Offense and Defense

 

Ok everyone, here is another actual question I have on my theology blog instead of just an opinion or something I have learned.  It has to do with “isms,” and when legitimate religion turns into a problem “ism,” and a sort of idolatry problem.  That was what happened with Catholicism on such a mass scale that the Reformation happened and some Christians started a new branch of Christianity without ever looking back.  The religion had folded in on itself and people were no longer freely worshipping God but entangled by idolatry and self-justification of all sorts. Much later on, in our country, some geniuses eventually coined the term “fundamentalism,” and suggested that the same thing was happening with Protestantism, only it was the skeletal basics of Christianity that had become the new distraction from God himself.  

 

I personally, in both cases, think that the fact that actual Jesus is involved and is prayed to in each belief system, offers supernatural protection from total loss, and that it is most likely that the religion itself and especially God’s goodness will still win out and benefit individuals and society. However, it is a very interesting topic, and bad stuff does happen in God’s name all the time from all of it.  It is a very common type of “taking God’s name in vain,” though most people associate that with more instant sins of saying G- dm and OMG.  

 

So anyway, this brings me to my theological question, which is whether than can be something like “Jesus-ism” or God-ism, as well, where an actual truth-based relationship with God can also become some kind of barrier to health and life.  And I think maybe the answer is possibly, in some ways, but mostly that is the point of why you worship God with no other Gods before him, is because he has the infinitude to absorb worship without anything bouncing back to harm people.  So that if you can weave through those other corruptible mazes, you do hit something that delivers and by nature and definition protects you from the Ism Idolatries.

 

This is also why I don’t support witch hunts against fundamentalists.  It is just too likely that despite any amount of intellectual or cultural poverty, some of those prayers will be real and answered in ways that tap into all the resources and truth that exist.

What does it all mean

 

Ok everyone, this is just another correction of something I have said before, though I think I should be able to use hyperbole in a rant to make a point.  But anyway I recently said that Chrsitianity was the only true religion, and I mostly do believe that, but want to point out that actual, accurate Christianity is actually Judeo-Christianity.  And people have often talked about “Judeo-Christian” values, and the success that happens when people like Jews and Christians work together.  But I want to say that just plain Christianity by itself is inherently “Judeo-Christian.” So what some people are talking about is actually “Judeo-Judeo Christian.” It has to do with why the Old Testament is part of the Bible, and totally legit and not lesser. So anyway, there are theological discussions of what all can count as “Judaism” and someone’s personal “old testament” in their life or religion or historical background.  It is very interesting and also has to do with systems of mercy and justice.  So I just wanted to mention that on my theology blog because I think a lot of Christians and maybe even most of us have not thought of Christianity as being already “Judeo-Christian.” All people say is “hey, Jesus was Jewish,” but that gets old, and one of the reasons it does is because all of reality is relevant to the discussion, not just one guy’s bloodline.

A large country called Reality

 

This is a post I have been meaning to write for a while on a topic that obviously calls for further thought. Partially it is a correction and realization of something I mentioned in a paper I wrote for a school program.  In the paper, I was writing about why Jewish people are so often persecuted, and that is not a light topic.  I am not talking about people getting a bad grade unfairly or being uninvited to parties.  I am of course referencing things like mass murder and the holocaust.  So anyway I said it was because of both race and religion, but after being in a habit now for a while of thinking of things in threes, I see that there is a third identity factor for a whole people and that is the concept of “nation.”  So it is race, religion, and nation.  And currently Israel has a chunk taken out of it called Palestine which is officially recognized on some maps and supported by many political people from other know-it-all places like some of the United States.  I don’t know what will happen with all of that. I personally support extending Israel’s borders into Syria and Iraq to create a safe zone with new rules and culture in the middle east.  But anyway I mention that also because I think that the “race, religion, nation,” identity combo for populations is also relevant to why people want Christian nationalism in the United States.  It was something that did exist more organically for a while but was lost.  But part of what that Christian nation tried to provide was another trio called “liberty and justice ‘for all.’”  “For all” is the third part of another set of three things.  It really is a helpful thing to look for those trilogy combos, and something that people used to do more when some amount of Christian education was the standard for most thought.  That too, was lost, and there will be a cost to it, though I am in the camp that sees a lot of it as sacrificial outreach that will reap a good harvest of inclusion instead of total destruction.  But anyway, that “liberty and justice for all” trinity had a different mission than just forcing everyone to subscribe to the main religion, and religious liberty was something that people did try to offer as a nation, and actually succeeded with in some ways.  And people who want to fight that are having to in some ways make their aggressive politics turn into a new religion itself, which I believe will be exponentially a worse embarrassment than pipe dreams of Christian nationalism.  This post is kind of political to put on my theology blog, but notice the concepts. It is very theological and these principles will not be skipped or ignored successfully by anyone.

A Concept called Righteousness Privilege

 

Hi everyone, I’m putting this topic on my theology blog though it could go on my mental health blog.  It is a topic that I have a delayed idea of but have been aware of twice in academic contexts where it really would have been valuable to share.  And the concept is basically something called “righteousness privilege.”  At social work school, our textbook mentioned “Christian privilege,” and I didn’t appreciate it and saw it mostly as an anti-religious bias. Later, in a short certificate program about medieval Christianity, I said I sometimes felt like monks were privileged. But I partially forgot about the real reasons I have for feeling that way, which mostly aren’t financial, like a lot of privilege is, but it has to do with good deeds and kindness and the circumstances that allow you to successfully keep your own moral standards and follow Jesus Christ in an effective way. Not everyone is remotely allowed to be at their best and serve others how they would want to or might if they were taught better.  I actually think that this could be a whole book and I could write about forty pages on it right now.  But this blog is not like that and I also don’t even want to do a three page rant like what is currently on my regular blog.  I just want to introduce the concept and say that within all the overlapping economies of poverty and wealth, that there is this other thing that people dearly want called being good, which can also be a form of beauty.  And that on some levels it can be bought or earned, but on many levels, it can’t, and that the way Jesus Christ made the real thing not just available to anyone but actually only available through his own sacrifice is the core gift of Christianity. It is a costly justice that in all cases is also merciful and withstands any worldly accusations of favoritism or just plain falseness. The relevant fact is that what God for us did was so precious and undeserved by anyone that you don’t call it privilege and complain when other people have it.  You ask for it yourself and then try to have some sign of it in your own life among whatever corruption there also is, whether it is just a few prideful thoughts in a very righteous life, or even the sin by negation where you let yourself be good without caring about other people being bad from either oppression or ignorance.

            I don’t know if I should add to this now but another thing to consider is situations where some people are deriving their goodness in a system where their value is based on maintaining other people’s lack of righteousness in comparison.  Think evangelism, jail settings, school and volunteering, or client work of any kind.  Also, people who didn’t bother to help anyone at all sometimes feel clean in comparison to those who find themselves with some unfair leverage.  To me, this is an interesting topic where some of the true traction of power and persecution discussions are.  And I know that it was not fair for this to be out of reach in social work school, and that very justice withheld is exactly what is hidden when people suppress the truth of Christian religion.