My Problem with Christianism
A believer spells out the difference between faith and a political agenda
By ANDREW SULLIVAN
Are you a Christian who doesn't feel represented by the religious right? I know the feeling. When the discourse about faith is dominated by political fundamentalists and social conservatives, many others begin to feel as if their religion has been taken away from them....What to do about it? The worst response, I think, would be to construct something called the religious left. Many of us who are Christians and not supportive of the religious right are not on the left either. In fact, we are opposed to any politicization of the Gospels by any party, Democratic or Republican, by partisan black churches or partisan white ones. "My kingdom is not of this world," Jesus insisted. What part of that do we not understand?
So let me suggest that we take back the word Christian while giving the religious right a new adjective: Christianist. Christianity, in this view, is simply a faith. Christianism is an ideology, politics, an ism. The distinction between Christian and Christianist echoes the distinction we make between Muslim and Islamist. Muslims are those who follow Islam. Islamists are those who want to wield Islam as a political force and conflate state and mosque.
Holy cow, this writer has it exactly right. A dear Catholic friend clipped this article from their copy of Time for me. Sometimes it feels like either I'm not allowed to be a Christian because I don't support President Bush on EVERY thing he does or that frankly, I'm ready to quit Christianity, except for the fact that I still believe in Jesus and the Bible.
Please click the link to read his entire article, it's not long.
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