January 27, 2014, The Examiner, Jesus said so many things that we don’t want to hear, by Margot Fernandez,

January 27, 2014, The Examiner, Jesus said so many things that we don’t want to hear, by Margot Fernandez, 

And one of those things is in Chapter 6 of the Gospel According to Matthew:

“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

“So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to attract honor from others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."

This kind of hypocrisy seems to be the governing motivation for a majority of un-Christian evangelicals today: the urge to make a public spectacle of preaching their twisted beliefs (which are not Christian in any way) and their unrelenting determination to make others live by their beliefs. I have to remind people every now and then that as an Episcopalian, I consider myself governed by the Thirty-Nine Articles of belief that appear in our Book of Common Prayer, plus the principles that have developed since then such as inclusiveness.

We know that breakaway evangelical Episcopalians have left our denomination because of new beliefs such as tolerance; it isn’t that I don’t know that (as many of my correspondents seem to assume). They have every right to take their catchers’ mitts and go plan another game, no problem about that. But if they just can’t bring themselves to allow others to live their lives, then good riddance to them. The Episcopal Church is renewing itself just like the rest of Christendom, from generation to generation. Some of those new paths are going to lead to dead ends, as evangelicals are discovering as their congregations grow smaller and their children abandon them.

And what is coming of all this? The twin forces of bullying evangelicals and timid mainstream Christians have resulted in the disappearance of rational religion from the public sphere. Unbelievers are still looking for something to believe in—maybe, if it makes sense—but hey, let’s face it. They aren’t finding anything that makes sense!

In one hilarious development, which you can read about on Christian Today online, an atheist wants to build a Temple of Worship for…whatever…in London. Richard Dawkins and other atheists are tying themselves in knots over that little oxymoron, I can tell you. Read about it here:http://www.christianpost.com/news/richard-dawkins-opposed-to-temple-for-atheists-planned-for-london-68070/

If the Christians who are still using their minds could just speak up! I know that I am nothing but a “writing hand” on the Internet, like the “talking heads” on television, but I keep trying to say that there is such a thing as an adult, educated Christian who knows the Bible and theology.

So the atheists in London envision a space in which non-believers can sit and wait for something to happen, I guess. And hey, we don’t own God—something might happen there!

Meanwhile, a high-school student got in trouble for public hypocrisy, and I have a take on that based on my experience as a (retired) teacher. An evangelical student got an anti-gay marriage, anti-gay adoption article published in his school newspaper, “balanced” by another article that supported gay rights. There was a furor over the anti-gay article but my question is, what was the faculty sponsor thinking? Gay rights is not a proper topic for publication in a high-school newspaper. It is completely incendiary and there could hardly have been any other reaction to the pair of articles other than what happened; read about it here:http://www.christianpost.com/news/wis-student-censored-punished-by-school-for-gay-adoption-beliefs-68061/

Evangelicals in the Western World are making the ultimate grandstand play demonstrating their beliefs for the public, up to and including murdering those who don’t agree with them. The danger of this ought to have been drilled into them by their preachers, but it was not, obviously. But if I get to choose, I’ll write this column, which no one is forced to read, and practice what I preach without dragging others to my church every Sunday under the threat of damnation.