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When I was growing up - in a little end-of-the-world us-four-no-more Pentecostal Church in South Louisiana - I lived and breathed a meta-narrative that was familiar to many of us that spent our early days in small Pentecostal churches in the late 80's and early 90's. With some variation, the theme was a post-tribulation, premillenial gaze at the future coming tribulation and rapture of the church, with an emphasis on the need to hunker down and wait for the end. Our particular flavor was decidedly unworldly, with an emphasis on avoiding politics and voting, a pacifist theology that resulted in conscientious objection for those drafted in Vietnam, a communitarian/agrarian ethic that emphasized working with the hands and led to such things as home-births, home meetings, and close friendships among many members, and an emphasis on humanitarianism that led to financial and physical support not just for missions, but for transients, the homeless, and the poor. We lived this life, however, in self-righteous assurance that we were destined for leadership (and apparently rather lonely) positions in the world to come - and we expected apocalypse at almost any moment... or at least the tribulation.
Regardless of the local flavor, this worldview was greatly influenced by an eschatology rooted in the infamous "The Late Great Planet Earth" and the paranoid ramblings of the anti-everything Jack Chick of Chick Publications and Chick Tracts fame. There were many evils in this world, including "Satanists" (a catch-all phrase for pagans, new-agers, followers of any native or aboriginal religions, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Halloween candy eaters, or generally Christians of other denominations), Television (Satan's window to our minds), Radio (except for certain NPR programs and the local Christian channels - as long as they weren't playing something modern like Carmen or Amy Grant), higher education (except for strictly non-liberal-artsy-fartsy tracks), sex (pretty much all of it, except for whatever mysterious things happened behind our parents closed doors and was only discussed with whispers and much glancing around) and politics (self-explanatory). One evil, however, overshadowed all the others... the CATHOLIC CHURCH. According to the books, pamphlets, comic books, and tracts we consumed, the Catholics were at the root of every problem, past and/or future, which the REAL church had to contend with. The papists were guilty of martyring the martyrs (we read the unabridged Foxe on the matter), creating non-pentecostal theology (we obviously believed what the apostles themselves believed... before it was perverted by Constantine), practicing Satanism, putting Jesuits in power of everything that was anything in the world, killing the Jews during the holocaust (Hitler was a "good Catholic" doing the pope's bidding in our world), planning the NWO that was going to bring the super-masculine and vengeful Jesus down on the world, and getting ready to kill or imprison or torture or all three anyone who refused the mark of the beast, the rule of the Pope, the New World Order, or the One World Church promised by extremely questionable readings of Revelation and Daniel. We were to avoid the entrapments of "The Whore of Babylon" at all costs, and stories circulated of local priests that laughed when told one's denomination, promising that we were indeed wayward children who would be ushered into the fold.
Anyone who knows me pretty well knows that I am no longer a cowering soul waiting in terror for my brothers and cousins to betray me to the one world police, my parents to be murdered before my eyes, hell's gates to open under me for noticing that girls have boobs, or for a Satan possessed world leader to arise promising - gasp! - peace (we were warned assiduously against peace... well, we were supposed to practice it, but not expect it or talk about it or rely upon it or attempt to get others to practice it because that was how you knew that the Anti-christ was almost here - people would start crying "peace and safety!") While I value the positive things I learned (and there were a lot) from my upbringing, I have changed considerably as a Christian, re-understanding my theology and re-claiming the socially conscious, peaceable, and Christological aspects of my cultural Christianity, and developing a new understanding of the meaning of Christianity, the use of its texts, and the value of its language when applied to political, societal, and cultural situations. This is one of the cases that arises from this re-thought, and I'm going to attempt to parse it out for you (and myself).
One thing that has occurred (and there are multiple reasons for this) in the recent political and religious spectrum is a sea-change in the way in which many modern Pentecostals and Evangelicals view Catholicism and it's role in the world. Some of the factors that play into this are obvious - such as the supplantation of Muslim's as the great evil, not so obvious - for example the common fears regarding threats to religious boundaries and the rise of the atheist, agnostic, and "spiritual" amongst today's youth, or not obvious at all - such as the strong effort by the Vatican to bridge gaps and gloss over differences so as to appear non-threatening to the Protestants of the west. What is extremely surprising to me, however, is the very obvious way in which the Pentecostals I grew up with have chosen to not just change their views on Catholicism, but to actually embrace the most extreme, misogynistic, paternalist, patriarchal views that the Vatican has been able to think up in the last few hundred years. (Part of this is in my mind attributable to the fact that we are in 2012 with no apocalypse, but I digress.)
The support for Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich in the Republican primaries is just the tip of the iceberg. Somehow, the leadership in the Pentecostal/Evangelical world and the leadership in the Catholic Church have managed to decide that - all past hostilities aside- it is more important to save 'Merica from independent women and the ever-present Moooooslum Menace than it is to retain any grasp whatsoever on the ideals in which they were birthed. In gradually being co-opted by the image of wealth, power, and vengeance held before them as ideals, our former watchdogs have been seduced by the very powers they stood against. The wealth of the Vatican, its worldly power, its corrupting influence on politics, its easy acceptance of almost any sin that doesn't involve sex or challenging wealthy white men in funny hats, and its penchant for war in the name of God are somehow becoming perfectly acceptable to those whose early idealistic self would have rejected those things specifically because it came from a world and spiritual milieu they detested. Instead of preaching humbleness, austerity, love, and peace, these neo-evangelicals preach war, worldly wealth, torture, hate, and vengeance. (And before anyone tells me they don't hate Muslims or Abortion doctors or women who use birth control, be aware that I am not stupid. Justifying killing someone is hate, railing against someone while red-raced and with spittle flying from your mouth is hateful, calling people slut and sand n****r is voicing hatred, and praying for the demise of those who share our creation is hatred incarnate.)
My point is simply this. The Catholic Church has never been the problem, nor is it worthwhile to rail against a religion that constitutes so much diversity inside its ranks. However, its leadership is as criminally moribund, as banally evil, and as self-righteously anti-Christ as any in the world. Unfortunately, those that hold power in the US and many other countries under Western influence are no better, and instead are participatory in the use of power to hold onto wealth, glory, and that self-same power in such a way that they have found themselves on the same side as this leadership. The separation that arises in Christiandom is not along Catholic and non-Catholic lines. No, the separation is between those who actually follow the words and ideals of Christ and those who see fit to twist and de-contextualize those words for their selfish interest. The vast majority of the leadership of the evangelical/Pentecostal world has brought into the form of Religion which seeks nothing less than complete and total temporal power... and will stop at nothing to get it.
The end result is a co-option of the independence of Christians to choose their own way into something that is looking more and more like the blind obedience demanded by those secular/religious powers the Protestants left behind during the reformation. If we were to use the language of John the Revelator, we might say that they have been seduced by the promise of "merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble, and cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men"... and the power and will to achieve those things, along with the temporal power that implies.
It is indeed time to "Come out of her," but not the Catholic church itself or any other specific organization. Instead , all need to come out from the web of power and Godless anti-Christianity which is boosting itself into fascistic authority around the world once again. If we are to call ourselves Christians, we must heed Christ. We - no matter our denomination or lack thereof - need to recognize that the current call for physical control of the very souls and hearts of the populace is in itself anti-Christ. Christ calls us to love everyone, lay hands of healing even upon those we disagree with religiously, feed the poor and needy - even to our own detriment, avoid vengeance, care deeply and pray for those who wrong us or ours, avoid political entanglements and autocratic religious organization, visit those in prison (hint: not to torture them), and to die for these ideals if called upon to do so - all while forgiving those who perpetrate harm upon us and our fellows. When we instead seek temporal power, wealth, "security," self-righteousness, idolatry (in disguise as patriotism), or war upon non-Christians as ideals, we fall into the seductive web created by secular religious power. The love of mammon is anti-Christ. Vengeance is anti-Christ, Hate for fellow humans is anti-Christ. War against temporal power is anti-Christ. Forced religiosity is anti-Christ. And - most of all - doing or promoting these things in the name of God is using his name in vain - abject blasphemy - and should be fled from at all costs.
Our war is without a doubt not against flesh and blood. It is against wickedness, and it can't be fought with a defense budget, a flag, a tea party, or a gun held tight in what will eventually be cold, dead fingers. Instead, it can only be fought in the way in which Christ fought it - with a prophetic voice calling out evil where it lives and speaking truth to the powerful... a voice that calls for justice, love, compassion, and mercy; and decries violence, mammon, and the imposition of values upon those who do not share them. This is a voice we all should have, and it is the voice for our times.
Maybe, for a minute, we should contemplate the words of Amos when he warned his compatriots not to bother worshiping in their holiest places...
Therefore, because you tread down the poor
And take grain taxes from him,
Though you have built houses of hewn stone,
Yet you shall not dwell in them;
You have planted pleasant vineyards,
But you shall not drink wine from them.
For I know your manifold transgressions
And your mighty sins:
Afflicting the just and taking bribes;
Diverting the poor from justice at the gate.
Therefore the prudent keep silent at that time,
For it is an evil time.
Seek good and not evil,
That you may live;
So the Lord God of hosts will be with you,
As you have spoken.
That you may live;
So the Lord God of hosts will be with you,
As you have spoken.
Hate evil, love good;
Establish justice in the gate.
It may be that the Lord God of hosts
Will be gracious
and then ask ourselves why the rulers of our current system call for exactly the opposite - and most importantly, why our churches have become hot-beds of support for those who perpetuate the evil, and avoid the good.
Establish justice in the gate.
It may be that the Lord God of hosts
Will be gracious
and then ask ourselves why the rulers of our current system call for exactly the opposite - and most importantly, why our churches have become hot-beds of support for those who perpetuate the evil, and avoid the good.
