Right-wing Republicans smear the name of Jesus and ravage the image of Christianity

[emdee]

I apologize if this has already been posted. I just ran across it while googling more about O'Reilly and his sexual problems. I am a Christian and this article seems, to me, to point out many of the issues I've had with the politicizing of religion in today's hostile us-vs-them attitudes of the right-wing. It also makes me sad that they've placed this type of light on Christianity and will, no doubt, turn many away due to their inconsistencies and obvious hypocritical behaviors. I 'snipped' three paragraphs - I hope that's the accepted way to link.

I am not getting fed up with religion but I am getting fed up with the way it is used and abused for political purposes.

<snip>
Rush Limbaugh owes a great deal of his success to Christian conservatives who eat up his no-nonsense approach to “liberal excesses.” He condemns gays, abortion, feminists and barely veils his racism. But modern-day Christians do not do service to Jesus’ name through their glaring hypocrisy concerning Rush. Christian fundamentalists use literal readings of the Bible to condemn gays but ignore the literal words of Jesus regarding divorce. Limbaugh has been divorced three times although Jesus states: “The law of Moses says if anyone wants to be rid of his wife, he can divorce her by giving her a letter of dismissal. But I say a man who divorces his wife causes her to commit adultery if she marries again. And he who marries her commits adultery” (Matthew 5:31-32). In Mark 10:11-12, Jesus says that anyone having sex in a second marriage is committing adultery over and over again. Their sexual union is no better in biblical terms than a gay union which, by the way, is never condemned directly by Jesus Christ. I say divorce is a necessary option but don’t condemn gays with a literal reading of the Bible and ignore divorce.

As long as Limbaugh opposes abortion and gays, Christians don’t seem to care about his “adulterous lifestyle” and in many cases they aren’t even familiar with Jesus’ quotes concerning divorce because that’s not a big money maker for Christian ministers. Limbaugh is a frightening Christian idol on other levels. They don’t seem to care about his drug abuse that has myriad implications from hypocrisy to illegality to sexual promiscuity. Few noticed the implications of his latest confrontation with the law when he was questioned for possessing Viagra that had been dispensed to him under his doctor’s name. From a Christian point of view, what is a divorced man without a spouse doing with Viagra while on vacation in the Dominican Republic? If the Christian right won’t denounce him with the same fervor that they denounce gays in a St. Patrick Day parade, their credibility has got to seriously suffer. And who suffers most? Jesus! He is misrepresented and marginalized by this continuing hypocrisy.

Other pundits that Christians have lionized are not much better. William Bennett, who tells us all how to live a virtuous life through his “Book of Virtues,” has admitted to an addiction to high-stakes gambling, one of the most destructive vices in family history. His comments about aborting black babies to lower the crime rate in America should have pricked up a few ears in the Christian community but not a word was spoken. Popular conservative television entertainer Bill O’Reilly is their current go-to man because he has fought the hard fight of keeping “Christ in Christmas” against the “heathens” in the ACLU. Of course this noble family man and defender of all things traditional will never talk about Andrea Mackris, the former producer of “The O’Reilly Factor,” who sued him for sexual harassment after he allegedly made sexually explicit statements involving a loofah and a falafel. Mackris' case was settled out of court when O'Reilly agreed to pay her an undisclosed sum.<snip>

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_1246.shtml

[kineneb]

1. their Bible

does not seem have the Sermon on the Mount, but just Leviticus, covered in lots of yellow highlighter. Strange thing, but the OT refers only to how the Jews should behave, not Gentiles of whatever belief. I sure don't see the frothing wowsers following the whole program, including special dietary laws... they seem to cherry pick their passages to hide their own fears.

And yup, that whole divorce section seems to get overlooked in their frothing... projection rearing its ugly head again? And how much money is being given by the mega-churches to the poor? Hmmm? Seems they didn't get the message on wealth preventing one from reaching the Kingdom of Heaven...

They talk the talk, but don't walk the walk. Just a load of hypocrites.