The "Christian" Right

Evangelical Christians of the Fundamentalist/Literalist variety share many similarities with the Pharisees whom Christ had to deal with during his earthly ministry. Like the Pharisees, they diligently search the Scriptures as the means to have eternal life and ignore the One whom those writings all point to as the source of that life (John 5:39). Like the Pharisees of old, they believe that they understand God's standard for righteousness and the definition of sin, but they all too often prefer form over substance and judgment over mercy (Matthew 23:2-28). They espouse "family values" and traffic in the same kind of hypocrisy that infected those Pharisees of Christ's day (like being serial adulterers, having multiple spouses - practicing serial monogamy, cheating in business and on taxes, employing deliberate deceptions and misrepresentations to get their way or achieve their objectives, etc.).

We've all known some of them. The little blue-haired old ladies who are in church every time the doors are open and wouldn't dream of saying "fart" out loud, but they have no patience or compassion for sinners and disadvantaged folks (their hearts are cold as ice). They remind me of that passage from the second epistle to Timothy - they have a form of godliness, but they actually refuse to acknowledge its power to transform lives (II Timothy 3:5). We've all heard the preacher who stands up in the pulpit and condemns homosexuals and doctors who perform abortions to the fires of Hell - that are quick to tell you what the Lord abhors. Indeed, their moral clarity is 20/20 when they are looking at other folks, but they tend to be blind to their own faults (Matthew 7:1-5) These saintly old ladies and preachers in smartly tailored suits stand in stark contrast to the sailor who drinks, gambles, and turns the air blue with what he says; but who is always ready to lend a hand to those in need - the kind who would literally give you the shirt off of his back.

Always seeing the world in black and white - wrong and right - good and evil - may be personally satisfying, but denying the grey and the color in the world is NOT living in reality! Indeed, in most quarters, a person who regularly engages in binary thinking is usually characterized as delusional. I can hear it now - "Lonnie is advocating moral relativism!" My response: Some folks need to justify their delusions! They cannot face the cognitive dissonance or moral relativism of their own reasoning! They've constructed a philosophical straitjacket for themselves, and they've convinced themselves that wearing it makes them feel safe and comfortable.