I can live without "Christianism" (And collusionism. . .)

Andrew Sullivan (whom I critized earlier) makes a good point about the cooptation of the word "Christian":

People who believe in the Gospels of Jesus Christ are Christians. People who use the Gospels of Jesus Christ for political gain, and for a political program of right or left, are Christianists. And Christianism, like many "isms", is an ideology that will corrupt faith and poison politics. It has already done both, under the auspices of this president and his acolytes. It is long past time that real Christians took their faith back from these political charlatans. One first step is to deny them the name that they have so artfully coopted. It starts with language. It always does.
I think he's mostly right. The word "Christian" has more and more become a mainstream media (and Christian political conservative) synonym for a highly politicized version of fundamentalist Christianity. Who gave the left and the right such a monopoly to use that once neutral word?

On the other hand, the word "Christianist" does have an inflammatory ring to it, because the similarity to "Islamist" implies a moral equivalency between the two.

It has to be remembered that even the "Christianists" Sullivan condemns don't blow themselves up, they don't throw homos off buildings, they don't issue fatwas against cartoonists, or beat women, or stone people, or chop off hands and feet. Instead, more than anything else, people like Robertson and Falwell specialize in being annoying, making pretentious claims to political influence beyond what they have, and above all making money at it.

What worries me the most is political reality. I know it sounds paranoid, but I think the sort of Christians Sullivan calls "Christianists" would probably do better in an out-of-power Republican Party than in an in-power Republican Party, and that some of them may be smart enough to realize it.

Such a strategy -- minority victory through the majority's defeat -- invites collusion.

Sigh.

But that's another very tedious and contentious topic. . .

posted by Eric on 04.09.06 at 12:07 PM





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Mark Olson   ·  April 9, 2006 06:11 PM

I still say the cross-connection between the Islamists and the "Christianists," even the worst of the American breed like Falwell and Robertson, is not well taken. They simply are orders of magnitude apart. Robertson et al have been more in power and more full of hubris in the past than today and we have successfully dealt with them, all the while with both sides doing a pretty good job of keeping our hands to ourselves and battling through force of personality and court. The same cannot be said of most of the other "ists" out there.

I find George Bush's faith rather light and tolerable and I don't understand his vilification on these terms. Falwell &c. were no where near the stage at the Republican Convention, and Bush clearly knows these are divisive figures.

As you say, they may be even more powerful with an out of power Republican Party, but we've dealt with them before, and we've won -- maybe even gone a little farther than was for our own good in some respects.

I find his new word, in the current world-wide political context, meaningful but ill-advised. Hopefully it will die a quick death.

Solomon   ·  April 9, 2006 07:26 PM

I agree Solomon, and while I don't use the word "Christianist," even if I did the last person I'd use it on would be President Bush. On close examination of his religious views, I found him remarkably conventional. In fact, his views are not all that far from those supposedly held by Hillary Clinton:

http://www.classicalvalues.com/archives/001487.html

Calling someone a Rapturist does not make him one, and insinuations are not helpful.

Eric Scheie   ·  April 9, 2006 08:37 PM


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