The evils of liberalism are widespread, and unless serious electoral reform is carried out, our country is on the verge of losing all hope for revival.
Let me briefly outline what led to this sad reality.
According to 16th century English philosopher John Locke, liberalism was designed to neutralize opportunistic religious wars, which were scattered around the world after the Protestant Reformation weakened Catholic-based governing authorities. The core of the liberal approach to life is that “truth begins with the individual, not with God.” Thankfully, this led to popular elections versus the so-called divinely sanctioned perpetual rule of a family of kings and queens. No problem.
The destructive thing that liberalism did was to neutralize religion by privatizing it as mere public worship. This made slavery immoral and fostered the belief that exploiting and mistreating people to gain wealth was even a right. Ordinary people have been fighting this vile mentality ever since, and continue to do so to this day.
Many wealthy white people, and those who seek to make themselves feel more secure by demonizing people of color, are trying to reinforce their false sense of superiority as kings and queens. So they pass laws that make it harder to vote, especially for the less fortunate. And in what seems like a throwback to the old fundamentalist “don'ts” (no drinking, no dancing, no smoking, no playing cards, no movies, no dancing), now there's abortion as a “don't.” Opposing it seems to justify one's status as a serious Christian and give one an opportunity to take a deeper and broader look at what is needed to enhance healing and justice for both people and the planet.
Robert Heilbrunner published “An Inquiry into the Prospects of Mankind” in 1974. Using computer modeling available at the time, he and his team predicted that if the world continued on its path of coal- and oil-based industrialization, the Earth would become uninhabitable in 500 years. In just 50 years, we have seen global warming and extreme weather. Rising temperatures also allow the release of disease carriers that were previously held in check by “normal” temperatures. Where we are now heading is an uninhabitable Earth. Is God responsible for what humans have caused?
The Christian Right has no clue about the bigger picture. They seem to see all abortions as evil incarnate, whether necessitated by rape, incest, the mother's health, or lack of access to caring people. What about mothers around the world who breathe highly polluted coal and oil-based industrial air, poisons that ultimately kill their babies before they are even born? Is this not worthy of attention?
Dogmatic secularists aren’t much better. Many of us care about the physical plants we share, but not so much about unwanted babies. Of course, life is multifaceted and interconnected, and cannot be reduced to any one issue, no matter how important.
At stake is how much of a viable future remains.
My fellow Christians are so focused on lost souls that they forget, or are fooled by their leaders into not knowing, that salvation is holistic. Salvation is about the completeness of authority in the diverse structure of human experience (“All authority is given to Me” – Matthew 28:18). Its comprehensive scope includes Jesus' love for humans and his tolerance for other types of believers. All these are within the framework of the planet's wealth, which we should properly manage and develop for the common good. (Genesis 1:28)
All of this highlights a core problem with liberalism. They cannot tolerate anything that does not support the authority they have created. And it leaves us hopelessly hopeless, or to reinvent what justice for all means as the bearers of hatred, violence, and fear seek to destroy what is still possible. Make them either ready to do what needs to be done. We now live in a time when collaborating and talking with each other, regardless of belief system, is no longer an option, but a necessity. We need advocates, not charlatans.
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