To the Editor:

I don’t understand. How do people claim to believe in Jesus Christ but not a word that He preached? What kind of mental wizardry conjures this odd spector: spiritual welfare for those who want Christianity’s rewards while dismissing Christ’s Testament and the work it demands?

Reverting to the Old Testament is equally baffling. If God thought the Old Testament accurately reflected His True Will, why did He send Jesus to preach a New Testament that so obviously contradicts parts of the old? ”You have heard it said an eye for an eye, but I say turn the other cheek.” Everyone believes the I speaking is Christ, the Son of God, but some choose to ignore the words themselves. Why? Do they know better than Jesus what God wants?

 “If you do not live by My Laws in this world, you will not get to the Father in the next.” Everyone believes Christ is speaking but some completely ignore, even revel, in contradicting His Warning. How does anyone pretend Hate and Violence is the same as Christ’s Love and Peace? How does a decent person pervert helping the least among us as Jesus commanded into insulting, debasing, and attacking the most vulnerable? What is the bizarre moral schizophrenia that allows this?

How much arrogance and lack of humility before God does it take for adults to attack children and still pretend they’re God-righteous? How do people who claim to believe in an all-seeing God and the Ten Commandments think bearing false witness over and over again is okay? Are American Politics exempt from God’s Laws? I have met so many Christians in my lifetime who spend their entire lives striving to uphold Christ’s commandments. These people are honorable, thoughtful, caring, kind, and generous, not just with material goods, but mostly with their hearts and minds. And I have also seen the Screaming Moralists who spew lies and venom, hysteria and hyperbole as if they were gods themselves: judging, damning, throwing thunderbolts like Zeus from Mt. Olympus! One of the greatest sins of pride in Christianity is construing God in one’s own image. This is blasphemous because it is a form of idolatry. It negates God’s mercy and delights in cruelty to others. So which Christianity is true? Christ’s version or the Screaming Moralists’?

Which version do people think contributed to America’s original greatness? And which version do they think is going to make America great again?

Jane Barrett
Potsdam