Reply #31: it will never change.... [View All]

[mike_c]

Christianity itself contains the seeds of intolerance and bigotry that members of the religious right exploit to reinforce their own individual small-mindedness. This isn't unique to christianity, of course, but that's the religion we're talking about here. If christianity also contains messages antithetical to those espoused by the right, it ultimately won't matter except to the individual christians who choose to focus on the spiritually uplifting parts rather than the messages of hatred and intolerance. Political movements are built largely on anger, fear, hunger, desperation, and so on-- the very sorts of circumstances that also appeal to the messengers of the religious right. They will always be more strident, and they will always have greater appeal to the darker side of human nature. The only real answer to this, IMO, is spirituality that utterly lacks messages of intolerance and hatred, but you know what? I don't think that's possible, because I think the "inspired word of god" is always ultimately a reflection of the human nature that produces it. The bad stuff will always be in there, and the bad stuff will always be used to over rule the good messages.

That isn't to say that there can't be individual communities of leftist christians who do not accept the message of the religious right, but I don't think they will ever produce a broad movement that can over shadow the dark aspects of christianity. After all, christianity has been with us for two millenia, and it's history has been overwhelmingly violent, aggressive, and intolerant-- odd for a faith that lauds the opposite qualities, but an unavoidable consequence of its interaction with human nature, IMO.