It’s getting close to that time of the year again, when practically every Christian around the world will celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, a religious icon they revere… or, at least claim they do.
A disturbingly significant number will then spend the upcoming new year worshipping the kind of people that Jesus wouldn’t be caught dead hanging out with, unless they violently hung him on a cross, which, according to biblical narrative, they did.
You will know these people by their bigotry, which comes in many flavours – racism, sexism, misogyny, misandry, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, Islamophobia, religious prejudice, narcissism, and actual antisemitism, not the kind weaponised by Israel. Unsurprisingly, their bigotry is only transparent to others, never to themselves. Also unsurprisingly, they will justify their bigotry, or try to at least. They usually fail, but that never hinders them.
You see, they follow what I call the get-out-of-jail-free-Jesus. This Jesus conveniently absolves them of their bigotry. Their only obligation is to accept this Jesus as their saviour. They may have to show up every Sunday, or perhaps occasionally at a church service (the Megachurch kind is a dead giveaway). That’s it.
I realise that I’m possibly being unkind and perhaps hyperbolic. However, there’s no easy way to sugar-coat what I observe. We live in dystopian times. The mass murder of children is being carried out with impunity, aided and abetted by the Western world, the supposed guardians of humanitarian law. Worse, the infanticide is being excused by corruptible church leaders. Consequently, congregants are being misled by their church leaders, and it’s happening on a horrendous scale.
Take Pastor Troy Jackson, for example. There’s no doubt he’s committed to proselytising, however, not about who you would think. Jackson is a devout apologist for Israel and Zionism. Recently, he was confronted by diminutive CodePink activist Medea Benjamin about his side hustle and predictably, his bigoted bullying exploded on camera for the whole world to see.
He’s one of those Pharisaical Christians who disingenuously bleat about killing babies in the womb. Still, they will excuse the mass killing of babies when it reconciles with their subverted religious or political biases. Pastor Jackson is recognised as a community leader, but I pity the community he is leading.
It may sound like I’m being unfairly critical of Christians who are misled by their church leaders. However, there’s no excuse for not holding your church leaders to the ethical and moral standards that Jesus would demand of his followers. There’s also no excuse for blindly following and not engaging in introspection. It’s about time all Christians decided whether they want to follow Jesus or the celebrities who pretend to.
lenny unencumbered 