ChristianityTM

There was a time when Keith Olbermann rightly called the GOP leadership on their incessant use of 9/11 for their own political gain. He said that they had trademarked that horrific day into a marketing tool that would scare and manipulate their voter base.

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Their argument was, as it always has been, that only Republicans can keep you safe. Forget the fact that it falls directly on the GWB administration that they ignored warnings what was to happen, then once it did happen used it to further their own self serving agenda.

As usual, facts are overlooked and swept under the rug when they inconveniently refute the marketing effectiveness.

As this anniversary looms and the likes of Glenn Beck plan to emotionally and literally cash in on it with typical GOP hypocrisy, another - more insidious - manipulative ideology rears its ugly head.

This time, it's ChristianityTM.

Anyone who has read and studied the gospels of Jesus Christ can plainly see that what Neo-Conservatives have turned this ideology into is not Christianity at all.

I went over it thoroughly in my Jesus: The Original Liberal blog. If Jesus has a political affiliation - and he wouldn't, as it is divisive in nature - it would lean toward the policies that seek to be more charitable, more peaceful, that serve community as a whole.

The current GOP has turned into nothing more than those thieves in the temple, who cash in on the name of Christ while overtly shunning everything for which he stood.

ChristianityTM has turned into a gun leveled at anyone who doesn't agree. It's not a matter of personal salvation insomuch as it is a method of terrorism to browbeat and terrify "unbelievers" into submission.

They don't care about repentance, yours or theirs. They don't care about your soul. They don't want to see you transform anymore than they're willing to transform themselves.

Case in point the hateful group Repent Amarillo, who uses bully tactics to "fix" what they think is wrong.

But had you gone to their website - their unapologetic war themed website - you were told, "point blank", it was not a place for non believers.

They want you to repent, but they don't want to help you do it. They'd just rather stand outside nightclubs with bullhorns and religious music and a clipboard to take down the license of every car of every heathen that dares show his face. That way they can virtually track you down and stalk you, "outing" you to your boss and your community to shame you into submission.

That's not Christianity, or evoking the behavior of Christ. It's ChristianityTM.

There's an easy way to tell the difference. If your behavior does not have a Biblical root in the gospels of Christ, emulating the things he did or said, it's not Christianity.

There is no other ruler by which to measure it. Sorry.

Jesus Christ would not bomb a Planned Parenthood or GUN DOWN a doctor in HIS OWN CHURCH.

He also wouldn't protest funerals sanctimoniously proclaiming that God hates ANYONE, because he knew - more than anyone - exactly how much God loved us all.

He died for the unjust and the unrighteous... WHICH WE ALL ARE.

But instead of beating us up for our failures or terrorizing us with hateful messages, Jesus transformed people with his love and his acceptance. Even when Peter sliced off the ear of a Roman guard who had come to take Jesus away, Jesus HEALED the guard, i.e. the "enemy".

"All who live by the sword will die by the sword."

Jesus was willing not just to sacrifice himself for those who would believe in him and take him at his word, but also for those who hated him and wanted him tortured and dead.

"Forgive them, they know not what they do."

ChristianityTM has no use for this pacifist way of thinking. They skate into heaven on the sacrifice of someone else with a simple, "I'm sorry". This isn't true regret or repentance as much as it is fire insurance for the soul that can be played infinitely as a "Get out of Hell Free" card.

But when Jesus absolved people of their sin in the Bible, he instructed, "Go. And sin no more."

ChristianityTM doesn't understand that in order to earn the title of Christian you must do the things that Christ commanded us to do. Love our enemies. Bless those that curse us. Love those that hate us, for it doesn't give us any credit whatsoever to love only those who love us in return.

If that had been the case, Jesus wouldn't have died on that cross for all of mankind; and be clear it was ALL of mankind. Jesus died for Hitler the same as he died for Mother Teresa.

You don't have to like it or agree with it to be so, but if you spent any time at all reading that Bible you stand on rather than just cherry pick the parts that give you some kind of "right" to your carnal behavior, you'd see that the Scriptures are pretty clear about it.

ChristianityTM, however, wants to lay claim to this wonderful gift and burn any bridges between "us" and "them".

On the anniversary of 9/11, a "church" in Florida has decided to commemorate these sad, tragic events by taking the sacred scripture of another group of people and burn it in overt retaliation.

I find it especially interesting for those who have been theoretically spared the fires of hell, they sure like to make a dramatic statement using fire. They turn into a bunch of gleeful pyromaniacs whenever they feel the occasion warrants it.

Perhaps they feel bolstered by the outcry against "The Ground Zero Mosque", where ChristianityTM has spread across this nation like a cancer, prompting acts of terrorism and bigotry that have no Biblical foundation in the teachings of Christ.

Another theology threatens the core of ChristianityTM because they do not have the requisite faith and love to transform out of peace and understanding. Instead they have to stamp it out like a snake underfoot.

They live in fear because their faith is too weak to face anything other than some carefully stacked house of cards that says no one can be different without being condemned... all the while forsaking the verses that say when we condemn others we ourselves are condemned.

Absent are the peacemakers and the meek, those whose faith rests solely in Jesus Christ alone. Instead they use their guns and their fire to destroy their enemy without any regard to what Christ has said or what Christ can do.

And just like 9/11TM, this ChristianityTM is nothing more than a marketing ploy used by those who would control you to do their evil deeds for them, all the while blatantly crapping over all you should hold dear.

Nothing gets constituents to the polls faster than stirring up ChristianityTM. "They're going to outlaw your Bible!" "They're going to kill the unborn!" "They're going to take away your right to hate!"

(Meanwhile abortion still remains legal despite five Republican presidents serving 22 of the past 36 years it's been legal. And yet you still vote for "pro-life" presidents, expecting that to change.)

Whereas Christianity serves others, ChristianityTM serves self. Early Christians didn't need the support of their government to believe what they knew to be true. They were so certain of their faith they were willingly persecuted and died for it.

ChristianityTM knows nothing of this sacrifice. They require everyone around them to believe as they believe because they are too emotionally and spiritually insecure to stand alone with God. If they did they might have to answer for their own wickedness.

So they must stand with the majority. If Christianity were replaced in this country by any other religion or no religion at all, those who subscribe to ChristianityTM would succumb, unable to be made uncomfortable or inconvenienced for what they claim to believe.

Which is why they fight against it so.

The "church" in Florida has committed to this hateful act despite warnings from General Petraeus that this behavior could endanger our troops in Afghanistan. Turns out there's not just ChristianityTM, but PatriotismTM as well.

It's remarkable how they go hand in hand, especially on 9/11TM.

These arsonists are probably just sorry they don't have a couple of planes to fly into a mosque somewhere. Although that would present the question, who would fly the planes?

Unlike IslamTM, those radical extremists who are willing to die for their perverted sense of religion, ChristianityTM can only be bothered to kill.

ChristianityTM, as always, serves self first.

Yet both are equal terrorists. The only difference is ChristianityTM has been able to hide behind their government to do their dirty deeds.

While you gather in your pious, self serving, hypocritical celebration that tosses into the fire the sacred text of another person, keep these two things in mind:

One: Matthew 7:12. "12Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets." (I used the KJV, since that seems to be the preferred translation for ChristianityTM)

Two: Though you evoke his name, Jesus will not be there in your midst. Jesus was a carpenter; he built bridges rather than destroyed them. He loved rather than hated. Had faith, rather than feared. So he would never condone a willful act of hatred against our fellow man that would incite conflict. Instead he will be on the cross you nail him to which each act of human defiance, telling God to forgive you... that you know not what you do.