Wimpy Clergy - and How They Damage All of Us

One big, yet generally unrecognized, problem of modern culture is a large group of wimpy clergy who are in the mainstream of various religions. We frequently hear that Radical Moslem extremists do not represent the "true" Moslem religion and its teachings, or that zealot Christian Fundamentalists do not represent the "true" Christian faith in their dogma. Where now are the representatives of these "true" versions of various religions?

Most religions have fringes of belief. In the more ideal of modern times, those fringes have been contained by an assertive mainstream of thought. Occasionally a society passes through a period like the Dark Ages when fringe belief becomes so oppressive and intimidating that it bullies its way into control of mainstream doctrine. When those times happen it takes religious people of great courage and conviction to restore moderation and intellect to the church.

The world is suffering from a sucking absence of such clergy of courage today. Claiming to represent exacting interpretation of various versions of scripture that each sect claims to be the perfect and unassailable word of their God, radically fundamentalist clergy are taking over too many of the world’s great religions. It has reached a point where religion may push us to the brink of World War Three.

Fundamentalists Christians are engaged in a self-proclaimed push to take over the intentions and the activities of the United States Government. The aspirations carry with them a core of belief that counts on world destruction for the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy and the return to Earth of Christ (see our commentary “Biblical Prophecy and U.S. Foreign Policy.” and “What Evangelicals Believe”).

The radical conservative wing of Christianity can be vicious when it attacks mainstream Christians, especially other clergy. That is perfectly acceptable given that they generally believe that mainstream clergy are serving the devil and misleading their flocks straight to Hell.

Additionally, increasingly radical and conservative elements are taking over Catholicism. It is not unusual now to see some Nun or some pious young Priest wrinkling up their noses and lecturing on television about a real live Devil and how he will get us all if we don’t behave. There are elements pushing the Catholic Church back toward 1200 AD as fast as they can force the issue, and doing it with the innocent backing of new converts in some of the planet's poorest countries.

As this is happening, the subduing of moderate Moslem clergy by Taliban-like leaders of their religion has now yielded world shattering consequences.

Unfortunately newly-radical followers of many of our powerful religions are now so mean, that moderate, sensible clergy members have become afraid to cross them. For example, thousands and thousands of mainstream Christian Pastors know that God does not in absolute fact condemn homosexuals to Hell or claim they are an “abomination.” The very word may well be taken out of context by translators and interpreters of scripture. Those Pastors, however, stand by and watch unbelievable campaigning that uses homosexuals as whipping posts for fundraising for fundamentalist causes.

Moderate Christian leaders also know that there is not a definitive word of God in the Bible that Jews are “going to Hell,” but they stand by and watch, unchallenging, as Evangelical leaders make such declarations on TV news shows. They know that America attacking Iraq was not a Biblically-prescribed prerequisite to the "Second Coming of Christ," as claimed by Evangelicals, and they remain silent.

Most intolerant, radically fundamentalists religions, including those in Christianity, depend on the concept of their scripture being the absolute, verbatim word of their God.

Generally the notion is absurd. For example, many Fundamentalists Christians believe that the King James Version of the Bible is the definitive, divinely inspired Word of God. They ignore that the translation was from the previous collection of hundreds of versions and ordered translated by King James of England ( a homosexual, by the way).

Some believe that the King James translation was taken from “The original version of the Bible.” There is no such thing.

The fact is that no version contained the original handwriting of any of the Prophets or Disciples who supposedly sat down and had “God guide their hand as they wrote.” The fragmented, and highly questioned and debated, manuscripts that did surface were a collection of memories, and quotes, verbal history, and notes in the margins. History shows that it was in a highly despotic and cruel purge of the Church that the “final” content of Christian scripture was chosen amid deadly doctrinal debate.

Thorough and thoughtful Biblical scholars know this. They know that cold hearted and aggressive fundamentalism is in error when it pounds people and nations with “The exact words of God.” Many hundreds of thousands of mainstream religious stand by and watch the rest of us “poor sinners” take a pounding, and the world move toward a dangerous religious showdown, and they are too wimpy to speak up.

Sam Harris makes a strong case in his book The End of Faith. His premise is that if we don’t take charge of the dangerous radical religions of the world, they will destroy the world. He writes:

“If we cannot find our way to a time when most of us are willing to admit that, at the very least, we are not sure whether or not God wrote some of our books, then we need only count the days to Armageddon – because God has given us far too many reasons to kill one another than to turn the other cheek.”
Non-religious persons can’t mount a religious argument with fundamentalists Biblical scholars and their demagogue government whores. Mainstream clergy can and should. It is time for some scholarly and influential religious leaders to bring an end to the modern day heresy of intolerance, cruelty, and apocalyptic brinkmanship that is oppressing too many in our midst.