- Episode 23 Aslan is on the move - December 22, 2015
- Episode 22, How should Christians respond? - December 6, 2015
- Episode 21 Thanksgiving! - November 24, 2015
Welcome to Episode 18!!
My plan was to have an “un-politics” show. I wanted to talk about christianity and how it is used & abused during presidential elections. That’s why I invited my brother, Clay, as our guest. He’s smarter, funnier and keeps his ear to the ground. Win-win. So we all studied up and got prepared for a nice little religion and politics discussion. 
Then I took the whole things off the rails at question #1. Why are christians so angry?
It’s really been bothering me lately, especially after reading some of the rants from mega-pastors lately.
We are called to be Peacemakers, yet we often come off as judgemental, angry, full of non-love. Christ said all men should know that we are his disciples by the love we have for each other.
So why are so angry?
Let’s talk about it.
Leave your comments down below, or on the facebook page.
And as always, thanks for listening and for keeping us in your prayers.
Cliff
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In day to day life I don’t find that Christians are any more or less angry than anyone else.
In the political spectrum, however, Christians feel as though they’re losing ground and that would make anyone cranky. In 1979 the newly formed Moral Majority got Christian activists a seat at the table when they helped elect Reagan. More than 3 decades later that movement has accomplished very little that it set out to do. Abortion is still plenty legal. Prayer in school is voluntary but not mandatory. And the gay rights movement, fledgling at that time, has now managed to make gay marriage the law of the land.
So in a political sense, Christians probably have a right to be ticked off. In politics, getting your way is proof that you’re being heard and that your arguments are resonating.
But I would like to add that the angry Christians probably shouldn’t be considered Christians. In my experience the angry Christians are the ones who can’t wait to deport Mexicans or bomb the hell out of Muslims. And they don’t necessarily have the best interests of women and homosexuals at heart either.
I admit I’m a non-believer, but I’m hard pressed to reconcile the teachings of Jesus Christ with bombing Syria and splitting up Mexican families. Perhaps someone better versed in Scripture could point me to such passages.
Is it possible those Christians are angry because they aren’t really Christians at all, and the actual Christians are in fact doing just fine?
And by the way I wrote this just as I started listening to the pod cast, so I may get my answer in the next hour or two…
Having now completed the podcast I can say some of my points were addressed. It was particularly gratifying to hear Cliff criticize Christian bloodlust in the wake of the September 11th attacks.
All in all I thought this was a well reasoned discussion of the issues related to the perceived decline of Christian influence in the political sphere.
I must however quibble with the notion that Christians are in any way under attack. Kim Davis was not jailed for being a Christian. She was jailed because she is a public servant who denied citizens government services to which they were legally entitled in direct violation of a court order.
One can only claim that Kim Davis has seen her religious liberty eroded if one would be equally supportive of a Quaker who refused to issue gun licenses, a Buddhist who refused to issue hunting licenses, or a Muslim or Jew who refused to grant business licenses to Italian delis. If you wouldn’t support them, but do support Kim Davis, then you aren’t arguing for religious freedom, you’re arguing for Christian supremacy.
In that sense, Christians are not under attack. But they are seeing the privilege they’ve had for the last few centuries wane. Religious liberty is the right to practice one’s faith. Christians still have that. What they’re losing is the right to compel others to live by various facets of that faith.
Still, I found the discussion thoughtful and thought provoking. To far too many believers faith means being sure of one’s rightness and righteousness without the kind of well reasoned introspection I heard in the last hour. I applaud the 3 of you for an intelligent and entertaining discussion of issues which can be difficult to face, let alone discuss publicly.
Thanks Burke!
In quibbling with your quibble, I would posit that Christians feel as if they are under attack. I do agree what is actually going on is a loss of privilege and status, which is distressing to many. One could further quibble that an erosion from a former pedestal could count as an attack. Maybe. Folks certainly started gathering up arms after Roe v Wade. And it wasn’t too long afterwards both “sides” were starting to shoot at each other. And that’s not a very New Testament Scripture way to respond. I think some Christians want to go back and live under the Old Testament when it suits them. Eye for an Eye, that sort of thing.
Kim Davis, I think, is a lousy “hero” for “our” side. She claims to love God’s institution of marriage, but has been divorced three or four times, I can’t remember. If you wish to paint yourself as a hardcore biblical marriage person, and “we” wish to hold her up as such, her un-hardcore non-scriptural actions up to this point will be used by “them” to paint “us” as hypocrites on Biblical Views on Marriage. (I’m not completely Anti-Divorce, neither was Jesus. A more robust discussion could and should be made on that topic. My basic feeling would be that marriage and divorce are taken WAY too lightly by the vast majority of people. But I digress)
And while I love Twisted Sister as much as any former head banger, perhaps some other anthem to proclaim ourselves as Christians could have been chosen? Anger and outrage as portrayed so beautifully in that song are not ,listed in the Fruits of the Spirit in Galatians.
Also Mrs Davis was not only ignoring the oath she took to uphold the constitution, she was refusing to let anyone else in her department do their constitutional duty as well. What should have been done? I think the Mormon compromise out in Oregon is a fantastic solution.
I personally think the government should be atheistic, separation of church and state. The constitution prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, as the founding fathers intended. As the great scribe and poet Dennis Miller says, “The Founding Fathers set it up that way because back home in merry Old England they witnessed scenes of theocratic horror that would have made even Quentin Tarantino puke.”
But then you get into where the line is, and all sides muddy the waters with different arguments. And people get scared, folks take advantage of that fear and create movements and TV stations to capitalize on those fears and you end up with angry shouting.
And too many folks take the name of Christ in vain by embracing hatred instead of the more difficult path of loving our enemies. That’s my opinion anyway.
Again, thanks for listening!
CLiff
Yes… It seems like outrage is the most common response to any perceived threat. But to accept the premise that all Christians are just “angry”… well, i feel that this is much the same as saying all Muslims are terrorists. There may be some, but it also may be true that the ones who are the most empty make the most noise. “The mostly empty can rattles the most.” Maybe there are good reasons we should be angry? Maybe… If being angry drives us to do the right thing by God. We should fight the good fight of faith. Being angry is not necessarily an incorrect response. You’ve probably heard – “Be angry, & sin not.” Clay, it’s not “being an annoying person” to go back to the scriptures. i would say it’s simply, correct. And i completely agree with the use of Peter’s reaction of drawing the sword to defend Jesus when the captors were coming – to illustrate how we as Christians – are meant to act when we’re angry. Jesus stopped Peter from fighting. “But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.”