People of Faith CT

How the Right-Wing Grinches Stole Christmas — The Co-Opted Gospel
By Daniel C.Maguire

A devout atheist friend of mine often commented:
“Wouldn’t it be something if Christians really believed
what they say they believe — that the poor are their
prime concern and that ending poverty is their mission!”

My friend, warming to his topic, would continue his thought along these lines: The Bible says that the Christian gospel is ‘good news to the poor’ (Luke 4:18), that ‘the poverty of the poor is their ruin’ (Proverbs 10:15), and therefore ‘there shall be no poor among you’ (Deut 15:4) because the poor are the apple of
God’s eye. (Ps. 72:14)

“If they believed that,” my friend would say, “Christians would be a stupendously powerful lobby for the poor, and no politician would dare neglect ‘the least among us.’”

The English writer, G. K. Chesterton, was just as damning when he commented that Christianity has not failed; it simply has never been tried. Actually, it has been tried in the past, and at times, it pushed parts of humanity into greater achievements of compassion, justice, and peace.

Modern Caesar & The Poor

Lately, however, Christianity has been a scary thing for the poor — and for lovers of peace. Look at the United States, a country that is always God-blessing itself and compulsively stuffing Bibles in hotel drawers. In this country, Christianity has been largely co-opted as ideological cover for a mean-spirited Right Wing that is zealously transferring wealth from the bottom to the
top of the economic food chain while exporting death in a string of senseless wars.

Modern Caesars have nothing to fear from this modern crowd of “Christians.” If Jesus were like them, Jesus would have diedmerrily in his bed at a ripe old age. Of course, Jesus was not like them. He fought against the Roman Empire, his time’s “last remaining superpower.” He championed a kind of non-violent resistance so threatening to Empire that the Romans killed him and
many who joined him.

Theology & The Military

Jesus didn’t die to “atone for our sins,” a lousy piece of theology, gorily indulged in Mel Gibson’s blood bath. Rather, he died resisting an empire that was stomping on the poor — militarily and economically. Sorry, America, but he died fighting the likes of us.

From our founding, Americans fancied ourselves “The New Rome,” and right we were, for such we have become. Like Rome, we topple governments (more than 25 since 1945) and spread 800 military installations over the world.

Stingy Beyond Belief

We also fancy ourselves the most generous people on earth, though we are among the stingiest. Empire is always animated by lies and hubris. American hubris is being undermined by embarrassing data. Of the 22 richest nations of the world, we are first in wealth and last in developmental assistance.

Among those 22 rich nations, the United States devotes a smaller percentage of national income to developmental assistance than nearly any other developed nation—less than one-tenth of one percent (.1%). Compare that to .97% for the Danes, .89% for
the Swedes, .55% for the French, and .31% for the Germans.

Even in absolute terms, if we exclude US aid to our two top recipients, Israel and Egypt [largely military aid often used in Israel to oppress Palestinians, and given to Egypt to suppress democracy, and none of which makes Israel or Egypt safer], the 265 million people in the US give less than Denmark’s 5 million people.

Meanwhile, if you’ll recall, we villainously squander 6 billion dollars a month making wars in the oil-rich Middle East, absurdly claiming, as empires always do, that we are there for the noblest of purposes.

Christians Cheering the Lions

And the Christian Right cheers its new Caesar. They are, as George Bush says, his “base.” They purr consolingly in his ear at prayer breakfasts, and they warm him at America-the-Beautiful spectacles at the National Cathedral.

In his powerful new book, The New American Militarism,
Andrew J. Bacevich, a Catholic and a retired army officer, now professor at Boston University, notes how the Protestant Religious Right pushed for the American invasions of Iraq — and even pushed for the barbarism of “preventive” or preemptive war, a concept championed by Adolph Hitler.

Writing as “a Catholic author,” Bacevich says that “the
counterweight [to this action] ought to have been the Roman Catholic Church...[which] was eminently well-positioned to put its stamp on public policy.” It failed to do so. Bacevich puts major blame on the pathetic Catholic hierarchy. I put it on the all-too-mute American Catholic theologians who succor the military with their “just war” euphemisms.We can also direct the “j’accuse” at the seduced and so-called “Pro-Life” Catholic citizenry who gave Slaughtermaster Bush a solid majority of their votes in the last election.

Nothing more stirs the human will than the tincture of the sacred. The worst of madmen is a saint gone mad, said the poet, Alexander Pope.Wrap the sacred around evil policies, and you have added infinitely to their strength. And that is precisely the mission of the Protestant and Catholic Christian Right today. Their “piety” is their shame, and the poor and the peacemakers are their victims.