A recent letter used Bible verses to proclaim the concept of change as inherently evil. It brought to mind a rather irreverent, though biblical, joke my father used to tell: “What do you say when you have meatloaf for dinner three nights in a row? -- Jesus Christ! The same yesterday, today and forever!”
The fact is, our country, and even our concept of God, has already changed significantly in recent decades.
Our politics have shifted decidedly to the right in the past three decades, a change I attribute not so much to effective conservative strategies as the aging of the Baby Boom generation. Most of us become more conservative with age.
Bill Clinton’s domestic policies were more conservative than those of Richard Nixon, who came from more working class roots than most politicians today. That’s not to mention the policies of George W. Bush. Even our foreign policy has become more conservative. Nixon would have scoffed at the notion that negotiation with our enemies constituted “appeasement.”
Religion has changed as well. The pro-life movement has effectively converted an entire segment of Christianity into a fertility cult, a pagan religion the Bible is highly critical of and that historically has been associated with abusive behavior toward women.
I’ve seen signs the fertility cult movement is already taking a toll on its followers. In a column published in May, Cal Thomas referred to the characters in “Sex and the City” as sluts. I can remember a time when a Christian man wouldn’t stoop to using such language in public discourse, no matter what a woman’s behavior.
A couple years ago I left a Bible study I’d attended for years with a group of conservative women. I thought our differing political beliefs didn’t matter. After all, we worshipped the same God. I finally realized this assumption was false. While I worshipped a loving, forgiving God, my friends in some cases held such an abusively unloving concept of God they were effectively worshipping the devil.
We’ve already seen change in America. The question is whether it’s change we can, or should, believe in.
The fact is, our country, and even our concept of God, has already changed significantly in recent decades.
Our politics have shifted decidedly to the right in the past three decades, a change I attribute not so much to effective conservative strategies as the aging of the Baby Boom generation. Most of us become more conservative with age.
Bill Clinton’s domestic policies were more conservative than those of Richard Nixon, who came from more working class roots than most politicians today. That’s not to mention the policies of George W. Bush. Even our foreign policy has become more conservative. Nixon would have scoffed at the notion that negotiation with our enemies constituted “appeasement.”
Religion has changed as well. The pro-life movement has effectively converted an entire segment of Christianity into a fertility cult, a pagan religion the Bible is highly critical of and that historically has been associated with abusive behavior toward women.
I’ve seen signs the fertility cult movement is already taking a toll on its followers. In a column published in May, Cal Thomas referred to the characters in “Sex and the City” as sluts. I can remember a time when a Christian man wouldn’t stoop to using such language in public discourse, no matter what a woman’s behavior.
A couple years ago I left a Bible study I’d attended for years with a group of conservative women. I thought our differing political beliefs didn’t matter. After all, we worshipped the same God. I finally realized this assumption was false. While I worshipped a loving, forgiving God, my friends in some cases held such an abusively unloving concept of God they were effectively worshipping the devil.
We’ve already seen change in America. The question is whether it’s change we can, or should, believe in.
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