Lately I’ve been having a bit of an internal battle regarding how I feel as a human being vs. how I feel as a “Christian.” The problem is, I shouldn’t be separating them at all.
More and more, our society has split, not just politically, or religiously, but intellectually. Christianity has become for many, synonymous for being “right,” or in their own eyes, “correct.” And on the other hand, we have intellectuals and scientists and, *gulp!* liberals.
But why?
Why is it that one cannot be a Christian Geek; an intellectual Christian? Why can’t a Christian be a scientist without having to worry about people looking at them as “the enemy?”
I like science. I grew up with electronics projects, chemistry sets, and lots and lots of books. We had the whole LIFE/Science library to browse through, and damnit, it was cool! Did I believe everything I read? Yeah, sure I did… Until I read something else to the contrary. But that concept is the very heart of science. We try to figure things out the best we can and take a stand on something until we get information to the contrary.
Do we make mistakes? You bet! We used to think the world was flat, remember? But we got more information. We used to think that the universe revolved around the Earth. If you can’t see past the end of your own nose, well, then I suppose it still does.
When we have a job that needs to be done, it’s usually best to put the smartest, most qualified person there to do it. If your basement is full of water, you don’t call your dentist to come out and fix the broken water heater. You want a plumber, and more so, you want a SMART and qualified plumber. When you go in for heart surgery, the last thing you want to hear is that your doctor finished 453rd out of a class of 454 med students.
This idea follows in all walks of life… EXCEPT when it comes to running our country, educating our children, or protecting our land. In these areas we would rather have someone who believes as we do, regardless of how uneducated or unqualified we might be, rather than the smartest, best person to get the job done.
It’s more important to us that our leaders hold our same faith and “morality” (oh yeah, big quotes on that one) as we do than whether or not they can perform in office.
It’s more important that our teachers have our same morality and beliefs when they teach our children, than letting them do their jobs to the best of their ability. We don’t want those people teaching our children what the best minds in the world believe, we want them to teach our kids what WE believe. We don’t want our kids to learn about subjects that fly in the face of our morality. We would rather they get tossed into the world completely ignorant of anything that we don’t agree with.
It’s okay to kill our neighbors who “threaten” our moral or spiritual beliefs, but we cry out in horror over the unborn, unvoiced, and uneducated fetus in a mother’s womb. We vehemently declare it “innocent”, and an entire nation “guilty,” having met neither.
So why can’t I be an “intellectual” Christian? Why can’t I be a “liberal” Christian? Have these terms been so hijacked by the far right, that they have taken on completely different meanings? I mention the word “evolution” at church, and half the congregation rolls their eyes. About the same number couldn’t even begin to tell you the science behind that word, let alone any factual information that doesn’t border on pure unadulterated propaganda by the conservative right.
We fight for our right to free speech, as long you say something I believe in.
We will fight to protect our morality, but not what anyone else thinks is okay.
We shelter our children from anything having to do with sex, but call them “evil sinners” when they come home pregnant.
We let our kids watch excessive sex on television and then freak out when they want to dress like all the other kids at school.
We say we want to feed the homeless, but only if it’s not in my nice neighborhood.
We’d rather our taxes be spent on continuing a war that was a mistake to begin with rather than on improving education so we don’t make those same mistakes in the future.
We’d rather buy a bomber than a space shuttle.
We’d rather ignore the best educated, best qualified minds in the world than simply admit that we have screwed global climate. So much so, that we would rather open up our last unspoiled forests to oil and logging rather than invest in cleaner energy and possibly save the planet as well as a couple billion lives.
Why are we so freakin stupid?!