Sunday Sermonette: The Immorality of Faith
Last Sunday, I wrote that my faith was rationally impoverished, logically incoherent, and morally repugnant. A friend questioned me on this. What, exactly was so repugnant about my faith?
Please note that I'm not saying all Christians are immoral. Far from it. Most are fine people, good, moral, and humane. They're far better than their religion.
But at its heart, Christianity is morally appalling.
At the very core of Christianity lies the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Ask a Christian what he believes and he may summarize with a verse from the Gospel of John: For God so loved the world that he gave that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
That quote assumes a lot of prior knowledge. An all-powerful, all-knowing God created the cosmos, the world, and all the creatures in it. One particular creature, humanity, disobeyed him. Literalists will tell you about Eve and an apple, liberals view the story as allegory for man's general egotism and disobedience to authority. Either way, God created humans and commanded submission, humans found some way to rebel.
God, being perfect and righteous and all that, was angry at humanity's disobedience (which by rights should be considered a designer error) and sought to punish them. At one point he even wipes out the entire race save a select family. Most Christian denominations believe that, even if a modern human were perfect in every way, he or she would still be tainted by that Original Sin. More liberal sects believe that it's a moot point, there are no perfect humans.
This would be bad enough, but it took Christianity to compound the injustice. The penalty for offending God is eternal torment in Hell. Gentle Jesus meek and mild speaks of it many times in the Gospels. And he should know - he claimed to be the son of God, and that those who had seen him had seen God himself. You whose ancient ancestors (from either 142 thousand years ago or 6 thousand years ago, depending on your denomination) sinned against God are going to spend an eternity in hell.
You, personally, are so wretched, so wicked, so disgustingly perverse that God cannot stand the sight of you. Oh, yes you are, don't deny it. Christianity makes sure you are. You probably had thoughts about sex, didn't you? You saw an attractive person of the opposite (or worse, the same) gender, and you felt a little stirring in your loins, didn't you, you pervert? You committed adultery in your heart. Maybe you even polluted yourself. That's what I read in Catholic books as a youngster: masturbation was called self-pollution, and is a seriously and intrinsically disordered and gravely sinful act. You can find a few very liberal churches who will say it's natural and normal, so long as you don't do it too much. How much is too much? Probably somewhat less than the number of times you do it, you sick puppy. And that's just one of the deadly sins.
In the words of the General Confession from the old Prayer Book, "...we have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things with we ought not to have done, and there is no health in us. But thou, O Lord, have mercy on us, miserable offenders…" But wait! You may be a miserable offender, but there is hope. In a hideous reinterpretation of the ancient practice of piling the sins of the tribe on a goat and driving it out into the desert to die of thirst or depredation, God sent a human, who also happened to be his Son, to suffer and die an agonizing death. Human sacrifice paid the price for our sins, and now God can welcome us into eternal bliss.
It’s not just the human sacrifice element that’s immoral, it’s the idea that guilt is somehow transferrable. Let's say I get caught driving while intoxicated. I am sentenced to pay a fine. You step up and say, "Bill, I know you don't have any money, I will pay the fine for you." Thank you, you are a very nice man. But I'm still guilty of drunk driving and my license is still suspended. Let's say further that in my drunken stupor I front-ended another car, killing a young mother and her two children. Can you step up to the judge and say, "Your honor, send me to jail in Bill's place?" No, of course you can't. Let's say that the young woman was my wife, and that I deliberately and with malice aforethought planned to run her down and fortified myself with liquid courage to give myself an alibi. The judge sentences me to death. Would you be allowed to die in my place? Of course not, that would be monstrously unjust. I am the criminal, not you, and you cannot take my guilt away. Even if the Governor decides to pardon me, I'm still guilty.
Christianity says that not only did God's son die in a brutal and nasty way, but that he did so for me. I'm as culpable for the death of Christ as if I were there, driving in the nails myself. (Imagining yourself at the scene of the crime was called a "spiritual exercise" to which I was introduced as a child.) Even though I was removed by 1900 years and thousands of miles, and would have tried to stop it if I was there and able, this barbaric execution was done in my name, for me. It is added to the burden of original sin under which humanity already groans. (That Jesus didn't die, not as we humans understand death, is a bit of divine chicanery we'll leave for another day.)
All I have to do is accept this gruesome "gift", and believe that Jesus was the son of God, and all my sins are forgiven. (Or believe and be baptized. Or believe and be baptized and practice good works. Or just hope that I am one of the sweet selected few whom God predestined for salvation. Or believe that God will find some way after I am dead to commute my sentence.) Everyone else, the vast majority of all who live, who have ever lived, and who will ever live, are damned.
And I still haven't reached the most repellent, stomach-turning part of this odious creed. Here it is: Christians teach this to little children. You are dirty and corrupt. You are so wicked that a human being had to be tortured to death for you. That's how you know God loves you. You'd better love him back, or you're going to suffer far worse torment than that corpse on the cross suffered. Because God is love. As long as you don’t make him angry.
This farrago of ancient nonsense, without a shred of evidence to buttress it, has supported and sustained the least productive elements of human society for millennia. It has set nation against nation, family against family, children against parents, spouses against spouses. It is evil, immoral, and inhuman.
It is rationally impoverished, logically incoherent, and morally repugnant.
Please note that I'm not saying all Christians are immoral. Far from it. Most are fine people, good, moral, and humane. They're far better than their religion.
But at its heart, Christianity is morally appalling.
At the very core of Christianity lies the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Ask a Christian what he believes and he may summarize with a verse from the Gospel of John: For God so loved the world that he gave that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
That quote assumes a lot of prior knowledge. An all-powerful, all-knowing God created the cosmos, the world, and all the creatures in it. One particular creature, humanity, disobeyed him. Literalists will tell you about Eve and an apple, liberals view the story as allegory for man's general egotism and disobedience to authority. Either way, God created humans and commanded submission, humans found some way to rebel.
God, being perfect and righteous and all that, was angry at humanity's disobedience (which by rights should be considered a designer error) and sought to punish them. At one point he even wipes out the entire race save a select family. Most Christian denominations believe that, even if a modern human were perfect in every way, he or she would still be tainted by that Original Sin. More liberal sects believe that it's a moot point, there are no perfect humans.
This would be bad enough, but it took Christianity to compound the injustice. The penalty for offending God is eternal torment in Hell. Gentle Jesus meek and mild speaks of it many times in the Gospels. And he should know - he claimed to be the son of God, and that those who had seen him had seen God himself. You whose ancient ancestors (from either 142 thousand years ago or 6 thousand years ago, depending on your denomination) sinned against God are going to spend an eternity in hell.
You, personally, are so wretched, so wicked, so disgustingly perverse that God cannot stand the sight of you. Oh, yes you are, don't deny it. Christianity makes sure you are. You probably had thoughts about sex, didn't you? You saw an attractive person of the opposite (or worse, the same) gender, and you felt a little stirring in your loins, didn't you, you pervert? You committed adultery in your heart. Maybe you even polluted yourself. That's what I read in Catholic books as a youngster: masturbation was called self-pollution, and is a seriously and intrinsically disordered and gravely sinful act. You can find a few very liberal churches who will say it's natural and normal, so long as you don't do it too much. How much is too much? Probably somewhat less than the number of times you do it, you sick puppy. And that's just one of the deadly sins.
In the words of the General Confession from the old Prayer Book, "...we have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things with we ought not to have done, and there is no health in us. But thou, O Lord, have mercy on us, miserable offenders…" But wait! You may be a miserable offender, but there is hope. In a hideous reinterpretation of the ancient practice of piling the sins of the tribe on a goat and driving it out into the desert to die of thirst or depredation, God sent a human, who also happened to be his Son, to suffer and die an agonizing death. Human sacrifice paid the price for our sins, and now God can welcome us into eternal bliss.
It’s not just the human sacrifice element that’s immoral, it’s the idea that guilt is somehow transferrable. Let's say I get caught driving while intoxicated. I am sentenced to pay a fine. You step up and say, "Bill, I know you don't have any money, I will pay the fine for you." Thank you, you are a very nice man. But I'm still guilty of drunk driving and my license is still suspended. Let's say further that in my drunken stupor I front-ended another car, killing a young mother and her two children. Can you step up to the judge and say, "Your honor, send me to jail in Bill's place?" No, of course you can't. Let's say that the young woman was my wife, and that I deliberately and with malice aforethought planned to run her down and fortified myself with liquid courage to give myself an alibi. The judge sentences me to death. Would you be allowed to die in my place? Of course not, that would be monstrously unjust. I am the criminal, not you, and you cannot take my guilt away. Even if the Governor decides to pardon me, I'm still guilty.
Christianity says that not only did God's son die in a brutal and nasty way, but that he did so for me. I'm as culpable for the death of Christ as if I were there, driving in the nails myself. (Imagining yourself at the scene of the crime was called a "spiritual exercise" to which I was introduced as a child.) Even though I was removed by 1900 years and thousands of miles, and would have tried to stop it if I was there and able, this barbaric execution was done in my name, for me. It is added to the burden of original sin under which humanity already groans. (That Jesus didn't die, not as we humans understand death, is a bit of divine chicanery we'll leave for another day.)
All I have to do is accept this gruesome "gift", and believe that Jesus was the son of God, and all my sins are forgiven. (Or believe and be baptized. Or believe and be baptized and practice good works. Or just hope that I am one of the sweet selected few whom God predestined for salvation. Or believe that God will find some way after I am dead to commute my sentence.) Everyone else, the vast majority of all who live, who have ever lived, and who will ever live, are damned.
And I still haven't reached the most repellent, stomach-turning part of this odious creed. Here it is: Christians teach this to little children. You are dirty and corrupt. You are so wicked that a human being had to be tortured to death for you. That's how you know God loves you. You'd better love him back, or you're going to suffer far worse torment than that corpse on the cross suffered. Because God is love. As long as you don’t make him angry.
This farrago of ancient nonsense, without a shred of evidence to buttress it, has supported and sustained the least productive elements of human society for millennia. It has set nation against nation, family against family, children against parents, spouses against spouses. It is evil, immoral, and inhuman.
It is rationally impoverished, logically incoherent, and morally repugnant.