What Are Christian Values?

[Radicalman]

My impression is that right-wing Evangelicals are sex-obsessed. They worry about virginity, abstinence, homosexuality, gay marriage, pornography and the like. Too, they are very concerned about abortion and stem-cell research and related matters. Certainly, these are moral issues and should be debated and discussed. But when one speaks of Christian Values or Moral Values, it seems to me, that if one takes a literalist position on the Bible, Christian values could be anything from justifying slavery, multiple wives,, stoning people to death and condoning highly questionable wars. A liberal approach, focusing on the teaching of Jesus, seems to yield a demand that Christians lead lives of compassion; mercy; forgiveness,; generosity; defense and care for the weak, poor, needy, and helpless; nonviolence; love of enemies and the stranger; and to be peacemakers. Too, we should be caretakers of the earth and not exploit it. I don't see an emphasis on these values in the right-wing Evangelicals. For example, a recent study by UNICEF estimates the number of children in poverty in the United States and Mexico is about 20% in each country. In Denmark it is 2.4%.This is not protection and concern for "the least amongst us." It is a national disgrace for such a wealthy country as the United States. I do not hear right-wing Evangelicals having concern for this. Where is their outrage? 100,000 or so Iraqi civilians have been killed by (primarily) U.S. forces since the beginning of our invasion. Is this a "culture of life" that the President and the right wing Evangelicals are talking about? People die needlessly in the U.S. because of lack of health care. Where is the voice of the right wing Evangelicals? Is this also their "culture of life?" Finally, a question to these right-wing evangelicals, who are so frequently militantly jingoistic, Who Would Jesus Bomb? Christians have an obligation to be peacemakers and to serve the weakest and most vulnerable members of our society.

[sui generis]

1. the right wing is obsessed with authority

they follow a "lord", they are going to hell if they disobey, they live in fear of their angry god, and although they are supposed to have free will they despise it when anyone actually exercises free will.

They transfer the idea of lordship to mullahs and popes and cardinals and presidents; my god is more powerful than your god. We live in the most powerful country on earth. Might makes right.

It's completely medieval - they are peasants of the mind, and they want everyone else to be a mental serf too. They hate freedom in all forms - and freedom to enjoy life, or sex, or happiness without religion is sacrilege and heresy, and that can't be tolerated. Living without fear of losing your immortal soul can't be tolerated.

[etherealtruth]

2. Though often demonized...

The Catholic church is a church of social, economic and environmental justice; it is a church for peace (applying very strict "just war" tests.
http://www.usccb.org/


The United Church of Christ is an extremely progressive denomination
http://www.ucc.org/


Real Christianity is NOT what the right wing Christian Fundamentalists would have the world believe it is!

[hecate77]

3. Um, love everyone, no killing?

Now, mind you, I am no longer a Christian, but I was raised as one (Catholic to be precise). My understanding always was that you love everyone, no matter what, and that you don't kill anyone. Seems simple enough to me. Also, if you want to carry it a little further, you are in favor of ending poverty, providing health care to all, making sure no one is left out. There are no litmus tests about who deserves compassion. None. Period. Now, no longer being a Christian, I still subscribe to what I thought was the primary message, namely love everyone, kill no one. I had to leave the Christian thing because they don't seem to hold much to that anymore. And they kept trying to superpose the wishes of men (say, the Pope) onto the above message. Now, I am some combination of Wiccan and Buddhist, as far as my beliefs could be classified in any major system. I am also a scientist (physicist) and I see no conflicts with my religion, unlike a lot of Christians. I.e., I don't need the Big Bang to be true just to prop up my beliefs in some creation myth, etc.

On the other hand, the faux Christians (the ones controlling our government) believe in Kill first, ask questions later. They believe it is best to hate people until they submit to your will, then you can tentatively allow them some space in 'your' world. They certainly believe that everything outside themselves was put there for their personal use, and they act like it.

[MissWaverly]

4. also there's seems to be no barrier to cheating people

I saw a bush site where they were applauding people who prevented Dems from voting in 04, call them vote blocker heroes, also the whole idea of cheating the Indians over the casino lobbying, deliberately frauding them, that's a moral christian value, their
insistence on having a monopoly of republican rule, telling lobbying groups that if they gave to 1 democrat, then they would not deal with them. Looks to me like a lot of greedy, lying, cheating, not to mention the plan to invade Iraq was drawn up with the oil companies input (heard on Tom Hartman today on Sirius), and now they are moral because they are worried about 1 woman's feeding tube, give me a break.

[Tux]

5. Christianity is dead

It died when Jesus died. It's been nothing but tyranny, greed, hatred, and death since then.

[classof56]

6. I used to think I knew.

As a life-long Christian raised in a conservative church, I thought our values were to live with love and in a Christ-like manner (since he's our Lord and Saviour); to spread the gospel so that others would accept him and spend eternity with him; to care about others; to have compassion and concern for the less fortunate, using our God-given gifts (i.e. money, time, talents) for God's glory; to serve and praise him forever. I felt that as citizens of this great country, we had an obligation to support those programs that help the least among us, and thus carry out Christ's directions as to how we should live, through the social services that benefit our fellow man, in particular ones who are least able to help themselves. Going along with that was a commitment to help those folks get into a position and place in their lives where they could be responsible for themselves, and thus we as a society would benefit.

Pretty high-minded stuff, I guess, but it's what I believed Christian values to be and what God expected of Christians. When it got all mixed up in politics, the political agenda over-riding the Christian agenda, I guess you could say, is when it all started to go downhill, as I see it. I now find it very difficult to align myself with evangelical/fundamental Christian churches and I am ashamed of what so many of my fellow Christians are doing. I think they have no clue as to the damage they are doing to Christ's gospel. The long-term consequences of this are just becoming evident. It is very painful to behold. My faith is badly shaken and I no longer attend church, but do read my Bible and am trying to do an in-depth study of the words of Jesus, just to remind myself of what his message was while he was here on earth. You are absolutely right that Christians should be peacemakers, who Jesus said are blessed. As to who would Jesus bomb? The answer is clear: No one. George Bush and all the right-wing fundies who blindly follow him really should be ashamed.

Didn't mean to wax on so long in answer to your great question. Welcome to DU!

Tired Old Cynic

[Radicalman]

7. Thanks For The Welcome classof 56

[Dervill Crow]

8. Awesome answer, class of '56.

I bet Jesus is delighted to know he still has followers who get it.

[classof56]

9. Thank you so much! This means a lot to me. Hope you're right!

Plus it's always good to hear from a fellow Oregonian.

Blessings!

[Pacifist Patriot]

10. Christian values or the values of Christ?

Too entirely different subjects. Fundamentalist Christian values have extraordinarily little to do with the teachings of Christ or other Biblical scripture. Except maybe "eye for an eye" and a few Hebraic instructions to commit genocide in the name of the Lord.

[jmcon007]

11. yes they are....

...obsessed with sex. It's about all O'Reilly talks about and the one subject you can bring up that ALWAYS gets their attention is something having to do with pee pees and wee wees. It leads me to conclude that they're all closet perverts.
And, if someone wants to know what Christian values are, read the red-lettered words in the Bible. When you're finished, challenge yourself to come up with anything at all you can think of about Jesus that reminds you of the neonuts disciples.

[magnussun]

13. Christians are NOT perverts

"...obsessed with sex. It's about all O'Reilly talks about and the one subject you can bring up that ALWAYS gets their attention is something having to do with pee pees and wee wees. It leads me to conclude that they're all closet perverts."

As an unorthodox Christian, here's how I see sex: Hollywood and the media is obsessed with promoting it, in all its forms, regardless of morality. Christians are trying to go the opposite direction, but sometimes go as overboard as Hollywood and the media does.
Sex should not be given easily or used as a recreational drug. It's context should be within a loving relationship, preferably marriage.
I am sick of all the filthy penis enlargement and erection commercials. Sick of the constant sexual innuendo on tv. Some say "turn the channel" but this is on the History Channel, during the day, and all over other channels that deal with science. I am sick of hearing about teen girls giving blow jobs to teen boys so that they'll be accepted. I am sick of hearing from the religious right about homosexuality, but I am also sick of the Hollywood portrayal of promiscuity within the gay community, such as on Will and Grace. I am sick of movies that portray one-night stands ending in love and marriage. They don't. Promiscuous people are not respected by the opposite sex.

"And, if someone wants to know what Christian values are, read the red-lettered words in the Bible. When you're finished, challenge yourself to come up with anything at all you can think of about Jesus that reminds you of the neonuts disciples."

See my sig.

M

[magnussun]

12. Don't mix old and new testament

Many of the issues called "Christian" are actually Old Testament, rather than new covenant. There is nothing in the New testament that justifies polygamy and killing those who break the Law. The problem with right-wing Christians is that they don't take in Christ's spiritual message of love, kindness, mercy, forgiveness and charity. They instead replace it with old testament revenge values, because it is in agreement with their mean spirits. Turn the other cheek is not what RW Christians do. They cite "an eye for an eye" hence turning a blind eye to atrocities committed by those they believe God likes.
I just left a right-wing newsgroup which attacked me constantly for not believing in the rightousness of exterminating races God allegedly hates (Amkalites, etc..). I couldn't even question such things, for my own understanding, without being called a phony Christian. I was attacked for believing there is room for both God and evolution. I was attacked for wondering if the parts of the old testament which advocate genocide were inspired by men at war, rather than God. I was attacked and accused of being under the influence of satan for mentioning the bible was edited and that there are scriptures out there that weren't included.

These people look for enemies, rather than people to love and care for. They do not have the Holy Spirit in them.

That's why I am here.

M

[grannylib]

14. I agree with you; this has been a major concern of mine for decades now

ever since the RayGun years when the sadly misnamed Christian Right really started coming into power.
Morality for them is confined to issues of sex (and its consequences) and (mostly) fetal life. The Schiavo case seems to me to be an aberration; this goes on all the time, every day, across the country in the privacy of families where it belongs, and no protesters show up, and no Congressional Acts are passed. It's been artificially hyped by the Poodle Press (and ALWAYS as 'parents fight to save daughter's life' rather than 'husband fights to honor wife's wishes')
and is little more than another distraction to keep us from focusing on Halfawit's nomination for the World Bank post, and Tom DeLay's ethics violations, and the continued failure of our intelligence agencies to communicate on issues of Der Securitanshchanfreudenwhatnot offen Der Vaterland, and Dim Son's efforts to redistribute wealth and provide Wall Street Welfare by destroying Social Security by privatization (putting the nation deeper into debt in the process)
It just makes me want to vomit.