Christianity has been hijacked by right-wing zealots who have demeaned the teachings of Jesus. When they quote the bible, they take phrases out of context and interpret them with an extreme brand of literalism that distorts or ignores their vast possibilities of meaning. Even worse, they practice a selective literalism - taking literally those words and phrases that superficially support their agenda, but ignoring Christ's words whenever they do not. As if this were not enough, they then poison public discourse by insinuating, or stating unabashedly, that to vote for policies or candidates who disagree with their program is tantamount to 'sin'. I am not a Christian, but I have a deep respect for real Christianity, as I have for all real religion. This, however, is something much less.
Given the insistence of the Christian Right in taking the words of the Bible seriously and living by its precepts, it is rather extraordinary to realize that of their two major modern battleground issues - abortion and homosexuality - Christ says nothing at all. The Catholic Church gets around this by noting that they have always considered Church tradition and priestly interpretations of "natural law" as crucial to their doctrines, but the Protestant movement is based on Martin Luther's break with these Catholic ideas: Evangelicals insist on the words of Scripture alone for their authority.
Bumper Sticker Quotes
Of course, there are a few phrases here and there that are dredged up and misinterpreted in an attempt to secure biblical sanction. In Deuteronomy, for instance, Moses tells the assembled Israelites that they have been given a choice between "life and prosperity, death and destruction." He assures them that if they will love the Lord and follow his commandments they will live long happy lives and be blessed. If they turn away from God they will just as assuredly meet with destruction. "Now choose life," he advises, so that they will be blessed and enjoy the land that had been promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Some opponents of abortion have extracted Moses' injunction to "choose life" and turned it into a rallying cry and bumper-sticker for their unrelated cause. This is typical, but its semi-humorous obviousness serves to emphasize the fact that the Bible itself is neither for nor against abortion. (I should note that I was recently present at a study group in which several somewhat obscure biblical passages were interpreted to support the right of abortion that is accepted by many in Reform Judaism.)
On the other hand, the Bible has a great deal to say about divorce, and a literal reading of these statements does not leave much room for quibbling about their meaning. According to the prophet Malachi, God explicitly says "I hate divorce." According to Paul, "A husband must not divorce his wife." And Jesus states unequivocally that "anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery." This is pretty clear! So why aren't the right-wing protectors of morality lobbying to outlaw divorce? Perhaps because a few too many members of the group have 'selected' to ignore these scriptural admonitions and have gotten divorced themselves. On the other hand, it is still relatively easy, though becoming rather less so, to imagine that women-who-choose-abortion, and gays, are not members of the group: they are 'other', and all sorts of potent negative emotion can easily be directed at 'them'.
Actually, there was a time not that long ago when the divorce issue was important in Republican politics. Nelson Rockefeller, who was divorced and remarried, could not get his party's presidential nomination at least in part for precisely this reason. But twenty years later, the delegates were fawning over another divorced-and-remarried candidate, Ronald Reagan. Suddenly, the clear biblical injunction against divorce was a matter of no concern. The imagined injunction against abortion took center stage. It has proven to be a very politically-useful issue. Reagan (who had previously signed a bill as Governor of California that legalized abortion) kept the issue very much alive for eight years as did Bush I and II during their tenures. People rallied, and continue to rally, to the cause. People with little or no interest in preserving the sanctity of life when it comes to war, capital punishment, discrimination, or the degradation of hunger and poverty, become morally outraged to the extreme over this issue. They rant against the Judiciary, the Humanists, the Liberals, and of course the Democrats, and Conservative Republicans do nothing to quiet their fervor. The simple fact is, these people bring out the vote.
All of this, of course, avoids the question of the rightness or wrongness of aborting a fetus. But it would be difficult to find many people who would offer the opinion that abortion is a good thing. No one likes abortion. The issue is not the 'goodness' or 'badness' of abortion: it's a sad and dreadful choice with enormous moral, psychological, and spiritual repercussions. The issue is whether it would be right or wrong, wise or foolish, to make it illegal. And right here there are grounds for hoping that we can eventually put this question to rest, if the political hacks and media charlatans would just stop riling people up.
Most proponents of anti-abortion legislation acknowledge that such laws will not stop the occurrence of abortion itself, or even slow it down very much if at all. Most understand that making abortion illegal will increase the frequency of botched surgery, terrible injury, and unnecessary death. Most acknowledge that only a serious change in the cultural and moral climate can truly lower the frequency of abortion. A relentlessly pornographic media will continue to encourage unwanted pregnancies. A culture that entertains its children with constant persuasion to seek sex without responsibility will continue to encourage unwanted pregnancies. All of this has to change, and not by passing restrictive laws. The responsibility lies with us, with our own 'suggestibility', the astonishing ease with which we abdicate all efforts to think and reason and choose for ourselves, and believe and do whatever we are told to believe and do. It's not that the government isn't doing enough. It's that we are passive.
If the Religious Right really wants to stop the tragedy of abortion, and not merely stir people up to vote for their candidates, it would be far more useful to focus their energies on the cultural, moral, and sociological climate: ending poverty; encouraging people to boycott the media exploitation of sex and violence; teaching our boys that treating women respectfully and becoming responsible fathers is the real definition of Manhood; teaching our girls that they are loved for their minds, hearts and souls, not just their bodies; encouraging adoption; and perhaps even remembering that the Gospels are supposed to be 'good news' - not a justification for being nasty and punitive.
If the Democrats and Liberals want to help, they have to stop ignoring the moral implications of abortion while focusing exclusively on issues of privacy and a woman's right to choose. It is just this distinction, between the morality of abortion and the politics of abortion, that the Democrats don't seem get. Both are important. But by ignoring the religious and ethical implications, they continue to turn off half or more of the electorate while stoking the endless fires of violent discord over the issue.
These fires have been raging for decades. It's enough. We have to change. Not them. And not the government.
The End of Abortion
Things are getting really crazy - in the Gulf, in Washington, on Wall Street, at Tea Party rallies, even at Militia gatherings. America is becoming more and more divided - Liberals vs. Conservatives, Atheists vs. Believers, Environmentalists vs. Corporations, Christians vs. Muslims.
More voices of Reason are needed. But instead, we have exploitative politicians, writers and media stars stirring people up with sarcasm, calls to arms, and half-baked 'solutions' to America's problems.
I can promise you that my book, 'The American Psyche in Search of its Soul', is different. My purpose, in chapters covering the gamut of science and technology, economics, pop culture, politics, family, urban violence, and education, is to help us revitalize the dream of the American Founders -the dream that this nation would be the site of a great flowering of wisdom, beauty and spirit - and to demonstrate that this dream is not just a preposterous fantasy that sophisticated modern people can no longer take seriously.
- 'The American Psyche in Search of its Soul' is written for people who are not willing to be swayed by either the fundamentalist ultra-right or the atheistic ultra-left.
- 'The American Psyche in Search of its Soul' is written for readers who are educated, politically savvy, concerned about their families, concerned about their community and the world, and looking for deeper levels of meaning in their lives.
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