Ethical Christianity

I'm reading Dorothy Day's autobiography which is a good reminder that religion and Christianity can line up on the side of the less powerful. In thinking some more about the subject of my last blog, I'd like to refine my thesis a bit.

Our democracy allows for personal choice in religion. The evangelical forms of Christianity seem to do better as a result. But the evangelical branches of Christianity believe in the literal truth of the Bible. So, once you make the choice to become an adherent, your choices are necessarily limited. For example, if you understand a choice facing you as one between a sin and a righteous action, there is very little wiggle room for compromise. Of course people do sin anyways as witnessed by the higher divorce rate among those who consider themselves born-again.

The interesting thing about the modern evangelical movement (which I learned from watching a documentary on Tammy Faye Baker) is that sin is essentially to be expected. The thesis is that while we certainly need to try not to sin, Jesus will forgive. Actually, Jesus will forgive if you believe in Jesus.

So, when George W. Bush speaks of Good and Evil, he knows his audience. And when he walks around with that smirk on his face that says he's confident he's going to Heaven--that's his religion. Which makes me wish for the good old days when Christians had a few doubts and a little bit of modesty.

If you think back to Max Weber's book, capitalism may owe a lot to the doubting modest kind of Christian. What will capitalism get from these smug Christians? I would suggest Enron, George W. Bush, and the teleevangelists for starters.

This terrible mix of right wing politics with Christianity is going to have lasting consequences for our Republic. They seem to have no ethical compass on matters not directly related to themselves or their families and they have put what can only be described as a bad man in the White House.

This mix of politics and Christianity will also have a lasting impact on Christianity. Hypocrisy and human suffering aren't exactly recruiting tools. And if Christians would like to claim that they're ethical people, they need to start thinking about what's going on as a result of their actions.

On the left wing side of things, Christian lefties need to get their act together and start challenging some of these right wing orthodoxies.