Holographic Conservatives

The Holographic Conservatives

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 08, 2006

"Meeting our goal has messianic dimensions. It will certainly mean some kind of new world order," he said. "I believe when that time comes, the power of peace will be greater than the power of war, the power of love will be greater than the power of hate, and fullness will be greater than poverty and hunger."

That sounds pretty good doesn't it? A bit utopian perhaps, but no less so than liberal utopia. The irony of it is that this was the comment of Faith Central Pastor Kenneth Ulmer, who leads an Inglewood congregation of 10,000. A Christian mega-church pastor. One of those mega-churches that rely on the taxpayers of their area to make them millionaires tax free.

Okay, the irony is more than that. The irony is that these comments flow from a group bent of evangelizing the world, yet it seems to me that today's current crop of evangelicals are anything but concerned about hunger, or the poor, or hatred.

According to the Census Bureau, poverty has gone up again not just in terms of a percentage of the population, but in the real numbers of people. Simply put, they are the working poor because according to the administration, the unemployment rate is historically low. And then lets look at the current budget and proposals.

So let's look at the cuts in the budget. I'm sure most of you have heard this by now. Medicare, which assists the elderly, was chopped by 36 billion or so. Medicaid, which assists the low-income and children primarily, was axed by 13 billion. These two programs assist mostly the poor. I am aware that groups like The Interfaith Alliance, and Sojourners, and affiliated churches, speak out against these types of budget cuts.These groups however, are the same groups that fundamentalists barely acknowledge as being Christian. They dress up like they are, but the whole fundamentalist argument is centered on whether or not you have a born again experience. Simple baptism isn't enough. Growing up in the church isn't enough. If some of you would like, I can play that role. I still own my four translation Bible, and I know the Scriptures, and could well state my case. So what happens then? The fundamentalists, who happen to be quite close to the Bush administration, say nothing about these types of budget cuts that expose the weak and vulnerable of our society while the rich get futher tax breaks(70 billion is on the table) and the military gets a huge 5% budget increase.

According to the Cesus Bureau, poverty went up last year. It was a rather significant rise apparently. Along with those numbers, since Bush took office, over 6 million people have lost their health care coverage. That's roughly the population of about 24 of our United States. So I would ask Mr. Ulmer, how does the budget actions of the current administration demostrate Christian values? If fullness is supposed to be better than poverty and hunger, why are you not fighting for that fullness now?

Jerry Falwell stated back in 2004, on CNN that "And I'm for the president to chase them all over the world. If it takes 10 years, blow them all away in the name of the Lord." I have not heard that Jerry Falwell apologized for that comment. Mr. Falwell even wrote an article titled "God is Pro-war." In which he stated Exodus 15 hails(praise, applaud, glorify) God as a God of war: "… The Lord is a man of war: the Lord is his name." Essentially the article is about justifying supporting Bush invading Iraq, and that Christians can support war.

These are some of the contradictions that I have yet to get good answers on. How can God be the Prince of Peace and a God of war? How is conducting war in His name a sign of the Love He supposedly is? What I see is either a part-time vocation in love and peace, or very limited and conditional love.

The same goes for the comments about love trumping hate, but you can look up Liberty Council's web site and read the defense for not supporting hate crime bills yourself. It all boils down to this question: If these are Christianity's supposed goals, why aren't the fundamentalists willing to work towards these now, instead of supporting an administration that does the opposite, and supporting leaders of your own religion who make statements like the ones I have quoted?

And so my title. I see a lot of confessed light, a "pretty little picture", but no substance. That is not to say that many Christians of the conservative side of the aisle didn't help out in New Orleans. I'm sure they did. They also do things like Toys for Tots during the HOLIDAYS. (Hehehe!) So why do they allow these misrepresentations of their beliefs continue to hog the microphone and misrepresent them? I can only conclude that for the most part, they DO represent them. And after talking to many of them, and continuing the debate with my own family members, I realize that I am close to correct.

Which is why I no longer believe the holographic light.

It isn't real.