INVISIBLE LIMITS TO JOURNALISTIC RELIGIOUS ACTIVISM
The “live and let live” attitude about religious beliefs is also evident in religious journalism and scholarship. There is an attitude in journalism that says it is permissible to report on the good and bad things religious people do, but it is not OK to investigate and report the religious beliefs that explain why religious people do what they do. This attitude presents a glass ceiling on journalism that, if broken, has the potential to expose the truth about the origins of Christian Nationalism beliefs and behaviors. This truth would be the beginning of the end of Christian Nationalism. This backstory has never been told but it must be told before the Christian Nationalism movement can be be disarmed and destroyed.
Despite the abundance of stories about religious sexual abuse, religion journalists have never dug into the origins of religious beliefs that enabled all kinds of religious abuse — not just sex. Giving credit where credit is due, it must be said that journalism gets all the credit for exposing the dirty little secret about sexual abuse in churches and for bringing abusers to justice. Even though the sexual abuse story has cooled off a bit, some journalists might be interested to know that the backstory of generic religious abuse has even more explosive journalistic potential than sex. Confronting Christian Nationalism might be the only hot tip on this backstory that journalists will ever get. Here is the tip:
Religious sex abuse and Christian Nationalism have the same religious antecedents.
Here are the basics of the story that must be told:
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- The bible is a book of Symbols, Signs, Types, Parables, Allegories, Copies, and Shadows that are impossible to interpret and understand with logic, reason and science.
- Literal interpretations of the bible mislead people about truths hidden in bible Symbols, Signs, Types, Parables, Allegories, Copies, and Shadows.
- Jews and Christians tend to interpret the bible according to the literal meanings of the words they read in the bible.
- Literal interpretations of the bible lead people to create religion with abusive patriarchal leadership structures.
- Literal interpretations of the bible inspire beliefs and practices that are totally contrary to the truth hidden in the Symbols, Signs, Types, Parables, Allegories, Copies, and Shadows.
- If people could correctly interpret the Symbols, Signs, Types, Parables, Allegories, Copies, and Shadows found in the bible, religious sex abuse and Christian Nationalism would abate decisively.
- Religions based on literal interpretations of the bible are incubators for all kinds of private and corporate abuse and oppression.
- Some parts of the bible may be interpreted and understood both literally and symbolically. These parts include: God’s Commands About How to Relate to Him and to One Another, God’s Commands About Doing Justice for Others, Doable, Common Sense Strategies for Achieving Political and Social Unity: Overview and What God Says About Evil, Deceptive Hearts.
- If Jews and Christians obeyed God’s Commands About How to Relate to Him and to One Another, God’s Commands About Doing Justice for Others, Doable, Common Sense Strategies for Achieving Political and Social Unity and What God Says About Evil, Deceptive Hearts, Judaism and Christianity would eventually disappear.
- If Jews and Christians obeyed God’s Commands About How to Relate to Him and to One Another, God’s Commands About Doing Justice for Others, Doable, Common Sense Strategies for Achieving Political and Social Unity and What God Says About Evil, Deceptive Hearts, religious sex abuse and Christian Nationalism would eventually disappear.
- If all people globally understood and applied all the hidden meanings in bible Symbols, Signs, Types, Parables, Allegories, Copies, and Shadows, the world would be a better place.
- See Dominionism Doctrines and Philosophy: Lies and Truth, Christian Nationalism Doctrines and Philosophy: Lies and Truth and Seven Mountains Doctrines and Philosophy: Lies and Truth for more truths that must be told before Christian Nationalism will be overcome.
The veracity of these statements will not be immediately apparent to anyone — including journalists and scholars. The veracity of these statements will emerge — if they emerge at all — only in the hearts and minds of people who make the effort to study God’s Commands About How to Relate to Him and to One Another, God’s Commands About Doing Justice for Others, Doable, Common Sense Strategies for Achieving Political and Social Unity and What God Says About Evil, Deceptive Hearts.
Like God himself, the intricacy and depth of the backstory to Christian Nationalism is unfathomable. But, as 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says, the bible is useful, and one way it is useful is to tear down religious institutions like Christian Nationalism. Journalists and scholars will be relieved to know that much of the work about the origins and errors of Jewish and Christian religious beliefs has been done and is easily accessible in these resources:
These resources make reporting on religious beliefs relatively easy because they contain all the scriptures and much of the analysis needed to report deep theological issues with confidence. While the actual reporting will be relatively easy, there are still very real obstacles to reporting this material. One is the inner conflict journalists will face when they confront the origins of their own beliefs. Another problem will be conflict with employees, colleagues and readers who are offended when their beliefs are challenged. These are not small matters. Those who struggle through, however, will be rewarded personally and professionally with knowledge that their work has made the world a kinder, gentler, better place to live.