Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Does your God know hate? (Updated)

Every year at the San Diego Pride parade, there is a vocal anti-gay demonstration by fundy evangelicals along the Pride parade route. In 2009 BP and I had recently started attending St Paul's Cathedral, and were invited to march with the Cathedral group in the parade. We walk towards the staging area before the parade started, with the Dean. As I told you at the time, the haters became outraged at the sight of the Dean's collar, and through their loudspeaker shrieked, "If you think God doesn't hate, then you don't know God!"

That God of Hate has been visible this year too. We talked before about hate in the calls to anti-gay violence from the pulpits especially during the run-up to North Carolina's hate Amendment. And in the aftermath of the shootings in Colorado, we heard hate in the attempts of some to blame liberals , or gays, or progressive churches for the tragedy .Fred Jackson of the AFA:
"The AFA Journal has been dealing with denominations that no longer believe in the God of the Bible, they no longer believe that Jesus is the only way of salvation, they teach that God is OK with homosexuality, this is just increasing more and more. It is mankind shaking its fist at the authority of God. We are seeing his judgment. You know, some people talk about ‘God’s judgment must be just around the corner,’ we are seeing it."
Tea Party Congressman Louis Gohmert blames the shooting on atheists and "ongoing attacks on Judeo-Christian beliefs".

But I think the most hate-filled comment was from an "evangelical spokesman"
who blamed the tragedy of the Aurora shooting on the nation’s loss of fear of God and hell. Discussing the victims, Newcombe argued that the non-Christians were going to Hell.
How vicious is that? What kind of person steps up and says "your murdered child is going to burn in hell"?

It is difficult to fathom how these men got from commandments to "Love God and thy neighbor" to a hate-filled and punitive deity, leading them to verbal assaults and even calls for violence on anyone who disagrees. It's a very old-Testament view, which leads one to wonder what part of "Christian" they actually embrace.

UpdateFrank Bruni looks at Michelle Bachman with similar questions in the NY Times today.
What I find most fascinating about Michele Bachmann — and there are many, many more where she came from — is that she presents herself as a godly woman, humbly devoted to her Christian faith. I’d like to meet that god, and I’d like to understand that Christianity.....

Bachmann’s concept of Christian love brims with hate, and she has a deep satchel of stones to throw. From what kind of messiah did she learn that?

... Perhaps we should start noting the difference between Christians of real compassion and those of exclusionary spite.

8 comments:

dr.primrose said...

I agree with virtually everything you say (of course!!)

But please excuse one of my hobby-horses. I find statements that make distinctions between the Old Testament God and the New Testament God problematic. For a couple of reasons.

First, it's not accurate. There are great chunks of the Old Testament that are filled with wonderful passages about the loving-kindness of God. Much of what is known as Second and Third Isaiah (ch. 40 onward) are filled with them. So are many of the prophets, for example, Zephaniah and Malachi. Not to mention the Song of Songs.

There are parts of the New Testament with pretty grim views of God. Much of Revelation and the apocalyptic passages in the Gospels are pretty awful.

Second, taken to its extremes this kind of distinction can be (and has been) used to justify a Biblical basis for anti-Semitism -- we Christians may persecute Jews because our Good God replaced the Jewish Bad God. It's the same God. There are different understandings of God, of course, but it's not based on a distinction between a God of Vengeance and God of Love.

JCF said...

"The AFA Journal has been dealing with denominations that no longer believe in the God of the Bible, they no longer believe that Jesus is the only way of salvation, they teach that God is OK with homosexuality"

It's an HONOR to be hated, as an Episcopalian, by Mr Jackson!

IT said...

Primrose, I was using it as a shorthand, not an absolute. But you surely must admit these quotes show no knowledge of Christ from so-called "Christians". One wonders what bible they read.

dr.primrose said...

IT, I certainly agree. Everything that Jesus talked about is missing from what they're saying. It's just that the OT/NT shorthand is a problematic way of talking about it. The shorthand of God of Wrath vs. God of Love is perhaps just as simplistic but it avoids some of the problems of the OT/NT shorthand.

Counterlight said...

And yet, this is the most visible face of Christianity today. They do the bidding of the plutocrats, so they fund the Christianist Taliban and encourage them, and the press is too corrupt to entertain the idea of alternatives.

Brother David said...

The God in whom I believe knows hate, knows it well. The God in whom I believe is ever with us, stands beside us and experiences the hate, just as we do.

dr.primrose said...

Frank Bruni's NY Times column on this with specific focus on Michelle Bachman (in full here):

"What I find most fascinating about Michele Bachmann — and there are many, many more where she came from — is that she presents herself as a godly woman, humbly devoted to her Christian faith. I'd like to meet that god, and I’d like to understand that Christianity.

"Does it call for smearing people on the basis of flimsy conspiracy theories? That's what Bachmann just did to Huma Abedin, an aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, by essentially suggesting she might be a mole for the Muslim Brotherhood.

"Does it endorse scaring young women away from immunizations that could spare them serious illness? Bachmann did that during her memorable presidential campaign, when she blithely drew an unsubstantiated link between a vaccine for the human papillomavirus and mental retardation.

"Does it encourage gratuitously divisive condemnations of Barack Obama as 'anti-American,' one of many incendiary phrases in her attacks against him in 2008? And does it compel a war against homosexuality waged with the language and illogic she uses?

"She has said that gay men and lesbians are dysfunctional products of abuse and agents of 'sexual anarchy,' and when the singer and songwriter Melissa Etheridge was battling breast cancer years ago, Bachmann helpfully chimed in: 'This may be an opportunity for her now to be open to some spiritual things, now that she is suffering with that physical disease. She is a lesbian.'

"Bachmann's concept of Christian love brims with hate, and she has a deep satchel of stones to throw. From what kind of messiah did she learn that?"

There's a nice mention of TEC and others supporting same-sex marriage:

"Speaking of gay marriage, both the Reform and Conservative branches of Judaism in this country have embraced it, and the Episcopal Church in the United States has developed a special blessing for same-sex couples. Leaders of these denominations would tell you not that they're flouting Judeo-Christian tradition but that they’re doing full justice to their faiths, which hinge on more than reflexive fidelity to chosen passages from ancient writings. They hinge on the human intellect and its ability to filter timeless values through modern understanding."

JCF said...

Off-topic: READ THIS!

http://www.publiceye.org/Reports/Colonizing_African_Values/Colonizing_African_Values.html

["The report authored by Rev. Dr. Kapya Kaoma, an Anglican priest originally from Zambia": he's done great investigative work for them before]