Doomed by Twisted Thinking

Can a “Christian” Nation
Live by Christian Principles?

During the recent national discussion concerning the treatment of terrorist suspects, I wonder if there were any sermons in Christian churches that condemned torture? I doubt many such sermons were given. Such sermons, condemning torture, would have contradicted the view of our “Christian” President and such sermons would probably have been very unpopular in many churches.

Believers think they are being taught Christian principles by their preachers and evangelists. But it is possible to go to some churches for years without hearing one sermon on “Turn the other cheek,” or “Resist not evil,” or even a sermon concerning the beatitudes. Increasingly, it seems to me, we are being taught a very selfish gospel, a gospel designed to make us comfortable. We are taught that our religion is all about our personal salvation, all about our personal reality. Increasingly, ministers, who appear on TV, for example, are teaching that Christianity is all about personal financial gain, all about one’s personal aggrandizement via God’s blessing.

And so, if people are convinced that Christianity is all about personal safety and personal welfare, then from those beliefs can flow all sorts of rationalizations: Christians can approve of torture. Christians can approve of the current status quo system of economic injustice. Christians have rationalizations that are not based on the teachings of Christ, but upon false premises. This is not a new phenomena, of course. In previous ages, Christians approved of slavery and approved of social order based on officially sanctioned terror, and, approved of war and torture.

We seem to be set to collectively march over a cliff. What could save us? We should all be very afraid of what the future may hold. If we extrapolate the trends we see today out 25 or 50 years, it seems a grim future awaits. I keep wondering how our country and our entire world could possibly move toward a bright future, rather than to the destruction. Our current attitudes and practices are based on twisted thinking, and a twisted view of truth, and such thinking will surely lead to disaster.

If anything can save us, it will be wisdom and truth. We need new thinking to infuse our society. But how could that happen? I don’t see our educational or political structures as bringing such a change in thinking about. It seems to me that such a change is more likely to happen via religious revival. Throughout history there have been religious revivals or awakenings that have hugely impacted the societies in which they occurred. A Christian revival in our time may be possible. Ultimately, if we are to be saved, it is truth that must set us free, it is truth that must guide us to fulfillment of our human and societal and world potential. A religious revival may be the force that is needed.

Pilate asked, “What is truth?” A profound question, but as Mark Twain observed, it’s not what’s in the Bible that we don’t understand that should bother us, it’s what’s in the Bible that we do understand that should bother us. We don’t need to know all about truth in order to benefit from the truth that we do know.

Consider the “war on terror,” for example. Our political leaders profess that they know truth and they promote the idea that our safety and well being is assured through aggression and violence. They want us to believe that we overcome evil by unleashing a greater evil. But, Jesus taught that we overcome evil with good. Quite a difference in a view of truth. We are being sold the idea that war is the answer, and that it is possible via war and violence to defeat war and violence. That is an amazing premise. And that is not the truth; it is twisted thinking. We don’t want to be soft, we don’t want to coddle our enemies, and so we have advanced a theory of how to resolve issues that is based on cave man thinking. What we need is ideas based on better thinking, and based on a more profound commitment to truth.

In our efforts in Iraq, the latest estimate is that 600,000 Iraqis have been killed. What kind of strategy is that? And we have spent enough money now in Iraq to given every one of the 24 million Iraqis about $20,000. To assure peace and a hopeful future, it is mind boggling to think how such a fortune could have been spent on positive, life giving actions, rather than on actions leading to death and destruction.

Could you imaging a US President, in response to the Twin Trade Towers attack, saying something like: “This attack shows that there is evil in this world and that this evil can no longer be ignored. We know that evil comes from ignorance, from poverty, from injustice, from lack of hope. This attack has shown us, more than ever, that we must find effective strategies for overcoming evil. I am asking congress, therefore, to approve a ‘Marshal Plan’ type of program for the Middle East, funded over the next ten years for a total of $300 billion.”

Wow. Can you imagine?

To make our way to a bright future our actions must be guided by sound principles. We need a basic change in our thinking -- or I fear we are doomed.