The most valuable thing I received from my family of origin was a graduate practicum in hypocrisy before I completed elementary school. Dad believed he was God, and Mom supported his delusion as long as he was always there to pull out her chair and open the car door for her. They intensely disliked the outcome of their tutelage as I developed of my greatest talent, the ability to see through subterfuge to hypocrisy. I have been amused by it ever since.
The Tea Party (TP) is the poster group for Hilarious Hypocrisy. Their Bible thumping married to their anti-Christian behavior and statements is more consistent with Saturday Night Live than with the Bible. I am talking fundamentals here. The province of God is faith, hope, love, and charity. Theology is the province of Satan. The nutshell of Christianity is love one another, treat your neighbors as you would want to be treated, and everyone, even those people you consider to be the most despicable, are your neighbors. Historically, examples of theology are the questions of how many angels can dance on the head of a pin and can God make a boulder so heavy that he cannot move it. The discussion may be amusing, but it is distracting, serves no useful purpose, and is irrelevant to Christianity, as well as life.
Jesus was a liberal with strong socialist leanings. The evidence is clear. He took loaves and fishes away from a boy, who was the only person in a multitude to plan ahead for the day’s activities. Jesus then used the boy’s food to feed a bunch of strangers who were unable to plan ahead, unemployed, poor, or all of the above. How socialistic is that? VERY! Jesus turned over the tables of money lenders in the temple. Can you imagine what he would do to Wall Street? It boggles the mind.
Christians, in all good conscience – a very rare commodity, that conscience – cannot excuse the wealthy from their obligation to pay their fair share of taxes any more than they can deny the least fortunate of the population necessary health care, and the opportunity to become educated to make a reasonable living. An average wedding costs enough to feed a multitude and the amounts spent on celebrity weddings are obscene. With all the extreme wealth of this country, there is no excuse for anyone to live in abject poverty. To allow that to happen demonstrates a lack of Christian principles.
The TP maintains that allowing the rich to escape paying their fair share of taxes will increase employment, and it will – in third world countries where children work in factories and are denied adequate health care and educations. How Christian is that? It confuses me that the TP has such a cavalier attitude toward child labor when they rally to protect even one cell of a potential child. Are only potential American children worthy of protection? Why aren’t they rushing to China to get child labor laws passed?
The hypocrisy never stops. The TP supports vociferous demonstrations at Women’s Centers. I have been tempted to distribute adoption applications and petitions against capital punishment to the demonstrators. How many have rushed to adopt babies who are severely handicapped or whose mothers are unable to provide care for them? How many TP members are demonstrating to secure nutritious diets and good prenatal care for the potential mothers of these potential children? How many TP members value human life so religiously that they are demonstrating to ensure that all children have nutritious diets, good health care, and good educations? How many are signing petitions to end capital punishment?
As a social worker with experience in mental health, early intervention, child welfare, adoption, and juvenile probation, I have seen little concern for my client families from TP-esque people. Condemnation is more probable. What insane logic would suggest that a child who is confined to Hell during his/her childhood will, upon reaching his/her 18th birthday, immediately be infused with good health, a strong moral compass, logic, and the opportunities to get a good education and well-paying job? That is irrational. I have a habit of kindly explaining the circumstances of these unfortunate people’s lives to people, even strangers who self-righteously censure them. It doesn’t make friends, but I hope it causes people to think. Yes, I am delusionally optimistic.
Occasionally I have seen children from very difficult situations who do well, but they were not children left to their own devices. They were children who miraculously found someone, such as a neighbor, relative, teacher, social worker, foster parent, who cared for him/her and somehow managed to make a difference in that child’s life whether that support person was Christian or not. Christians definitely do not have a monopoly on performing kind acts.
All children need to be nurtured from conception in order to develop into capable, responsible adults. They need a healthy diet and good medical care. The number without those necessities of life is growing world-wide. So where is the TP’s Christianity when it comes to the children of the world? Does it end at birth? The TP seeks to protect the potential of a child, not children, who are the world’s most precious natural resource. This is embracing the idea of Christianity without bothering to practice love and charity for one another. Guess TP really fits.
