Published: 12/09/2008
“I pledge allegiance to the flag, and to the republic for which it stands, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those, and thine is the power and the glory forever and ever, amen.”
These days, pastors and politicians look, act and speak alike. They wear expensive suits and smile fake grins full of unnaturally white teeth. They have the eyes of men who are selling something. Preaching from the pulpit and the podium have become equally effective.
Democracy and religion have merged in a uniquely American way. Politics and religion have been intertwined for quite some time, but our kind of democracy and the quintessentially American manner in which we approach government are mixing with religion in a very disturbing way.
We are living in strange times. Some ultra-religious, evangelical biblical literalists have begun spreading the message that the end of the world is near and President-elect Barack Obama is the Antichrist. You know, the Beast, 666, the son of Satan and all that. They believe Satan, the dark prince of the underworld, sent Obama to bring about the apocalypse and take our souls. Then, once the Rapture is over and all the good people have completed their ride up to heaven in chariots of fire or something, all the “bad people” – “sinners” as they’re called in the religion biz – will be pulled down into the black pit of hell.
I’m assuming Obama himself will do a majority of the pulling, with the assistance of various demons and such. I’m not sure if the first family will pull its weight – maybe the Obamas will just poke people with pitchforks, but it still sounds pretty bad.
But the point is, there are people (Americans) who actually believe this. If that isn’t hopping on the Jerry Falwell crazy train express with a one-way ticket to lunatic land in hand, I don’t know what is. Back in the day, religion and government got mixed up to such an extent that grisly events such as the Crusades and Spanish Inquisition were sanctioned by both religious and secular authorities. As a result, the Reformation happened. Then some of the reformed Christians came to North America because they wanted even more religious freedom.
Over-simplified history lessons aside, our country was formed loosely (and I cannot stress the word loosely enough here) on ideas of Christian values and – just as importantly – not respecting any one religion as having precedence over any other. That separation was important, because early Americans were well aware of the havoc that illogical religious superstition could wreak on society.
Superstition and delusion are still around and strong as ever, as the “Obama is a dragon” people clearly prove, but they are just a silly fringe group. The reason they exist is because we have Americanized Christianity and Jesus Christ to such an extent it has become a completely different religion altogether.
The American image of Christ is a reassuring and slightly racist image of a Caucasian Jesus with flowing chestnut locks and sparkling blue eyes. He loves good ol’ traditional American values such as capitalism, pickup trucks, guns and hard work; he’s a man’s man, our savior and our favorite drinking buddy. This manufactured American Jesus is a bizarre doppelganger, transformed to create an offensive political puppet. Though he may not be offensive to many American Christians, our bastard messiah is supremely offensive to anyone who cares about what Jesus Christ actually represents.
The ideals of mercy, service, poverty, self-sacrifice and martyrdom aren’t even respected because he has been turned into a cliche, and this has to be the greatest sin. The Romans (or the Jews if you’re Mel Gibson) may have killed Christ, but we Americans dealt Jesus Christ his death stroke.
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