The Old Sarge
According to my own convictions ...
By The Old Sarge
May 14, 2006, 22:32

MUNCIE, Ind. (patriotnews.com) Let me say first of all that I consider myself to be a Christian man, albeit according to my own convictions. Like the physician, first, I try to do no harm. But I believe in the Blood and try to live my life according to the Golden Rule. And I don't understand some of my fellow Christians.

I don't know when it was that Christians began turning ugly -- and judgmental. I'm one of those strange ducks whose interests are so narrow that I tend to simply file away as unexamined facts those things outside my focus. I'm a news freak, however, and if something is controversial enough for the evening news or Time magazine, then I usually know something about it.

Thus, when I first became aware of Jim Bakker, Jerry Falwell, Jimmy Swaggart and their ilk, it was in terms of "names in the news." I knew, for instance, that all were popular TV preachers and that they were beginning to wield unprecedented political power, each according to his own agenda. And I had my reservations. But I always thought it was just the TV preachers who were demagogues. Apparently I was wrong. Christians at large have
become dogmatic and unforgiving, and I can't reconcile some of the things they say with what I read in the Bible.

Christians will tell you in a military heartbeat that homosexuality is wrong, because "the Bible says so." If you reply that the Bible also says, "judge not that ye be not judged," they will inform you that they are not judging, but simply voicing God's condemnation as expressed in the Bible. And, so far, I've not met a single Christian who will admit to "loving his (homosexual) neighbor as himself."

I often hear preachers and other Christian folk say that "the Lord spoke to me, and said this or that." Preachers are the most notorious for this kind of rhetoric, usually when telling of their call to preach. When I hear words to this effect I am astounded.

What these people are saying is that the Lord chose them, out of millions of people, for a personal conversation. That kind of statement is hubris, plain and simple. I've always believed that people who say these kinds of things are either pulling my leg or suffer from some kind of megalomaniacal compulsion. Of course, if the Lord ever speaks to me in an audible voice, I'm sure I'll feel pretty special too.

Most Christians are aware of the Bible passage saying, "Render unto Caesar those things that are Caesar's..." That particular passage corresponds pretty closely to the Constitutional guarantee of separation of church and state, and it is no accident. Our forefathers were, in many cases, classically trained, and almost universally pious. Yet they realized that the only way to reconcile the contradictory philosophical demands of church and state was by a guaranteed separation of the two. It all seems pretty simple to me. So why do we have the annual fight between the ACLU and various towns, counties and school districts over placement of nativity scenes and other religious paraphernalia?

I don't think that God resents the separation doctrine, after all, that same separation of powers guarantees His preachers the right to proselytize and evangelize the length and breadth of the nation -- and to criticize the mayor, the governor, the president, the congress and whomever else they please -- all without paying taxes. I believe that God is smart enough to recognize a good deal. I also believe God is omnipotent -- He can do anything He wants -- and if he wants to change the deal I'm convinced he can do so by himself.

Our Lord epitomized compassion. But I have personally seen television film of Randall Terry and his Christian cohorts resorting to the worst kind of cruelty to women in the direst of straits -- all in God's name. And in recent years more and more "disciples" have committed the ultimate sin, murder, in God's name, after personally passing God's judgment. As I write this, the most recent Christian bomber was placed on the FBI's most wanted list.

I hear Christian preachers by the dozen espousing any and all kinds of tactics in the fight against abortion. They state their case in stark either/or rhetoric -- "Choose life over death," for example. They raise money for transportation, bail and lawyers. But I have not heard of a single preacher asking for money to offer direct financial assistance to these mothers in raising an unplanned, and perhaps unwanted child. Nor have I heard of a campaign to guarantee decent adoptive homes for these children. Christians are eternal critics, but seldom offer practical solutions.

Personally, I suspect that there is more to God's side of this controversy than meets the eye. We have hundreds of thousands of people suffering from dozens of inherited diseases. Indeed, the incidence of these diseases has increased in proportion to the ability of medical science to intervene and prolong the lives of these unfortunate people into their reproductive years, allowing them to pass along the defective genes that cause their disease. Before the turn of the century, many people suffering from these diseases died in infancy or childhood.

Has medical science contravened God's will by prolonging the incidence of inherited disease? I would rather believe that medical science has progressed to the point of eradicating these diseases through the spiritual inspiration of our Lord.

I am not trying to tromp on God's turf. Faith, to me, involves embracing an unseen God through spiritual inspiration and conviction. Why people choose to believe, in the absence of proof, is a mystery. And that mystery is the essence of faith.

But sometimes I can't understand how that faith inspires (and justifies, in the minds of many) cruelty, bigotry and arrogance. Perhaps the Lord will speak to me and explain it all. If he does, I promise to be contrite and not to sass him (or her?). I also promise to document the conversation.

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If you'd just like to  argue with the writer, between river trips you may catch him at Faded Glory Political Forum, where he is a regular.