Dear Fred,
During yesterday morning's BBC-NPR linkup, I became aware of Rabbi Susan Silverman and her work.
Israeli Rabbi Susan Silverman Launches Anne Frank Institute To Help African Asylum Seekers
Says Silverman: "Imagine this: For Israel’s 70th Independence Day we launch Start-Up Nation University to train African refugees in agriculture, water, energy, medical and high tech so that when they can safely return home – whether Eritrea, Sudan or other countries – they can be part of building an innovative democracy at home as well as being ambassadors of light from the Jewish state."
While I was quietly applauding the rabbi's simplicity, generosity and perspicacity, I said to myself: "Christian conservatives will find a way to trash Silverman."
Here is The Horror.
"The Politics Of Horror In Conservative Evangelicalism," '09 Outstanding Academic Title"
http://paxonbothhouses.
Christian conservatives "play church" the same way many of my bright (but essentially uninterested) high school students would "play school."
Not infrequently, bright students approached school for pragmatic, utilitarian advantage, having no interest in learning as a vehicle for pursuing Truth.
Similarly for Christian conservatives, religion is not about the examination of inconvenient Truth, nor doing good by actually "investing in" and "working toward" a better world - a fuller Incarnation of the Love that God IS.
Rather, "the high school mentality" and "conservative religiosity" too often distill to the pursuit of "gold stars pasted on one's forehead" by rigid, spiteful authoritarians who dictate the "rules of the game."
If high school students play by the "rules" -- and get good grades regardless their cynisism concerning learning or the "world of ideas" -- those essentially manipulative, self-interested students will get into "a good college."
Similarly, if "good Christians" play by the ecclesiastical rules of bone-dry orthodoxy, they will graduate to The University of Heaven.
Here's the rub.
Virtue is its own reward.
And vice is its own punishment.
Notably, conservatives -- prone before The Altar Of Unbending, Punitive, Paternalistic And Absolute Authority -- have far less interest in the actual teachings of Jesus than they do in what Pope Innocent III declared at The Council Of Theological Bureaucratese in the 12th century.
Jesus Rails Against Human Traditions Of "Our Great Leaders Who Lived Long Ago"
The Gospels With The Words Of Jesus In Red
Everything Jesus And The Apostles Had To Say About "The Rich" And "The Poor"
Jesus Walks Back Comments On Poor
The trade-off is this...
"Embrace the rules" (and the rule-makers) and your salvation is so assured that it doesn't even matter if you model your life on the behavior and actual teaching of Yeshua.
And so, taking their lead from authoritarian dictators-and-pontificators, they become prissy and bitter, prone to prickliness, condemnation and ingrate presumption.
"Do Republicans Do Anything But Piss, Moan, Bitch, Whine?"
Conservatives Are Born To Bitch At Every Imperfection Which Means At Everything But Themselves
Politically, conservatives believe in The Invisible Hand Of The Marketplace.
Theologically, conservatives believe in The Invisible Hand Of Too Pure Principles.
In effect, both extremist conservative camps are "too true to be good." Their bedrock belief is that humans "get in the way" of "salvation" - whether terrestrial or celestial.
In effect, both extremist conservative camps are "too true to be good." Their bedrock belief is that humans "get in the way" of "salvation" - whether terrestrial or celestial.
Consequently, conservatives believe there is no need to do anything, no need to actively cultivate the virtues of kindness, compassion, generosity and "the open hand" that works toward The Common Good whether one is a believer or an "infidel."
Christian Conservatism: The Saved, The Damned, The Rich, The Poor
In the conservative view, "every trustworthy principle has already been established" - long ago and far away in a patina-enveloped Golden Age. (Never mind where this mentality actually leads... http://paxonbothhouses.
For example The Thinking Housewife is thrall to Pope Innocent III, the bureaucrat who crystalized the "cause" of doctrinal orthodoxy while simultaneously that same orthodoxy justified Innocent's "Albigensian Crusade" in which 20,000 Christian purists were killed at a time when France's population was only 13 and 20 million. The historical record is clear: Innocent III was a mass murderer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Innocent_III#Crusades_and_suppression_of_heresy
For example The Thinking Housewife is thrall to Pope Innocent III, the bureaucrat who crystalized the "cause" of doctrinal orthodoxy while simultaneously that same orthodoxy justified Innocent's "Albigensian Crusade" in which 20,000 Christian purists were killed at a time when France's population was only 13 and 20 million. The historical record is clear: Innocent III was a mass murderer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Innocent_III#Crusades_and_suppression_of_heresy
According to "the received benightedness" of American conservatives, "all we have to do is "go back." And in the process of "returning to humankind's erstwhile grandeur," simply undo all the institutional goodness built up by constructive people over the largely sordid course of history.
Then, once "the slate is cleared" -- returned to its pristine innocence -- then godly principles will take root and automatically transform the world into a faithful image of God.
Never mind that when "the slate was cleaned" by the collapse of the Roman Empire, early Christians -- much closer to Jesus' original vision than we are -- were visited by 700 years of "Dark Age."
Then, once "the slate is cleared" -- returned to its pristine innocence -- then godly principles will take root and automatically transform the world into a faithful image of God.
Never mind that when "the slate was cleaned" by the collapse of the Roman Empire, early Christians -- much closer to Jesus' original vision than we are -- were visited by 700 years of "Dark Age."
Pope Francis: The Horror Of Religious Fundamentalism And What's Wrong With Religion
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