Of course, your comment in that community also scares me, and frankly? Hurts me.
Dominion theology/Christian Reconstructionism has a very particular eschatology. It's basically "Jesus ain't coming back until we fix this place up so we'd better get cracking." Not even all of the Religious Right is Dominionist, never mind all Christians (nice people or not).
People who, for example, hold to the Left-Behind sort of theology (premillennialists) are actually in direct (theological) opposition to the Dominionists (typically postmillennialists). And? Most Christians hold neither view (and are either amillennialist, or agnostic where end times theology is concerned). The above aren't the only views, either.
Beverly, as your friend, I ask you to consider your comments at dc in this light. Humanist/Utilitarian Pete Singer has argued that the right to life finds one of its bases in the ability to plan and anticipate one's future. He explains how, from this point of view, not only are abortion and euthanasia ethically consistent (many people hold those views), but that painless infanticide is as well, because an infant has no ability to plan and anticipate his or her future.
Imagine someone on some DarkHumanist LJ community posted applicable quotes on the above topic from a Singer work, and I linked to it, and you went to check out the article. Imagine then, that you saw me making a comment in such an entry saying:
I'm still getting, "But ChristiansHumanists are nice people. They're not as bad as you're making them out to be. Surely their intentions aren't as sweeping as you're trying to present them." This would be wonderful ammunition in that ongoing crusade to alarm, awaken and convince the complacent that they're going to wake up laboring in the christocrats' vineyardsin a day where it is okay to kill babies who have already been born, as long as the killing is painless, if they don't voice their objections now.
I'm not saying Dominionism isn't scary. It is. I'm not denying it exists. It does. I'm saying it's not the only scary thing on the block.
I phrased it less clearly than I should have. What I'm hearing from friends, neighbors, the checker at the grocery store, the UPS guy, any time this comes up (and I don't start it. Most of the time I don't reply because it takes more energy than I'm willing to spare on casual acquaintances. Family and friends? I argue) is a defense of their perception of "Christians".
Church members, lapsed Christians, folks who have lived their whole lives hearing the gospel peripherally and who consider themselves "Christian" though they've never been inside a church or actually read the Bible--they believe that the word Christian refers to the "church people" who minister to the sick, collect money for missionaries to take food and clothing to the poor both here and in other countries, as well as the word of God, who do good works. This is historically what the concept of "Christian" has meant, in my community.
What I'm having trouble getting across to people who *aren't* familiar with the gospel and the tenets of any particular church, is that the political and social aims and goals of the dominionist groups are *not* Christian as Christ taught, and that these groups are draping themselves in holy robes to mask their ultimate goal: forcing the entire country to live as they decree, and punishing those who don't.
I don't equate dominionists with Christians, I never have. I know Christians, and good people. I used to be a Christian, and part of the reason I'm not now is that I *believed* all those stories in Sunday School, and I grew up to discover that those stories don't map onto the universe I live in. I am grateful for those whose universe does, and I'll fight for their right to worship as they choose, marry whom they choose, and have ultimate control over their own bodies and decisions.
I just want them to fight for my right to do the same. And to wake up and realize that dominionists, no matter what banner they hide behind, truly are *not* Christian, in the spirit of Christ.
Well, call me "foe" then. These people need their own planet so they'll leave ours (and us) alone.
Hey, hey - all religion is a METAPHOR, people.
As the Pythons put it SO well, in "Life of Brian":
"Look, you've got it all wrong! You don't NEED to follow ME, You don't NEED to follow ANYBODY! You've got to think for your selves! You're ALL individuals!"
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Of course, your comment in that community also scares me, and frankly? Hurts me.
Dominion theology/Christian Reconstructionism has a very particular eschatology. It's basically "Jesus ain't coming back until we fix this place up so we'd better get cracking." Not even all of the Religious Right is Dominionist, never mind all Christians (nice people or not).
People who, for example, hold to the Left-Behind sort of theology (premillennialists) are actually in direct (theological) opposition to the Dominionists (typically postmillennialists). And? Most Christians hold neither view (and are either amillennialist, or agnostic where end times theology is concerned). The above aren't the only views, either.
Beverly, as your friend, I ask you to consider your comments at dc in this light. Humanist/Utilitarian Pete Singer has argued that the right to life finds one of its bases in the ability to plan and anticipate one's future. He explains how, from this point of view, not only are abortion and euthanasia ethically consistent (many people hold those views), but that painless infanticide is as well, because an infant has no ability to plan and anticipate his or her future.
Imagine someone on some DarkHumanist LJ community posted applicable quotes on the above topic from a Singer work, and I linked to it, and you went to check out the article. Imagine then, that you saw me making a comment in such an entry saying:
I'm not saying Dominionism isn't scary. It is. I'm not denying it exists. It does. I'm saying it's not the only scary thing on the block.
--Peace
From:
no subject
Church members, lapsed Christians, folks who have lived their whole lives hearing the gospel peripherally and who consider themselves "Christian" though they've never been inside a church or actually read the Bible--they believe that the word Christian refers to the "church people" who minister to the sick, collect money for missionaries to take food and clothing to the poor both here and in other countries, as well as the word of God, who do good works. This is historically what the concept of "Christian" has meant, in my community.
What I'm having trouble getting across to people who *aren't* familiar with the gospel and the tenets of any particular church, is that the political and social aims and goals of the dominionist groups are *not* Christian as Christ taught, and that these groups are draping themselves in holy robes to mask their ultimate goal: forcing the entire country to live as they decree, and punishing those who don't.
I don't equate dominionists with Christians, I never have. I know Christians, and good people. I used to be a Christian, and part of the reason I'm not now is that I *believed* all those stories in Sunday School, and I grew up to discover that those stories don't map onto the universe I live in. I am grateful for those whose universe does, and I'll fight for their right to worship as they choose, marry whom they choose, and have ultimate control over their own bodies and decisions.
I just want them to fight for my right to do the same. And to wake up and realize that dominionists, no matter what banner they hide behind, truly are *not* Christian, in the spirit of Christ.
From:
Now I know who I am!
Hey, hey - all religion is a METAPHOR, people.
As the Pythons put it SO well, in "Life of Brian":
"Look, you've got it all wrong! You don't NEED to follow ME, You don't NEED to follow ANYBODY! You've got to think for your selves! You're ALL individuals!"