On Wednesday, we linked to The Life and Times of Bruce Gerencser where Bruce headlined his observations:
Dear Salesman, Don’t Assume Every Prospective Customer is a Christian:
Had you been paying attention, you never would have repeatedly referenced the Evangelical God in your conversation with us. You wouldn’t have told us that God has a plan for everyone’s life or that the Christian God is in control of everything. You also wouldn’t have mentioned how my wife’s employer — for whom she has worked twenty years — has gone downhill since its Evangelical founder died; that the third-generation now running the company is only concerned with profits and the bottom line. What was it about how we lived, dressed, or carried ourselves that said to you we are Christians? There’s nothing in our home that even remotely suggests that we are Christian; no Jesus Junk®, no Bibles lying around, no Evangelical books in our bookcase; nothing that suggests that we are Jesus-loving, church-going Christians. I suspect you wrongly assume that everyone in rural Northwest Ohio believes in God, so you thought it safe to use God to warm us up and entice us to say yes. Little did you know we are atheists. I wonder how uncomfortable that fact might have made you feel had you known.
There is more, of course, in much the same vein. As is typical of Bruce Gerencser, the remainder of the piece is entertaining, pointed, yet curiously humane.
Dave Dubya writes with passionate eloquence at his own site. He begins his response by quoting Bruce.
“Grade-A biped manure spreader.”
I’m stealing this!
“There’s something dirty and shallow about trying to hook prospects with Jesus talk.”
Absolutely. But it works for Republicans all the time. “Jesus sent us Trump” is why it will always be a tactic.
While charity and love for God and our fellow man are central to the core message, tribal fear, resentment, exploitation, and self-righteousness also go hand-in-hand with Christianity. The latter are the easiest human emotions to manipulate. As long as those emotions are dominant, there is very little Christ left in their Christianity.
Let’s have a responsible, safe weekend, respectful of those who profoundly disagree with even our deepest beliefs.
I should have made a better distinction between the core Christian tenets that I respect and have tried to follow, and the peculiarities and tribalism of American “cultural/political TV Christianity”. The latter would describe the Christians Gandhi noted by, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
That version of Christianity has been weaponized as a tool of political divisiveness, exclusion, and bigotry. Sadly, religion is still too often manipulated into service of abuse, corruption, politics, power and greed.
No disrespect was intended for anyone whose belief and practice are rooted in the core message.