My Problem with Christianism
(2 of 2)
So let me suggest that we take back the word Christian while giving the religious right a new adjective: Christianist. Christianity, in this view, is simply a faith. Christianism is an ideology, politics, an ism. The distinction between Christian and Christianist echoes the distinction we make between Muslim and Islamist. Muslims are those who follow Islam. Islamists are those who want to wield Islam as a political force and conflate state and mosque. Not all Islamists are violent. Only a tiny few are terrorists. And I should underline that the term Christianist is in no way designed to label people on the religious right as favoring any violence at all. I mean merely by the term Christianist the view that religious faith is so important that it must also have a precise political agenda. It is the belief that religion dictates politics and that politics should dictate the laws for everyone, Christian and non-Christian alike.
That's what I dissent from, and I dissent from it as a Christian. I dissent from the political pollution of sincere, personal faith. I dissent most strongly from the attempt to argue that one party represents God and that the other doesn't. I dissent from having my faith co-opted and wielded by people whose politics I do not share and whose intolerance I abhor. The word Christian belongs to no political party. It's time the quiet majority of believers took it back.
Visit Andrew Sullivan's blog, The Daily Dish, at time.com
- « PREV PAGE
- 1
- 2
Most Popular »
- 'Tear Down This Wall': Reagan's Speech That Ended the Cold War
- Are You Getting Scammed by Facebook Games?
- Military Fears Gains with Muslim Soldiers May Be Lost
- Priests Spar Over What It Means to Be Catholic
- The State of Hillary: A Mixed Record on the Job
- Why We Look at Some Web Ads and Not Others
- Stresses at Fort Hood Were Likely Intense for Hasan
- Hasan's Therapy: Could 'Secondary Trauma' Have Driven Him to Shooting?
- Brazil Student Expelled for Mini-Dress
- Fort Hood Hero: Who Is Kimberly Munley?
- Are You Getting Scammed by Facebook Games?
- Priests Spar Over What It Means to Be Catholic
- The Secrets Inside Your Dog's Mind
- Why We Look at Some Web Ads and Not Others
- I Can Has Swine Flu? A Cat Comes Down with H1N1
- China Woos Africa and Not Just for Its Resources
- 'I Am Autism': An Advocacy Video Sparks Protest
- 'Tear Down This Wall': Reagan's Speech That Ended the Cold War
- Military Fears Gains with Muslim Soldiers May Be Lost
- Let's Bail Out the Pot Dealers!







RSS