Right Wing Evangelicals Actually Reject Jesus, While Progressives Err Drinking Big Biz Cyanide As They Grab the Lifeline of Love

From John Pavolvitz´s blog · People have said that the MAGA Evangelical Church has hijacked Jesus but I don't believe that's true. They have hijacked the word Christian. Jesus is of no use to them. A Funeral for My Christianity johnpavlovitz.com A Funeral for My Christianity A friend told me that I seemed angry lately and at first it really pissed me off. I instantly mounted a spirited, vigorous defense laying out the reasons she had assessed me incorrectly but soon found myself trailing off, resigned to a harsh, unwelcome truth: She was right, or at least she was in th... 3 Comments Susan Knight Jesus is used as a weapon in their world. Reply 2hEdited Fredericka Richter DeBerry Excellent post, John. Exactly how I feel. TY. Reply 1h Mark Rego Monteiro Laura-Magnolia Robinson Morris 9 hrs · A favorite teacher who knows what JESUS REALLY TAUGHT! Take this to heart! 🙏💜 John Pavlovitz · People have said that the MAGA Evangelical Church has hijacked Jesus but I don't believe that's true. They have hijacked the word Christian. Jesus is of no use to them. A Funeral for My Christianity johnpavlovitz.com A Funeral for My Christianity A friend told me that I seemed angry lately and at first it really pissed me off. I instantly mounted a spirited, vigorous defense laying out the reasons she had assessed me incorrectly but soon found myself trailing off, resigned to a harsh, unwelcome truth: She was right, or at least she was in th... 10 Comments Susan Knight Jesus is used as a weapon in their world. Reply 8hEdited Dana Schindler Susan Knight as is the Bible. Reply 1m Fredericka Richter DeBerry Excellent post, John. Exactly how I feel. TY. Reply 7h Mark Rego Monteiro It´s a personal share of a blog piece, and nice in that way. It helps me proceed to reflect that Jesus is used merely as the object of a personal Savior, maybe let into one´s heart, as a club membership qualifier. Then it´s all Paul with hate-colored glasses, if that. So, JP´s list of the evangelical lack of the Gospel is a good one. But I´ve been addressing Progressive Christian culture a bit, and just am fresh off an exchange around a very softy video, with a UCC pastor asking, "What does God mean to you?" I came up with the phrase, after my exchange with a conservative, "erring on the side of Love." It´s erring in the sense that progressives are riding in materialist assumptions in various ways, but of course, far from being as antagonistic and toxic as the right wing evangelicals. Thus, it´s important to grasp what is wrong with the evangelicals. However, I didn´t go from atheist humanism to interfaith seeking to an interfaith UU Quaker Christian by even mostly figuring out how wrong the evangelicals are. I just kept my "eyes on the prize" of my own spiritual growth. Maybe the "erring while grabbing the lifeline of Love" captures more of the nuances of progressives. What did I do, in retrospect, or rather, what have I been doing? I reached a point, around Obama´s first campaign, where I was ready to join the Green Party. I didn´t, but was clear about the meaning of political parties, in contrast to not for profit public interest group political activism for legislation and consumer and economic activism in informed purchasing and social entrepreneurship. That is, I worked a summer stint with the PIRGs out of college, who also taught me about Ralph Nader, Sierra Club, and Greenpeace. I later learned about more, like Oxfam, food co-op stores, and credit unions. All of that was sort of activist "technical insight" that I gained, and not yet integrated fully with my spiritual-religious knowledge. My spiritual progress had already advanced by then by my recognizing that God´s love through Jesus meant learning, and I had learned my spirituality in interfaith seeking. My next step was to consciously understand that my interest in University-based modern education and social movements also was originally Christian spiritual practice, and still was potentially. In fact, secularism had made it psychosocially and culturally "transferable." Unlike airplane tickets, which are made not to be, instead being "non-transferable" among individuals. That´s how Gandhi made a fascinating journey from secular Hindu law student to theosophically inspired interfaith Christian Hindu etc. Mohammed Yunus was a Muslim with a western economics degree when he helped poor women and founded the pro-poor, pro-women Grameen Bank that spread throughout Bangladesh on a bumpy ride, inspired others, and spread elsewhere like the US itself. It´s up to 19 branches here. Wangari Maathai´s Greenbelt Movement in Africa is another, and Vandana Shiva´s work in India yet another, and the efforts go on. Jesus doesn´t need to be seen for the spectacular figure that he is for the greatest of his fruits to be spreading. However, given the way people are intimidated by Big Biz profiteering businesspeople, I think it will require appreciating how Buddha and Gandhian Hinduism, yoga, tai chi, etc lead us back to Jesus in a passionate spiritual sense for Moses et al and God. US Civil Rights and UN human rights are in Jesus´ legacy, and once we connect those dots, we can get over our feeling intimidated here in the mixed bag, smokescreen razzle-dazzle, and broken dreams of the US of A. I found a food co-op store in New York City, went on Sierra Club hikes, and appreciated Patagonia´s amazing eco-social business model, along with finding Greenpeace´s Greener Electronics and Detox My Fashion campaigns. I studied jiu-jitsu and capoeira, yoga, and found Christian Science and took unbaptized communion in Episcopal and Catholic services. All of us can do stuff like that. G Scott Heron sang "The revolution will not be televised." Well, that depends. Reply 6hEdited Steve Koschella Mark Rego Monteiro Jesus was hijacked as a political tool at around 350AD under Constantine. He has been forcibly inbred with "Christendom" ever since. Reply 2h Mark Rego Monteiro Steve Koschella So, you´re actually intending to say, in empirical terms, that Constantine, the Roman military guy oriented towards Christianity starting with his lowborn mom Helena, is who has been "forcibly inbred...." etc. It´s all Constantine´s fault. That´s definitely an important gearshift moment. However, knowledge of the truth doesn´t operate by blaming and fingerpointing. People and culture are much more complicated, and that´s why looking up psychology, sociology, and anthropology isn´t "soft social science." It´s profound and cuts like a "sword" to grasp a lot of things. So, actually, no. Constantine did ratchet Christianity into a new level of authority requiring real world adjustments, but he´s hardly been "forcibly inbred". Bio Anthro helps since Pan trog. chimps have the unnatural mammalian capacity and tendency to massacre neighboring groups when they can. Moreover, humankind universally has conflict problems, and at the level of civilization, commits violence and enslavement. That comes with some certain level of power and authority. While I do want to acknowledge your effort to recognize some history, there´s more to it. Jesus didn´t teach that he was just strolling around with a great self-help book to make people feel better while they work away in their cubicles, but he did see that things would grow in amazing ways. He said things I recognize as "go and learn..." Matt 9, and "These things I do, you too shall do, and greater." John 14:12. That doesn´t mean that it would be a free ride on a magic carpet. I knocked on doors out of college, where I had plunged my intellectual abilities into nothing less than a bronco ride from pre-med to sociology to biological anthropology. Additional historical markers help clarify the point. By 385 AD, Priscillian became the first heretic executed, and it was at the then emperor´s order. It was no less over the objections of the then pope, and spiritual leaders St. Jerome, and St. Martin of Tours. By 476 AD, the Western emperor had been overthrown and left as the King of Italy Odoacer, with the Roman church on its own. They didn´t go on a bloody binge, for one thing. In fact, some very crucial things began happening in the church now leveraged up in rank as an institution with a wide network, including the all important monasteries. That means areas for spiritual practice specialists. Cassiodorus in the 500s injected his classical learning into the monastic system. Benedict of Nursia did his amazing thing with a fine start of a reformed monastic rule. Missionaries were converting the invading tribes not with swords, but with their famous style that sometimes resulted in the famous martyrdom. Pagan kings like Clovis weren´t always so Christ-like. Neither did Clovis learn to threaten his people with monarchical "subtle" insinuation to get baptized from Constantine. So, things are already far more complex, and involve some amazing Christian demonstrations of their monastic skill as missionaries. Getting clear about the "upward gearshifts" has to begin with looking at what Christians did with ancient Greek philosophy, neoplatonic to start with. That gave Christians the start to intellectual firepower. That´s where the focus needs to be on how new "upward gearshifts" in Christian potential come in. Charlemagne reunited a big chunk of Europe from a new tribal angle oriented toward the Roman church. He beat the Saxons and forced their conversion. Well, hash that one out, but at that point, the law of the jungle in tribe fight tribe, was in play, and Charlemagne´s Christianity dealt with its Saxon conflict like it had with the Lombards. Yay, the pope crowned him the Holy Roman Emperor. How´s your history? Yet, Charlemagne spurred learning by summoning Alcuin of York and other monks. A few hundred years later and the Iberian Reconquest was on track, and Thomas Aquinas was the student of Albert Magnus at the spanking new level of learning the U of Paris. Thomas Aquinas Christianized Aristotle´s First Cause, and other things, as a pivotal development called the Great Synthesis. That percolated and marinated for a little more time, Jan Hus was burned at the stake, while Luther took his learning as a monk and nailed 95 Theses. The church wasn´t abusing its power in indulgences because of Constantine, but because of the human tendency to indulge in the abuse of power, privilege, and pleasure. Luther inspired a breakaway from that power and privilege. Descartes came along by 1640, and is identified for the mind-body split that naturalized philosophical thinking, that Pascal criticized, that worried John Locke. That´s identifies a few key points and issues that boil down to the human bio-psychosocial tendencies to indulge in the abuse of power, privilege, and pleasure. Jesus taught "seek first the Kingdom of Heaven" and "clean the cup on the inside", which Anthony of the Desert addressed in a great way with his ascetic founding of Christian monasticism. After Luther, the Protestants didn´t even keep that monastic system. George Fox, however, led the co-founding of the Quaker Friends with amazing results that need to be made more prominent in progressive culture. He stopped bowing to aristocrats, valued individuals, women, and protested injustice. The other Quaker-Friends followed suit, and in a hundred years, they initiated and inspired the anti-slavery abolition movement in a pioneering interdenominational campaign. I fast forward and connect all the dots in Gandhi, the interfaith Christian Hindu. The problem is centrally how Christian educational and scientific success has given nominal Christian merchants, soldiers, and politicians amplified and intense power. That´s where European colonization came from, and Gandhi´s context under the British Empire. Gandhi valued Jesus´ integrity to the utmost, using his orientation by theosophy to go interfaith. The interfaith and spiritual Gandhi shows how about people can respiritualize their experience for integrity in the standard of loving and just integrity that Jesus really represents. If you identify Constantine, it´s not at all his fault. Switch your focus to Anthony of the Desert to credit him for developing the monastic movement that focused on spiritual practice and led to modern University education. George Fox, whose Quakers include Lucretia Mott and Susan B. Anthony. W Gladden´s Social Gospel influenced FD Roosevelt and his vision of UN human rights. Robert Owen was inspired no less by a Christian doctor to inspire the Rochdale pioneer co-op business model. Getting clear about all that involves valuing psychology, anthropology, sociology, along with history. Process Theologian JB Cobb has a good standpoint. Historian James Hannam´s Genesis of Science is excellent. Like the Buddha says, something like Paul I recall, it´s important to apply ourselves to our spiritual work. And that´s is consistent with Jesus´ vision expressed in his teachings, "go and learn" etc. (and also this: Steve Koschella "Constantine has been forcibly inbred..."? Try, human beings are universally violent and enslave, like their chimpanzee Pan trog. cousins who slaughter neighbors, which means they, we, have bio-psychosocial tendencies to indulge in the abuse of power, privilege, and pleasure. Violence and enslavement already are visible on the smaller scales of tribal societies like Africa´s and the America´s, and at the larger scales we know so well in China, India, Islam, the Aztecs, Mesopotamia, Egypt, and so on. So, Constantine didn´t make Christianity evil. The issue of Church doctrinal orthodoxy is about two things: political/institutional authority and the truth. Expressing the truth in religion without political authority issues requires a good modern educational system. By developing a monastic system already by 320, then Universities by 1150, Christians showed an incredible capacity to work with Jesus´ legacy standard of loving integrity for Moses et al and God. Islam´s scholarship, its Golden Age, collapsed because of things like overcentralization and infighting. Constantine, meanwhile, leveraged Christianity up with access to authority. His promoting orthodox doctrine was unfortunate, but not supported in the same way by the church. When the first heretic was executed in 385, it was the Roman emperor who gave the order, not the pope, St. Jerome, or St. Martin of Tours. By 476, the Western Roman emperor had been deposed, leaving the local King of Italy, and political breakdown in the West. The church was on its own in a big way. By 600 AD, Pope Gregory sent Augustine of Canterbury to Britain talking about allowing pagan practices wherever possible. If Jan Hus was executed around 1400, then the educated monk Luther by 1520 used his education to list 95 Theses like against the problem of Rome charging indulgences. Luther inspired the Reformation as local political monarchs supported him. University-based education is a key common denominator. Hugo Grotius and John Locke used their education to write about religious tolerance, as the British also showed some interesting innovative spirit among the Puritans, with Quakers, Methodists, and more. The famous Age of Navigation and colonization was mostly gold and glory by the universal roles of humans as merchants, soldiers, and politicians who as nominal Christians used the intelligence that monastic-based Universities were developing as the fruit of Jesus´ legacy. That´s how Christianity ended absolute monarchy with US constitutional democracy and Civil Rights. University-based natural law became secular education as part of that. However, that wasn´t all just democracy, education, and hugs and kisses. Colonization by European Protestant merchants used education to create joint stock companies and to create theories of profiteering that took Adam Smith´s "free market" and cut out his editorial ethics. When Quaker Friends led the protesting against slavery, their dissident high integrity Christianity had to oppose the economic profiteering businesspeople who wanted slavery. Minister Washington Gladden in 1877 then initiated the Social Gospel by supporting labor organizing. Gladden and Rauschenbusch led influences on FD Roosevelt who did projects in Boston´ s needy low income neighborhoods in the 1890s under his Episcopalian principal. Eleanor got involved with pro-poor settlement house projects following Jane Addam´s Hull House, that she got inspired by from a British project. Anglican Sam Barnett´s Toynbee Hall.) (Steve Koschella First of all, Constantine died in 337 AD. "Jesus hijacked as a political tools... and forcibly inbred..."? "Forcibly inbred" is actually a metaphor that you´re using that has serious limitations. What has been special about Christianity, in it all? Are you clear that key "breakouts" have happened throughout history? The term "breakout" works with your metaphor, although it´s more like Jesus has been misused by hypocritical, low integrity, and worse nominal Christians in the roles of merchants, soldiers, and politicians. It is, however, spiritual practice that corresponds to high integrity figures. Emperors were not the church, however, in key ways, so you´re actually just wrong. Priscillian was the first heretic executed in 385, and it was by the then emperor´s order, and protested by the church, St. Jerome, and St. Martin of Tours. Moreover, with Julian in 360, he became a pagan and started trying to work against Christianity. It wasn´t just playschool. Political realities need to be acknowledged. Constantine was still doing quite a bit of paganism himself, and his sympathy gave Christianity legitimacy, since it had been subjected to Roman imperial persecution. So, then, while Emperors as Christians certainly used "Jesus" in mostly nominal Christianity in their monarchical-military role, what happened? Western emperors were all deposed by 476 AD in a fascinating development that left the Roman church in a novel position. The Roman church, meanwhile, was sending missionaries on their own to convert invading tribes, no less. Some became martyrs. Some popes did crazy things like Pope Steven VII putting a corpse on trial in 897. Then the Inquisitions began, but really, were mild and orderly, and so start getting thinned out as far as ruthless "massacres" go. The category isn´t "Christianity", but humans in authority as nominal Christians. Authentic Christians were practicing spirituality and developed monastic schools into Universities. Jesus´ 2 Commandments, fulfilling Moses´ were loving, and his teachings indicated spiritual practice. Thanks to Jesus´ legacy in modern monastic-derived University-based modern education, we can make important distinctions. Human beings are actually universally violent and enslave, like their chimpanzee Pan trog. cousins who slaughter neighbors, which means they, we, have bio-psychosocial tendencies to indulge in the abuse of power, privilege, and pleasure. Violence and enslavement already are visible on the smaller scales of tribal societies like Africa´s and the America´s, and at the larger scales we know so well in China, India, Islam, the Aztecs, Mesopotamia, Egypt, and so on. Chinese history has a phenomena called "literary inquisitions" based on authority figures being displeased with how writers talked about them. Entire families were executed at various points, and thousands upon thousands of deaths by execution. The Hongwu Emperor was a good example of such things. Human beings are meta-animals with bio-psychosocial tendencies. Everywhere. That is why anthropology can identify shamanism as having been important everywhere, spiritual practice everywhere, and why Jesus in Judeo-Christianity is worth calling "supershamanic." So, Constantine didn´t make Christianity evil. The issue of Church doctrinal orthodoxy is about two things: political/institutional authority and the truth. Expressing the truth in religion without political authority issues requires a good modern educational system. By developing a monastic system already by 320, then Universities by 1150, Christians showed an incredible capacity to work with Jesus´ legacy standard of loving integrity for Moses et al and God. Islam´s scholarship, its Golden Age, collapsed because of things like overcentralization and infighting. Christianity had to establish itself to move onward and upward. And Charlemagne united the tribes in Europe. By 1150, those Universities were giving Europeans new cultural development that led to the Age of Navigation and colonization, with God trailing Gold and Glory. Merchants, soldiers, and politicians led the colonization efforts. The educated monk Luther wrote up 95 Theses and stood up to Roman and new Imperial authority, and inspired a crucial split. That split led to various developments in Universities and otherwise. Constitutional democracy with Civil Rights. Merchants, then are the ones who led the Industrial Revolution. FD Roosevelt et al´s UN human rights. Merchants have funded right wing theology, and drove anti-communist militarist ideology, along with the soldiers and politicians. Ever read Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins? Then, try K Kruse´s One Nation Under God. Rev Fifield was a pro-rich preacher, but he didn´t get so important on his own. He met the executives of US Big Biz at the National Manufacturers Assoc. Ralph Nader is a big hero to help clarify the source of modern evil. Along with the Quaker-Friends who sparked and led much of the anti-slavery movement. The Social Gospel initiated in 1877 by minister Washington Gladden was pro-labor, and soon pro-Afro-Am. Constantine isn´t the problem Christianity faces. Getting clear about all that involves valuing psychology, anthropology, sociology, along with history. Process Theologian JB Cobb has a good standpoint. Historian James Hannam´s Genesis of Science is excellent. Like the Buddha says, something like Paul I recall, it´s important to apply ourselves to our spiritual work. And that´s is consistent with Jesus´ vision expressed in his teachings, "go and learn" etc.)