Racism, Sexism, Moralism, Christianism: Right-wing Idolatry as Vulgarized Christianity

Let it be said: Christianity cannot simply be anything claimed by anyone who calls him or herself Christian. Christians must follow the teachings, examples, spirit, and word of Jesus. Christianity can only originate with Christ and within the hearts and actions of people inspired by Christ, staying true to the integrity of the Gospels.

"Christianism" is what happens when one veers from the integrity of the Gospels and misuses (intentionally or unintentionally) the message of Christ to forward very unChristian aims. Jesus brought with a message of forgiveness, love, hope, gentleness, compassion, and inclusion. "Christinism", on the other hand, twists that message into its opposite: intolerance, self-righteous moralism, homophobism, sexism, racism, and increasingly classism.

As with all "isms" Christianism first distorts, then vulgarizes, then imposes a message to be used not for love, but for idolatrous and hateful ends, often in ways that directly contradict the original Message and principles which spring from that Message.

One cannot, for instance, preach to virtues of war and claim they are being Christian in doing so. Christ was the Prince of Peace and counseled turning the other cheek. One can still support war and be Christian, but that support is not Christian action. We are imperfect strivers and we fall short of the ideals laid down for us. One cannot be racist, and claim the mantle of Christianity. One cannot be sexist, homophobic, or moralist and claim the mantle of Christianity. All of these "isms" are in direct contradiction to the commands and admonitions of Jesus. One cannot claim that somehow cutting taxes on the rich is a holy enterprise and do anything but profane the teachings of Christ. This is classism plain and clear and a direct contradiction to Christ's message of giving to the least of us (not to mention the difficulty of a rich man getting into heaven).

"Racism" takes the concept "race" and turns it on its head, fetishizing it and using it in a way as to injure, judge, and exploit others, to sap the positive or neutral spirit of the word and replace it with a lifeless idolatry aimed at ensuring the domination, the arrogance of the world OVER the Spirit.

"Sexism" takes the concept "sex" (or gender) and does the same thing. So does classism, homophobism, and even moralism. Scientism is the misuse of science in unscientific ways as when Darwinism is applied to uphold a "social Darwinist" view that "haves" and "have nots" are simply the product of merit and fitness, and not, as is often the case (with George W. Bush as proof), the product of subsidized incompetence, elitism,inheritance, and double standards. Even "nutritionism" has emerged is a new vulgarization of enjoyment of food: "As the ''ism'' suggests, it is not a scientific subject but an ideology. Ideologies are ways of organizing large swaths of life and experience under a set of shared but unexamined assumptions. This quality makes an ideology particularly hard to see, at least while it's exerting its hold on your culture." (Michael Pollan, New York Times, Jan. 28, 2007 http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=FA0910FA34540C7B...)

Christians can be any political persuasion, but it is the Christianist that says you have to have one political ideology, as Michael Pollan suggests in the above referenced article, and the bigotry of conservative Catholic League president, Bill Donohue, attests (http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/02/07/memo-to-the-edwards-camp/).

Therefore, Christians of all cultural beliefs have a stake in combating Christianism: Conservative Christians are being abused by Christianists as well as liberal Christians. The acting president of the Christian Coalition was recently told to pack his bags because he wanted to focus on tending to the poor and protecting the environment in accordance with Christ's teachings.

So let us distinguish between Christians and Christianists. Let us make common cause as progressives, liberals, and conservatives in those things we can agree upon: addressing poverty, materialism, and the environment, and perhaps our most important common task, reclaiming our faith and a proper evangelism (spreading the Gospel of Jesus and not of Pat Robertson) in line with the spirit of its originator. This will require courage and perhaps ostracism, especially if one is a conservative believer. But progressives and liberals will also experience some discomfort too as we "come out" more as Christians (which can make more than a few lefties nervous) and make people wonder if we are "rational" enough to engage in secular policy, scholarship, and deliberation.