This one’s dedicated to the moderate Christians who actually practice the teachings of Jesus instead of just paying them lip service: Where are you? We’re waiting for you to take your faith back from the nutjobs.

“I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.”
– Stephen Roberts

What prompts such an obvious jab at the Christian faith today, you might ask? If I replied with just the two words “Tom DeLay”, it’s a safe bet that a lot of people that read this will immediately understand. “The Hammer” is in the news today for criticizing Supreme Court Justices that make public comments on conservative death threats against them as out of touch with America. Yes, that is our problem in a nutshell. Our impartial judiciary feels that it should not have to put up with menacing emails and obvious hazards to their safety and the well-being of their families, and these are the people that “don’t get it.” After all, this is a nation founded on Christian principles, so the rights of the Constitution that guarantee life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness only really apply to Christian Americans, right Tom?

Even though trends and polls show an increasingly conservative leaning to America’s political ideology these days, it still enrages me that this “moral majority” thinks that it is right to impose such a religious viewpoint on the country as a whole. This is STILL AMERICA. My atheist beliefs and his Muslim beliefs and her Buddhist beliefs and their Jewish beliefs are still entitled to freedom from overwhelming persecution from ANY majority that is in power in our government. For Christians, the overwhelmingly dominant demonination in our country today, to claim that they are being harassed by anyone is an affront to reason and reality. Instances in which the power of Christianity in government (state or federal) are limited or removed is nothing more than the minority fighting for its Constitutional rights under the law.

Tom DeLay is the one out of touch here, not Justices O’Connor or Ginsburg. What is sadly true is that he believes that it is right to enshrine bigotry, misogyny, and ignorance in our country’s founding charter. The GOP has lead efforts to fight civil rights for decades and is supported by the populations of states that are largely filled with racists or the descendants of racists who haven’t fallen far enough from the tree. The solid base of the Republican Party actively works against efforts to increase our wealth of knowledge and education learned through science and understanding, as opposed to policy dictated by a religious figure of questionable intelligence. Actions to curtail the rights of women, be they black, white, asian, or whatever, are mainly spearheaded by religiously conservative Republicans. And given that the struggle to maintain the rights that the GOP has worked so hard to eliminate has stretched on for so long is an obvious indicator that the majority of Americans do NOT subscribe to the vicious rabidness of fanatics like Tom DeLay.

That is why I continue to call on moderate Christians to retake their religions. There exist millions of Protestants, Catholics, Methodists, and Baptists (sorry if I left your sect out) who live day by day with their nieghbors of different origins and beliefs and don’t even feel the urge to call anyone a sinner. These are the true practitioners of the Christian faith. They exemplify charity and understanding and compassion in ways that the most visible Christians do not. Pat Robertson calls for assassinations. Jerry Falwell criticizes soldiers that have died for our country. The Reverends Graham (Billy and Franklin) have not one kind word to say about their Abrahamic brothers, the Muslims, equating the entire religion with evil and injustice. (The irony is that the imams across the oceans use these individuals to do the same, kind of like a self-perpetuating problem.) These are the people that you want to represent your faith to the world? These are the people that you follow? If that is the case, then you are all hopeless and deserve the eternity in Hell that your complacency will earn you. But if you are tired of the hate and bigotry that is spread about in Christ’s name, then WAKE UP already and take back your religion. Send money to churches that focus on good works and political causes. Is the life of a person already alive worth so much less than that of an embryo that you’d rather your contribution go towards buying picket signs instead of soup and blankets? Does it mean more to you to focus on preventing gays from marrying that you don’t want to direct any attention to the divorce rates among regular people and address the real ills that affect our families today?

Christians today have a choice. There is the path that Jesus walked, which is of love and brotherhood and compassion for all living peoples and creatures under God’s creation. This is demonstrated by showing real concern for others and not making the creation of a totalitarian government under some fanatic minister the goal of your life and your congregation. Then there is the path of pride and glory and greed personified by so many televangelists shown in the news today. These men who preach intolerance and support measures in government to remove rights from people that are different from them or worship a different supreme being or choose not to worship one at all. Suppressing anyone’s rights was not part of Jesus’ plan for the world. It should not become the foundation of the Christian faith in the 21st century. Stand up, real Christians, and be counted. Your voices, so currently silent in fear of some rebuking sermon, are the ones that matter and should be heard.