Politics and Christianity

I read a rather interesting blog post here. In it, Balmer points out that many of the right-wing "Christian" organizations have become political to the point that, in fact, they have clearly lost their sense of Christianity. For his example, he looks at the issue of torture and tries to get several right-wing Christian groups to state their position on torture. Of the groups he contacted for their position statements, only two replied -- both defending the Bush administration's position on torture. Clearly, regardless of one's position on torture, it would seem that torture is at odds with the basic fundamental principles of Christianity. Or, at least, one would think, but obviously these organizations disagree.

I could not agree more with his assessment of Christianity and politics. In particular, what concerns me is that such marriages between "Christian" groups (when they aren't even really Christian) and political power only encourage those in this country who are adamantly anti-religion. I have met such people and heard their viewpoints, which typically include some sort of statement about how religions (particularly Christianity, but often all religions) are the root causes of all sorts of problems, including wars. In fact, one person, whom I otherwise admire, stated that religion is responsible for more killings and wars than anything else. It seemed futile to point out that, for the most part, 20th century wars have been secular in nature and have also led to far more deaths than wars in any preceding centuries (probably combined, though it's impossible to say). It would also seem silly to point out that avowed anti-religion atheists in Communist countries (think Stalin's Soviet Union and Mao's China) have killed roughly 30-40 million of their own citizens. But, obviously, the truth can be such an inconvenience.

Nonetheless, these anti-religion people are not coming up with their ideas from thin air. In fact, they perceive the hypocrisy of the outspoken Christian Right correctly and are appalled by them. What they do not see is that this is not the fault of Christianity but the fault of politics and power. For three centuries after the death of Christ, Christianity was an ignored (at best) or persecuted (at worst) religion. Christians were routinely killed for their beliefs, leading to the term "martyr" for them. (Note: Such martyrdom in which the martyrs are killed simply for holding to their beliefs is rather different from the current vogue of labeling Islamic suicide bombers and others as "martyrs". Frankly, I'm offended by the use of "martyrs" for people who try to kill others and die doing it.) Early Christians followed the teachings of Jesus regarding love, peace, and "turning the other cheek".

It was not until politics and power began to wear the mantle of Christianity (beginning with Emperor Constantine) that people began to use the name of Christianity to commit un-Christian acts. Slowly, over time, "Christianity" became the reason for many horrible crimes such as the massacres of Jews, Muslims, or anyone whose beliefs differed from one's own. However, it must be stated unequivocally that Christianity is not the problem. Rather, it is the intrinsic desires (in this case, bad desires) of human beings, particularly those with power, that lead them to commit horrible things in the name of "Christianity". Such desires exist within all people -- regardless of the popular religion in their society. Nonetheless, the use of Christianity in justifying doing wrong is an embarrassment to all Christians and tarnishes Christians worldwide. It encourages anti-religionists with their own developing prejudices and, as seen in the world, makes the "Christian" U.S. look bad.

To bring it back around to torture and imprisonment, Andrew Cohen has written two posts about horrible torture cases here in the U.S. (here and here). To summarize, Cohen reports on court cases involving two prisoners (just regular prisoners -- not even terrorist suspects) who were treated like dogs in prison. Chained to the floor, sleeping on bare slab, given little to eat, forced to endure horrendous temperatures. You get the picture. Many people in this country, however, countenance such treatment by saying that these are horrible people who don't deserve the "easy life", as if being in prison with the basic necessities and not being treated badly were a walk in the park.

However, Cohen makes the perfect argument about this. How we treat prisoners says NOTHING about the prisoners and their moral state -- no, rather it says who WE are as a people, as a country. To which, I must add that, if most Americans believe they are Christians (which, according to polls, most do), they should be ashamed of how these prisoners were treated because it says everything about them as being anything but Christian.