roachboy

the basic problem with christianity **as a political force** is the gulf that seperates it from the ideas that animate it. that the gulf increases as a particular, protestant fundamentalist version of the religion imposes itself as THE form the religion takes.

i object to the tendency in **this** version of christianity to arbitrarily mix comportments derived from the new and old testaments.

i object to the intolerance exhibited by "christian" politics--which have no relation to the message in the new testament in particular--not to the message about teh dignity of the poor, not to the fact that believers are abjured to not pass judgement on others less they themselves be juged---christian right politics seems to me the abandonment of any meaningful political correlate to the notion that one can and should love one's neighbor.

it has been twisted around in political discourse to a message about what looks like religious imperialism--love is only extended insofar as people who do not believe insofar as they are potential converts--real differences present other problems--which you can see being played out around issues like the "war on terror" and the rationale for racism it provides, all wrapped in both the flag and the veneer of christian sensbility.

this has nothing to do with the core of the belief system.

i do not care whether individuals believe or not, nor do i care about why they believe--the exception comes on the interpersonal level, in which context the concern i might have is extended to a friend on the basis of friendship. i pass not judgement on those who believe. go ahead. i have gone through a range of personal phases with reference to christianity myself. i do not believe, but i understand that is particular to myself.

i have no patience with the confusion of responses to christianity as it is emerging as a rightwing political block with those directed at the religion itself or those who choose to believe.

the two are not the same.

that individual believers would react in this way is strange--it is as if these folk have to put aside the fact of the political presence of a particular variant of the religion that in the states right now purports to speak in the name of all christianity--following a logic that has the right in general purporting to speak for "americans"

it seems to me that the source of the problem irate raises at the outset is the political mobilization of conservative fundamentalist protestant churches.
that mobilization creates the conditions within which your reaction unfolds.
that mobilization is the problem, then, is it not?
but i do not see you complaining about that part--only about the reactions to it.
why is that?

it does not seem to me that you can have it both ways.

__________________
a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle
spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear

it make you sick.

-kamau brathwaite