Christianity (like most other religions) is used in two ways: to justify all the prejudices and power imbalances of society as it stands, or to call on people to transform that society towards the image of higher ideals. Doug MuderEven ignoring the Abrahamic misogyny of treating women as breeding chattel to carry the seed of the man which alone would disqualify Christianity as a force for social good, Christianity from the time of Paul has had the ideal of exploiting the sheep and to the extent possible the larger society for the benefit of the church leaders. The lip service to the ideals of Jesus is disgusting in its hypocrisy as nowhere in Christianity can they be found to be implemented or even recommended.
Individual Christians have been able to see beyond their faith for the good of the larger society, but in nearly all cases they have been considered heretics by their faith superiors.
Just for the record Doug, I do not consider Unitarianism, Universalism, or Transcendentalism to be Christian in any respect.
3 comments:
I tend to agree with your analysis as applied to the subject but also believe "for the benefit of the church leaders" goes much broader and further back in history than to apply only to "Christians."
The funny thing about Witch Doctors and their descendents is their belief that any society could not exist, much less reach any ideal state, without them. The "sheep" have agreed with them and have continued to grant them a status as "Protectors of the Myths" [a kind of glue that holds a society together.] The "Ideal" does not appear to concern itself with Fairness, Equality, Justice or any of their like...the only concern is perpetuation, regardless of how truly awful that may be.
EI: Quite true, but shamans and witch doctors were necessary to the coherence of the tribe and generally earned their status as protectors of the myths. At some point politics entered the picture, probably with the desert tribes who needed to impose their myths on others to expand and leadership became more important than shamanism. With that came monotheism in support of the Priest/Leader, and it was all downhill from there.
As usual a Christian? (Is Muder Christian?) weighed in with Christian opposition to slavery, lead of course by the Quakers who were basically heretics for the mainstream Christians. But the exception only proves the rule. The mainstream Christians were for slavery in the South, and politically but not theologically against it in the North.
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