Narrow Way Cafe

Orphangelical

“You meet saints everywhere. They can be anywhere. They are people behaving decently in an indecent society.”

Kurt Vonnegut

“Every saint has a past, every sinner a future.”

Oscar Wilde

The very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common. They fail to alter their views to fit the facts. Instead, they alter facts to fit their views.

Dr Who.

What We Fight For

Dgg

Being Accountable In Truth

As an / #Orphangelical – It’s taken deliberate effort to separate, IN TRUTH – what is in the realm of spiritual battle and what is not.

Politics and government is not in the realm of the spiritual battle genuine believers fight. Any argument otherwise, is false.

We owe allegiance, honor and dutiful service to the system under which we live. This is manifestly clear and scripturally true. But we do not fight politically. We render “Caesar what is Caesar’s.” In this, our spirituality informs votes that are considerate of “Widows, Orphans and the Aliens that live among us.” If empathy, compassion, charity … are missing? When mendacity, hate and anger appear in the place they don’t belong? This informs our sense of right and wrong, truth and falsehood.

For most of my life I was taught precisely the opposite. We learned that good christians vote ‘thus.’ And we should financially support this one, and rally with these, and wear these hats and festoon our cars with so and such stickers. Tour any church parking on Sunday and you’ll be 100% certain of the rhetoric spewed from that pulpit.

US Citizens are governed and protected under the umbrella of the Constitution. Our secular duty is to the Constitution. And this is distinctly apart from our faith. Because all men are created equal. Not just some.

Tour any church parking on Sunday and you’ll be 100% certain of the rhetoric spewed from that pulpit.

If our collective goal is the preservation of Democracy and the Constitution, we must circle our resources and address the root causes that underpin threats. Unfortunately the Blue Resistance speaks too little about the wrongness of religion in politics. But Religion empowers some real culprits. Their dogma is often adopted from radical Evangelicalism. Religion as a political cult is the threat we have to start to dismantle.

The fulcrum for the resistance is the “Establishment Clause,” the constitutional separation of Church and State. Until the Center/Left is ready to address the question of enforcing the boundary, Democracy will remain at risk. This makes far too many people queasy, uncomfortable in irrational ways. However, the truth is: To Govern where citizens enjoy real freedom of “Religion” … we must prevent religion in government. Otherwise, we are slipping on the slope of sectarian conflict, racism and fascist theocracy.

Churches that foster any kind of political activism must not be operated tax free.

IMHO, the angle of approach on “Establishment,” is via non-profit status and tax law. At least as a point of departure, Politics from the Pulpit must stop. Catching infraction is a tangible determination, enforceable and real possibility. Why isn’t this happening? Politics.

When mendacity, hate and anger appear in the place they don’t belong? This informs our sense of right and wrong, truth and falsehood.

Understanding the Pat Robertson, Newt Gingrich, Ronald Reagan, Jerry Falwell Televangelist Moral Majority history … is where to start the study. And where the conversation must go.