The problem with Christianity

Andrew Sullivan (yes I link to him a lot, I like what he has to say and I'm a liberal, deal with it), in response to a readers email makes the argument that the problem with christianity is that it has been used by both the left and the right to further earthly power. Specifically he mentions this in regard to socialism/liberalism and the belief that the state should aid its citizens. He argues that because of this people are robbed of their moral obligations and thus robbed of the resources to be charitable.

I would disagree for several reasons.

First off most churches, themselves, seek to interject their views into politics. While politicians may co-opt religion, specifically christianity, a fair amount of politics in this country has been co-opted by religious organizations and churches. These churches seek donations not to help the poor of this country (which they should be doing) but rather to garner more influence politically in many cases. Does anyone really think the mega-churches swimming in the cash really use all that money for anything but the most cynical and narrow purposes?

This is not to say all churches behave in this manner, but look at the Catholic church and how much money it raises that goes to building cathedrals (the one in L.A. is an eye sore) or, lately, to settling molestation lawsuits. Even the church I grew up in used money gathered in the collection plate, not to help the local poor, but to pay for the upkeep of the church building and cover the costs for things like the annual strawberry festival (note I have long since left christianity behind but was once, as a child, involved in the church).

Examining this even further, and taking into account history, the christian church in its myriad denominations has always sought to exert some manner of control over government. Our country, the U.S. was first colonized by people who were persecuted by their government in conjunction with the dominant "flavor" of the church in England. Upon arriving they, themselves established local governments which the church often had influence in and this continued in some form or another throughout the history of this country although it was, on several occasions, kept at bay by secularists and others. It was this same paradigm that led to the Seperation of Church and state. The fear was not so much the government co-opting the church as it was the church co-opting the government.

Most churches, indeed the churches that would be considered the ancestors of the baptist and evangelical churches were content with this remembering all too well what had happened under the Church in England. As time went by, however, the church fell back to its old habits. Most recently this came about in the form of the religious right. All they needed was someone friendly to them to open the door, they found that in the form and persons of Karl Rove and George Bush. If anything this relationship that they formed was symbiotic, yes Bush assumed the mantle of Christianity in order to court the religionists but the religionists eagerly obliged in the belief that they could control things, at least vicariously through George Bush and the Republican party in general.

This is not unlike the church playing King maker during the middle ages, a part of history we as Americans don't spend nearly enough time learning about. There you had the church co-opting the power of the state in order to control what happened and to whom, none of which was about "the greater good" as laid out in the bible but rather about the acquisition of earthly power by the church. Fast forward to now and it's still the same.

As a result politicians have danced with the devil as well. In fact the Republican party is so wedded to the religionists now that to detach will truly tear the party apart and already is. Sadly this has been monkey see monkey do on the part of the Democrats. Indeed it was rare to hear a democrat talk about faith or frame policy in "faith" because it wasn't necessary, we had a secular government and kept religion out of it. Now, having been forced by the right into talking about "faith" the left is acting like the beaten wife and talking about it. One thing I give people like Obama credit for is that when they speak about faith and frame policy around faith they at least are using it to bring out the best parts of the faith, not the worst which we have been subject to the past 6 years. Indeed it is quite fun to watch the "religion" card thrown right back into the faces of those who have clubbed us over the head with it for these past years.

I still believe the Dems (and any political party for that matter) need to take their mouths off the tit that is organized religion and come back down to earth where reality exists. Hopefully they will sooner, rather than later. One encouraging sign has been the general reflex disdain for religious affiliation after what has occurred over the past 6 years. Perhaps now we'll talk less about having more "religion in the public square" and more about having it back in the private home and the church where it belongs. After all it was the pharisee who most sought to express their faith publicly and if the bible is true we know how Jesus felt about that.

All of that being said, the Churches failure has not been because it has been co-opted by the state as much as it is the Church once again attempting to co-opt the state and the state reacting reflexively rather than reacting logically.