal health care, and equal access to
> education and opportunity for all people.  In fact, she's spent most of her
> life working for improved education for disadvantaged children, and now
> works for a private foundation to prevent elder abuse.

This is my belief as well -- pro-life in all spheres, including opposing
abortion, opposing the death penalty, supporting prison (and education)
reform, etc. 

> Knowing her has given me a different perspective on so-called faith-based
> community action.  My mother's evangelical church goes into underserved
> neighborhoods every week to pick up garbage and tend vacant lots.  They also
> go door to door, introduce themselves to the neighbors, and find out if
> there's anything they need.  If someone needs a lawyer, a social worker, an
> advocate, etc., the church people have a whole network of specialists who
> provide these things free of charge.  They're doing the work that many
> progressives shun, getting down and dirty and coming face to face with
> people as complicated and at times exasperating individuals rather than as
> idealized groups.

I think the church in many places has gotten away from its true calling,
of ministering to both the poor of spirit and the poor of material
resources. Your mother's church sounds well-rooted in ministry to
others. I think in particular the church today should be doing much more
for single parents, widows, divorced families -- all of whom tend to be
disproportionately financially poor in our society. Churches have so
many resources, both of people and of money (although American
Christians don't give any more to charity than non-Christians do), and
yet they seem to have so little impact on their local neighbourhoods.
Why?

> I really admire the work she and her church are doing.  They are really
> trying to live out what Jesus instructed.  Their values don't always
> coincide with mine, but, although they often seem to judge (or, perhaps, use
> discrimination), they also practice forgiveness.  The faith-based
> organizations that George W. Bush proposes seem to lack this latter detail.
> 
> It bothers me that Christianity has become associated with a right-wing
> political agenda.  My mother is proof that this is not so.  My father, who
> was involved with the Catholic Worker as a young man, often says that Jesus
> was a radical and a socialist.  Even the Pope is consistently

I was going to get into this when replying to Diane's original post on
religion. Christianity in the early days and as espoused by Christ was
progressive and radical.  I think Christianity, often, takes on the same
culture as the prevailing society -- so now it's become concerned with
preserving the status quo, enhancing financial investments, support of
individuality and independence over sharing resources with others, an
obsession with the work ethic and individual responsibility, punishment
and justice valued more than mercy and forgiveness, etc. That's not
Christianity -- that's American culture. The Bible has a lot to say
about the need for Christians -- those who would do Christ's work on
Earth -- to keep themselves free from the values of the culture. 


  
> I don't understand how it's come to pass that Christians choose to identify
> themselves with selfishness, insularity, shunning their less-fortunate
> neighbors, diverting largesse from the public welfare toward aggression and
> the instruments of war, murdering prisoners, casting out the orphans and the
> widows.  Having read the Bible, I can only believe that this is an obscene
> perversion of what Christ preached.  The bible-thumpers adhere to the God of
> the Torah/Old Testament, the god of vengeance.  But Jesus was very explicit
> about creating a new covenant based not on the law, but on grace.  Where is
> that grace?  He said he came to free the prisoners.  Fundamentalists must
> take that literally.  I am saddened by what is going on.

You have stated this very well, I think.

~ Molly Wms.