Pharisees
April 26, 2005
A good post from a new BOP News member, RJ Eskow.
I have a comment and some personal observations to add that I think provides an even clearer focus. RJ uses a quotation from the gospel of John to explain why Christian fundamentalists continue to portray themselves as victims, even though they have the power of the state in their hands:
The Gospel of John tells Christians that "because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you." This concept, and the entire notion of martyrdom, is tricky for nonbelievers to fully grasp. What do Christians do when representatives of their faith, a faith forged in opposition to this world and its powers, acquire overwhelming political might? Unless they are deeply spiritual, they will continue to look for oppressors, for enemies, for the earthly forces that supposedly "hate" and oppose them.
This is why we continue to see fundamentalist Christians, their hands on all the levers of government, vilify liberals and secularists as if these hapless minorities were brutal occupying forces. This dynamic informs and motivates the battles of the Religious Right. Democrats and liberals fail to understand it at their own peril.
This is extremely on target and an integral part of the message. It's crucial to their leaders' claims to authority and an important plank in their call to activism.
What fundamentalists overlook, of course, is which side of the social spectrum Jesus associated with. It was not the powerful, the wealthy, the established order. It was fishermen, tax collectors, prostitutes, lepers, the poor, the outcasts of society. Who did Jesus reserve his harshest words for? The Pharisees. The Pharisees were the religious fundamentalists of his day and they were powerful, wealthy, and the arbiters of who and what was appropriately pious. They were also notable hypocrites. Is this starting to sound familiar?
A definition:
New Advent (online Catholic encyclopedia)During these persecutions of Antiochus the Pharisees became the most rigid defenders of the Jewish religion and traditions. In this cause many suffered martyrdom (I Mach., i, 41 sq.), and so devoted were they to the prescriptions of the Law that on one occasion when attacked by the Syrians on the Sabbath they refused to defend themselves (I Mach., ii, 42; ibid., v, 3 sq.). They considered it an abomination to even eat at the same board with the heathens or have any social relations with them whatsoever. Owing to their heroic devotedness their influence over the people became great and far-reaching, and in the course of time they, instead of the priests, became the sources of authority. In the time of Our Lord such was their power and prestige that they sat and taught in "Moses' seat". This prestige naturally engendered arrogance and conceit, and led to a perversion in many respects of the conservative ideals of which they had been such staunch supporters. In many passages of the Gospels, Christ is quoted as warning the multitude against them in scathing terms. "The scribes and the Pharisees have sitten in the chair of Moses. All things therefore whatsoever they shall say to you, observe and do: but according to their works do ye not; for they say and do not. For they bind heavy and insupportable burdens, and lay them on men's shoulders; but with a finger of their own they will not move them. And all their works they do for to be seen of men. For they make their phylacteries broad, and enlarge their fringes. And they love the first places at feasts, and the first chairs in the synagogues. And salutations in the market place, and to be called by men, Rabbi" (Matt., xxiii, 1-8). Then follows the terrible arraignment of the scribes and Pharisees for their hypocrisy, their rapacity, and their blindness (ibid., 13-36).
So today, our pharisees are the Dobsons, the Robertsons, the Frists, the Santorums, the George W. Bushes who mouth their pious words, while cutting the social safety net out from under those who most need it, who get in bed with powerful corporate interests, who hammer plowshares into swords and make war for their own ends. And, while doing so, they claim they are being targetted and oppressed by liberals, who are the ones who actually want to implement policies that are in line with the message of Jesus.
Perhaps this is why it's so hard to avoid criticism and ridicule of religious fundamentalists or to refer to them in terms that seem condescending. It's because their leaders and the faith they follow is so opposite to the message of Jesus. Many of the leaders are corrupt, hypocrites or both. The unfortunate followers, on the other hand, have been miseducated as to what Christianity is supposed to be about.
I don't make these claims as some heathen. I have the background to know this stuff from personal experience. That is, I'm not a heathen, I'm an apostate. I've been there.
Before I stopped believing in God and left the church entirely, I'd been exposed to the charismatic brand of Christianity. My family bailed out of the conservative Missouri Synod Lutheran church in our small town, at my mom's insistence. She'd begun a spiritual journey, looking to escape the claustrophobic bonds of that church. It eventually landed us in the sphere of influence of the charismatic movement. Perhaps my historical perspective is a bit off, but it seems to me this was just starting to be a big thing, then, back in the mid 70's. We eventually escaped, spent a while in a liberal Episcopal church and then landed in an AELC Lutheran congregation.
While less obviously so back then, the charismatics have moved fully into the right-wing camp. Agape Press, recently associated with the "Justice Sunday" event, are a good representative of this crowd. We're talking about the speaking in tongues, rapture, end-of-days spectrum here. The charismatics aren't a church, they're a movement, a travelling, self-selecting, convention/marketing association. I think that's why Agape Press is such a good representative. They can only exist by marketing their ideas to spread and expand their following.
They reel you in with the Holy Spirit and a personal relationship with Jesus, but once you're in, the rest of the ideology comes with it. Even back then, they were vehemently anti-evolution. I struggled with massive cognitive dissonence through this. I was a total science geek as a kid, having grown up on dinosaurs, reading Isaac Asimov (fiction and science), Scientific American and was fascinated by theoretical physics and biology. Luckily, difficulty with being a "joiner" and the problem of being too well read for my age kept up the pressure on the cognitive dissonance.
It remains one of the creepiest experiences of my life. The indoctrination was intense, all encompassing. While different from some of the more traditional Christian right groups, at least in scale and intensity, their selective interpretations share little in common with a studied reading of the bible. There was no social justice agenda ever mentioned, except in terms of service to proselytizing. It was all about your personal relationship to god and spreading the "good word".
For this reason, it's extremely compatible with the right-wing fundamentalism of strict rules-based Christianity. I don't have the personal experience with that brand, but from years of following their exploits, I see many familiar landmarks. The standard brand fundamentalism also includes the personal relationship angle, the belief-is-all-you-need mindset and a very narrow definition of who God will choose to be in heaven. Neither focus on Jesus words and works as the basis of how to live your life, or are pretty selective about it in doing so.
Both groups benefit from the message that you have to follow them strictly to be saved, that failing to do so dooms you to perdition. As a member, you are part of an in-group and non-members are part of the evil world, controlled by the devil. This is not the message of Jesus, who reached out to the poor, the sick, the sinners and charged his followers with making peace and helping those in need. Rather, the message of the Christian right has become a vehicle for worldly power, supporting today's Pharisees.
Thus ends today's sermon. Amen.
[update: This article from The Nation is just too perfect an example of what I'm talking about.]
|
