Angry Christians discredit faith

The province of Alberta boasts more chapters of self-proclaimed Christian lobby groups than any other jurisdiction on this planet.

Enter Exhibit A: should your e-mail address contain the word “Christian,” you will quickly accumulate more notices from these organizations regarding urgent, upcoming consultations than there are dead mosquitoes in the average Bible camp cabin in Wild Rose Country.

Christians Concerned About This, Christian Coalition Against That, Christians United to Criminalize Rhubarb, Christians Opposed to Legalizing Perogies—you name it, we have them all out here. They represent a curious amalgamation of fundamentalist religion and right-wing politics and each is convinced they’re doing an essential work for the Lord.

Such a state of affairs periodically prompts me to ponder two questions: 1) how did things get to be this way? and 2) is this a good thing?

In attempting to answer the first question, some academic work I’m currently pursuing in Canadian history regularly reminds me of the storied relationship that’s existed between Christianity and politics in this province.

The 35-year reign of the Aberhart/Manning Social Credit administrations spawned a school of thought that suggested society is best served when Christians are in control of political ideology. The wheels essentially came off this cart, of course, when Stockwell Day and Deborah Grey had their well-publicized falling-out during the former’s ill-fated tenure as leader of the Canadian Alliance.

Nevertheless, a solid core of Albertans maintain that a highly-conservative Christian perspective is worthy of a major profile, especially given some of the contentious social issues confronting Canadians today.

I suspect the large number of Americans living here—80,000 in Calgary alone—also plays a role in the popularity of these groups. But some who monitor the activities of the “religious right” south of the 49th parallel suggest the influence of our Yankee brethren when it comes to the combination politics and faith is not always noble.

Witness some information recently received from an American organization that pleads with pastors to purchase an already prepared eight-part sermon series on readying your church for another terrorist attack. Prominently featured in the glitzy ad is a picture of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge with a statement indicating the handy-dandy messages are based on information gleaned from Mr. Ridge.

Since most American politicians are Christians—especially Republicans at election time—one assumes Ridge is aptly qualified to supply sermon material for eager, if somewhat uncreative, local pastors.

All of which suggests that using the Bible for sermon ideas may be fast becoming a thing of the past for avant-garde pastors indoctrinated in the ways of Uncle Sam’s “religious right.” And, Lord be praised, meanwhile somebody stands to make a tidy financial profit meaning there are collateral benefits to protecting the great American way—you can serve both Christ and capitalism.

It’s my consideration of the second question—is this a good thing?—that evokes my sarcasm.

One toxic e-mail that recently came my way beckons the faithful to an all-day seminar on how to effectively lobby MPs, MLAs, city councilors, etc. on matters of concern to that particular Concerned Christians organization.

Scanning the list of speakers, topics and workshops, I searched in vain for anything related to “Effectively praying for people in government,” “Encouraging your MLA/MP,” or “What the Bible has to say about relating to government.”

Nope, the tone of the communiqué was a call to battle, an invitation to militantly advance the Christian cause.

Reading such missives reminds me there is little that is truly “Christian” about such groups. They’re often led by arrogant and angry people, those who would rather drop their gloves than drop to their knees, people who aspire to success as ideological pugilists rather than as prayer warriors.

They need to spend more time reflecting on St. Paul’s directives about relating to government as given to believers living under real tyrants like Nero.