Religion used to promote agenda

Shane is a third-year political science student.

By Jennifer Shane

J.Daniel William’s submission in Wednesday’s paper
represents the pinnacle of Christian ignorance and makes me sorry I
am associated with his religion. (“Liberals
lack moral integrity, understanding of Christianity,”
Daily Bruin, Nov. 21)

Given its history for being contorted to further various causes,
Christianity is a moldable tool. It doesn’t shock me that
people genuinely believed Christianity justified slavery now that I
see how people like Williams are using it to justify intolerance
toward gays.

If Williams and others like him want to adopt a strict
interpretation of the Bible ““ one that allows them to claim
God despises gays ““ then why not be consistent? The Bible
says God is incapable of committing flaws ““ why, then, does
he supposedly despise gays if he created them? Did he make a
mistake? Does this then make him capable of flaws?

Some will claim that gays choose their orientation, saying that
it’s not by God’s virtue that they are gay and hence,
God isn’t responsible for their behavior. This is faulty
thinking. If God is free of faults, why would he create something
he doesn’t have control over, something he knew he
wouldn’t like in the first place?

Some people I’ve talked to have tried to refute this by
responding that God trusts us to “do the right thing.”
Well, if there is a God and he knew we were capable of making him
“unhappy” by acting on certain sexual orientations, why
didn’t he use his “omnipotence” to prevent those
orientations from occurring in the first place? I will not be
easily convinced that God is shortsighted, but that’s how
Williams is making him seem.

My favorite Christian excuse to these legitimate concerns is:
“Well, we just don’t understand God’s
ways.” But if he didn’t think enough of us to allow us
to know something so simple as why some of us are attracted to the
same sex, why would he send his “only son” to die for
us? It doesn’t make sense.

It’s hard for me to remain firm in my Christian faith
sometimes, especially when no one seems to want to answer these
questions in a direct manner.

The Bible was written by men who likely employed their own
biases when doing so. For all we know, Paul and Matthew may just
have been homophobes including their own politics in what was
supposedly Christian teachings. Many references are not made in the
Bible to homosexuality, but those that are made in the New
Testament occur largely in letters by Paul and other apostles to
Christian congregations.

According to many Christians, however, these letters were
written under the inspiration of God. Again, why would God be
ambivalent about his own creations? But then again, some people are
still resolute in the idea that Adam and Eve were the beginning of
humankind.

Does Williams believe that God is willing to accept Paul, a
murderer of Christians before converting to Christianity, and not
accept peaceful, devoted people who love someone of the same
sex?

Williams and his brand of Christianity insult the most
fundamental Christian values. Even Jesus himself was not as quick
to judge as Williams ““ otherwise, why would he hang out with
prostitutes and choose murderers as his apostles?

What angers me most is that Williams justifies not giving
government welfare aid to the public because he seems to think they
should ask for it first, rather than having the government
automatically grant it to them. In order to prove his point,
Williams grotesquely oversimplifies a story in which Jesus heals a
blind man. He says that Jesus asked the blind man if he wanted to
be cured before he actually did it. I have to admit I laughed for
quite a while after I realized that Williams was trying to make a
serious point.

Well, what about when Jesus was sitting on the mountain and
divided fish and bread to feed thousands of people? They
didn’t ask him for food, he just gave it to them; actually,
people wanted to leave for home and Jesus asked them to stay since
he realized many people wouldn’t be able to make the long
trip home without food. Is this another Biblical contradiction, or
is Williams just wrong?

It’s very hard for me to picture God against welfare: but
that seems to be the primary conservative slogan nowadays.
“God doesn’t want poor people to eat.” “God
doesn’t want you to have health care unless you’re rich
and can afford it.” “God doesn’t like you unless
you mirror the image of those in power ““ white, heterosexual
males.”

This reminds me of propaganda, and maybe it is. Yes, the
ever-changeable Christian religion is a capitalist’s dream. I
mean, what other religion can brainwash people into submission,
justify having white, heterosexual males in power making laws, and
justify the killing of all opposition? What other religion stifles
progress on the basis that “it’s God’s
way?”

For those of you who have fallen for the propaganda of the
people on Bruin Walk, who by no means shed any Grace on this
campus, ask them the following questions next time they offer you a
bible study:

Why did the Bible condone incest in the Old Testament?

Why does the Bible not condone the physical depiction of saints
““ and the worshiping of those physical depictions ““
according to both the Old and New Testament?

Why does the Bible never speak of baptizing babies? Where in the
Bible is hell described physically? Where does the Bible say we
have a soul separate from our body? If a Trinity exists, why did
Jesus talk to God when he was on Earth? Was this some sort of
hyper-existentialist self-meditation?

It’s hard for me, a Christian heterosexual woman, to
believe that I’d be more accepting than God. I hope thinking
about critical issues with the Bible helps Williams and his kind be
a little more self-critical.

Either that, or let’s just hope God doesn’t make any
more “mistakes.”