Like some of her other pieces, I wasn’t originally going to write about it. I enthusiastically, take her text in and ponder it, allowing it to ferment and give rise to thoughts and ideas. But then, I started reading the comments. A number of them, are the standard, evangelical defensiveness and victim posturing, as if fundamentalists are the poor abused minorities. They wonder what they have done to deserve such scorn, whereas Janet’s op-ed doesn’t attack evangelicals in general at all, at least in my opinion. And there were the comments made by Bible thumpers, who characteristically pull out a few Bible passages, and offer them as if they are the answer to everything. Frighteningly, these seemed to be placed there as if they support the Ugandan move towards the execution of gays. But one caught my eye, and propelled me into this post:
Clearly, the idiots like Janet Edwards are spreading lies. I don’t think you understand that you are doing the work of the devil by spreading LIES. Jesus Christ was crucified because of lies. I hope you understand the punishment of God for liars.Now, Janet is an adult and I’m sure has been called far worse before and will again, so no comment from me about the personal attack against her. But the quote I want to emphasize is this: “Jesus was crucified because of lies.”  What a theologically insane thing to say! Especially when followed with a statement about God and liars, and preceded with the claim that Janet is a liar. This person can if they like, equate Janet’s opinion with a lie, and align her with other liars, and claim that God hates liars, but the assertion that Jesus was crucified because of lies can not be substantiated  theologically. Depending upon how you read the Bible, Jesus was crucified and raised from the dead because it was God’s plan. It was ordained to be that way, even before his birth. It was a required element of the narrative, for without it, the resurrection would mean nothing. So, one has to wonder who is the one lying and what does it mean to suggest that God is unhappy with Janet’s ideas, but God has no problem that His greatest gift to humanity, the sacrifice of his Son is so misunderstood? My favorite character in the Bible is the apostle Paul, who can be quoted to support or condemn just about anything imaginable. He lived and wrote at a time, when he, and others were struggling to comprehend the experience of Jesus in the context of the Hebrew Faith in which it had occurred. It troubled Paul deeply, and his attempt to figure out the relationship between Jesus, the death and resurrection, and God’s promise to the Jews is an underlying theme through out all of his letters. What was the role of the Law of Moses and now, God’s covenant through Christ- how to reconcile these things? How many of today’s far-right Christian fanatics seem to have no sense of this issue or theological problem!  They are stuck at the math equation of “2+2″ but seem oblivious to the fact that the result is “5″ and the equation and result can not be aligned. What’s wrong with Fundamentalism, and the evangelicalism that grows from it, is that it has no basis in a sound theology. It is a bastardization of Christian Faith and lacks realistic, meaningful, and thoughtful theological basis. The truly faithful ought to be outraged, and alarmed by this. Real Faith, Real theology, and Real religion lose when this insanity reigns. Those who label themselves as the unfaithful or non-believers are not killing God or the opportunity for Faith. It is the insane within the Fundamentalist movement who are destroying the value of Faith and religion in real life.