The Gospel of Selfishness in American Christianity

[kpete]

The Gospel of Selfishness in American Christianity
How the philosophers of selfishness came to use Christianity as their cover story.

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Without Christianity, the underlying mean-spiritedness of conservative policies is simply easier to spot. Without religion, you’re stuck making libertarian-style arguments that sound like things cackling movie villains would say, like Ayn Rand saying civilization should reject “the morality of altruism.” Since Christianity teaches altruism and generosity, it provides excellent cover for people who want to be selfish, a sheep’s clothing made of Jesus to cover up the child-starving wolf beneath. Since Christians are “supposed” to be good people, people who really aren’t good are lining up to borrow that reputation to advance their agenda.

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People want to believe that the rich are better than everyone else and the poor don’t deserve squat, so they find a way to blame God for it rather than own their own greed and selfishness.

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Increasingly, the only thing religion has left to justify itself is that it provides cover for people who want to have bigoted, selfish beliefs but want to believe they are good people anyway.

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MORE:
http://www.alternet.org/belief/gospel-selfishness-american-christianity

[G_j]

1. what is more "Anti-Christ"

than turning the compassionate teachings of Jesus into their opposite?

[el_bryanto]

2. The article does miss out on a key aspect of this issue - the idea that you are only responsible for

what's yours. That the most important thing a father can do (and in these sorts of church the Father is the most important person in the family) is to take care of his family. That's far more important than showing charity or generosity to strangers or even neighbors - you take care of your own first, and then if there is anything left over you might help others.

I think that Christ's message was in part about opening yourself up to the fact that we are all brothers and sisters - it was about expanding your sphere of responsibility to include the Samaritan - some branches of Modern Christianity are about shrinking that sphere of responsibility until it's basically just you and your family.

Then again I don't think the writer has all that much experience in Christian communities.

Bryant

[burnsei sensei]

3. k&r,

and you can refer to my response in your other thread if you want more elaboration.