Theological Thursday: The Fallacy of America as Christian

I'm fed up with idiots chanting "America is Christian." Let's just call them all out in one great smashup of memes.

My rant follows the memes, so skip ahead if you've already seen these before.

Funny thing, how so many of the first white settlers were fleeing religious persecution - from other Christians! - have essentially re-invented the persecution.

Perhaps it is in the nature of Christianity to seek martyrdom. I mean, Jesus was martyred on the cross, and the history of Christianity is filled with epic tales of heroes who died for their beliefs. There are even books celebrating people - stupidly - martyring themselves for Jesus.

The problem being that it's easy to die, but once your dead you no longer matter. Oh, some people say "But the memory lives on!" Well, no, because those who remain re-invent the memory to suit the needs of the moment. Look at President Reagan - the memory sold by the spin-media is nothing like the man who really lived, and even those who lived thru the era don't recall correctly anymore. That's just being human.

So, do modern Christians seek martyrdom as a way of feeling like their faith is being tested and therefore strong? Therefore contemporary Christians wind themselves up over bullshit?

I've got a phrase I like to use: "The other holidays used to think Christmas was a good neighbor until Christmas started picking fights with everyone."

It becomes a self-fulfilling agenda: pick fights because you think you're persecuted, annoy everyone, be persecuted, be validated. Of course, that validation comes only by first having been a jerk and creating a problem where peace stood before, so you decide: is it really martyrdom if you started the fight?

And last, but not least... (rant continued below the meme)...

Ah, Sainted President Ronald Reagan - let's keep in mind that by the standards of today's right-wing rant-chant media, this guy was a bleeding heart Lib Dem of the worst kind. He's only held up as some kind of right-wing icon because the "piddle down" economic models that feed the rich on the backs of impoverished slave labor started under his regime, and because prophets, idols and gods are part of the religion of the right-wing. Reagan smashed up unions, carved up taxes (i.e. massive tax breaks for the rich), and blew all his hot air into inflating the deficit beyond sane proportions (like all Republicans do - they borrow money as the government, and give it to the rich, and then tell the poor to eat dirt, because there's no money for government. Give me a "tax and spend" Liberal over a "spend and spend without income" fake Conservative any day).