The Error called Salvation

A friend posted this news item on a speech given by the Gov of Alabama on his inauguration day which was also the day of our national recognition of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s life and work.

This is something he said in the speech:

So anybody here today who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their savior, I’m telling you, you’re not my brother and you’re not my sister, and I want to be your brother.

This man is indeed a Christian. There is no getting around this as a central fact of Christianity as it's "imagined" in our fair land. But it's not about a belief in a way of living here on earth--it's not an adherence to a practice of fellowship and good works (and in fact often "works" are disavowed as a distraction and error in the reaching after grace). It's a belief in being "elect"--simple as that. It is a tortured path from Yahweh and Yeshua to "God" and "Christ", from Jerusalem to Massachusetts and the West.

His position is perfectly consonant with his understanding of this "faith"...it's a faith in his future in heaven and his belief that only his tribe is going there.

It's logical really...Christians all have to believe non-Christians are irrelevant to them; it's the very real error at the heart of the idea of heaven as a members-only club. It makes all other theological and social ideas within that frame somewhat, well, insignificant. Also, in some (many? most?) sects Christians are supposed to proselytize/evangelize as a means to "spread the Word" but also as a way to check you off the list as someone who's had the chance for salvation and if you don't take it that's your fault and they can wash their hands of you.

Jesus, really, is irrelevant too as a "leader" or "wise man". He is just a bridge to glory and his teaching is meaningless BECAUSE he is this bridge. Believing in "HIM" obviates the need to study his message which is as radical as it is inclusive--not an easy path to tread and so folks choose not to. This Bridge takes the Christian right back into the bosom of the very tribal conception of Yahweh, the personal divinity, whose job it is to smite one's enemies and empty out territory on which his flock can multiply. This is no god of Mankind but a very narrow, jealous god of a few, narrow, petty humans--and this is made more evident every day here in the the USA.

No, this Governor can't be fair to non-Christians. It would be a stroke of luck if he can even tolerate them.