Wednesday, July 09, 2025

Propaganda, False Prophets, & the Jesus Manifesto

 


Woe to those who call evil good
    and good evil,
who put darkness for light
    and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
    and sweet for bitter!

Isaiah 5: 20 NRSVue

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 

Matthew 7:15 NRSVue

There are lots of people who dismiss or decry religion in its various expressions as propaganda. It was Karl Marx who coined the phrase "religion is the opiate of the masses" to describe how people use religion to cope with the painful realities of life. Marxism  became its own secular religion responsible for the suffering and deaths of millions. 

I would agree that mindless religion can be hugely destructive. I am also convinced that religion can be the foundation for compassion, justice, and resisting evil. While these values are expressed in a variety of religions it is the incarnational God who has come to us in Jesus, the Christ, who has held my heart and mind through a lifetime. 

We are in a season of history where what I consider the false religion of white supremacy has taken hold in several countries with our neighbour, the United States, as the prime example. I have a number of American relatives and several of them baffle and alarm me with their supposed fervent love of Jesus while ignoring his message of Good News for the poor and the marginalized. 

In what we call the Sermon on the Mount, essentially the Christ follower's manfesto, Jesus warns about the propaganda of false prophets. Surely we need to be more vigilant than ever. 

We are not alone,
    we live in God’s world.

 We believe in God:
    who has created and is creating,
    who has come in Jesus,
       the Word made flesh,
       to reconcile and make new,
    who works in us and others
       by the Spirit.

We trust in God. 

We are called to be the Church:
    to celebrate God’s presence,
    to live with respect in Creation,
    to love and serve others,
    to seek justice and resist evil,
    to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen,
       our judge and our hope.

In life, in death, in life beyond death,
    God is with us.
We are not alone.

    Thanks be to God.

United Church New Creed (1968)






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