On a Saturday morning at Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, people gathered to celebrate the life of one of Pennsylvania’s best-known civil-rights lobbyists, a man known for working the halls of Harrisburg’s statehouse, championing issues from gay rights to prison reform to immigration justice.
Many of the people who came for the service were from American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, where Larry Frankel had spent all but the last year of his ACLU career, before becoming a D.C. lobbyist for the organization.
Frankel died Aug. 28 in D.C. of natural causes. He was 54.
It was a standing-room only crowd of mixed faiths and non-believers. Except for the program’s translation of the Jewish Mourner’s Kaddish, recited in Aramaic, God was never mentioned. Still, any Christian present would have recognized that Christ’s teachings would be in harmony here as Frankel’s friends and Jewish family discussed the man’s acts of charity and practice of social justice. (Of course, such notions are not exclusively Christian. They are also inherent in Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, most other faiths actually, and, yes, secular humanism.)
But wait…perhaps acts of charity and social justice aren’t Christian ideals after all?
A few short weeks ago, Glenn Beck on his show on Fox News tried to link the brutal murder of a 16-year-old boy during a Chicago gang battle to what he says he fears is a rising tide of atheism in this country.
Amid the factual errors in his remarks—falsely asserting that kids can’t pray in school, that people can no longer sing Christmas carols and that “In God We Trust” has been removed from coins—Beck makes one particularly startling assertion:
“Maybe we need to stop looking for more social justice and start looking at eternal justice.”
For someone who professes to be washed in the blood of Christ’s redemption, Beck sounded surprisingly unfamiliar with Matthew 25:31 in which God banishes the goats to hell for just the kind of talk that Beck espouses.
‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
“He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’“
But of course, once editors at Conservapedia—an online encyclopedia formed as a response to what its creators declare is the “liberal bias” of Wikipedia—get done with their Conservative Bible Project, the parable of the sheep and the goats may have a much different meaning with the goats morphing into macho, gun-toting, Old Testament-style, eye-for-an-eye conservative heroes in this story.
The recently announced project seeks to rewrite the Bible, removing its “liberal bias,” including the parable about stoning the prostitute, “Whoever is without sin cast the first stone.”
It also says the inclusion in the Gospel of Luke of Jesus praying on the cross for his torturers—“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing”—is a liberal falsehood.
Additionally, Conservapedia urges contributors to spot examples of socialism in the Bible and suggest translation changes. “Socialistic terminology permeates English translations of the Bible, without justification. This improperly encourages the ‘social justice’ movement among Christians.”
It’s more than a little disconcerting that those most piously professing to stand up for Jesus are the ones actively trying to scrub the Bible of his teachings of forgiveness and compassion. And it’s strange that the ACLU, an organization denounced by Conservapedia as pursuing “a leftist agenda that includes censoring prayer and recognition of God in public institutions, such as public schools,” would be where one goes to hear stories about a man who spent his life working to protect the rights of all his brothers and sisters—and not just those who shared his worldview.
For Frankel passionately defended many issues protecting those who might otherwise have little voice in the political process, including women, gays, immigrants and prisoners.
“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
What I have always loved most about the parable of the sheep and the goats is the sheep’s utter surprise that they had been rewarded for their good deeds to others. Unlike the devout goats, the sheep apparently weren’t keeping a score card of righteous one-upmanship.
It seems as if Beck, Conservapedia and others are trying to call themselves Christian when what they are espousing has nothing to do with Christian brotherly love. So it appears they’re rewriting the terms of what it means to be a Christian, while moving the goal posts to the extremist right.
It’s gotten to the point that Fred Phelps and his disgusting, hate-spewing “God Hates Fags” campaign no longer sounds like the far-fringe views of the Christian conservative movement.
Certainly, Beck’s ability to worm his rants into subjects of public debate should give people of more mainstream faith, who believe in the importance of acts of Christian charity, cause for concern. Many of Beck’s more extreme, flag-waving rants—from his manufactured outrage over czar appointments, to the destruction of environmental advisor Van Jones’ career, to support for the 9/12 rally, which he initiated—have been picked up and carried by the conservative mainstream.
Of course, critical views of Christ-as-activist aren’t exactly new. In 2003, Barbara Ehrenreich stirred up controversy with conservative Christians when she described Christ in her book Nickel and Dimed as a “socialist.”
People were shocked (shocked!) at the idea that Christ—who urged followers to “Render unto Caesar what is Caeser’s” and warned it would be harder for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to go to heaven—could be considered a socialist.
In response to her critics, Ehrenreich wrote, “I take it back. He was actually a little to the left of that, judging from his instruction to the rich man to sell all that he had and give to the poor. If that’s what it takes to be a true Christian, believe me, it’s a hell of a lot easier to be a socialist: You have to dedicate yourself to working for the poor, just as a Christian should, but at least you get to keep your stuff.”
But Ehrenreich’s critics have gone further since 2003 and I wonder if what we’re witnessing here is a subtle change in tactics. Are some attempting to actively deny the social activism component of their faith in exchange for reinforcing Holy War notions against fellow Americans?
***
Back in Philadelphia, a city founded on the concept of brotherly love, Witold “Vic” Walczak, the ACLU-PA’s legal director who oversaw Frankel’s memorial service, closed with a message urging action rather than judgment. Perhaps he missed Beck’s admonishment. Or perhaps he doesn’t care much what Beck has to say.
Sniffling back tears, Walczak asked those gathered to take Frankel‘s memory and “to go do good works.”
Lauri Lebo is a card-carrying member of the ACLU.
Conservapedia seems to be drawing a lot of fire from non-conservatives. What do conservatives think about it, beyond those creating that website? It is endorsed by any nationally recognized conservative, like Dobson or Hagee or Robertson? Do any conservative churches plan to use this new version when it is available? If not, keeping Conservapedia in the news might end up being counterproductive.
Does the book of Mormon have a liberal bias, and would there be any value in a web based project for a conservative upgrade? This might be a loaded question because what would it mean if it was already conservative in the original?
Lauri,
I am a non-believer, and I think this is a great topic you are starting here with important things to discuss. I hope you get some good responses. One little thing, I wonder about your title. The conservatives don't really have a struggle. Unlike liberal Christians or people of other religions, they have no doubts regarding their faith. If a conservative Christian did have any doubts, they would just become a liberal Christian. I think the title could have been Liberal Christians Struggle with Conservative Christianity. This is an important struggle because in the end the conservatives might not just take down conservative Christianity, they might end up taking down the entire Christian religion. It is something to think about.
Jim,
You raise excellent points all around - especially your remark about conservative Christians haven't jumped on board with the Conservapedia project. But I think that may be because what Conservapedia and other groups may be doing is politically motivated rather than religiously motivated.
Another example is the Center for Immigration Studies argues there is Biblical-based support for opposing immigrant amnesty. (Which RD covered recently.) One of its fellows, James R. Edwards Jr., argues that when Jesus talks about acts of charity for the “least of these,” it should be interpreted to mean for “native-born sufferers,” rather than those from foreign soil.
We "Liberal" Christians are not always plagued with doubt. Martin Luther King wasn't plagued with doubt about the society he felt called to create. Daniel Berrigan was not plagued with doubts about God's displeasure about war. Please do not confuse several decades of Neo-Conservative teaching with some sort of Gospel truth that Religion is everything that offends progress. From the Quakers who took it as their religious duty to educate as well as liberate people from slavery to the white seminarians from the Episcopal Divintiy School who were martyred during the civil rights struggles of the sixties, "Liberal" Christian acts of faith are as soundly a representation of Christian action as any negative you might choose to highlight. And, btw, when I was a conservative Christian, I was much more fearful about holding together the complex structure of individual verses and concepts which are the unseen underpinning of fundamentalist Christian thought. If they look certain to you, it's because when one is trying to convince themselves of something it is often necessary to put on a good face and try to convince someone else. Perhaps you have mistaken the quiet, painstaking, laborious work of "Liberal" Christians as weakness. But that might be looking at the world as "Conservative" Christians do: where the strong vanquish the weak and the loud are victorious over the silent. But this is not (necessarily) the way of our Christ. I could be wrong, but I trust God will take my good intentions and make it right.
I think MLK can be used to show just how far Christianity has fallen since that time. I read his letter from the Birmingham jail a short time ago. It was written in his measured tone and polite language of an earlier time, but the message was clear. As MLK said, his fellow pastors were for the most part willingly blind to the problem and uninvolved. Since that time, Christianity has been on a downward spiral. History might end up showing it was a mistake for so many of them to sell their soul to the party of the rich.
You make a good point about Conservatives perhaps only looking certain to me, because they are trying to convince themselves of something and it is often necessary to put on a good face and try to convince others. I can only go by what I see, and as a non-believer I am not allowed to see their doubting side.
As you say, perhaps I have mistaken the quiet, painstaking, laborious work of "Liberal" Christians as weakness, but as an observer it really does seem to me that Christianity as a whole has suffered a severe hit in the last couple decades and the look and feel of the religion is not quite the same as it was when I was younger in the 50's and 60's. Do liberal Christians now have doubts that they didn't have back then? Certainly I can't speak for them, but I do think they would be crazy if they didn't.
MLK as a liberal Christian?
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There was a time when the church was very powerful—in the time when the early Christians rejoiced at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society. Whenever the early Christians entered a town, the people in power became disturbed and immediately sought to convict the Christians for being “disturbers of the peace” and “outside agitators.”’ But the Christians pressed on, in the conviction that they were “a colony of heaven,” called to obey God rather than man. Small in number, they were big in commitment. They were too God-intoxicated to be “astronomically intimidated.” By their effort and example they brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contests. Things are different now. So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an archdefender of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church’s silent—and often even vocal—sanction of things as they are.
But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If today’s church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. Every day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust.”
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Infanticide? We know have the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice.
Irrelevant social club? Perfect description of the UCC and TEC.
Most of the church stood silently by as MLK fought his war for racial equality. They stood totally silent as their elected president led us into war for greed and torture, and that was OK, but after that Americans including many of them started losing pensions and health care and homes and retirement savings and jobs and more health care; and it is starting to seem like selling their soul to the party of the rich might not have been that great of an idea. The church is becoming angry, and they are returning to their basic beliefs. Hatred of liberals and gays. It's what they know.
Perhaps you could help us to learn just where we have gone wrong in the Bible....
Shouldn't your admonition be better aimed at those who actually want to re-write the bible using Conservapedia.
Barrels don't aim that way.
"I had two barrels on my gun."
An interesting and revealing choice of metaphor.
Re: "The Bible has already been written, and it cannot be rewritten without changing what God intended that it say."
Then perhaps you'd care to explain why the Conservapedia folks think it needs to be rewritten so as to remove its "liberal" bias?
so is this, like a cartoon gun, where each barrel is aimed separately? like yosemite sam? god, he was funny!
Please clarify your "Becks". I followed the teaser because I thought you were referring to Beck Hansen, the musician. Good story, though!
these nuts who claim that they are covservatives have nothing in common with me.
The unbridled individual, imperian American, and other such nonsense is not conservative. The lying creeps of Fox are not conservatives. They are exloiters.
We have let a gang of nuts steal our language. Stop celebrating them with attention.
after reading the comments here it confirms my reasons for leaving Christianity ... silly waste of time arguing about the bible ... sounds like things have not changed ... will check back in a few years
love God
love your neighbor
all the rest complicates our faith. That is what we have in Common. That is what we need to focus on. We will find the rest to be all about interpretation and unimportant, except love God and love your neighbor.
pointing a barrel of a gun at anyone doesn't prove to me someone know anything about either.
Shouldn't your admonition be better aimed at those who actually want to re-write the bible using Conservapedia.
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Could it all be a one big joke? A hoax,by chance? I start seriously wondering if it's for real or someone just made that site/whole rewriting the Bible story up to make it look serious and make fun of stupid conservatives?
Something smells fishy here...
Thanks for the reference to Conservapedia. Had fun exploring it. In particular, they had an article on liberals stinginess with regards to charity. They garnered Obama's charitable giving from released tax forms:
* 2000: 0.9%
* 2001: 0.5%
* 2002: 0.4%
* 2003: 1.4%
* 2004: 1.2%
* 2005: 4.7%
* 2006: 6.1%
Only in 2004, when he ran for the Senate did charitable giving amount to anything. Another reason why liberal denominations are dying. They are full of Scrooges.
It's true that in the last 10 to 20 years, many things that were not accepted by the American public are now conventional. For me,as a christian, every time I see such thing, my mind wonders with questions and I often rely on my bible for answers and it always delivers. I see those things as abominations that were predicted in the bible itself and one who happens to be involve in them will have to suffer the consequences later on. Those are not my words, they are from the Bible.
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