ReclaimJesus.net

I write as a follow-up to the John Danforth interview in your Nov/Dec issue of the Zion’s Herald and to offer a different slant on behalf of moderate/liberal Christians everywhere.  I write to issue a clarion call for action:  Moderate and liberal Christians, Unite!  Reclaim Jesus from the evangelical Christian right. 

On June 17, 2005, in a New York Times Op Ed piece entitled, “Onward Moderate Christian Soldiers,”  Father Danforth went to the heart of the problem with Christianity in America today – the deafening silence of  Christian moderates/liberals in the bully pulpit of public opinion.  Since then, in numerous public appearances on National Public Radio, talk shows, college campuses, and most recently in your interview,  Father Danforth has expanded his disturbingly simple and frightening message.  It demands the response which is set forth below. 

The evangelical Christian right is dominating the bully pulpit of public opinion on what it means to be a Christian with a false, misleading and erroneous message.  Yet it is the only message being heard in the arena of public opinion, because as Father Danforth points out, the rest of Christianity, moderates and liberals alike,  live and die by the Great Commandment (“Love thy God with all thy heart, mind, and strength, and love thy neighbor as thyself”).  We are uncomfortable being divisive, and so most of us remain silent so as to avoid the criticism of hypocrisy.  How can we claim to love everybody else if we speak out against some of our own brethren who happen to have a different view on things?

Father Danforth seems to embrace this basic tenet and is calling for moderation of the rhetoric between the evangelical Christian right and moderates/liberals, and calling for ways to find common ground.  With all due respect to Father Danforth, I could not agree less.  It is time for moderate and liberal Christians everywhere to speak up and speak out!

In broad terms, the message of the evangelical Christian right is a message of telling all who will listen what to think, say, and do;  a message of a wrathful, judgmental God who wreaks havoc on humankind;  a message of  simple answers where there are none;  a message of exclusion of all  who fail to follow them.  In more concrete terms, for example, Rev. Franklin Graham recently declared Hurricane Katrina to be God’s way of punishing the evil sinners of New Orleans;  under the guise of  a God of Love, the “family value” folks co-opt a term that traditionally is meant to evoke ideas of trust, loyalty, commitment, and love, and convert it into a homophobic hysteria that evokes ideas of distrust, disloyalty, lack of commitment, and hatred.  Hiding under the deception of one of their favorite phrases,  “Love the sinner, hate the sin…,”   they verbally claim to “love the sinner” while experientially conveying to the so-called “sinner” the “hate” part.  

In short, the message of the evangelical Christian right is a message diametrically opposed to the message of Jesus, a message of love and trust, a message of inclusion, but most of all, a message of non-judgmental acceptance. Yet, in order to avoid the criticism of hypocrisy, we moderate and liberal Christians remain silent on the sidelines, hunkered down in the hallowed halls of our non-controversial sanctuaries.  To which I say, ENOUGH!  The silence is deafening.  More importantly, the silence is deadening, literally killing Christianity as we know it.

When the very essence of what it means to be a Christian is at stake, when the very nature of God, and Jesus, and the Christian belief system is being misrepresented to the public, the hypocrisy lies not in speaking out.  The hypocrisy lies in not speaking out.  The hypocrisy lies in remaining silent, and watching more and more un-churched, under-churched, de-churched, never-been-churched, fed-up-with-church folks wander away from the Christian faith in direct reaction to all the nonsense in the media that purports to represent Christianity.  Who can blame them?  Why shouldn’t they walk away?

On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther cried out for all the world to hear, “ENOUGH!”   Responding to a variety of Church abuses, most notably the sale of Indulgences for the forgiveness of sin, Luther posted his now-famous 95 Theses.  The rest, as they say, is history.  The abuses Luther faced pale in comparison to those facing us Christians today.   Recently, on October 30, 2005 in celebration of Reformation Sunday and in honor of the memory of Martin Luther, I posted on the doors of my church a new "95 Theses For the 21^st Century," issuing the challenge:

More importantly, in today’s interconnected world of the internet and in direct response to the challenge of John Danforth, I have posted these theses at my website, www.ReclaimJesus.net.  I invite Christians everywhere to go to the website, get into the fray, and reclaim Jesus.    

Hypocrisy lies not in speaking out.  Hypocrisy lies in not speaking out. 

Reverend Thomas F. O'Donnell

Plymouth Bethesda United Church of Christ

Utica, New York