Reading notes

Melanie quotes Margaret Kimberley, a political liberal/devout Baptist person — a combination rarer than unearthed diamonds, seems to me — writing in the Dallas Morning News:

Conservative Christians have espoused their views on school prayer, public displays of the Ten Commandments, abortion, gay rights and other issues so vociferously that they have succeeded in making conservative synonymous with Christian. …

As a political liberal who is also a devout Baptist, I have grudging admiration for my conservative coreligionists. They are unrelenting in the promotion of their beliefs and in their alliance with conservative politics. …

[But] it appears that the operative word for those who describe themselves as Christian conservatives is conservative, not Christian. They thrive on the idea of controlling the behavior of others, whether by restricting gay marriage, preventing abortion or establishing the supremacy of their religious and political beliefs, even if their actions subvert religious life as experienced by millions of other Americans. …

It is time for this president and other conservatives to be taken to task when they claim to follow the word of God. Former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill alleges that the Bush administration planned for a war with Iraq as soon as it came into office, well before the terror attacks Sept. 11, 2001. A good Christian would be reluctant to make war and would certainly not make a case based on lies. Unfortunately, liberal Christians are less comfortable making public proclamations of faith and are reluctant to debate their conservative brethren.

I recently watched Steve Martin’s movie The Jerk after having not seen it since its debut in 1979. I’m reminded of the scene in which Steve’s African-American father is confiding to him an important life lesson before Steve heads off into the world: The father points to a pile of manure in front of them and says, “Now, son, this is shit,” and then points to a can of shoe polish in his hand and says, “and this is Shinola.” Steve repeats back, “Shit, Shinola,” to confirm he’s got it, then steps forward into the pile of shit.

The problem I see in many religious conservatives is an inability to recognize spiritual shit from Shinola.

Margaret reminds me I too have a pastoral responsibility to take these folks to task when they’re in this predicament — when they claim to be following the word of God but aren’t. I’d rather just write ‘em off, because that’s easier. But staying quiet is letting them stomp around in shit unchallenged, soiling themselves and splattering everyone else, and in the splattering making the name Christian an epithet in this generation.

NOTE: I registered at DallasNews.com to read the published article, but now I see its text is available without restriction in Margaret’s blog entry Give Me That Old Time Religion.

[via Melanie]