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The Cognitive Dissident

A blog by Ronald P. Thompson, Ph.D.

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How the Rise of Donald Trump will Benefit the American Christianity

So large parts of the leaders of the evangelical community has embraced Donald Trump whose entire life epitomizes the pursuit of wealth and personal vainglory at the expense of anyone who gets in his way. Even without any discussion of how he treats women or specific minority groups, it is fair to say his value system stands diametrically opposed to that of Jesus. However, at the debate this week he endeared himself to the political Christian right by promising to overturn Roe v. Wade and thus pave the way for the banning of all abortion in at least some states.  No matter that the opposition to abortion was conceived in the Vatican and has only the most tenuous relation to any Christian scripture and none at all to the teachings of Jesus. I see this is an outright surrender by the evangelical right of any real connection to the religion they claim to follow. They are now simply fighting a rearguard action to preserve any political clout when the very nomination of Trump indicates their influence is on the wane.

As presented by Jesus and as practiced by the early church, the Christian religion was focused on helping the oppressed find meaning in their lives despite living under a political system that did not care one wit for their well-being.    Neither Jesus nor the writers of the New Testament ever once suggested or even hinted at the idea that Christians should expect the government or the society at large to live by the morality that they espoused for themselves.   Quite the contrary was true. The early church assumed they would always be the small minority subject to the whims of the larger world and their way of living was what set them apart from the general society in which they lived. Continue reading “How the Rise of Donald Trump will Benefit the American Christianity” →

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Exodus: The Story of a Brutal God

 

With the spectacle of religious violence on the rise, particularly by Islamists; I think it is time to take a hard look at the monotheistic vision of God from its inception. Not from the time of Mohammad, though his followers were spectacularly violent, but further back to the effective birth of the monotheistic religion that is the basis for Islam, Christianity and Judaism.  I think we need to look at the story of Moses and his general Joshua.  Actually, we need to look at the vision of God that is presented in the story of the Exodus and the conquest of the land of Israel and the actions of those two key figures.

I know most people in the US know the story, but the question is have you ever really thought about what it says beyond the feel good story of an oppressed people being freed?

Consider this.  The story opens in the empire of Egypt, ruled by a god-king, Pharaoh Ramses the Great.  In this world, everyone, rich and poor, are essentially owned by the Pharaoh.  In the story God tells Moses that his people should be released from bondage and leave Egypt. Significantly, not all people should be freed from slavery and oppression, but only a select group.  This clearly indicates that the God of Moses did not believe in universal human rights, but only in rights for his chosen people.  Thus the concept of justice by race and/or group affiliation is given divine sanction.  Continue reading “Exodus: The Story of a Brutal God” →

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Abortion: A case of Jesus v. Pope

The other day I watched an interesting documentary about the Pro-Life movement on Netflix.  In some ways it was difficult to watch due to the content, but it was very illuminating as to the methods and mindset of the core anti-abortion activist.  The method of the film maker was not to have a debate, but to let the excesses of this movement’s leaders speak for themselves.   Though I commend this method, particularly for this topic, it left a great many deceptive assumptions lying on the table with no rebuttal.

Underlying the entire argument of those who seek to ban abortion is the assumption that the United States is, or was, or ever has been a “Christian” nation in the sense that Israel under King David was a Jewish nation.  This assumption is critical because the fact that Jesus, the person they ostensibly are seeking to emulate, never once even suggested that the mission of his followers was to sway or change Roman government policy.  In the day of Jesus, the whole of Israel was a province of Rome and it follows that if his message was to change the civil government’s practices he would have said so.   And Roman governmental practices were both brutal and unjust.   Christians today wince at the reality of Jesus’s crucifixion, yet in his day it was just a small but normal part of life, in the good times.  In bad times the main roads were lined with rotting crucified corpses.   For non-Roman citizens, no trial nor evidence was needed to be presented before the victim was crucified, just the capricious whim of a Roman official.   Yet, what do we see Jesus’s model for response to such injustice?  In the gospel of Luke Jesus answered:

“But I say to you that you must not oppose those who want to hurt you. If people slap you on your right cheek, you must turn the left cheek to them as well. When they wish to haul you to court and take your shirt, let them have your coat too. When they force you to go one mile, go with them two.”

Jesus was presenting a way of life for the individual who lived in a brutal and oppressed citizenry.   Not once did he, nor the apostles, seek to implement his new morality of love and compassion via any means of coercion, least of all by the strong arm of the state.   In the end Christianity was created for the powerless individual to find happiness in an unjust world. Continue reading “Abortion: A case of Jesus v. Pope” →

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