secular humanism

Recently I saw the meme below posted online by a strictly “science, logic and reason” minded atheist who denies God. That very act is a self-contradiction in reality, as I’ll explain below, but first…

The meme refers to one of my most personally cherished events in the Bible, and gives me a chance to pop two bubbles of misconception in one sitting. Here we go. Let’s rock.

To what does this refer? Clearly the following from John 2: 14-16 (NIV text).

In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!”

Jesus the Warrior

Maybe I shouldn’t have laughed a little when I saw that, because in a strict sense the meme is heretical in its blatantly flawed portrayal of Jesus. How? It’s grossly misleading and unrepresentative of the meaning of that event. Nonetheless, I did chuckle, because it’s also so obviously agenda-driven through the prism of leftist, anti-capitalist zeal common to both the “angry atheists” and the so-called “Christian left”. Respondents talking about Goldman Sachs and Bank of America give that agenda away.

The money-changers event is one that a lot of my fellow Christians, mainly (but not always) politically liberal, don’t want to face as they fit their personal Jesus-toon into this comfortable little stereotyped box of pure peace, gentleness and Utopian smiles everywhere.

[Turn your eyes away, peaceniks, you won’t want to read what’s next.]

Jesus got pissed off and unleashed his righteous rage at those who would desecrate his Father’s place by using it as El Mercado Grande. He wielded a whip, hurled over tables, rampaged through the place, ran people off! The Prince of Peace himself had enough of a temple’s doubling as a bazaar, and His anger reached the most intense, acute and–yes–violent way documented in all of Gospel. Yes, by all available accounts Jesus wielded a whip, smashed stuff up, scared off the dealers and their customers, and got (for Him on Earth) quite destructive.

As a child, I had been taught the sanitized, ultimately overgeneralized and deceptively portrayed Jesus-toon: all peace and love, all the time…but never was offered this story. Yet when I finally found it, by reading the Bible for myself (following an escape from the clutches of atheism), it gave me all the more respect and admiration for Him, because it was crystal-clear that Jesus knew when to kick some ass. Yes, I said it: kick some ass. And He is going to do it again, per Revelation 19:

I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.” He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS

Wow. Wages war! It seems the enraged Jesus of the money-changer incident was just a teaser for what is to come. Yet I suspect that will send the secular and Christian “hold hands and sing Kumbaya” crowd into a jittery blather. Jesus, kicking ass and waging war. “Inconceivable!” Really? Well, either you buy in to the scriptures or you don’t. And if you do, please, accept these truths about Jesus’ tough love. You will not only get over the misgivings about such verses, but accept them as part of the whole of who He is and how He must do things to fix this screwed-up world. Tough love, brother.

Peace? You bet. That’s the ultimate destination. War on the way there? Well, truthfully, yes. As for me, I’m all in for both Jesus’ peace and war. I’ve been known to relish a good fight, and what more worthy and justified one than against evil (Satan)?

Anti-Capitalism, Bible as Weapon

Now back to the meme, this time as it relates to “bankers”: where and why did the money-changer incident happen?

Here’s the scoop: When the bankers are doing their deals IN A TEMPLE (and that’s the non-subtle aspect here that seems to be missing), then yes, the meme has a point. That’s because then, and only then, is the angle in the meme like the real “money changers” story–setting up a secular marketplace in a house of holy worship. Again, so the setting is clear: in a temple. Not in capitalist America–in a temple. That’s why the verse says, “in a temple”. Clear on that?

Otherwise, the meme just offers more of the same over-generalizations and misrepresentations by those (religious or secular) ignorant of the Bible, yet ravenously zealous to make a point of it. What point? That bankers are universally evil and deserving of flogging? OK, let’s set aside the fact that bankers (outside a house of worship) perform a necessary function in any monetized society. Say that meme’s premise is true, just for argument’s sake. Even then, who is in position to step up and flog (or cast stones at) your nearest banker? Who among you doesn’t use a bank, and never has?

Thought so.

We know greed is bad, whether by bankers or any of us. All other vices are bad too, by definition. All of humanity is corrupted by evil. Otherwise some of us would be perfect and have never done anything wrong. Yet we’re not. Anybody now claiming to be sinless is a baldfaced liar. We’re all deserving of worse than flogging just for what we’ve done wrong and gotten away with that nobody has noticed, much less the bad deeds we’ve been caught doing.

Yet the figure depicted rather poorly in that meme voluntarily took the punishment for us, for all of it. That’s the bigger picture. It’s a gruesome, horrible, astounding, necessary, loving, unfathomably benevolent, eternally transformational picture. At least it is for those who are willing to throw aside the disdain-colored glasses, and see that picture. If you don’t want to see the picture, that’s your call–but it’s no call to harass and incite hatred against those who can.

Yet Another “Angry Atheist” Self-Contradiction

Ahh, but wait a minute, for the atheists who post the above meme, Jesus is “fiction”. It supposedly never happened at all, in which case the entire meme is pointless and a waste of the time. Hmm…you just posted something you claim is a total lie as support for something you want to make the truth. Impressive. Oh, and you claim to support tolerance of others while advocating flogging of bankers. Uhh, sure. Which way is it, true or false? Wait a minute, everything’s a shade of gray, and there are no absolutes (an oxymoron if there ever was one). Got any other conundrums and self-contradictions to offer today?

Ahh, never mind…everybody wants to have their cake and eat it too. Use the biblical “fiction” when it’s convenient for twisting things around to suit an agenda, yet discredit it otherwise. Isn’t that sort of selectivity rather unbecoming of those who bow at the altar of “science, logic and reason”? Talk about cognitive dissonance! [There’s another favorite, hackneyed, intellectually duplicitous, anti-theist buzz-phrase.]

Atheist jihadists love to point out every instance they can find of Christians “cherry-picking” Bible verses, and of course that does really happen to some extent. But when the atheists cherry pick, it’s okay. It’s to mock Christians, and of course that’s somehow justifiable from the hallowed lectern of self-manufactured intellectual superiority that is secular humanism.

Phooey on that. What an angst-ridden, miserable world to occupy. I’d rather worship my “skydaddy” out in His light, and wear that “god-idiot” label of derision as a badge of honor, than live in the swirling orb of resentment, cynicism and hate that is “angry atheism”. It’s a very, very dark place in there. I only peek inside on selective occasion because (as a former atheist) I know the way out and have something bigger than all of us watching my back the whole time.

Those caught up fully in that dark orb of misbelief are not hated by me, and are welcome to step out at any time. I’ll extend that hand, won’t call you to the front of the church, won’t condemn you to hell…instead I’ll celebrate your new-found freedom. But for those who choose to stay enslaved to “science, logic and reason” as the only possible valid means of thinking, well…it’s your decision and I won’t be the ultimate arbiter of whatever happens in the end anyway.

By now I can hear the “Jesus is fiction” crowd snarling and barking furiously on the other side of that fence, foaming Dobermans making lots of noise while saying nothing and going nowhere, as usual. I’m actually saddened a bit right now at the pathetic inanity of it all, and feeling more than a little sorry for those caught up in it. There’s so much more out here than in there, I promise. And it’s eternally hopeful…

— Your friendly neighborhood “god-idiot” (and quite glad of it)

Three events highlight the struggles that people of faith must recognize and face head-on in the increasingly hostile and secular world. I’ll follow a triangle from biggest in scale to smallest…

1. The abusive priest problem goes back a long time. That doesn’t excuse it in any way; in fact, it shows how insidious the trouble has been. A fringe minority of people in positions of trust have done absolutely horrible things while cloaked within the Church and wearing the robe of the Lord. It’s real, and it’s evil, period. Yes, they and their knowing enablers committed wretched crimes in the Lord’s name, which is as purely bad as bad gets. That’s not an indictment of religion itself either, as so many anti-religious zealots wish to smear with a one-coat-fits-all paintbrush. The faith didn’t commit those crimes! People did…bad people who need to be not only defrocked, but locked up so they never again can come anywhere near a child. This is the ugly reality of the nature of imperfect humanity, a humanity of brokenness and manifest evil, an intrinsic part of the very same godless humanity that atheists want us to embrace and celebrate. Yes, godless. These priests doing heinous things in the name of God are, in reality, separated as far as can be from God when they are doing so. They were no closer to God in those acts than Mao Zedong and Josef Stalin, both atheists, both also representing that same ugly human reality when slaughtering millions for mere disagreement or suspicion thereof. I will neither endorse nor tolerate any religious or nonreligious group or individual that violates kids, bombs subways and buildings, or commits summary genocide. Yet the enemies of Christianity surely will use new developments on this front, as they have in the past, to smear religion. That too is a predictable and longstanding pattern. And it’s reactionary, thoughtless, kick’em-while-they’re-down crap.

2. These extremist nut cases in the Michigan backwoods do not, in any reasonable or rational way, represent Christianity! Yet you can bet that anti-Christian hatemongers the world over, including a good many right here in the States, will use the actions of a fringe few to mis-characterize the rational majority. Just watch.

3. So some Trinity University grads want “Year of Our Lord” off their diplomas. Hello, wake up here…it’s Trinity University! If they didn’t want references to the Lord on their diploma, they should have matriculated elsewhere. Otherwise, use an eraser, piece of dark tape, liquid paper or scissors. University admins should not let the tail wag the dog and make rash decisions to appease a shrill and exceedingly minuscule minority in the name of political correctness.

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One powerful undercurrent is clear to me from these developments and others recently, including assorted hostile socio-political proposals from the halls of Congress and the current Administration. Ignore the badly mistaken misconception of anyone who denies the following 5 words: Christianity is under ferocious attack. This is the case not only from without, but from within, from the far right and from the far left! Lie down and take it in facile submission, thereby becoming part of the problem, or speak out and push back.

Jesus himself had many enemies, not the least of which was Satan himself, and one thing the Savior did not do was compromise his values for any of their sake. Nor did he stand idly by, as many of today’s Christians do, and meekly ignore anti-scriptural garbage in the name of “diversity” or “tolerance,” nor for the sake of keeping quiet and not making waves. News flash: Jesus was not a wimp. He was a controversial figure of the first order, a rabble-rouser, a troublemaker, and he knew it. Lest we forget, he got really pissed off at malfeasance going on in a place of worship, wielded a whip, overturned tables, and ran the money changers out of the temple grounds. Prince of peace? Indeed. Warrior? You bet. In many ways, he was both, without any conflict or contradiction between the two.

We must not be simpering cowards and let our faith be besmirched, especially from within. I’m far from perfect myself; but I’m not about to just sit idly and keep quiet about such things, sticking my head in the sand and pretending it will go away. If someone you loved was being insulted and smeared with hate from many directions, how would you react?