The congress person from my district — Lauren Boebert — makes a big noise about her Christianity and about her guns. She’s also a hate-filled little person who is now under investigation for lying about (and stealing) campaign funds. In a discussion with others from my district about how this phenomenon got to be the surrealistic horror she is, someone who lives nearer Rifle, the town where Boebert is from, said, “Boebert was radicalized by her church.” The woman then went on to describe the church.
“Radicalized by her CHURCH? Who ARE these people? How does that happen?” I woke up this morning with that in my mind.
In the process of making coffee, I thought of my own novels. One is about the Crusades. One is about the Reformation. One is about fleeing Europe to escape religious persecution. The radicalization of Christians by a Christian church is a very old and very common story. This isn’t the first time Christians have been whipped up into a weapon-wielding frenzy by something purporting to be faith.
This is The Palastinalied, or the Palestine Song, a Crusader song, written in the 13th century by Walther von Vogelweid, one of the most well known (in his time and ours) composers of Minnesangs or lyrical ballads. It’s a hymn and a marching song sort of like “Onward Christian Soldiers.” Wikipedia has a translation of this song.
There are aspects to this whole moment in time that, to me, resemble the idea of a “holy war.” Not good. Those things always go sideways and for a lot of people, there was no homecoming. I have a hard time imagining Jesus urging his followers to carry AK-47s or carry their Glocks onto the floor of the United States House of Representatives.
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2021/02/07/ragtag-daily-prompt-sunday/
When god’s on your side you can do no wrong. Dangerous situation.
Very. And many regard Trump as a prophet of the end days. Very very very creepy and, IMO, underestimated.
“Radicalized by her church” doesn’t have to be bad, but seems to be the vast majority of the time. In the 1970s-80s the Liberation Theology movement radicalized Roman Catholics in Latin America to oppose imperialism and right wing death squads. Archbishop Cesar Romero (El Salvador) and Fathers Ernesto and Fernando Cardenal (Nicaragua) were among the leaders of that movement. The underpinnings were found in the book “Sandinismo, marxismo, cristianismo: la confluencia” (you can probably translate that into English yourself), by Italian writer Giulio Girardi. If you read Spanish, I recommend it highly. (E. Cardenal has written of liberation theology in action in “The Gospel in Solentiname”, about a christian community in Nicaragua.) This was a rare bright spot in a religion marked by The Crusades and the current far-right evangelicals who claim Christianity as their own.
Lauren Boebert seems to be losing all the headlines to Marjorie Taylor Greene. I guess she’s not quite crazy enough for prime time.
MTG is a headline grabber, for sure. I also think Georgia is more newsworthy than Colorado. All we are to most of the nation is the state where pot is legal. 🙂
I thought it was where rich people ski (Aspen). Or where Mork landed (Boulder). Speaking of legal pot, Denver’s airport is pretty scary with the pot-sniffing dogs. You have to stand on painted footprints while the dog walks past you. When I biked across the Canadian border, their sniffer looked like a stray just hanging out. He strolled casually among us and then went to lie down. I’m not sure how many of our group even realized we had just been surveilled.
Yeah but you’ve been around long enough to remember Mork. One of my paintings hung in Mindy’s house, BTW. It was a poster design I did for Head Ski back in the antediluvian period.
Yikes! Now I’m going to have to go back and watch it again! In the house, not the music shop? OK. Time to watch again.
As I recall, it was in her dining room. I don’t think it’s worth watching the show again. 🙂
The dog 🐕 was a stonecold Mountie high! Jajaja 🙏♒️🐕
Good point!
Excellent post 🙏♒️🐕🇩🇴🇺🇸💪
terrifying, isn’t it?
Yes. Creepy and scary.
I suspect the process of radicalization of Christians is no different from the radicalization of Muslims or the radicalization of Communists. People all share exactly the same weaknesses and all “radical” leaders use the same techniques.
It’s the same. The indoctrination of Us v Them, the nurturing of paranoia and anger.
exactly so. And nothing at all to do with religion, other than using it as a means to amass power and control.
😦 Exactly.
I’m not sure about the woman you’re referring to, but I’ve read about one very radical pistol-packin’ mama ready to blast all commies with her AK47, calling on Christians to join her in her war on socialism. Pardon me if I misquote a scripture slightly but, “What concord hath Christ with the NRA?”
I’ve had some discussions with American evangelicals about the teachings of Jesus versus the right to blast those who threaten you. This morning I read an excellent article* and I think I’ll reblog it, for what it’s worth. Sadly, PEv teachers of the past have reset all the inconvenient teachings of Jesus to “a future dispensation,” so you can ignore the “Love your enemies and do good to them that hate you.” It makes me so sad to see sincere people so misled.
Maybe you’re read it too? *https://johnpavlovitz.com/2021/02/01/when-your-god-is-a-gun/
Pavlovitz has written just exactly what I think. ❤
As I studied the Swiss Reformation, the teachings and questions, for my book, The Brothers Path, I realized that somehow I had already taken some of the Anabaptist early teachings to heart. Not so much the forms of things, but the belief that God's law is superior to the law of any society and should be adhered to. It's a good law, "Love your neighbor as you love yourself." It's so simple. I personally believe it is a natural reflex and often the easiest road to choose.
The woman featured in Pavlovitz' article is exactly the woman I've written about in this post. Lauren Boebert is just one of several such women, I'm afraid. I think a lot of what I labeled Christianity (now? maybe for a while?) is a doctrinal mutation that suits the already existent beliefs of a group of people.
Here's an article that looks at the phenomenon of this type of Republican woman from the beginning… https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/07/opinion/marjorie-taylor-greene-republican-women.html?smid=fb-share&fbclid=IwAR0jBTmu3AQIHulMOkRUOCbNLG49zx_FEVpUtmuh3bvOg-_HDLbKwn6mSe0T
I didn’t recall the name, but that’s the woman the article I read was about. She sounded vicious. Er…righteously vicious.
She is. Ignorant, very arrogant, and dishonest. I believe her election was manipulated. There was a nice Dem lady running against her, nothing flashy, but nice. When it looked dangerously close a couple of right wing “Independents” became candidates and syphoned votes from the Dem. Boebert won by a mere 6 points. We’ll see what happens. Three people have already thrown their hats in the ring for the next election in 2022.
when I read that article, I trembled for America. But politics will always attract the power-hungry. Political views aren’t my concern. My concern is the statement, “Let those who name the name of Christ depart from iniquity.”
Jesus talked of a time when people would stand in judgement and they’d say, “Lord, haven’t we called on you, done this and that for you, prayed, worked miracles, etc.” (My paraphrase)
“And He will say, I never knew you. Depart from me…” Those are awful words to face! It’s so important for Christians to find out what God expects of his followers and to obey his word.
❤
Excellent post 🙏🐕♒️👍🏾👮♀️🇺🇸🇩🇴🆙🎶🙌
I had to ok 👍🏾 thank ya! I just posted my little drawing regarding your post and the new Christian church ⛪️🙏♒️🐕👍🏾
As a guy who has dated white 👩, these two loonie women are simply beyond Redemption!🙏♒️🐕
Wonderful! What? Surprised surprise Jim nabors and Mork Jajaja
Yikes. I would be so saddened by being “represented” by someone like Lauren Boebert. Let’s hope your district mobilizes to get rid of her next cycle. I worry that these women will get more and more outrageous trying to one up each other for attention. They remind me of those women on “Real Housewives of (wherever).” Just appalling !
They are appalling. That’s exactly the word (or deplorable 😉 )