CHRISTIAN FUNDAMENTALISM OFFENDS CHRIST/THREATENS US

On the subject of American Christianity in its relation to the rest of the world, particularly as it pertains to the Holy Land, I have been scanning the news stories/blogs from the largest Christian sites on the internet where I as a mother and world citizen have become alarmed over many of these columnists and bloggers who call themselves "Christian" but use hate language against other cultures in the attempt to incite the spread of war, actually cheerleading for it to rush past the borders of Iraq. I have seen their word "evil" to describe Islam, and their word "devil" to describe its founding prophet. The war of bombs has always been preceded by the war of words and I've seen numerous sermonized first strikes. Would Jesus Christ Himself agree with these people, according to His Gospel teachings? More on that in a moment, since it doesn't stop there.

On both the internet and on TV I've seen the consistent misuse of the Old Testament to create a "pro-warism" conviction in the Holy Land itself, promoting this threatening notion called "Christian Zionism" (their unique belief--not the belief held by any mainline Christian religion--that Israel should swallow up what little is left of Occupied Palestine, and expand past the borders of neighboring countries as it propagates more settler colonialism, and even be left free to ethnically cleanse and practice apartheid as much as it wishes against both indigneous Christians and Muslims). Can Christian Zionism be found in the Gospel? No, because its misconception is rooted in the Old Testament. Then why is it called Christian Zionism? Since it can't be found in the Gospel, what would Jesus Christ have to say about it? More on that in a moment.

Let's first look at how the influence of this rhetoric directly impacts American Christians in a less spiritual way--facts on the ground. Right in our pocketbook at a time when we can least afford it. While our families face the very real possibility of dealing with a recession, these radicals have successfully pressured our government to grant Israel $30 billion in aid with no strings attached. It is also noteworthy that Israel's separation barrier which is built by our dollars separates our Savior's Nativity (Bethlehem) from His Resurrection (Jerusalem), and their torturous oppression of the native Christian communities there have caused such massive emigration it is estimated by scholars that there will no longer exist any Christian communities in the Holy Land in just 15 years.

Why would people calling themselves "Christians" hurt other Christians? Especially those living in the Holy Land? This in and of itself should raise the red flag of suspicion.

But still, it doesn't stop there!

This is where it got personal for me. A few days ago, via e-mail, I politely but point-blankly asked one of these individuals about his blog's Islam-bashing if his goal was to provoke hate crimes and even perhaps promote the next holocaust against all these societies and families that follow this major world religion (mind you the majority of which had nothing to do with 9/11 and are not radicalized)--despite e-mailing me a response that spoke of other things, I was shocked to find that this writer would not answer this question!! I had rightfully expected but never received a vehement denial by him. This has been the most troubling preview to date to where these Supremacists are heading, and what has prompted this article from me. Has the world really learned nothing from World War II's Holocaust against the Jews or the KuKlux Klan's onslaught against African-Americans? Could this really be on our horizon again?!

Back to what would Jesus Christ have to say about these people and what they are doing, which I'm sure most of you already know without being provided with Gospel quotes. Like any of you who have taken the time to study the Gospel, I have never once come across Jesus Christ using hateful, inciteful language to provoke violence against anyone--in fact Christ preached the exact opposite. "Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also." (Matthew 5:38-39).

And I have also read "And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many." (Matthew 24:11). Christian Supremacists have perfected cultish methods to draw in people and their life savings, from which generates this special interest group's lobbying power that they enjoy in Washington.

If these Christian Fundamentalists succeed, and with their growing political stranglehold over our politicans this is not impossible, they easily could inflame the war way beyond what our troops could ever possibly cover! Our military has already gone on record to say that it is overextended and could not be stretched to cover another major war front.

Guess what, moms? Here could be another fact on the ground on how we very well could be directly impacted if we let these bigots have their way, this would open the door to the dreaded draft and snatch all our sons (and possibly our daughters) away from what can only be described as the next Crusades! If you do not remember from History class what the Crusades were, please google it! Now stop and think about this, "Crusades" is no exaggeration when you take into account how suspicious it is that our enemy's name keeps changing and with each name-change broadens the definition of who this is--purposely increasing their numbers! First, they were called "Al-Qaida". Then, we started hearing "Radical Islamacists". Now, according to these blogs, any alias and adjective have been dropped in the favor of taking aim at this entire world religion!

My Gospel reading has pointed out that Christ was so concerned about people like this that would abuse His teachings to bring about evil, He had the following to say in Matthew 7:15-23, "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?" How else could a truly learned Christian person describe trying to provoke the spread of war, ethnic cleansing, and apartheid? Even my Sunday School students as young as three years of age would be able to answer whether or not these deeds equated to "good fruit".

In this passage Christ went on to say, "...every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them." Ask yourselves, what kind of fruit is the encouraging of further violence and war against so many families and societies who had nothing to do with 9/11, nothing in common with those who perpetrated it, never took part in any terrorist act whatsoever, and whose only 'crime' is that their main religion happens to be different than our own? Are we not America, the very same country where we and our ancestors have proudly declared religious freedom as one of our nation's accomplishments since its founding! Have we not learned anything from our elders or our history books that speak of a western country, not too long ago, having put another major religion through a holocaust? Do not forget that the Jewish Holocaust was itself brought about by the incitement produced from the colorful, provoking language of a master speech-giver!

And for people like these Christian Supremacists, Christ said, "Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils?" (it doesn't take much to make this connection that the so-called "devils" being like those on the receiving end of the hateful language and any violence that results from such zealotry). "And in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work inquity." (Matthew 7:21-23)

For those who argue freedom of speech, Christ exercised His' as well when He said to the religious establishment of His day who themselves misused God's teachings for self-benefit, "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayer, therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation...you make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extorition and excess...Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity." (Matthew 23:14)

These words of Christ are as prophetic as any other He ever mouthed. Our Savior knew what was coming even over two thousand years after He spoke those words!

Quesiton is, will we fall into the slothfulness of "I'm way too busy with life, laundry to wash and bills to pay, to think about these things" or will we slam on the breaks of life to rise up and bond together for our Savior's sake and speak out against such a perilous false teaching that could very well bring down our entire world? By being done in the name of our Savior, Christian Supremacy is a major assault to Christ and to all His teachings and what He stood for--it is an enormous threat to us and our families, sentencing us in the world's jury to guilt by association because they chose to use our religion to mask their real intentions and to create a phony but powerful base to work from. Fact is, Christian Supremacy, through their TV shows and big websites, is a voice heard around the world. This creates the false impression that these radical Christians speak for all of us Christians here in America, the picture forming in the global perception is that America has become this fundamentalist, conquering Superpower that seeks to expand its grip on the Gulf while promoting the obese growth of Israel on the region's other side. The archbishop of my church affiliation has traveled to the Middle East, and Christian Zionism is the number one question he gets asked about by Arab journalists.

So do we sit back and allow these Supremacists to falsely represent our religion to the rest of the world and for their own interests inflame the war which could take our own children as well as kill many innocent ones over there? Or are any of us willing to make a stand against these hotheads to protect our Savior and the good name of our religion, and for the sake of our children and the future survival of our country?

Ask yourself what is more painstaking, taking the time to speak out against what these Christian Supremacists are doing, or taking the time to pack your child's suitcase for the last time as they head off to fight in what becomes a world war brought about by the blasphemy and blood money of the Christian Supremacist movement that not enough of the true, mainline American Christians stood up to stop? We are the majority, and in a democracy that's everything. More importantly, we are the true followers of Christ. He died for us, can't we at least speak up for Him? In His judgment this will weigh heavily for us and our families' salvation.