Excuses

If nothing else, the Sermon on the Mount offers us some practice in what one might call “selective adherence.” That act represents possibly the most common practice of fundamentalists who call themselves Christians today. It happens when we pick and choose, sometimes quite carefully, just which of the Galilean’s instructions we wish to observe.

It stands as a first cousin to the practice of “corrective contextualism.” This one simply posits that: whatever the Galilean said, he didn’t really mean it. Take for example the quite explicit cautions against worshiping riches. This one is a favorite of the “out of context crowd.” In fact, it has evolved in modern times to the point where the spiritual advisor to the president of the United States of America preaches a bizarre concept—at least by Christian standards—called simply “the prosperity gospel.” This one says, “send money to the preacher and you will get rich.”

Back to our main to today’s main topic of selective adherence, nothing seems to perplex modern fundamentalists as much as the Galilean’s stricture regarding un-fornication-based divorce. That one must confuse a same sex couple refused a marriage-license by a county clerk who has been married four times to three husbands. In fact, research indicates that 27 percent of born-again Christians have had at least one divorce. Compare this with 29 percent of Baptists, and 21 percent of atheists. (Source)

Oddly, the president referred to before, in fact, is currently enjoying his third wife while basking in the adoration of conservative evangelicals who call him “our savior.”

Remember what the Galilean said in our Sermon? I think it was: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.” (KJV) Wait one. Taking this into account, wouldn’t we have also to place social and political approbation upon our brothers and sisters who have tattoos or who eat shellfish? No doubt about it.

Who has heard of a baker refusing to bake a cake for a person who has word clothing of different kinds of material? (Leviticus 19:19). Who refuses a marriage license for someone who has mistreated an immigrant? (Leviticus 19:33)

Where are the corrective-contextualists when we need them? Probably out making excuses for the ultra-rich.

Believers have argued, over the years, that the Sermon on the Mount is the Galilean’s recipe for righteousness. If it is, aren’t so many modern “christians” (and I use the lower-case not out of any disrespect for the Galilea or his recorded teaching, but rather for the demeaning purposes of a few) howling like wolves into the wind?”

The man himself, later in Matthew’s narrative, (7:1-5) warns us not to judge, so we won’t. A careful reading of the Sermon on the Mount surely tempts us though, doesn’t it?

 

A marriage license and
a wedding cake. Hmm.