Serving Two Masters at Saddleback Church

I am of the opinion that Barack Obama never should have agreed to participate in the dog-and-pony show at the mega-corporate Saddleback Church in the first place. But then I'm part of the REAL Democratic Party base -- the progressives -- so who in the party's going to listen to me?

Okay, so he went. And the general consensus is that he did not do well. Why? Because he gave intelligent answers to stupid questions. This crowd can't be pleased by intelligent answers, because they haven't the smarts to appreciate them. McCain gave them horseshit, and since that's what they're full of, that's what they gobble up.

Of course there was the usual obsession with abortion. Right-wingers simply lack the integrity to understand (or at least, to ADMIT they understand) what progressives really believe about the issue. We know that the abortion rate cannot be reduced without a significant increase in respect for life all the way across the board: from conception to deathbed. We are for ALL life -- not just the unborn variety. The sanctity of life will be observed at one end only when it is observed at the other, as well as at all points in between.

There is, first of all, no "moment" of conception. Conception is a complex biological process, passing through several stages and taking many hours to complete. John McCain knows this, and his very use of the term "moment" of conception shows that he is concerned only with the opinion of idiots.

Furthermore, were McCain really that enamored of adoption as a viable option for improving the life-chances of the young, he would be in favor of adoption by same-sex couples, as well as by heterosexuals. When he claims to support adoption, while denying the right of same-sex couples to adopt, he is speaking with a forked tongue.

These people obsess over abortion because their real concern is not "life," but control over women. The only stage of life at which they can get the twofer of protecting life while also controlling women is the stage at which life is yet in the womb. This is why they are pro-life when it comes to the unborn, yet so blatantly and obscenely pro-death when it comes to life at every stage thereafter.

Conservative evangelical Christianity is, quite simply, attracting the wrong sort of people. It attracts people who don't really make good Christians, because they are not genuinely interested in following Christ. They buy into a twisted gospel -- one that has nothing to do with what Jesus taught. One that, in fact, stands for the very opposite of what He stood for.

Their sort did not follow Christ when He was alive on this earth; they were the sort who tried, at every turn, to kill Him. They clamored for His crucifixion, taunted Him on the Cross and rejoiced when He breathed His last.

Are there exceptions to this? Of course there are. But the decent among them are being sold a bill of goods. All the more reason why Right-Wing Christianity is so wicked. It is, indeed, the religion of Antichrist.

We cannot serve two masters. The religion of the "Christian" Right worships power, comfort and control. Real Christianity would turn their tidy, cozy little world upside-down and inside-out. Obama is a true Christian -- which is why they slander him so viciously every chance they get.

Some say that Saddleback is a "new" evangelical church, in that it is more "progressive" than the norm. I say phooey. Saddleback wants to make money -- HAS to make lots of it -- in order to be the mega-corporate entity that it has become. You can NOT be a big-corporate megachurch, concerned with making lots of money, and truly serve Christ.

"You cannot serve God and mammon." This is exactly what Jesus meant when He said that. A church concerned with making lots of money will always, when push comes to shove, betray Christ for the sake of the dollar. Saddleback Church has made a lucrative schtick out of its "progressivism," in the hopes of snaring people who want to be progressive without paying the price in terms of standing up for right and truth in the face of a materialistic and self-centered America. This makes it not less dangerous than your run-of-the-mill Right-Wing church, but more.

At Saddleback Church, Senator Obama walked into the lion's den. These people never had any intention of giving him a fair hearing. Which is why, from now on, those of us who support him must hope and pray he has enough sense -- when tempted by the chance to pander to evangelicals -- to walk the other way.