It is only getting worse in the Confusion which we call Christian America.
This letter from Joseph McCarthy Jan Markell is making the rounds, so I thought I might share a bit. First, although I am not ambivalent in the matter, preferring black-lettered editions, it is rather silly for people to focus simply on the red letters (a recent American invention). Of course, what is equally silly is this notion that everyone seems to know exactly what Marxism really is, and the fear that so many people have of it. Further, what surpasses silliness is the notion that ‘red-letter’ Christians with their focus on the social aspects of the Gospel cannot be Christians.
Jan says some pretty outlandish things – creating division and hysteria, fear, and falsehoods. (Check out PJ’s take. More conservative bible believers are taking a stand as well. (Job, in PJ’s comment.)
In many Bibles, all the words of Jesus are in red. There is nothing wrong with that. But something is wrong when Leftist Christians or so-called Christians want to mute the words of Paul and other writers and only follow Jesus’ words. They call themselves “red-letter Christians.”
Wow – so people who claim the name of Christ who focus on the social aspect of the Gospel are not really Christians?
They feel it is convenient to blot out the words of Paul on homosexuality and focus in on the good deeds Jesus talks about. Most are pacifists who reject an “eye for an eye” (Leviticus 24:19-20). They focus on Jesus’ words about helping the poor, ministering to “the least of these” (Matthew 25:40), loving our enemies, etc. That justifies abandoning hundreds, even thousands of condemning verses in the Bible they choose to wish away. That makes homosexuality OK and war wrong! And remember, Paul and the others in the Bible represent Jesus’ words. They were His spokesmen.
Some who believe this way practice a form of neo-Marxism and others would call it “Christian Marxism” – an oxymoron if there ever was one. They note that the early church shared everything (socialism). A close cousin to this is “liberation theology.”
Really Jan? For someone who insists that reading the bible is important, I wonder why she has never read,
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. (Mat 5:38-39 NIV)
Yeah, Jan, war is wrong, so is a whole host of other issues. While War is the stance of a geo-political unit, and is needed in this world, it does not mean that a Christian should promote it. I know of good Christian men and women who are soldiers and deserve high honor for this.
She is clumping a lot of people together under one banner of generalization. In her mind, if you are liberal politically, you must be a communist and support homosexuality and abortion. This is simply not the case. What people like Jan, Phyllis and others are do is using the bible as a means of political support and a machine to create propaganda . They want to create wedges and hate, using the bible to justify their actions. It is a shame and it is also high time that men and women of faith stand up, beside one another, and call down these people when they spout these lies.
Frankly, this stuff makes me ill because I know that without a shadow of a doubt will meaning, and sincere Christians will buy into this, and come away believing that Liberals cannot be Christians. If you can show me in Scripture this premise, then I will agree with you and suggest we stone the Democrats in a massive armed rebellion. If not, then we need to refocus on the Gospel and leave politics outside of the Church. We need to stop demonizing one another. There are Christians on the right and the left of the political sphere.
What will happen, and we are close now, is that Democrats and Liberals, regardless of biblical interpretation (conservative or liberal) or claim of salvation will be expelled, or excluded – and just as Jan has done here, no longer considered Christians by the Religious Right and those congregations who follow their mandate. It will happen, then, that you will see a large divide in Christendom, again, based in hate, fear, and lies. We should be able, as brothers and sisters (if that is what we are), exclude the temporal for the eternal. We may not agree on political issues, but when we assume that because one votes one way they are no longer a Christian, we have crossed too many lines.
Jan, and others, seem to lump ‘liberal Christians’ into the same mold – yet, I know plenty of Christians who are Democrats who take the bible extremely literal (some are fundamentalists); on the other hand, I know Republicans (namely the former President) who don’t. This is about labeling, about dividing, and nothing more. This is driving people away by the truck loads, and damaging the edification which we are commanded to make.
Jan goes on to ridicule Jim Wallis for quoting Ghandi, failing to mention that Paul quoted the pagan poets. She accuses the red-letter Christians of being the first to play the “blame America” game. I reckon she is first in line to whitewash everything this country as done. There is no crime in attempting to heal past hurts, yet, some do not understand that. Further, she reveals that her political views is seen through her eschatological framework, then accuses the ‘Leftists’ of cherry picking verses. This is not what Christianity is about – nor even the United States. She is attempting to vilify anyone who looks at the ‘red-letters’ and sees that we might not be doing everything we should for those around us.
Friends, if you believe that your brother or sister is going to hell for a political vote, or for focusing on the social aspect of the Gospel – I remind you that she calls these people ’so-called Christians’ – then you have a lot of biblical issues to work out.
(Also, you can read Paula’s take on this as well)
October 7th, 2009 4:43 pm
I guess the words of Paul are more important than the words of GOD. There’s modern American Christianity for you.
October 7th, 2009 4:56 pm
I think they are all the words of God, Will, which gets me when people either focus on one side of the other.
October 7th, 2009 5:07 pm
I can’t/won’t argue with you there, but one of my biggest problems with modern Christianity is that it seems like everyone misses the point. I feel that if a man holds on to the greatest commandments, Love your God and Love your neighbour as yourself, then everything else will fall into place. These people don’t want that, though. They want an Old Testament religion…they want an excuse to judge and punish people.
October 7th, 2009 5:10 pm
I’ve read that somewhere before, Will. Did you plagiarize this? I mean, from the red-letter part of the bible. You did, didn’t you? (Matthew 5.19)?
October 7th, 2009 5:26 pm
Guilty as charged. I plagarize from Jesus all the time.
October 7th, 2009 6:18 pm
I cant speak for leftists, centrists, or rightists (i’m not sure that’s a word). But I know when I left Wicca and became a Christian, I still wanted to do magik. The only thing I knew about Christianity was that the Bible was supposed to be the manual for life, so I read the Old Testament looking for permission to do what I wanted. Of course, God said to not do it in the OT, so because I knew there were Christians wgo only use the New Testament, I read the NT looking for permission. But of course, God said to not do it in the NT also. So then, because I had heard of people who only used the words of Christ, the red letters, I scoured the Bible looking for read letters to see what Jesus had said about it. I learned two things: not all of Jesus’ words were in red letters in the version I had, and (wait for it…) Jesus said to not do it also.
I WAS quite liberal, but it wasn’t my politics that caused me to seek justification for wanting to do my sin of choice. It was my selfish and sinful carnal nature. I think we do everyone a disservice when we label people, especially within Christianity. Its not left or right politically leaning people who do what she is suggesting – its sinners. Some lean lefy, and some lean right. The same is true for everyone, since none of us are perfect yet.
October 7th, 2009 6:41 pm
Thank you, Wb, thank you so very much. I mean it.
I am so tired of the divisions caused by the things that matter not. I can worship with a Republican and a Democrat as long as we meet at Christ.
October 7th, 2009 7:18 pm
Polycarp,
You’re welcome.
I think nothing is more important than God and being who God has called us to be. I also think being who God has called us to be will look differently for each of us. I think God WANTS some of us to focus on social change using Godly principles. I also think God want others to focus on discipleship, others on evangelism, others on other things. But through it all, God wants us to love Him, love others, and become who God wants us to become. I think God uses democrats, republicans, independents, and others to accomplish His purpose.
No political party and no politician is perfect (there’s people involved). I think some are closer to what we consider a Christian ideal than others. Others think others come closer. We should vote our conscience. If we are led to go into politics, we should do so. If we are not so led, then we should not. But we shouldn’t judge others’ convictions regarding such things.
We should not divide or attack people. The Church should seek unity in truth and love. We should seek God, and His righteousness, and the rest should follow from that.
October 7th, 2009 11:13 pm
Wb, between you and Christian, there is nothing else I can say. I think that communications such as Jan’s does more harm than good.
October 7th, 2009 9:04 pm
I think I lost some IQ points reading her words and that letter. I’m sorry, but Jan Markell is peddling a whole bunch of stupid packaged as ….I don’t even know what.
My favorite statement is this: “But something is wrong when Leftist Christians or so-called Christians want to mute the words of Paul and other writers and only follow Jesus’ words.”
Seriously… I’m flabbergasted.
October 8th, 2009 2:36 am
Joel, im with you. This type of stuff does more harm then good. In the case of this commentary, i’d have to say no good can be found in it.
For many many years it was denominations which separated the Church..and in many instances it still didn’t always, for many of them worked together to win the lost, etc. and fellow-shipped. But today in America, it is politics which separates us. It not only separates us but has become the way by which certain segments judge if others are “true-blue” Christians. If you or not on the “right” side politically, you are looked at as an infidel or worse yet, a heretic.
When Christian persecution comes to our shores, these are not who i’ll be looking toward for aid or spiritual comfort–heck, they may be the very ones who have me tossed into prison! LOL…i laugh, but deep inside, it would not surprise me.
October 8th, 2009 4:51 am
[...] Joel Watts counters and makes some valid remarks here. [...]
October 8th, 2009 10:37 am
Of course, Jan has to ignore a lot of those “red words.” Or maybe she’ll just use the Conservative Bible … which will surely remove that whole “love your enemy” thing. I mean, that’s pretty liberal-sounding, isn’t it?
Jan objects “That makes homosexuality OK and war wrong!”
Well, you know … war has caused a lot more harm to people than homosexuality has. This isn’t that big a stretch …
October 8th, 2009 8:00 pm
Amen to Wickle
October 8th, 2009 11:50 am
As someone who is not always considered a “good Christian” I gotta love Miss Jan. I guess if she ever visited my site I would have a bio on Wikipedia with a hammer and sickle as the banner even better yet a Swastika. I decide not only to read her whacked out article but to peruse her website. I was looking and realized that more and more the political machine of the far right is ratcheting up the politicization of the Bible, Church and Christian faith in a way that is particularly onerous. Joel, you are dead on in your analysis of little Miss Jan. She is very typical of this whole bunch. Her web page links section is a buffet of intolerance, narrow mindedness and the contradictory juxtaposition of premillennial dispensationalism, Messianic Judiaism and Restoration/Dominionist theology.
Thanks for the post I think I may take this up on Padre Steve’s World at some point in much the same way as I did the Conservative Bible Project. I posted something last night with a encounter I had on Facebook with someone who took offense to my Criticism of Frank A. Viola (no relation to the great pitcher for the Twins) and his “Re-imagining the Church” crap. I think that the Prophet Frank probably has some connections with Todd Bentley, Rick Joyner and others but I’m not sure. Basically the guy has departed any sense of Christian orthodoxy as defined by Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Reformed, Lutheran or mainline Evangelical Christianity. The conversation got interesting. The link to the post I did about it is here: http://padresteve.wordpress.com/2009/10/07/i-won%E2%80%99t-eat-tripe%E2%80%A6especially-the-religious-kind-an-encounter-on-a-social-networking-site/
I find it interesting because these guys are breeding an uninformed “seeker” mentality among those who read their crap that is ahistorical and does great damage to those who follow them. I hope you see the humor as well as the seriousness of this exchange: Peace, Padre Steve+
October 9th, 2009 3:53 pm
David McNelleyloves Yeshua, and wonders what His justice would demand in its fullest implications. We have to understand one thing we are commanded to do four thingsin ministering to all people. They are:
1) Speak peace.
2) Eat what is set before us-build relationships.
3) Pray for the sick or other needs of the lost.
And then once we have doen that, especially in the area of establishing a relationship that is strong bridge between our world and their world, then we have earned the right to proclaim Yeshua and Him crucified and evangelize including what He has done for us. We have an obligation now that they have been personal for us, to show them what the Gospel means to us through our actions. The social aspects of the social gospel are good for us evangelicals and fundies alike, but that is not all. Pero no es todo. We must reach then with everything we have in all opportunities. Our ministry must be comprehensive one.
Two sticking points here. It is the church’s responsibility to take care of the poor, not the government’s, and I feel that we will be judged harshly for our refusal to do that, and to abdicate our role to parachurch organizations like the Victory Mission here in Springfield, and then hide behind the excuse of, “they are better equipped.” Yeshua did not say that we are to leave that only to those special organizations who seem better equipped. You want to up your membership roles? Start taking care of the poor and developing a compassion for the poor, and building relationships with the poor and showing them that you can be trusted as a believer. See Aimee Semple MacPherson for a primo example of this. Yeshua does not care about your perceptions of how you are equipped because he said “the poor you will have with you always.” Moreover, in the Torah, we are commanded to love three things, the L-rd wiht all our heart, mind, soul, and strength (teaching our families the same), loving our neighbors as our self.” And willing to justify ourselves, when we ask “who our neighbor is”, as we often do in our desire to avoid socializing with the poor, Yeshua illustrates the third command to love in all of Torah-Leviticus 19:34-with the parable of the Good Samaritan. Our neighbor by extension of that second command is the ” the stranger who sojourns with you.”
Leviticus 19:34-You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and YOU SHALL LOVE him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.
YOU SHALL LOVE the L-rd.
YOU SHALL LOVE your neighbor.
YOU SHALL LOVE the stranger who sojourns among you.
November 10th, 2009 2:31 pm
I tried my hardest but I can’t figure out if I’m a “So-Called Christian” or not. I do attempt to follow the words of Jesus without exception. I do believe the Kingdom of God belongs to the least of these. I am a pacifist. I do think as the greatest empire on earth today, America has so pretty heinous dark sides to own up to. All this would def put me in the “OUT” group. Yet, since I am also against “Big Government” does that negate all my other beliefs and make me a “real Christian.”
Just confused… OK, not really confused, mostly saddend.
November 10th, 2009 2:37 pm
Kevin, it’s difficult to tell. Maybe send me your voting records, and then we can talk.
November 10th, 2009 2:43 pm
In the last presidential election I voted Ron Paul. But I also voted ‘Yes’ on a referendum by our Library District to raise property taxes… So again, I think I just wash out…
November 10th, 2009 2:53 pm
Now you have me confused
I’d say light a few more candles, give away all your possessions to Wall Street, and you might earn your way in.
January 25th, 2010 12:09 am
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