Some more thoughts on a touchy subject...

I'd like to revisit the world of modern Christianity to further consider some loosely-related issues.

To return to the issue of "faith" in Jesus. Should "faith" really mean that you completely ignore his actual recorded teachings while doing exactly as your basest inclinations dictate, in the belief that he's going to forgive and "save" you at the end? My recollection is that when Jesus talked about Judgment Day, it sounded pretty much like everyone would be judged on how they treated "the least of these my brethren," not whether they “believed” some orthodox doctrine.

I don't remember his mentioning that having others do one's dirty work would leave one innocent, yet most people seem to believe that they can somehow be good, loving "Christians," and still vote for all sorts of horrors to be visited upon faceless individuals in foreign countries, or even distant - economically or culturally, as well as geographically - parts of their own. It is this disconnect, along with the strongly American identification of morality with sex, that allows those called to show humility and mercy to vote for savage foreign and domestic policies with a clear conscience because the candidate mentions "God" or "values" or "morality" while proposing to starve the poor and nuke the dissenters of the world.

And while I'm at it, I may as well digress to talk about the popular myth that America and Americans are “the most generous people in the world.” The fact is that the United States ranks pretty much dead last in per-capita foreign aid among industrialized countries, and most Americans say we're giving way too much if asked. Besides which, most American "aid" is in the form of weapons and military training, and ALL of it goes to U. S. corporations, many of whom no doubt indulge in a little price-gouging as they always do when dealing with the U. S. government. As for private giving, I haven't seen the figures, but I suspect they're not much different from the foreign aid budget.

It seems to me like an awful lot of Christians need to read a little book by Shane Claiborne, called The Irresistible Revolution: living as an ordinary radical. I don't buy everything he says, but here is a guy who really has FAITH in Jesus, meaning that he actually tries to live as Jesus said his followers should, confident that all will turn out for good if he does. If he seems a little naive and unrealistic to you, perhaps you should re-evaluate your "faith": is Jesus the guy you love and desire to emulate, or just your "Get Out of Hell Free" card?