Bush and Religion: Anti Christian, Polarizing and
Ugly
Dr. Gerry Lower
The Bush administration has coerced virtually every branch of western Christendom in America back into the fold of Old Testament fundamentalism, the entirety of which is pre-Christian in origin, largely anti-Christian in content and historically anti-Christian in practice. Bush's polarization has driven American Christendom into two diametrically-opposed camps. These two camps are separated entirely by moral ground, those preferring a conservative Old Testament vengeance-based morality and those preferring a liberal New Testament compassion-based ethical morality.
It is taken for granted by religious Republicans that America is a
"Christian" nation (in spite of its newfound Old Testament
religiosity). It is assumed, somehow or another, that the human rights
basis of American Democracy must have its roots in religious
fundamentalism, legalism, penalism and vengeance. That measure of
historical ignorance is simply mind-wretching in a democracy overtly based
by Jefferson on nascent Christian values and human tights, and having had
over two centuries to get it figured out.
The entire Republican interpretation of nascent Democracy and Christianity
(based on demonstrably false interpretations of history) is an utter
religious fiction, maintained as if the western church has no history of
its own, as if the church has made no human progress whatsoever since the
days of Biblical and Roman despotism. The Bush administration has
succeeded in coercing the various branches of American Catholicism and
Protestanism back into the fold of Old Testament fundamentalism, the
entirety of which is pre-Christian in origin, largely anti-Christian in
content and historically anti-Christian in practice (recalling here the
fact of imperialism, colonialism and capitalism, as uniformly justified by
Old Testament religious attitudes, e.g., choseness and
self-righteousness).
One result of religious political dominion (under the "I am a uniter,
not a divider" leadership of George W. Bush) is the further
polarization of American Christendom into two diametrically-opposed camps.
These two camps are clearly separated by moral ground, those prefering a
conservative Old Testament vengeance-based morality and those prefering a
liberal New Testament compassion-based ethical morality. Accordingly,
these two camps pursue human dominion and liberation, respectively.
DOMINION THEOLOGY (Old Testament)
To worship an ethereal, supernatural Jesus in service to Roman dogma
and self-righteous conquest and control.
The core of Dominion Theology is exemplified by the so-called
"compassionate" conservatism of the Texas Southern Baptist
political party as devined and defined in part by Marvin Olasky, a Bush
friend and lay political "theologian." Promoting Dominion
Theology without knowing it, "compassionate" conservatism is a
politically-inspired religious cult (by definition), promoted by
well-healed fanatics who essentially call for a return to the 11th
century, to a time of lords and serfs, a time of perpetual religious war
and preemptory conquest in the name of Christian compassion (and Roman
dominion). It was the heighth of Holy Roman imperialism and it was, as
lamented by Lewis Thomas, "the most horrible of times."
The values of those despotic times have now been installed into the core
of American government by the Bush administration and a spiritually-bereft
band of neo-conservative religious ideologues who conceptualize reality
through Old Testament eyes in order to justify
themselves and their implicit visions of a pax Americana.
The neoconservative political movement emerged during the 1960s when
religious ideologues found a political philosophy to their liking in the
work of Leo Strauss, a professor of political science at the University of
Chicago. Strauss was a refuge from Nazi Germany who saw the world through
Old Testment eyes (i.e., the entire world revolved around Jerusalem). Had
he been genuinely interested in nourishing Democracy (as he claimed), he
would have begun where democratic political philosophy began in America,
with Jefferson's Declaration. He would have tried to see the world
through Jefferson's eyes (centered around Bethlehem).
It all comes back to concepts of what causes what in the world. The
conservative right wing in the 1960s saw the causes of civil disobedience
as being due to a lack of religion and law in American upbringing. The
liberal left wing in the 1960s saw the causes of civil disobedience as
being more related to the sociocultural "system" selling out on
family and community values. In other words, the right saw the cause of
civil disobedience as being due to too little right wing influence, and
the left saw the cause of civil disobedience as being due to too much
right wing influence.
Strauss began his political philosophy with Old Testament fears of
cultural genocide and the traditional JudeoRoman willingness to "fight
tyranny with tyranny." This ideology, in neo-conservative hands, led
ultimately to the "Project for a New American Century" and right wing
plans to control Iraq and Iraqi oil, plans to install America as God's
western marketing manager at the top of the global economic heap.
Dominion theology calls for exactly that, religious dominion over the
minds of the people, precisely the kind of dominion against which
Jefferson swore to God "eternal hostility." Dominion theology is
simply a rehash of Old Testament Roman theology, devoid of the values of
both nascent Christianity and the values of Jefferson's Democracy. It
pursues a global pax Americana and rule by the ruling class, the
already-too-rich and powerful.
Dominion Theology is supported by those who make the unsupported
assumption that the rich and powerful, by virtue of their wealth and
benificence, are the primary providers of jobs, the literal source of
nourishment for those who must labor for a living. In fact, as Lincoln was
quick to point out, "Capital is only the fruit of labor ... Labor is the
superior of capital and deserves much the higher consideration."
LIBERATION THEOLOGY (New Testament)
To worship the historic Jesus in service to compassion and human
brotherhood.
The core of Liberation Theology is the historic Jesus, the Christ as a
spiritual philosopher and social physician, as the man most responsible
for introducing the world to the concept of natural human rights and
setting the direction of human spiritual progress for the next two
millennia.
The Christian message was largely held in check beneath the shrouds of Old
Testament supernaturalism and despotism for 1500 years, throughout the
eras of imperialism and colonialism, until the EuroAmerican Enlightenment,
the emergence of Deism and the simple realization that the Old Testament
vengeance-based punitive morality and the New Testament compassion-based
ethical morality are mutually-exclusive, not belonging together in the
same book. Jefferson's Deist Bible contains not a word from the Old
Testament.
As part of that theological rebirth, came the concept that God is located
on the human inside, located in the "head and heart" of every person
and manifest in human ideas, words and actions, defined as "the will
of the people," to use Jefferson's words. As a direct result of this
inward-facing theology, Jefferson argued elequently for empowering the
people through guaranteed human rights.
Today, Liberation theologians walk mostly on the same ground that Jesus
defined and Jefferson implemented. They do not mourn a dead, ethereal
Jesus in devout service to the Roman church, they celebrate the living,
historic Jesus, the man who confronted Biblical and Roman despotism head
on and in public, the man who introduced the concept of natural human
rights to the western world, the man who gave his life in service to the
honesty and decency inside all people, the man who inspired Jefferson's
Declaration.
The world of Liberation Theology comes not (like Dominion Theology) from
one political party (ignorant of the history of religion) or one political
philosopher (ignorant of the history of western democracy) but from
diverse branches of western Christendom, beginning with several Roman
Catholic theologians operating more or less on the edge of
excommunication. A sampling of Liberation Theologians:
Matthew Fox - Drawing heavily on the wisdom of St. Francis and the
theological contributions of 11th century Christian mystics, Fox brings
modern life to Christian "Panentheism" and the concept of a God
within. (Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality, Putnam
Group, 2000, ISBN: 1585420670).
James Kavanaugh - Poetry with theological content, birthed from compassion
and nascent Christian values (There Are Men Too Gentle to Live Among
Wolves, Steven J. Nash, 1991, ISBN: 1878995138)
Disk Westley - a Catholic theologian discusses the cultural roots of
social problems (Morality and Its Beyond, Twenty-Third Publications, 1984,
ISBN: 0896222071)
Thomas Berry - the Catholic "Geologian" celebrates the Nature
religion embedded in nascent Chrisitianity (The Great Work: Our Way Into
the Future, Harmony/BellTower, 2000, ISBN: 0609804995)
Tom Harpur - a Canadian theologian gets real. "God is with us, for us
and in us." (For Christ's Sake, McClelland & Stewart, 1993, ISBN:
077103945X)
Andrew Greeley - a Catholic demographer/theologian discusses human
progress in the old church (The Catholic Revolution: New Wine, Old Skins
and the Second Vatican Council, Univ. California Press, 2004, ISBN:
0520238176)
Bruce Bawer - a Protestant theologian discusses the perversion of nascent
Christian values by the values of Old Testament religion (Stealing Jesus:
How Fundamentalism Betrays Christianity, Three Rivers Press, 1998, ISBN:
0609802224).
Peter McWilliams - a Deist discusses the Old Testament religious roots of
most western perversions (Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do, Prelude
Press, 1993, ISBN: .
By and large, Liberation Theology exists at the expense of Old Testament
fundamentalism. At the same time, Liberation Theology tends to retain a
sense of the supernatural and the "miraculous" and a belief in Jesus
as a viable recipient and responder to individual prayer. Liberation
Theology tends to see itself as providing a liberal basis for a religion
that emphasizes New Testament values over Old Testament values, compassion
over vengeance.
The division of American Christian into those abiding Dominion Theology
and those living Liberation Theology is a continuing reflection of the
centuries old conflict between Jeffersonian Christian revolutionaries and
Hamiltonian religious Tories, the former winning the Revolutionary battles
and the latter winning the Revolutionary War by drafting a Constitution
inconsistent with the nascent Christian values and human rights of the
Declaration.
Liberation Theology emerged in America, in part, due to the recognition
that traditional religion had a tendency to emphasize the Old Testament
legal/penal morality over the New Testament Christian ethical morality. It
also tended to nourish a lot more than obedience and piety. It tended to
nourish vengeance, choseness and self-righteousness. If it were to
separate itself entirely from supernatural justifications, Liberation
Theology would morph into Deist Theology, the theology of Democracy.
DEIST THEOLOGY ("Jefferson Bible")
To realize the thought of the historic Jesus.
The core of Deist theology is dialectic human thought which provides the
values of Science, Democracy and nascent Christianity. Deism makes no
distinction between the dialectic thought of Hippocrates, Jesus, Jefferson
and Gandhi. All thought ascribed to Deity is human thought (with or
without spiritual content). No supernatural thought about deity has
spiritual content.
Jefferson was a highly accomplished Deist theologian and his nascent
Christian Democracy is Deisms's highest accomplishment to date. Deism does
not, however, restrict itself to Jesus but embraces all enlightened
dialectic thinkers, east and west. Deism strives not to talk about
enlightened thinkers but to realize (i.e., to think and act like) them, to
accept compassion as the bottom line in all thought and action, to seek a
creative ethical morality designed not to condone (eastern acceptance) or
condemn (western judgement) but to heal.
Deism subscribes only to the TJV (Thomas Jefferson Version) of western
scriptures, devoid of both Old and New Testament superstition and
supernaturalism. Deism, as the Science of religion, provides the Theology
of Democracy and the dialectic human values with which enlightened
problem-solving begins.
Deism believes, with both Jesus and Jefferson, that all people are born on
this earth with natural human rights, above and beyond the laws of the
western church-state and the proper manners of eastern society. Deism
believes that the people, as the voice of the highest authority on earth,
ought be guaranteed the right to Life (Self-Knowledge), Liberty
(Self-Determination), Fraternite' (Self-Growth and Maturation) and the
Pursuit of Happiness (Self-Worth).
Deism accepts that praying to Jesus will not go as far as thinking and
behaving like Jesus. It all comes down to thinking for ourselves, being
our own judge of other's judgements, and making our own decisions, as both
Jesus and Jefferson would have it. When good Christians stop talking about
Jesus and begin thinking and acting like Jesus, when enlightened human
values are once again thrust upon human governments by the people, then,
of course, Jesus will be back home, second time around, this time for the
duration.
Dominion or Liberation?
Constantine or Christ?
Religious Vengeance or Christian Compassion?
Religious Self-righteousness or Christian Honesty?
Laws and punishments or Human Rights?
Controlled Society or Free Society?
Religious Crony Capitalism or Free and Fair Trade?
Belligerence or Brotherhood?
Supernaturalism or Spirituality?
Meaninglessness or Meaningfullness?
Perpetual War or World Peace?
These are the choices that have been before honest and caring people in
the western world since Christianity, with a Roman emperor's insistence,
moved from being a tribal religion to being an imperial state religion.
These are the choices that were disallowed by the Roman and European
church/states for a millennium and a half of imperialism and colonialism,
respectively. Christian values were not to live by but to kill and die
for, in the name of Christian values and Old Testament despotism.
The human intellectual ability to make choices is a gift from Deism's
God within. The right to use that God-given ability, i.e., free thouht and
speech, is a gift from America's Deist fathers, a right never considered
by the Old Testament Roman church, which has traditionally remained
ignorant of the nascent Christian concept of natural human rights, never
seeing in Christianity what America's fathers were able to see - without
recourse to supernaturalism.
Dominion Theology is what conservative Old Testament theology is all
about. Liberation Theology is what liberal New Testament theology is all
about. Human Theology in the interest of human self-concept and maturation
is what Deist theology is all about.
Given the gift, one pays one's money and one takes one's choice, to put
the nascent Christian message bluntly. Western Christendom can no longer
afford to worship Jesus. The churches of western Christendom need to
realize Jesus, as did Jefferson, by working to incorporate nascent
Christian values (i.e., dialectic human values) directly into the
operational policies of government, at the expence of Biblical and Roman
despotism.
It is the answer to "What Would Jesus Do?" It is the answer to "What
Would Jefferson Do?" Both men were realists, both men were empiricists,
both men were dialecticians in thought and action.
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Dr. Gerry Lower lives in the shadow of Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills
of South Dakota. His recent analysis of Bush World through
"Jefferson's Eyes" can be explored at www.jeffersonseyes.com and
he can be reached at tisland@blackhills.com
