I won’t deny that I’m enjoying the hand-wringing that has overtaken the Southern Baptist Convention as it faces multiple complaints of sexual abuse by its pastors, public pressure forces the removal of Paige Patterson from the presidency of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and ‘evangelical’ becomes a pejorative as their stouthearted support of Donald Trump holds firm in the face of his serial lies and indecencies.
There is more going on than that the SBC has sustained a black-eye, however, because however many theological distinctions might be found from one denomination to another, the SBC is solidly in the mainstream of what might be called ‘historic’ Christianity — authoritarian, disdainful of women, hostile to sex qua sex, anti-intellectual. The overt contempt that confronts Southern Baptists is deserved, but not unique to them; it is merely more pronounced because the Southern Baptists are so high-profile and tend toward activism.
As the Southern Baptists take a public beating, that is, I think we are seeing a microscopic view of what is happening globally to the Abrahamic religions.
Those religions rest upon, and perversely celebrate, the ruin of Abraham’s manhood with his acceptance of the command to sacrifice Isaac; at bottom, they offer a corrupt vision of the good that is deeply unnatural, innately degrading, and ultimately anti-life. They demand a ‘Nay’ to life — and humanity is shedding that decadence.
Good for us, then.
Which is not to suggest that the future is without perils. After all, it is one thing to say, accurately, that Christianity’s vision of the good is corrupt, and it’s another thing entirely to know what actually is good. Nor should it be denied that, about many matters, Christianity provides serviceable guardrails for those who just want to be told what to think and do. To put the point a bit differently, unmarried teenage sex is not wicked and doesn’t signify a victory by Satan, but it is unwise, may be grievously consequential, and ought to be avoided — and there is probably no shortage of teenagers (girls, especially) who benefited from grisly preacher-tales and awful chewing-gum metaphors.
The problem before us, then, is how to throw-out the nonsense — hostility to LGBT people, for example — while finding a basis for behavioral norms that doesn’t invoke a bearded, scary, grim-faced old man in the clouds. That isn’t especially challenging, but it is a fact that most of humanity responds more readily to fearsome tales than the blandishments of reason.
If the events of the past 2-years have demonstrated anything, it’s that an astounding number of Americans are blindingly ignorant of their own country’s history and ideals (and much else); the decline of religion’s influence hasn’t liberated them to say ‘Yea’ to life, unhappily, but unmoored them because they have no other framework for understanding the world.
Gore Vidal once said something to the effect that the Abrahamic monotheisms are the worst thing that ever happened to humanity, and I agree with that. Humanity will be a long time building an alternative framework for ethical behavior, though.