Sometimes I’m pretty hard on Christians, and I tend not to feel compelled to repeatedly issue caveats about the distinction between Christians, who use Jesus’ teachings as the foundation of their faith and as a personal moral guide not to be imposed on others, and “Christians,” who wield their (unread) Bibles like a weapon in defense of their fear and hatred of others. I kind of assume that anyone who reads this blog understands the difference and knows my ire is directed at the latter group.
And the truth is, though I don’t subscribe to Christianity myself, I think Jesus was a pretty cool chap, so I can appreciate a lot of things that Christians (in the former group) have to say, particularly since they actually seem to read the Bible as part of an active faith, and struggle with what it tells them.
The Rev. Peter Laarman, who is the executive director of Progressive Christians Uniting in Los Angeles, has written what I think is a very interesting article on fighting against Bush’s planned Social Security reform, based on Christian principles. He also talks a bit about the focus testing that was done before this whole pitch began, which I found equal parts funny and sad (as I do with so many of the Right’s plots these days). Anyway, check it out, and see if you don’t come away thinking that we would be in a much different place right now if our president and his supporters were Christians without the quotation marks.
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