What's un-Christian about the Christian right - Cover Story

Washington Monthly, Dec, 1995 by Jonathan Rowe

Now, if you are simply a conservative Republican who thinks big business interests should run the country, that's one thing. But if you are Pat Robertson, who founded the Christian Coalition, it is quite another. Robertson has said of Istook "this may be the most important piece of legislation in this session." More important than crime, and drugs, and cigarette marketing aimed at kids? While the little guys get fed to the legislative lions, the Christian Coalition has been up in the sky oxes with the right-wing lobbyists, cheering the lions on.

Talking Like Newt

The worst sins are those of attitude. Indulgences of the flesh make no pretense at being other than what they are. Those caught up in them cannot hold them forth as virtue before the world. But sins of attitude can have a deeply corrupting effect, precisely because they often announce themselves as good.

Jesus told the story of the publican and the Pharisee who go to pray. The Pharisee says, "God, that I thank thee that I am not as other men." The publican, by contrast, says "God be merciful to me as a sinner."

"I tell you," Jesus said, "this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted."

It is hard to read that passage and not think of the public displays of the Christian Right and its political entourage. These people have difficulty pronouncing on any subject without demonizing the opponents they consider themselves to be better than. If you missed the Republican convention of 1992, you can take in the venomous speeches on the floor of our House of Representatives on almost any given day. Ask yourself if those suggest the qualities that we associate with Christian character? Or do they remind you more of Saul on the road to Damascus, before the new light dawned and he became Paul, seething with the righteousness of his mission, "breathing out threatenings and slaughters."

I am not excusing the Democrats here. I'm talking about anyone who wears the title "Christian" as a lapel pin, and therefore announces the standard to which he or she wishes to be held. Newt Gingrich has even distributed a list of words he recommends using when demonizing the Democrats--such as "sick," "pathetic," and "intolerant." "Language," he advises, "is the key to control." Paul, by contrast, said "overcome evil with good." Hubert Humphrey once dealt thusly with a colleague who had been untruthful to him: He went to the Senate floor and praised the Senator for other reasons. Instead of toxifying the situation, he elevated it.

Jesus talked primarily about radical inner change--what is somewhat misleadingly translated as "repentance" ("metanoia" in the original Greek). He said we need to get beyond the small-"s" self, and all the downward inclinations it harbors. This has implications for politics and social action--but it speaks most directly to how we conduct ourselves in politics, or any other realm.

People will always disagree, and none more so than religionists. But where religion becomes an all-purpose political banner it feeds precisely the sense of self-righteousness and self-love Jesus continually warned religious people against. (It was, in fact, the main thing he warned religious people against.) Hatred, and even violence, are almost always the result. Examples come readily to mind. Lebanon. Bosnia. Iran. The religious extremist who cut down Yitzhak Rabin. Exceptions are harder to recall.