Speaking in tongues

I have had several discussions with evangelical Christians of late, one a Canadian bloke whose wife is Eritrean, and another with two blokes in a queue at the bank who both visit America regularly. I have for many years been puzzled and disappointed at the lack of involvement in American life of the Christian Church, by which I mean normal, real Christians.

I have to my knowledge never heard it speak up on behalf of anyone or anything. We hear an endless dialogue from the rabid-right Church of hell fire and damnation but never from the proper Christians of which there are tens maybe hundreds of millions. From what my evangelical friends tell me, Christianity in America is caught up so deeply with politics that it paralyses the proper Christians.

The nutter Christians are in fact right wing, war-loving, xenophobic folk foremost who then seek confirmation that this obviously unchristian world view is in fact what God and the Bible really meant and not all the ‘Thou shalt not kill’, ‘Blessed are the meek’, ‘Easier for a camel’ etc stuff, which although written in as plain a-language as can be, nonetheless doesn’t mean what it says.

These people also of course, quote obscure lines from the bible out of context, to justify homophobia, sexism, capital punishment etc. as literal proof that the bible and God support their world view. Basically my friends told me that the right wing view of religion in America is based on Republican politics first, followed by patriotism (I have often thought that the American maxim ‘My country right or wrong’ is the most blatant dismissal of morality I have ever heard), followed finally by Christian ideals.

Now, I believe all this but it still doesn’t address my original question of why, given all this, we never hear from the proper Christians who possibly equal the nutters in numbers. The suggestion is that they are silenced by the fear of being labelled unpatriotic if they speak up for the poor and the weak, or against racism or war.

If this is the reason then they are contemptible cowards. If not … What!? I have NEVER heard the real American Church speak out on ANYTHING EVER IN MY LIFE!!

Please don’t send me links that show individual voices being ignored. I am sure that this is the case.

The American media and indeed America itself has nothing to gain by publicising Christian views and I am absolutely sure many have spoken up and it’s been under-reported to the point that no-one not even in America has heard what they have had to say, but in that case they should have spoken LOUDER.

Why don’t they communicate their concerns with the media in Britain, or other countries where they would get reported? Are they broken? Has the church in America given up?

As a lover of Christianity it hurts me deeply to see the beautiful teachings of the religion abandoned and left undefended thus against this avalanche of heinous lies and distortions. It offends me.

It makes me want to cry.

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