Consistency in Moral Outrage…A Must in an Election Year…

Two issues yet again have found themselves on ballots across the country: stem cell research and gay marriage. And on each of these issues, Republicans find themselves in the uncomfortable position of having to account for inconsistency in their stances. Let me explain—

Stem Cell Research:

Look…no one likes the idea of cloning. Not me, not Claire McCaskill, not Michael J. Fox. And for the Republicans to try to misrepresent the amendment on stem cell research in Missouri as a rubber stamp to begin cloning is only an effort to divert attention from the real problem for Republicans: their pro-life platitudes just don’t cut it on this issue.

• Adult stem cell research is much more difficult to accomplish because those cells have already differentiated themselves into classes of tissue.
• Embryos are full of stem cells…as in, completely made up of them full. That’s why scientists like the idea of embryonic stem cell research. Such cells can be directed to become any number of things: nerve tissue, heart muscle, you name it.
• The embryos scientists would like to use are leftovers at fertility clinics.
• Such leftover embryos have been destroyed by the hundreds of thousands in the years since in vitro fertilization has gained popularity as a way for women to have children.

Therefore, to use some of these embryos, which would be discarded anyhow, for scientific research seems to make perfect sense to me.

For Republicans to consistently uphold their pro-life stance on issues such as this, they would have to denounce IVF and call for fertility clinics to be shut down. Good luck getting that to happen. The other option is a bipartisan effort to create stem cell legislation that closes any loopholes through which unscrupulous medical researchers could attempt to clone a human being. If throwing away eggs hasn’t been an issue for pro-life Republicans for the last two decades with regard to the plethora of eggs that have been discarded in fertility clinics, now isn’t a good time to get concerned. Consistency, not cleanliness…right next to Godliness.

Gay Marriage:

*sigh* I hate games of semantics. Civil union, marriage. Civil war in Iraq, pockets of violence. If it looks like a duck and quacks like one, it probably is one. Let’s leave the word games to the side, shall we?

Every straight couple in this country that has a legally recognized marriage has a little certificate they had to go to city hall to get. It’s called a “Marriage License.” Allow me to sort out the vocabulary. That marriage license should be called a “Civil Union License.” It is a document showing that, for purposes of taxation and next of kin, Person A and Person B are recognized as being one household. They are married, whether they have a big fancy wedding in a church with hideous bridesmaid dresses and rented tuxes and all of their family and friends and a big wedding cake or not. That lovely little game of torture called a wedding is a ceremony where the church blesses the legal union of Person A and Person B as holy in the eyes of God.

One civil, one religious. One necessary, one not. They can be mutually exclusive or not, depending on the people getting married. Only one half of this equation would be affected by allowing gay civil unions—as the name would suggest, the civil (or legal) side. For purposes of taxation and next-of-kin notification, Female A and Female B or Male A and Male B would be able to enjoy the benefits of a legally recognized union. Listen very closely to the next part: Should churches object to gay civil unions, they would be under no pressure to recognize them as holy in the eyes of God.

Assuming that conservatives are using the Bible as their guide, if gay civil unions should not be legalized, then we should also do away with common law marriage (for the indecisive pansies of the world) and remarriages after divorce (for the Newt Gingrich’s of the world…). I’m sure the list of conservative politicians and even some clergy who support constitutional protection for the traditional heterosexual marriage that have remarried after a divorce would be fairly lengthy. It is to these people that I, and many others, respond that should they be so concerned about preserving the sanctity of marriage, perhaps they should start with the divorce rate and work their way towards gay marriage.

Consistency with my moral outrage is all I’m looking for, especially on issues like gay marriage that are so bloody trivial that they shouldn’t even be taking up time on my television every night during election season. What people do in their bedrooms and who they do it with isn’t my business and it’s not something I particularly care to think too hard about. As we’ve seen in the last month or so, perhaps those who are so concerned with this issues are a little too invested in the subject…

Sadly, Democrats, which I am not, by the way, have not called Republicans on these issues as much or as loudly as they should have. While I think that America is stupid, I generally like to believe that Americans can be somewhat intelligent when given all of the evidence. It wouldn’t take that long to explain these issues, and politicians could even use small words so that peons like me could understand them.

Hell, if they conquered these issues, maybe they could move on to giving a better explanation for voting for the Iraq war than John Kerry’s “I voted for it before I voted against it.” But that’s a rant that will have to wait for another day....

God is Dead…and It’s All the Megachurches’ Fault…

Best. Sermon. Ever. And it happened last Sunday at Seventh and James Baptist Church in Waco, Texas. Dr. Raymond Bailey, the pastor of Seventh and James, began by quoting Nietzsche:

God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we, murderers of all murderers, console ourselves? That which was the holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet possessed has bled to death under our knives. Who will wipe this blood off us? With what water could we purify ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we need to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we not ourselves become gods simply to be worthy of it?

Dr. Bailey’s point in quoting Nietzsche was to suggest that the trend that Nietzsche thought would happen, that religion would fade away in favor of human accomplishment, has indeed happened and megachurches have been complicit in it happening.

Joel Osteen and others espouse a “Health and Wealth” gospel—also known as “name it and claim it.” If you want that Hummer bad enough, by God, pray for it and God will give it to you. There is no mention of what God demands of believers, only the material benefits he can reap for you.

Other megachurches espouse fundamentalist worldviews, such as John Hagee’s church in San Antonio. Hagee, a noted dispensationalist, once remarked that Americans ought to spread the gospel with a Bible in one hand and an atomic bomb in the other. Because I’m sure we all know that that’s what Jesus would do…

Dr. Bailey, in his sermon, actually suggested that James and John—Sons of Thunder that they were—would have made good megachurch congregants. I agree. The sons of Zebedee were known for their confrontational style, one that Jesus had to reign in from time to time. These megachurches pervert the gospel, militarize it, and create a sad caricature of what Christ actually stood for.

God is dead. And the megachurches have killed him. The notion of humble service, that the first shall be last and the last shall be first, that Jesus would wash the feet of his disciples, has been completely discarded in favor of “what have you done for me lately?” It is up to moderate Christians, both evangelical and not, conservative or liberal leaning, to resuscitate God—the real God, not the belligerent effigy that megachurches have dressed up in a dark wig and a robe, under which there is hidden a bag of money and an M-16.

The God of the Bible is a God of love, not military might. He is a God of service, not a God of “gimme.” He requires of us to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God (Micah 6:8). He demands servanthood, not hubris. Megachurches supply their members with feel-good Christianity, the spiritual milk that Peter talks about in his first epistle. It is up to the rest of us to graduate to spiritual meat—to sink our teeth into the difficult path of service, even service to those with whom we disagree.

I applaud the courage of Dr. Bailey to take a stand against the distortions of Christianity that megachurches have perpetrated in the name of power, ambition, and members. Christ was not an emperor or a king, as the Zealots hoped he would be. He was a humble carpenter who washed the feet of his followers. He scolded Peter at his arrest for slicing off the ear of a Roman centurion. He lovingly and gently confronted the Pharisees and Sadducees, and only got angry with his Father’s house was turned into a den of thieves. That is the example we ought to follow, not the example of Joel Osteen or John Hagee or any other pastor that champions man’s achievements—monetary or military to pursue selfish or militaristic goals.