The Christian right has made quite a spectacle of itself as of late. While its positions are noble, its delivery is not, and so many are being turned away from "church" by its people. Why is this? How can we find such significant discrepancies and hypocrisies in church?
As a churchgoer for my entire life, it's clear that people say what they will at church and raise their hands in agreement with the virtues and morals put forth in the Bible. But, when they are not there, or when the rubber meets the road and they have to display the character of Jesus, an entirely different message sets up. I'm guilty of it myself. I lose my temper over small stuff. I don't exercise patience in certain situations, and I judge celebrities and politicians like there'll be no time to do it tomorrow.
So, what of it? What about the church and its followers and its rules? Recently, everyone has been upset about the healthcare mandate that requires businesses to pay for birth control regardless of whether or not the owners believe in it. I can understand the unrest in the interest of liberty. Businesses really shouldn't be forced by the government to do anything except pay the appropriate taxes for operating in the country. I can't see it being a religious freedom question, but a life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness issue. I say this because long ago it was determined that when these businesses hire individuals they must not hire based on religious affiliation. So, if the person who works for the business does not hold the same set of beliefs and everyone in the Nation is receiving this benefit from their employer, then this employer should follow suit and allow the worker to make the final decision about their birth control. This infringes on the workers' freedom.
Also, the photographers and bakers and wedding venues who keep turning away homosexual couples are showing a great deal of hypocrisy. Clearly, homosexuality in any form is listed as sin. Go to 1 Corinthians 6:9 and it will be listed there along with drunkenness, partying, fornication, adultery, idolatry, conning people out of money, theft, and wishing you had what someone else owns. It's funny how people walk into these places of business everyday to order cakes or photography, but are never questioned about whether there will be drinking at the party / wedding. Will there be dancing and revelry at the reception? No one asks if it's their first or second marriage, in which case they are committing adultery. Jesus himself says so. The couple to wed is not asked whether they are living together and fornicating. No one asks the bride where she found her dress...in a magazine on another woman, after looking at which she said, "I've gotta' have that one." If so, she was covetous and by these business owners' standards they cannot provide services for her. I mean, it's strange. Why this sin? Why is this the hill the religious right is dying on? If the owners of these businesses had been holding up the banner all along, it would not be a story or a shock to anyone if they turned people away in this case as well. If you're going to stand, stand for the truth all the time, not just when it's socially acceptable.
That's the Christian church's problem today. It's not the message, it's the hypocrisy of the messengers. And until the church wakes up there will always be a cloud of ungodliness cast on it.
Well, nowadays it's conspiracy after conspiracy, on top of conspiracy. Just this week my husband and I tossed around conspiracies in a sort of trivial pursuit, challenging each other on who knew more about which conspiracy theory. He started by querying me about the Bohemian Grove conspiracy. I pretended to know everything about it, boasting, "That's common knowledge." Honestly, I had only just learned about it after reading the synopsis for a new documentary / fictional account called "The Conspiracy". I mentioned the Bilderberg Group, a group associated with a conspiracy theory surrounding the business and political elite and their bid to take over the world. As an ordinary American citizen I have no idea really but we continued tossing the conspiracies out. He leveraged his knowledge of the evil - laden Skull and Bones secret society, as if he knew, against my first-hand account of pledging two different organizations as a freshman in college. He lectured me about my own collusion with the enemy. I pledged a sorority and he never stops letting me know how worldly and sadistically satanic it is. Truthfully, I liked being a part of it and didn't see it as any more evil than anything else humans do. I made some tremendous friends and did a wealth of community service. But, looking back I would have gladly skipped the induction ceremony. It is full of weirdness I don't really remember, except that it occurred to me that it wasn't a Christian rite in any way, shape, or form. In fact, it was paying homage to the organization as if it were a deity. It was a strange undertaking, but somehow I didn't feel that I was participating in satanic worship of a pagan deity. It didn't seem worthy of conspiracy status. I explained it didn't feel quite as sinister as he was making it out to be, but he continued to denounce all secret societies and rail against my lack of understanding the trappings of its evils. Another conspiracy unveiled.
Then I expounded on the 9/11 conspiracy...which, incidentally, I believe might actually have some merit considering a government that spends hundreds of billions of dollars on defense wasn't able to take down some commercial planes. I once listened to Susan Lindauer and was amazed and afraid. Many agree as this group has quite a cult following.
He countered with the endless intrigue of the Illuminati cult, or rather occult. It's this group of uber rich people coming together to eventually enslave all of humanity for the sake of more power. Urban lore has it they go behind closed doors and worship the devil to get more and more power over the rest of us. According to conspiracy theorists they are working with the rulers of darkness mentioned in Ephesians 6:10 to bring about the New World Order that causes the second coming of Christ. The conspiracy is in all of pop culture, media, music, politics, and movies. Even the so-called stars are in on the secret. Somehow it's difficult to imagine some of these people participating in these evil rituals, but since ritual and ceremony are well-embedded in the culture, maybe it's not that strange. According to the Washington Post, Vanity Fair, and Alex Jones' infowars.com, extreme right-wing conservative Republicans who claim born-again status participate in these rites, as seen here:
Truth has a way of walking up and slapping you in the face when you're just going about your business doing your own thing. Who would believe these men who stand in public arenas declaring moral superiority and biblical family values go out to the forest to engage in undeniably pagan rituals? Speaking of public figures, we never got started on the conspiracies surrounding Barak Obama. It would've taken more time than anyone has to hash all of them out. To name some: Conspiracy 1 - he's really a Muslim who gave the oath on the Koran instead of the Bible and secretly prays to the east 5 times a day in the oval office. Conspiracy 2 - he's ex-CIA and so was his mom...that's the only way he was able to get the job and lead us into the New World Order. Conspiracy 3 - he's not an American citizen...somehow he was really born in Kenya. Conspiracy 4 - he's not really part Kenyan. His dad was actually a card carrying communist (aka civil rights activist in the 60's) named Frank Marshall Davis. Conspiracy 5 - he's really homosexual and that's why he's promoting their agenda. Conspiracy 6 - he's the antichrist and is set to usher in the Great Tribulation. Oh, and no conspiracy catalog would be complete without membership in the "Illuminati". I'm leaving some out, but any or all of these conspiracies contradict one another. It's become too silly to take seriously.
Another mode of research aside from our drills are my visits to culteducation.com to learn about groups that use philosophy or belief in a lifestyle or higher power to wield control over others. The Jonestown cult is one of great interest to me. These staunch believers in Jesus Christ rallying alongside professing atheists mixed into a melee of socialist propaganda dressed up as Christo-pagan ideology. And at its core a manifestation of drug induced mania causing them to lose power over their very lives. This is a much sensationalized cult, but there are countless others. There are people walking around claiming to be Jesus Christ's second coming and they have followers. In fact, you name it and someone out there believes it. From being granted your own planet when you die to annunaki alien giant race creators, there are a plethora of cult philosophies to follow. And there are millions of opportunists just waiting to use them to satisfy their need for worship, domination, money, and sexual pursuit.
If conspiracies seek to expose the evil being wielded by leaders, then cults exist to exploit the followers. They ebb and flow against each other, and yet somehow there never ceases to be an endless supply of either.
While a conspiracy is a conspiracy because of its contradictions to what we can see in plain sight, the only conclusion to draw is that people will believe anything. So, where does Jesus Christ fall into place in all of these philosophies? Any number of cult leaders use Him and His name to become puppet masters. There are conspiracies floating in the Christian church right now about itself. Lately the target has been mega-churches and their leaders. The conspiracies surrounding them involve their perceived greed and lack of sincerity of belief as they empty the pockets of working class congregations, in turn reaping a fortune. The apostles and disciples didn't ask the early church for money so they could buy the best camels or build themselves tremendous tents. So, when prosperity teachers who find themselves in financial straits or who own multiple homes, cars, boats, and planes are scrutinized it isn't surprising. As long as there are starving people or even people sitting in the pews of your church who are unemployed and can't make ends meet and you are paying $25,000 a pop to fly to your next speaking engagement, it's going to be controversial and seem to fly in the face of Christian sensibility. But, these contexts for exploitation are more obvious. It's the cults that spout a seemingly deep philosophical idea heralded by a forcefully convincing leader that have the potential to deconstruct lives. It's the groups steeped in their own seemingly flawless ideology that become harmful. It begins as an organization that is eventually haunted by its leadership, creating zombies of its followers through sleep deprivation, isolation, obsequiousness, and group think strategies. No matter the cult group, the mind control tactics are the same.
How does one find their way in this web of mystery? My husband and I debate and passionately argue the details and merit of it all, never coming to a conclusion. Then the questions inevitably rise to the top of the debate. Since Christianity is accepted in mainstream American culture, isn't it by its very nature a conspiracy? Is it just another philosophy among many? Why should belief in Jesus Christ be treated any differently? If there is a conspiracy by the powers that be to rule the lower classes through religion, then is Christianity another form of puppetry? Isn't Chrisitanity just a western cult? I've grappled with these questions since we began looking into conspiracies and cults. It's par for the course when you're connecting dots. It can be postulated by intellectuals looking to arrive at this outcome that the answer to all these questions is yes.
But, in quiet reflection, I think of all the times He's answered my prayers. When I consider all the times His mercy has reigned in spite of my disobedience, I can see Him. Sober minded after intoxicating searches and studies in intellectual debate, sitting there in solitude what I find staring at me is faith. I was not astonished by my faith in Christ that had always been there. I was surprised that it takes faith to see the world without God. I can explain away the wealthy one percent sacrificing to Moloch in the forest and then dropping atomic bombs as evil men doing evil. I can pretend that it makes sense for 50 year old executives in board rooms to figure out how to market sexually charged, immoral messages in song to 12 year olds. Maybe I can dismiss the blood and gore of video games and their relationship to children gunning each other down in the streets. But, taken all together the environment is too sick to dismiss as unfounded conspiracy. I have to handle the shock that bits and pieces of this are real and see that there truly is a spiritual wickedness that cradles the underbelly of our society. There is no conspiracy. Evil has always been evil since the beginning of time. The Bible is truth hidden in plain sight, revealing that satan is the prince of this world and that he's seeking to steal, kill, and destroy us at will. Conspiracy uncovered, millennia ago.
Could it be that we've developed technologies and sciences beyond our ancestors' imagination only to conclude that the ancients were right all along? King Solomon has been credited with writing, "there's nothing new under the sun." And so it is even now, nothing new. The simplicity of the answer is even more staggering. It's salvation in Jesus Christ. If one reads the Bible themselves and does not take religion's word for it, they will find answer after answer to life's mysteries. Amazing really, how it manifests itself and opens our eyes to what's really happening in front of us. Accepting Jesus Christ gives us the Holy Spirit who counters the evil and gives us the power to do what is right. We simply trust in God and display that trust by not hurting each other with fornication, adultery, lies, theft, greed, idolatry, selfishness, lasciviousness, murder, gossip, etc. We just turn away from evil and do good to and for each other and He heals the earth. We pray, evil stops first individually, then collectively. I believe after much debate, study, and thought, that it really is that simple. Then when it's all said and done and we get to the end of our journey, it really is all about faith.
