Soc 398 Essay 1

Hayden Foley
for Professor Candelaria
RELG 347/SOC 398
11 September 2015
Irrational Rationalizations: The Problem of a Politicized Christ
Imagine a young child does something, morally wrong or otherwise, that a large group of
people would not approve of. It would be hard to fault the child for his actions due to the fact
that it might simply not know better. Now imagine that child blames somebody else for his/her
actions. Still, it would be hard to demonize the child and all that could be done would be to teach
it that it is responsible for its own actions and that honesty and personal accountability are
valuable traits. Children tend to be exempt from the same social mores that adults are subject to
simply because they are young, inexperienced, and unknowledgeable. However, one would hope
that most adults alive are aware that they are responsible for their own actions and the
consequences therein. It would therefore be illogical and disingenuous for adults in a healthy
state of mind to invoke any religious deities as the justification or motivations of any political
movements or goals.
In the modern day, the decisions people make and the rationalizations for them are hoped
to be both rational and valid. Seeing as humans organize themselves into societies which are
heavily reliant on logical things like laws, social contracts, and cooperation, one would expect
the people that comprise any given society to be logical as well, yet this is not always the case.
Despite the fact that human beings are subject to the most rational of power structures, they often
times fail to express the same rationality that is necessary to support those structures. If civil
societies are to carry on in an efficient matter one might hope that the people living in them
would always succeed in keeping their personal lives and emotional influences out of the system.
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Thats one of the reasons why the United States, and countless other nations around the world,
structure themselves as secular states. Religion and the aspects of personal life it influences are
supposed to stay separate from politics and the overarching structures of the state. In theory, this
practice allows everyone in a society to maintain their religious freedoms while leaving the
political system in place unmolested. Sadly, secularism has never really been able to function
properly as people around the world, not just in America, invoke the name of Jesus (and other
divine/prophetic figures) to support their own political motivations or ideologies. Although this
practice has become the norm, it is undeniably both wrong and fallacious. Some might argue that
this nation was founded as a Christian nation which is a revisionist statement by nature, as the
truth is America always has been, and always should be, a secular state inhabited by an
extremely diverse populous.
To return to the analogy of the child from before, it seems as though adult people are now
acting like children, constantly shifting blame from themselves and failing to support their
motivations, arguments, and actions with rational or intelligent thought. One can understand why
a child will attempt to place blame on someone else whenever they do something wrong. Nobody
truly wants to face the consequences of their actions. This is only natural, but a well functioning
society requires that those who comprise it be accountable for those actions, lest the whole
system fall into chaos. Any nation that strives to be successful, just, and competitive on the world
scale must then be logical and characterized by complex but efficient political systems and a
diverse yet peaceful populous. However, religion, and in this case Christianity, frequently stands
in the way of this. In a theoretically perfect society, people would base their political motivations
and movements on careful thought and deliberation, accounting for every variable and every
person/group that might be affected. Unfortunately, this is rarely the case, as political movements
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and ideologies spring up every day all over the world that invoke the name of Jesus and/or God
as justification. To once again return to the analogy of the child, one could be reluctant to judge
these people on the basis that they might not know any better. This charitable explanation fails
for two reasons however. First, that if the offending person or persons doesnt know any better
than to try and bring religion into secular politics, then perhaps they have no business in politics
in the first place. Second, those who attempt to invoke Christ for their own political gain are well
aware of what they are doing and of the scapegoat they are employing, and should definitely be
considered both knowledgable and accountable. People try to use Christ as a justification for
their political ideologies because they feel it is valid and brings them credibility. Many feel that
Biblical law trumps political law, but these people fail to realize how unrepresentative of modern
people and culture Biblical laws are. That is why one must conclude that for the reason of
keeping secular nations secular one should consider the practice of invoking Christ as a political
justification impractical and irrational.
In addition to the inherent impracticality of trying to use the 2000 year old figurehead of
a global religion or the religious text involving him as a scapegoat comes the issue of political
irrelevance and the archaic nature of Christian texts and traditions. Political law must always
remain superior over Biblical law if a society wishes to remain just. Politics are an ever-changing
and constantly evolving entity, and must be able to undergo this evolution if a given political
climate is to remain healthy. Imagine for a moment if the United States were still employing laws
that were in place during the industrial revolution and earlier. Workers in the nation would have
no minimum wage, possess no workplace rights, and would suffer dangerous and unhealthy
work conditions. However, laws change over time and now people in America and other
industrialized nations enjoy rights given to them by more contemporary laws. The issue with

Soc 398 Essay 1

crafting laws inspired by the Bible and the teachings of Jesus, though, is that those laws never
change and are rarely altered in any significant manner. If for example, a law was to be created
that stated that anybody who is found guilty of adultery should be put to death many an eyebrow
would be raised. Even though this sounds a bit outlandish, Leviticus 20:10 states: If a man
commits adultery with another mans wifeboth the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to
death. This is very frightening, making it difficult to deny that this type of law just doesnt fit in
contemporary society. Perhaps in the early centuries of this era people may have accepted it, but
now it would be considered barbaric and cruel. There would be mass outrage if a law such as this
was passed, and it would be almost impossible to enforce. Another similar example comes in
Mark 10:11-12 and states that Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman
commits adultery against her. And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she
commits adultery. It is common knowledge that many religious groups, including a large
number of Christians, are against divorce and/or remarriage altogether. So it is not unrealistic to
think that some people might support a law like this or create a political movement to restore the
sanctity of marriage. However, this would once again prove impractical as a law preventing
divorce and remarriage would have no place in a contemporary society characterized by those
aforementioned practices. Anyone familiar with the Bible knows that the somewhat strange rules
and laws like those given above are numerous, and include things like forbidding tattoos
(Leviticus 19:28), all the way to forbidding gold jewelry and other adornments ( 1 Timothy 2:9).
Of course it must be said that these passages given are merely meant to exemplify the idea that
using the Bible to create contemporary laws or political movements is impractical and
unrealistic. Rules crafted in societies that existed thousands of years ago have no place in the
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modern political scene, and should retain their identities as stories and prose from a religious
text.
There are real world examples of people using the Bible to justify political movements
and ideologies that might be considered unrealistic or unjust, though. One of the most well
known examples is the justification of American slavery through the use of the Bible.
Specifically with Ephesians 6:5: Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear and
with Titus 2:9: Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them,
not to talk back to them It would be hard to deny that slavery is a blemish on American
history and that using the Bible and invoking the name of God or Jesus to justify it is
reprehensible. A more contemporary and controversial example could be that of gay marriage.
Many are attempting to fight gay-rights by claiming that the Bible states that it is shameful,
unnatural, lustful, and indecent (Romans 1:26-27). It is troubling to see that some people are
using a book that is supposedly meant to teach love and tolerance to take away the rights of
others. People seem to so easily forget that Jesus supposedly taught that man should Love one
another, as I have loved you (John 13:34) no matter the circumstances.
It must be asked if people will not look back on the current use of the Bible as
justification of political ideologies in the same light as they look back on slavery? One would
hope that this would be the case, and that people could realize that a millennia old religious text
does not carry over well into politics, let alone modern politics. Since the Bible and the teachings
of Christ do seem to be archaic and irrelevant in the current political environment we must
conclude that religion has no place in modern politics and that invoking the name of Christ, God,
and/or the Bible is impractical and should be done under few circumstances, or no circumstances
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at all. We must also hope that citizens in modern society be accountable and aware of their own
actions, leaving finger-pointing and scapegoating to the children.

Note:
The Bible used for this piece was the Holy Bible: New International Version