The ugliness factor and faux Christianity

One thing that the media seems to ignore in their dumping Christians together into a single pot is that there are big differences between some sects of that faith. While the mostly Protestant republicans court Catholics they need to understand that from Romes point of view they have fallen away from the "true" faith. And from the Protestant's point of view Catholics have fallen away from the "true" faith; whatever that is.

Some churches actively preach against what they refer to as Unionism, or actively worshiping with members of another sect. They believe that they are going to heaven and they don't want to associate with the people who are going to hell. To them Unionism or Universalism is a bad thing. This springs, I think, from a point of view that all that is needed to understand mans relationship with a God is already setdown and that further development is not required. History has proven this "concrete-christianity" totally wrong in almost every way. Faith has continuously morphed from age to age and will continue to do so. The plethera of Biblical translaions and versions alone are a testament to this fact. Many Christians detest the Jeffersonian bible since he edited out the miracles. Yet they gladdly read the Protestant bible that Luther edited himself, changing afew bits here and there, and dropping 7 whole books, to fit his own philosophy and concept of what the Bible should contain.

Today we read of a Presbyterian based national adoption agency that actively discrimanates against Catholic couples seeking to adopt. Catholics need not apply. Of course the core faith should be a unifying factor, but men like to split themselves into little "holier than thou" clicks. Most Christians I know don't really care much about differences in faiths. Still the movers and shakers, no pun intended, in Catholic and Protestant circles still adhere to a culture of division. If, for instance, Protestants look to the new Pope to be accepting of their brand of Christianity they will be very dissapointed. Likewise Catholics should not be surprised to be descrimanated against by Protestant adoption agencies.

And herein resides the best example of why a government must never attempt to mingle matters of faith with politics. Since there is no true faith, at least none that man can agree on. It has been and will continue to be eternally elusive and mercurial. Faith, like art, is in the eye of the beholder.
There is no common Christian heritage of America. The heritage is one of scapgoating, and persecution. And the persecution of Christian faith has not come from any secular humanists but from fellow Christians. For Anglicans persecuted the Puritans, who persecuted the Quakers and Catholics, who persecuted the Methodists, who intern persecuted the Catholics, and they all persecuted the persecuted the Mormons and lets not even go into the persecution of the Jews. Roman Catholics alone have spent at least 150 years being kept out of political life. In attaining the nations highest office, Catholics have faired only slightly better than African Americans. And in the height of ridiculous irony, John Kerry was accused of being not Catholic enough by Protestant pundits on the right.

Catholics in America are still better seen than heard. They are a convinient prop to be dragged out as an overt symbol of ancient faith, to be paraded around at election time, like some relic to raise funds for a cathedral. Then swept back under the Protestant dominated carpet to await the next election cycle.

There is just a ton of inconsistancy regarding the current leadership and religion. The Protestant right has given Catholics a pass on the massive sexabuse scandle. Blaming liberals for causing poor morals in priests; what a load of crap. While the Catholics give the Protestants a pass on their open support of capital punishment and the war in Iraq. To the non-religious, particularly the youth, this is destructive of future faith since it portrays religion as nothing worthy of persuit. It comes accross as a sham, a come on, and big fat political power-tool. So, like in Europe, a larger and larger segment of the population will withdraw from the low-brow antics of Churchmen while the faith declines here too. And the shame of it will not be on liberals but on the sheisters that have converted faith into a dull-minded weapong to hold onto power while it evaporates all around us.