Good article!

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/godisnotarepublican/2015/06/dear-christians-god-is-not-a-republican/

Dear Christians: God is Not a Republican

I was born in 1980. In the world I was born into, there was never a time when Evangelical Christianity was not symbiotically linked to the Republican Party. This marriage has puzzled me for a long as I could remember. At a very personal and emotional level, I have always known that there was a glaring disconnect between the political, economic, and social agenda of the Republican Party and the Christian faith I had grown into. Thirty-five years later, I have come to understand that the political religion that Republicans espouse is antithetical to Christianity. And yet, Christianity has become vital to the success of the Republican Party.

It is likely that the Republican Party would not exist today if not for the Christian Evangelical vote. Hundreds of thousands of Christian voters wrestle within themselves because of their deep spiritual conviction, their political beliefs, and the notion that in order to be a serious Christian you must vote Republican. For this marriage of faith and politics to endure, it was entirely necessary for modern Christianity to stray from its true meaning: followers of Christ. Christianity, by most beliefs, is the internal work of becoming more like Jesus. Emphasis may vary be denomination, but one thing remains the same: being like Christ requires us to examine ourselves and to change those things about us that are not like Him. Being Christian is about seeking forgiveness and forgiving. It is, indeed, a personal, internal affair.

Unfortunately, many of us have transformed the faith into a bludgeoning tool that self-righteously allows us to believe that others need to change into being more like us. Although very few Christians will ever put it so bluntly, the reality is that our faith has become less about changing our personal behavior and character and more about telling others what they need to change. Modern Christianity–more precisely, the conservatively political Christianity–is about forcing Americans through legislation to live according to Biblical principles. Yet Christ never forced himself on anyone. He never condemned those who were not like Him. Indeed, he did not come into the world to condemn the world but that the world, through him, might be saved.

Christ presented to all of us a choice that, through our free will, we could accept or reject. This freedom of choice is at the core of Christianity. God does not want us to follow him out of compulsion. Yet, people of faith often look to politicians to enact legislation that, ostensibly, would make America “more Christian.” Sadly, all that was ever needed for America to become more Christian was for Christians in America to act more like Christ by demonstrating his love to world. However, instead of the world knowing us by the love that as Christians we should be demonstrating, too often they have known us by our zealotry and bigotry. We have become preoccupied with forcing prayer back into schools, stopping all abortions in all cases, and opposing gay rights because that is what has been lifted up to us by political strategists as the chief concern of modern Christians. Yet none of these issues would make America any more Christian than if we focused on loving our neighbor, forgiving our enemies, aiding the poor, sheltering the homeless and being more like the Biblical Jesus.

And to add insult to injury, not only is America no closer to being a Christian nation socially, Republican policies have exasperated poverty, income inequality, and set back matters of social and economic justice. It is because of this deceit that I find it necessary to speak the obvious truth: God is Not a Republican.

This post was adapted from the Introduction of the book, God is Not a Republican.

The Church of England is known as "the Tory party at prayer";   we have a

similar link between our Conservatives and the notion that the Right somehow

"owns" Christianity.

There may be some historical factors in this belief, but personnally I think it is

mostly about two equations :  1  "Follow the Money"  ie a belief that being rich

or aspiring to be rich is a better state than to scratch a living as one of the

ordinary masses, ... and besides which you need to encourage that aim and the

political connections in order to increase the churches funding ;

2  The self-satisfied opinion that to BE wealthier & 'better' connected &c  is to be

elevated above everyone ordinary, and therefore justified for its own sake, and it

makes you automatically more moral, more philanthropical, more righteous.

Thus the money also in turn follows the church ...

Dear God - Not all republicans are real Christians.

Like I have always said don't tell me I am a sinner and going to hell if not saved - because I can sin all I want as long as I ask for forgiveness. Also, when you tell me those things I will simply tell you your Christian God is not real there is no heaven and there is no hell.

I do think most Christians would love nothing more than a government run by the church and clergy - sound at all familar?

Though I'd love to take credit for this, I can't.  It was written by Jen Celli, an acquaintence of mine.

Dear Human Beings:

Please understand that there is only this life here and now.  You have a responsibility to yourself and your fellow human beings to be the best human being you can be, right here and right now.  Treat each other with respect and common decency, right here and right now.  Don't put it off and don't make deals hoping to get a pass or redemption certificate for another life; you can't redeem it here and now, so it's useless.  Take care of your planet, your animals and each other.  Love them all with every fiber of your being, here and now.

Finally, when you're seeing the utter lack of humanity of those human beings that are of one of man's "faiths", ask yourself if that's the example of the here and now that you want to leave behind.  Why?  Because when you leave this plane, nothing goes with you and what you leave behind says more about you than your money or faith can ever buy: a legacy of humanity and love that will be remembered by other human beings.  Until then, let your energy shine and multiply in love.

Sincerely,

The Universe

That must be both one of the best-known AND one of the most

disregarded biblical passages of all time ...    : p 

I bet a lot of liberals would be happy if the Xian right acted in a way consistent with Jesus word.

 I guess no one will be seeing the Koch Bros in heaven then?

They can't buy their way into heaven but they sure are buying their way into politics.