Brimstone Becomes the Christian Right

The Bush administration has been marked by the ascension of two men, House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R--Texas) and Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft, who have much in common. Both are grim-visaged and perfectly sure that they always are right. In each, one perceives a deep reservoir of rage that partly motivates his involvement with politics.

And both are evangelical Christians, given to staff prayer meetings, public assertions of faith and political positions on such issues as abortion, homosexuality and school prayer that reflect both their religious orientation and their position on the far right of U.S. politics.

Many Christians, including many members of the clergy, regard both the evangelical movement and the personal politics of DeLay and Ashcroft as incompatible with the teachings of Jesus. While Jesus taught “judge not, that ye be not judged” and “love your neighbor as yourself,” members of the evangelical right are only too happy to condemn their opponents in imagination to the fiery pit of hell and to play hardball politics that reflects the absoluteness of their convictions.

Yet the evangelicals have read their Bibles, and they have very good reasons to regard Jesus as a prophet of rage.

The interpretation of Jesus’ teachings is, of course, extremely controversial. So much so, in fact, that it sometimes seems as though there are two different Christs.

One Christ is a kind of proto-hippie, traveling around the Middle East in long hair and sandals preaching love of everyone, including his own enemies.

This Jesus is the mild lamb of God. Certain passages, especially the Sermon on the Mount, support such an interpretation.

Other passages give us a very different Christ, one who condemns utterly and eternally anyone who does not immediately accept his teachings and divine status.

At the judgment, he says, “the Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 13:41).

This Jesus was concerned to sort the elect from the damned and to punish the latter for all eternity: “You are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew: 25:41). “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (Matthew 7:19).

Scholars such as Stephen Mitchell in “The Gospel According to Jesus” have been concerned to separate the prophet of love, whom Mitchell regards as the authentic Jesus, from the prophet of rage, whom he regards as a later misinterpretation of Jesus’ teachings. Though Mitchell’s arguments are elaborate, I think it is fair to say that they amount to wishful thinking.

The Christian right’s vengeful God who operates by sorting the elect from the damned is reflected in their politics of polarization and by their barely concealed contempt for what they regard as the deepest moral failings of their opponents.

In fact, the Christian right’s interpretation of love as being compatible with the condemnation of sin is also supported by the Bible. Preventing a woman from having an abortion is for them an expression of love because it may save her from eternal torment. Impeaching President Clinton for adultery was a mission from God that also happened to serve DeLay’s political purposes. “Converting” homosexuals becomes an act of charity.

Indeed, many of what are sometimes considered the excesses of historical Christianity--such as the Crusades, the Inquisition and forced conversions--have been justified as expressions of love by the New Testament. Being burned at the stake is a trivial punishment when compared to being burned for eternity.

George W. Bush once said that his favorite political philosopher was Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, the New Testament is an intensely difficult text to interpret, much less to use as a political guide. Yet one thing is clear: While you can condemn the politics or personalities of DeLay and Ashcroft, what you cannot do is call them unchristian.