It's time to take religion back from the haters, killers and temple money-changers

It's easy for pagans like me to put all Christians in the radical wingnut category. One of my favorite op-ed guys, John F. Sugg, who does the Fishwrapper column in Atlanta's Creative Loafing, is a Christian who is not a wingnut. His commentary this week, I am a Christian, too is a must read for all real Christians.

There's a bit of schoolin' that God-fearing folks in Cobb County and the rest of the nation should pay heed to as they cheer the creationist team in a federal lawsuit heard last week.

The legal spat, over a warning plastered in Cobb schools' biology texts that evolution is merely a "theory" and not a "fact," has the world press in a tizzy now that evangelicals are perceived as political 900-pound gorillas (probably not a great metaphor when talking about evolution).
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Still, there is a "gol darn, I didn't know that!" lesson hidden in the Cobb evolution brouhaha, one that should be important to every Christian. It's a gem from the earlier "monkey" trial, the 1925 drama that starred teacher John Scopes, who challenged Tennessee's anti-evolution statute. The advocate for the religious side was William Jennings Bryan, one of the great men of principle in American history.
But, oh, heavens, Bryan was a died-in-the-wool liberal. He generally was described as a "populist," but in the parlance of the late 19th century, that meant liberal. Bryan volunteered in the Spanish-American War; that experience turned him into a fervent pacifist bitterly opposed to the nascent American imperialism. As Woodrow Wilson's secretary of state, he jawboned the 30 leading world powers to agree to a one-year cooling-off period before going to war -- no pre-emptive slaughter for Bryan.

Dubbed "the Great Commoner," he castigated the capitalists as enemies of common folk. Among his most ardent allies in a 1896 presidential bid was American socialist leader Eugene V. Debs.

In short, Bryan was a man who would have earned the scorn of Karl Rove, Rush Limbaugh and Trent Lott. If he was reincarnated and ran today for a U.S. Senate seat in Georgia, Saxby Chambliss would air commercials putting Bryan's mug alongside Saddam's and Osama's -- just as he did to Max Cleland.

But hold on a minute. Bryan also was a fundamentalist Christian. At the Scopes trial, he thundered, "I believe everything in the Bible should be accepted as it is given there." He was born again, he was an evangelical.
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Let's wind forward 79 years. Bob Jones III is president of the racist Bob Jones University in Greenville, a favorite haunt of George Bush. Jones, a storm trooper of the religious reich-wing vanguard that claims ownership of Bush, sternly admonished the president after the election, "You owe the liberals nothing. They despise you because they despise your Christ." Ah, I get it. Bush & Co. own Christ.

The letter also underscores the message hammered home so successfully by the GOP during the recent campaign: Liberals despise Christ.That's a lie.

The example of William Jennings Bryan -- and millions of others -- makes clear that ultra-conservatives don't have an exclusive claim on Christ. It's time for Christians to start giving witness to that fact.
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I testify that I am a Christian........

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I don't pay heed to the false prophets such as Pat Robertson and Tim LaHaye of the Left Behind books because Christ said to beware of charlatans claiming to know when He is coming again.

The "rapture" isn't in the Bible, so it's not in my theology. I find it hard to conceive of Jesus returning to save a few smug Pharisees such as Jerry Falwell while brutally slaying billions of my brothers and sisters. The heaven I believe in has ample room for all men and women of all faiths who seek God and try to live good lives.

In the Book of Matthew, Jesus said, "Not everyone who saith 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father ... ." He told us his Father's will was to be meek; to be peacemakers; to take care of the weak, the poor, the afflicted; to sheathe the sword.

I believe there is truth in every word of the Bible, but as Bryan said during the Scopes trial, "Some of the Bible is given illustratively." I also believe there is truth in other faiths' scriptures, and I study them, too....

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War is not a Christian value. I'm a Methodist, and our literature clearly states, "We believe war is incompatible with the teachings and example of Christ."

In short, George Bush hasn't earned the photographic halo that our local gutless daily newspaper bestowed upon him on Nov. 5's front page.

The neutron bomb in the values debate -- the device that allegedly sunk John Kerry -- was gay marriage. I don't have the answers to questions about gays. Jesus didn't say a word about homosexuality, but he did say love your neighbor. That's enough for me.

What I do know is that gays don't threaten my marriage. The divorce rates are much higher in anti-gay Southern states than in gay-friendly Massachusetts and New York. Among Christians, the born-again variety has the highest incidence of divorce, according to a poll by Christian researcher George Barna. There are some lessons in those numbers.

The gay issue has been used solely to create fear and division, and as Jesus said, "Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation." Thank you, GOP legislators.

The reason, most agree, that divorce is higher here is because of the impoverishment of the South, much of it the result of Bush's enrich-the-already-rich economics. For a final personal belief, I think Jesus was on the money when he said, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." Pretty simple language.

So all you Radical Right Christian zealots, see what someone who has actually read the Bible and the words of Christ has to say. Maybe there is something there for you to learn, like the true meaning of Christ' message. Although I am not a Christian I have studied the actual words of Christ and found them to be a wonderful guide on how to live my life, that's why I'm a Liberal.
Cross posted at Middle Earth Journal