You'd think that must be anyway, 'specially after reading the Revrund Jerry Falwell and his article "Christian voters triumph over Hollywood left" that's up at World Net Daily this morning. "Dear Lord, PLEASE have mercy on America if THIS is the kind of pride and arrogance that we have to look forward to for the next four years." Because if God will look kindly on a people that repent and humble themselves, THIS kind of mindset isn't going to score any points toward this nation's longevity. Go read it if you like, but I hope people understand that this kind of attitude is NOT what we're called to engender as Christians.
So I wrote Falwell an e-mail, and called him out on a few things. I'm posting it here for public consumption...
FROM: Christopher Knight
TO: jerry@falwell.com
SUBJECT: Falwell, there's no way you really serve Christ after this piece...
...on World Net Daily. You spent most of the time patting yourself on the back and dropping other people's names who also spend too much time patting themselves on the back.
But that's not the worst of it: you don't even pretend to hide your hatred of people you don't like. To you, being a "conservative Christian" is carte blanche to toss aside Jesus's instructions that we are to love one another, ESPECIALLY our enemies.
And that's STILL not the worst even: you do NOTHING in this piece to introduce Christ to people who are sincerely wanting and needing Him. The problem is, they look at people like you and what you're doing and they CAN'T find Christ in your life... because He's not really there at all.
All you care about is putting Republicans into office, making sure Bush looks like God's anointed on Earth that can do no wrong, and condemning those sinful liberals. Well, I'm going to let you in on something that maybe nobody's ever informed you of: there isn't a hair's breadth of difference between you and any other "Christian
conservative" and those liberals that you relish destroying so much. You *and* they are after the same damnable goal: power in this world over other men. Both of you differ only in your methods. And in *your* case you believe that God has put His stamp of approval on your lust.
That last one makes you a far more evil person on this earth than any "liberal" in my book.
If you want to commit the sin of hatred, don't justify yourself for it by acting like one of the Lord's anointed. Because you're only proving to the entire world that you're not... not to mention that you're making it harder for those that DO love others as they love Christ. Your pride is destroying the testimony of real Christians more than you can imagine. If you even CARED about that at all,
anyway.
There's a word for people like you, Mr. Falwell: "Pharisees". They used their ecclesiastical positions to keep other people in their power also. And when Someone arrived who refused to play their silly games of domination, they conspired to have Him killed.
Jesus Christ - and those who TRULY follow Him - would and will refuse to play YOUR silly game here and now. Considering that I seriously doubt if you have any understanding of that, I can't help but wonder if you and the rest of the "Christian Reconstruction" crowd might someday start nailing those of us who will serve the Lord only to crosses - no doubt planted on the White House lawn outside of Bush's window - for refusing to whore ourselves as you have to the god of this earth.
You do more damage to the cause of Christ than you know by lusting for power as you do. Please, stop this now, repent of this madness and turn your heart back to the Lord... instead of keeping it faced toward that which also comes appearing as an angel of light.
Stop using the name of Jesus Christ as your ticket to power. He's our personal savior, not your personal nightstick.
In Christ,
Christopher Knight
This partly came out of some very troubling discussions I've been having with a number of people during the past few days. Every one of them echoed the same concern that's been growing in my own mind: that we may finally - and in defiance of almost all serious consideration that it could possibly happen - be witnessing the rise of Christian Reconstructionism in America. And if THAT ever comes to hold full sway over this land, you're gonna see things happen that will positively make the camps at Auschwitz look like an excursion to Disney World by comparison.
I'm going to write more on this later. But in the meantime, if the Reconstructionists ARE starting to take over, heed this advice: get a gun. Even if you don't believe in guns, get a gun. Learn how to use that gun. Thank God that your conscience won't let you use the gun to take the life of another human being without justifiable cause. But understand also that you may have to use that gun all the same. The Jews of the Warsaw ghetto held out against the Nazis for a month in 1943 with only a handful of rifles and pistols. There's a lesson to be learned from them.
I'm a Christian and a historian. Man's capability of inflicting on his brother such cruel horrors in the absence of God from his heart is something that I thoroughly understand. Well, there are some people in this country today that really don't have God in their hearts, and they're a lot less honest about that than the Nazis were. And they're going to be inconceivably WORSE than the Nazis ever were, should they someday take control over this country.
When that day comes, love your family. Love yourself. And love the freedom that God gave you and that thousands died to protect for you. Don't let them take control.
4 comments:
Christopher,
I'm surprised you don't have some comments on this, you have been linked to by ThePoorMan.net, one of my favorites. I'm wondering if you could define "Christian Reconstruction" for us. I read Karen Armstrong's The Battle for God a few months ago and found it highly enlightening, but I don't remember running across this term before.
Beautiful stuff, Chris.
You have caught a lot of my own feelings regarding the whole feeling about "why are all the people of my church thinking that stopping someone whom you do not know from getting married or controlling their own reproduction is more important than feeding the poor or not killing innocent people across the globe?". Why oh why do these people focus on a couple of passages of the Old Testament, instead of the whole body of the teachings of Christ? Besides, the Constitution (well, the 1st Amendment, at least) kind of dictates that the majority in this country does not dictate what freedoms the minority are entitled to. This is nothing more than hubris, which, of course, usually brings nemesis.
Got no Blogger account, so, you can call me -
Seminerd
Hey "Anymous #1" :-) You asked about what Christian Reconstructionism is: its basic tenet is that the Kingdom of Heaven cannot truly come to pass - thus Jesus Christ cannot reign on Earth - until all the nations of this world are brought together under His name. In other words, God needs man's help to fulfill scripture.
That sounds pretty innocuous... but think about it: some people really believe that they are chosen by God to forcefully bring EVERYTHING under submission to Christ. To that end they will do ANYTHING to crank up the schedule so that Christ can return. And if He doesn't arrive soon enough, well... there's always something else - or someone else - that can be made to submit to Christ, 'cuz obviously there wasn't enough bringing-to-heel of those against Christ before. So the war against those defying the kingdom steps up, the cullings intensify, the trains are made to run a little more on time...
See where this is going?
I've no doubt that making this kind of a claim is going to peg me as a wild-eyed fanatic. But please bear in mind that I'm a Christian who *doesn't* want any of this... but I *have* met more people than you might realize who DO see it as their God-given duty to crush the infidels, to slaughter babies in other lands because they happened to be born under a crescent flag, to thank God that those people died without knowing about the kingdom so they now spend eternity roasting in Hell.
I've listened as a minister told his congregation that it didn't matter that American soldiers killed innocent civilians in Vietnam: that because they were there on authority of "the king" (meaning the President) that it was justifiable in the eyes of God.
And now these people might very well be setting their sights on bringing America - ALL of America - under their domination, perceiving that if NOW is the time if there ever is to be such a moment. So that they might someday turn it over to God's domination. "An eye for an eye and everyone is blind," Gandhi said. Well, in a Reconstructionist America, "everyone is dead." They'll have to be, because Christian Reconstructionism conveniently ignores this fundamental difference between the Old and New Testaments: that although Jesus did not come to replace the law but to fulfill it, that He *did* replace the rule of Law with the rule of Love, which is what the law was intended to point toward to begin with.
There is no love tolerated with Reconstructionists. Be wary of them: if some Muslims might blow themselves up for 72 virgins in Paradise, how much more would a "Christian" do to write himself in the history of eternity as being the one who opened the way for Christ Himself to return?
I commend you on your letter to Falwell. (I too was sent here by the Poorman.) I am so happy that intelligent life continues to ask questions of the most hypocritical amongst us. Please keep up the good work and hopefully we will all come together and defeat the pseudo-Christian right in upcoming elections.
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