Liars of a Lesser God

You know, liberals try very hard not to disrespect the sincere beliefs of others. It's one of the defining traits of liberalism. Unfortunately, it's also one the reasons the religious right has been cleaning their clocks at the outraged victim game when it comes to Christianity.

For years we've been hearing how secular humanists are waging a war on Christmas, how Christians aren't even allowed to pray anymore, how the nation is actually a Christian construct and how the founding fathers always intended it to be so, and how the politically correct are destroying the constitutionally-protected right to spew hate from the pulpit. Over time this creeping cancer has overtaken and finally absorbed the entire religious dialogue, to the point that we are treated to the grotesque sight of bawling religious extremists, surrounded by their own kind (84% or more self-identify as "Christian") in a country fairly reeking of Christian dispensationalism, appealing to the heavens for protection from annihilation by the pagan hordes.

Christians are being denied their right to worship, but don't dare let any Muslim try putting up a mosque. Christians are being denied their right to indoctrinate kids into the Old Testament creation myth in high school science class, but don't dare present a program of information on Islam. Christians can't even say "Merry Christmas" anymore, but when was the last time you tried to buy menorah candles in a stange town? And of course, there's no test of religion for public office, which explains why Obama's religious affiliation and church attendance has been such a scandal, and why Christine O'Donnell built a whole campaign ad around denying she belonged to a religion with 3/4 million adherents or more in the U.S.

Now, in the wake of the reports that a fire company stood by and watched a man's home burn down, along with his pets, we get this pristine example of hijacked "Christian" goodness (via Digby):

A controversy has erupted over a decision by the South Fulton, TN fire department to allow a rural home in Obion County to burn to the ground because the owner did not pay the requisite $75 annual fee to secure fire protection...

The fire department did the right and Christian thing. The right thing, by the way, is also the Christian thing, because there can be no difference between the two. The right thing to do will always be the Christian thing to do, and the Christian thing to do will always be the right thing to do.

If I somehow think the right thing to do is not the Christian thing to do, then I am either confused about what is right or confused about Christianity, or both.

In this case, critics of the fire department are confused both about right and wrong and about Christianity. And it is because they have fallen prey to a weakened, feminized version of Christianity that is only about softer virtues such as compassion and not in any part about the muscular Christian virtues of individual responsibility and accountability.

The Judeo-Christian tradition is clear that we must accept individual responsibility for our own decisions and actions. He who sows to the flesh, we are told, will from the flesh reap corruption. The law of sowing and reaping is a non-repealable law of nature and nature’s God.

We cannot make foolish choices and then get angry at others who will not bail us out when we get ourselves in a jam through our own folly. The same folks who are angry with the South Fulton fire department for not bailing out Mr. Cranick are furious with the federal government for bailing out Wall Street firms, insurance companies, banks, mortgage lenders, and car companies for making terrible decisions. What’s the difference?

I'm not going to go into the Christian teachings of my youth here, or the theology I later learned as an adult. I will only say that these people who claim to speak for all Christians, for the "Christian way", and for Jesus himself, have a lot of goddamn nerve vomiting out toxic lying offal like this in the name of their saviour. These walking, talking egos drape themselves in the convenient theological garb of their deluded minds, jabbing at the projections of their own fearful consciences, and finding enemies in all their creator's works. It's time we called them on this, and every time they open their mouths to blaspheme their God, they need to be shut down. They do not speak truth. They do not know what Jesus said. They do not even know what their own religion is about. And until we have the courage to get off the defensive and tell the world this, they will always have liberals by the short hairs, even as they lie in the name of God.