From Jesus to drag queen hour

 

Credit: Josiefraser

In some far right circles, Christianity is blamed for the present left-liberal predicament of the West. Christianity is depicted as effeminate, pro-equality, pro-underclass, multi-ethnic, globalist, pacifist and oikophobic. The bottom line is that we all have to become pagans. Not woke neo-pagans, obviously, but some kind of paleo-heathens. Roman pagans, perhaps? 

Now, it´s certainly true that Christianity *does* have traits which are difficult to reconcile with an ethno-nationalist far right agenda. Or far right agenda in general. But is it somehow Christianity´s "fault" that the Western world has become a crazy den of left-liberal wokeness? If so, what took it so long?

This seems to be just another kind of anachronistic reasoning, similar to claims by Christians that their religion "advanced science", abolished slavery, or what have you. Once again: what took it so long? Like the Christian Roman Empire, the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period never happened...

Early Christianity didn´t have a clear political message at all. That´s hardly surprising, given the fact that the apostles expected the imminent return of Jesus. Since "everything is politics", you could of course claim that there was an implicit political message, or at the very least that primitive Christianity had certain political consequences. But which were they? And do they have any bearing on our "culture wars"? 

By late modern standards, Christianity seems to have been extremely contradictory. On the one hand, homosexuality, sex outside marriage, and abortion were sharply condemned. Divorce was discouraged. On the other, Christians at least initially had some kind of gender equality in their congregations. At the same time, celibacy was seen as better than matrimonial relations. 

The early Church at Jerusalem practiced utopian socialism. Other congregations probably didn´t. The epistle of James is "pro-worker" and "pro-poor". The letter to Philemon is pro-slavery. Indeed, at no point does the New Testament argue for abolitionism. 

Yes, Christianity was a budding world religion and hence open to everyone, Jew or Gentile. Or Greek and barbarian. But there is also a pro-Roman tendency present, presumably after the initial apocalyptic fervor had died down. The Christians didn´t participate in the Jewish uprising against the Romans 66-73 AD. Jesus is depicted as breaking bread and preaching to publicans. Publicans were Jews tasked by the Romans to collect imperial taxes. Today, we would call them quislings. Or rather kapos! 

John the Baptist supposedly told Roman troops (or Jews serving in Roman legions?) to behave themselves, don´t plunder civilians and rest contended with their regular pay. He didn´t tell them to rebel against the Roman power or refuse to defend the Empire. And according to Acts, Christians converted several Roman officials. It´s difficult to see what kind of politics, let alone modern politics, could possibly be based on this?  

Yes, the Sermon on the Mount is very, very weird, bizarre even. But nobody takes it seriously anyway. Except maybe as a missionary strategy based on "shaming". 

When Christianity became the state religion, it quickly adapted to the new situation cuz of course it did. No longer was it possible, even in theory, to "love thy enemy". All Christian polities waged wars, few were democratic, many had slavery. And while monasteries could be seen as "socialist" somehow, the rest of society was not. Conversions were frequently by the sword. Or at least by political pressure from converted kings. 

Our present clown world predicament is recent. Yes, it´s justified by quotes from the Bible by the woke who are still Christians. But so what, really? Virtually anything can be "proven" by quoting scripture. I can "prove" that Swedish public schools shouldn´t serve blood pudding by some verse somewhere! Did early Christianity contain the "germ" to wokeness? Maybe, but it also contained many other "germs". For all we know, the germ of heresy is present already in orthodoxy. Dialectics and all that...

No, our present situation is the result of various factors mostly unrelated to Christianity. Or Protestantism, for that matter. Nor is Judaism to blame, if you feel like going back in time even more. 

With that, I end my reflections for now.