Dear Liberals: You're Going to Lose Me and Others

I've made no bones about the fact that I am fairly liberal.  However, there are many people out there who are just as radical on the left as there are on the right.  I've written before about how some of the messages they are sending play exactly into the hands of those on the right who want to play divide and conquer.  It's a dangerous thing.  Some of the messages make me as disgusted with them as I am with the racists on the right.

They proclaim loudly how "tolerant" they are - but the truth is they have their own biases.  Most of them are against religion.  I am a Christian.  I hate the mega-churches as much as they do.  I despise people who support candidates from the pulpit.  For as much as the accusations got thrown around that the Left treated President Obama as the "messiah", radical right-wing Christians are as bad (if not worse) when it comes to Trump.

All that does not excuse the hate by many on the left for those of us who practice our religion.  They denigrate any works done by those of us who make up The Christian Left - a group who actually tries to follow Jesus' teachings and do what we feel called to do.

And that is where you are going to lose me.  Not just me, but thousands (millions?) more like me who act as we feel called to do while at the same time being denigrated by not just those on the Right who would gladly deport children who have known no other lives except living in this country, but also by the Liberals who see anything that has a religious connection as EVIL.

The memes that circulate about "taxing the churches" really pisses me off.  Churches are a non-profit - why would you single them out.  If you're going to tax one non-profit, then I say tax them all.  Right down to the community theater.  I mean, hell, they often have plays that are political statements - why is it okay for them to offer up opinions on the world but not churches? What purpose do they serve the community, really? What purpose do a lot of non-profits who don't pay taxes really serve?

I have not been associated ever with a mega-church.  I don't like them.  I've always been a member of small, community churches that do a lot of good.  I even worked for a couple (in addition to other non-profits).  We would collect non-perishable goods every week to donate to another church that had a food pantry in a poor neighborhood.  At Thanksgiving we would prepare baskets to be given to people with all of the goods for a meal and a gift certificate for a turkey.  We ran a nursery school for the neighborhood - no discounts of being a member, everyone paid the same.  We collected for disaster relief, hunger projects, and missionary work constantly.

Lutheran World Relief does a lot of good around the world in poor communities.  Lutheran Disaster Relief goes in and stays when other people leave devastated communities.  Bread for the World is an inter-denominational organization that helps fight hunger in poor countries.

You want to tax them?  Might as well tax Susan G. Komen, Autism Speaks, Ronald McDonald House, and St. Jude's Children's Hospital.

The other part of that is the misconception that Pastors don't pay taxes - they do.  Most Pastors are paid as independent contractors.  At the end of the year they file a tax return and are paid based on their salaries and other compensation.  If they have an automobile allowance, they have to keep all receipts documenting their use of their automobile for their profession just as other independent contractors do.  If they have a housing allowance, they must prove they use at least part of their home for pastoral services.

Do I think Joel Osteen and others like him are examples of how we should live following Christ's teachings?  Absolutely not.  He should have had the church open from the get-go during Hurricane Harvey and if the church itself was flooded, should have had set up in parking lots to hand out goods to people, like many others have done.  I have been involved with the aftermaths of storms where we filled a truck with non-perishable goods and someone drove it to another church in the devastated area and just handed it out in the parking lot.  No one checks for membership - whoever shows up can take what they need.  It's likely there are some who hoard and take advantage of that - but that's for God to sort out.  It's for us to be there to help.

I am getting weary of the fight.  It's not all because of the racists on the right that seem to keep coming back no matter how many times they are slapped down.  It's not all because of Donald Trump and his followers and what they are doing to the country (that is most definitely not reflecting "Christian" values no matter how you try to paint it.)  I am getting weary because while I am fighting those people, I also have to fight the hate on the left for anything connected to religion.  The memes about "taxing the churches" and talk of "outlawing religion" are what drive people to keep voting with the wing-nuts on the right. Neither of those will ever happen, and it just ends up creating a wedge where people like me feel like what's the point anymore.