I've had a few of my readers ask me why I feel the need to "poke the bear" on the topic of Christian-led conspiracy theories. I though I'd take a minute and explain myself - and yes, Matilda, this is my way of asking you to join me.
If you were a conservative Christian at the time of 9/11, you heard a lot of people showing a lot of ignorance towards people not of the Christian persuasion. I personally came to the aid of a Muslim family in Kirkland, Washington just a few days after 9/11 who were being accosted by several WASP grown-up people on a sidewalk near a bus station. When I tried to point out to these miscreants that they were obviously not assailants, one of them said, "It's doesn't matter. They are a couple of them." These men were lofting rocks at fucking children. Needless to say, I found their actions reprehensible, and I quickly put the family in my car and extricated them from the situation.
Also, during this time, I was pretty much at the height of my conservative viewpoint beliefs. I listened to a lot of talk radio, specifically Bryan Knight and Kirby Wilbur (local Seattle-ites), and eventually more national people like Sean Hannity and Larry Elder. All these men openly confessed their faith in Jesus, and through the histrionics there was a repeat of one semi-reasonable question- "If Islam is a message of peace, how come the Muslims don't police their own?" I also started hearing this question asked in the pulpit, even by my own pastor at the time, Ken Hutcherson at Antioch Bible Church. (Hutch left off the first part of the question and just said, "it's time that the Muslims police their own" - paraphrased)
There's no argument that the first part of this question is inflammatory. But the question of policing their own did seem reasonable. At that time, Muslims didn't seem to be doing that (and I'll not debate whether or not they do now. That is not the point.) And somehow, from a Christian perspective, this was actually more a central idea than trying to convert Muslims to Christianity. (THANK GOD that didn't happen, because.......Crusades, anyone?)
I am digressing.........now, where are my ADHD meds?
We all know now that not all Muslims are terrorists. Most (99%) of Muslims are people like me and you, just trying to make it through their day, go to work, go to the grocery store, have time with their kids, etc. They have no desire to cause harm to anyone for any reason. It is a few, very loud and fringy Muslims that have caused problems in the world. Please understand that I am, in no way, trying to convert anyone to Islam, nor am I giving a pass to the Cro-Magnons who use women, children, the aged and innocent hostages as human shields, or hide their weapons caches in schools and hospitals - that is another topic for another time. (Let's stay on target....)
The Muslims who do these terrible things have injured relations far beyond their religion. They have created a stigma against not only a belief, but to a culture and a lifestyle. The average American fears Islam, and yet, the perpetrators of these acts of violence are not in concert with the vast majority of Muslims. While the case can be made that this is more a case of America's reaction, I'm afraid to say that a lot of European countries share this same belief. At the very least, it's 50/50 as to fault here.
In this country (U.S.A.) we are actually faced with almost the same problem. Oh- make no mistake - there is violence in the actions of these people. At the very least, there is shunning and gossip, in the middle there are legal procedures and arrests being made, and on the far end outright shooting and killing. And it's happening at a scale that we actually haven't seen before in American history - a history that is being revised based on lies, hearsay, ignorance, really-not-very-thinly veiled racism and gaslighting at an unbelievable pace.
I'm talking about the Conservative Christian movement and churches, specifically Evangelical Churches.
The outright blasphemy that we are seeing now in this country is in equating God with a particular political party. In the evangelical circles this is the idea that conservative principles are in line with God's will, and everything else isn't. Since the Bible says, "whoever is not with me is against me" - and since the Republicans are in line with God's will, that means that the Democrats are therefore misguided, anti-God and evil.
Except that's not what the Bible says, nor is this the context correct in talking about a viewpoint. That text (taken from Matthew 12:30 & Luke 11:23) that is so paramount to the Republican dogma, is said by Jesus, to the Pharisees and Sadducees simultaneously, and it is in regard to Jesus' arrest. If you must equate this to a political statement, it is very fair to view the Pharisees and Sadducees as opposite political parties (and that's an understatement) and therefore Jesus is scolding both sides equally. No favorites, no one closer to Him than the other. God is neither Liberal nor Conservative. Or a Socialist, a Communist, Anarchist, member of an Anarcho-Syndicalist Commune that takes turns every Tuesday to elect.......(if you aren't a Monty Python fan, I apologize). God is God. He transcends all men's flimsy attempts to understand Him. Full stop.
Here's why this is important: if make the argument that you are in line with God while others are not, that means that others are anti-God. One of the first time something like this has happened (from a Christian perspective) was all the back in 1095, when Pope Urban II delivered a sermon calling for all the armies of the western world to join ranks and take Jerusalem back from the Seljan Turks. We now refer to this as the "First Crusade", and the Pope's argument was nothing more than "Deus Vult!" ("God Wills It!"). That set off a chain of events that killed thousands. The Second Crusade was orchestrated by Pope Eugenius III, and was originally fought to help the County of Edessa (which had fallen to the Saracens). During the march to The Holy Land, the Pope said that the taking of Damascus in 1146 was also "Deus Vult!", and thousands of people were slaughtered (mainly innocent Turks) and the Crusaders were defeated, badly.
This is why a little knowledge of history is so vital, because it shows you what the human species is capable of over time.
The current American evangelical churches do not have a pope. It has hundreds of them. Hundreds of men and women who claim that they are "just preaching the word" and filling their congregations with absolute poison. They deride and divide, and they flat out lie about things in order to control their congregations, and they make any and all excuses to never actually question the things that they have "learned" (read: heard) from others in their particular echo chamber. And the Republican party has somehow equated themselves with God.
One thing you must understand is that almost the entirety of the rest of the Christian world does not believe that the American Christian Evangelical Church speaks or believes for them. There is no analog in any other western country that is equating faith in politics the way we do here in this country. Why is that? Because most of those countries have already had their fill state-run religion/propaganda and know first-hand what it brings. America doesn't have a state-run religion.
Yet.
We've all heard the Biblical statement, "They will know we are Christians by our love" - that actually isn't in Scripture. It's a loose interpretation of John 13:34-35, where Jesus is charging his disciples:
"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
This is the serious problem in the Christian church today. If you look at the Scripture above, the operative word is "if", and the imperative statement is "love one another as I have loved you". There is no rejoinder of "if they agree with you" or "if they follow what you follow". The imperative is clear here. Jesus' love for his disciples (and mankind) knew no boundaries whatsoever.
But yet, we have a set of "Christians" who think it's ok to spread rumor and discord, divisiveness and distance, name calling and all sorts of other things in the name of "God" in the name of "just preaching the gospel".
Yeah, well so was the Pope Urban II back in 1095. So was Eugenius III in 1146. So was Torquemada. So was Henry VIII, Samuel Parris and William Stoughton, Rasputin and Hitler. They all claimed that they had special knowledge from God, and to disagree with them was to disagree with God. In turn, thousands of people were injured and killed.
Their own followers won't hold them accountable. Recently, it came out that the leader of one of the largest evangelical churches in the US had had sexual relations with a minor some 20 years prior, and the leadership of his church hid it. When it came to light what had happened, about 50,000 people had their entire spiritual lives turned upside down- and then the congregation was asked to pray for restoration??!?? Does God forgive someone who does this? You bet your bippy He does, but He doesn't say that they get to keep their gig as a result. I was a member and on the music team at a megachurch here in the Seattle area in the late 90's who went through something like that (pastor screwing around) and I can tell you first-hand how bad that hurts- and doubly so as those around you double down on the lies that are being said all around you.
And now, these same people who will whitewash the sins of the people they agree with, have no trouble degrading others that are not in their camp who have done similar things at the political level, all the while claiming that their "anointed one" is working with God.
Yes, I'm talking about the Mango Moron.
Let's look at this: If you want to say that the 34 felony counts and the sexual abuse cases are politically motivated, what can you say about things that happened before he was in politics? Things like not paying his workers and contractors; his taking out a full-page ad in the New York Times calling for the execution of people accused of a crime and not yet convicted; lawsuits brought against him in the 1970's in Louisiana because he had been refusing to rent properties to black people and all his failed businesses. And the fact that he actually admitted to committing adultery on his 3rd wife; AND is on record having said that he never needed God's forgiveness for anything - and the evangelicals white wash that with "everyone has a past". That's a fair statement, but when Kamala Harris changes her mind on fracking it's like the world is going to end if she is elected.
Now, if you, my gentle reader is of the more conservative mindset that I am speaking of, and your answer to this is "the liberal churches do this to us, too", let me assure you that they don't. They don't have the same militaristic "hoo-yah" attitude as God's anointed ones t carry the fight into the godless parts of the country- quite the opposite. They just shake their heads and mourn the loss of family and friends who can't agree with Jewish Space Lasers, the unseen Kabal and the Mark of The Beast that is a COVID-19 vaccine. I should also add that any liberal or progressive church that does do this is just as wrong and should be policed as well.
So, where I'm headed with this is actually pretty simple. I plan to make a lot of noise about the thing I know the most about - that is, the thing that I have better knowledge of because of my involvement in it, and that's the absolute 'moronicization' of the American Evangelical Christian Church. How am I qualified to do this? I'm not qualified n the least, but:
I think that some of the OG conservative pundits had part of that statement correct: We do need to police our own. I am not a Muslim, nor am I a politician (perish THAT thought), but I am a believer in God, and your politics will not and have not ever dictated that, and I plan to speak about it.
Anyone wanna join me?
