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Religious Book Store > Religious books beginning with G
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Grand Theft Jesus: The Hijacking of Religion in America |
Author: Robert S. Mcelvaine
Published: 2008-03-25 |
List price: $23.95
Our price: $16.29
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Customer comments on this selection.
 Found the flaws in the logic yet?
Mr. Mcelvaine has a revelation for Evangelicals and devout Catholics everywhere. It's all been a mistake! He's here to proclaim that, "All religions are true---and all religions are false" (p 277). And for those who persist in believing, "We have to get these addicts into rehab" (p 255) and explain Mr. Mcelvaine's finer version of religion, one without all those pesky morals.
Well, wait. There are a few problems. First, he appears to know next to nothing about the bible, biblical history, religion, and has serious problems with logic.
For example: "The idea that God is solely male is the work of the Church Fathers who chose which Gospel accounts to include in the canonical New Testament and excluded all the Gnostic Gospels that contain references to an androgynous God" (p 254). False. The idea that God was male was given to the early Jews, not the Church Fathers. And it was because God referred to himself as male.
The Gnostic gospels were all written much later than the gospels (Mr. Mcelvaine needs to read "A Separate God by Petrement). Although the Gnostics were not a single group and had various ideas, constant among them was their strident anti-female bias. One quote from the "Gospel of Thomas": "Women do not deserve to live".
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Or again: "For all their fear...of homosexuals, the Lites are generally unconcerned about eating shellfish" (p 107). This is a funny line, but all it proves is that Mr. McElvaine knows nothing about the subject. Did he actually suppose no one--in 2000 years--noticed a change from ancient Jewish laws? The Jerusalem Council (Acts 15) with Peter, Paul, and James in attendance, settled the changes in about the year 50 AD.
Here's a real howler: "The ban on women priests also stems from Paul's reliance on Gen Two and from the Early Church Father's rejection of the importance of the women around Jesus and particularly Mary Magdalene's position as an adviser equal to Peter" (p 253-4). The gospel as seen through the eyes of "The Da Vinci Code"?? Really, this is so ignorant it's embarrassing.
At times Mr Mcelvaine veers hysterically into something bordering on hatred: "The Word we worship says we should love our enemies...What! They don't worship our Word...Hate them! Kill them!" (p 95) Yes, every Christian I know--Mother Teresa of Calcutta, for example--is always muttering, Hate them! Kill them!
Dear Mr. Mcelvaine: It was the atheists who slaughtered 100 million in the last century. Your remark was especially distressing to me, as a Catholic, because the 20th century had more Catholic martyrs than any earlier century combined ( please pick up a copy of "Catholic Martyrs of the 20th Century", by Royal). Some claims reach as high as 45 million Christians murdered worldwide.
Atheist communists in Spain shot priests, crucified them, hacked them to death, and atheist leftists in Mexico shot Father Pro, among thousands of others. Isidore Bakanja, a Congolese Christian, was savagely beaten by atheists for preaching Christ. He forgave his attackers before he died in agony. Fr. Jerzy Popieluszko, a Solidarity priest, was beaten, tortured, and murdered on October 19, 1984. Christians by the hundreds of thousands were sent to the gulag, locked up falsely in psychiatric hospitals, tortured, and killed. Bishops, priests and nuns were especially targeted.
Yet Mr. Mcelvaine accuses Christians of hatred and murder. If he had a shred of integrity he would publish an apology to Christians everywhere.
The entire book is one long snipe at Evangelicals and Catholics, and he charges from one target to another, complaining about the existence of this or that group, scolding, sneering, and stamping his feet in frustration. He paints his enemy as being barely sentient, having not noticed his own painful ignorance.
"If there's anything that really scares the heaven out of these guys (Catholic bishops), it's women" (p 221). Which of course explains their reverence for the Virgin Mary.
"Priestly celibacy was not established as a requirement until the Middle Ages, and was based principally on the belief that women are unclean because they menstruate" (p 254). Once again, he has everything wrong. Priestly celibacy was established in the Roman rite because sons were taking over from their fathers when they had no vocation. And celibacy is not required in all rites of the church.
"The Church's opposition to birth control and abortion even early in pregnancy is...an outgrowth of...fear of sexuality" (p 254). Mr Mcelvaine needs to read more. All Christian churches without exception opposed birth control until the 1930's.
"The concern about `moral issues' in the deviant creed that I have named Christianity Lite is focused almost exclusively on homosexuality and abortion....Just what did Jesus say about homosexuality and abortion....Nothing " (p 57) So since Jesus didn't mention incest it's okay?
Jesus made no reference to homosexuality or abortion in the gospels because those words weren't needed. We have ironclad historical evidence that both were regarded as grave sins for second temple Jews as well as for the first Christians. And they have continued to be considered grave sins for two thousand years. Now, since it is the current fad on college campuses to espouse homosexuality and abortion, Mr. Mcelvaine is furious Christianity doesn't collapse and agree to his demands.
Mr Mcelvaine is also incorrect when he says that Christians are "focused almost exclusively on homosexuality and abortion" (p 57). What, the Ten Commandments have been revoked? Perhaps he means these are the only sins he's heard about.
He frets that Christians "divided the world into light and dark--an absolute good and absolute evil" (p 95). Christianity does declare there is an absolute truth and says that truth is God. And, as Nietzsche pointed out, without God there is no absolute truth and therefore no absolute right and wrong, just cultural norms. Granted that relativism is the current politically correct stance to take; it is still a step into absolute blackness.
And, funny isn't it, that, in spite of believing in relativism, Mr Mcelvaine spends his entire book bristling with moral outrage at others. Why, it's almost as if he thought there is a right and a wrong.
He is incensed that anyone cares about the exposure of "Janet Jackson's nipple" during prime time and calls this an example of the "twisted XL notions of `morality'" (p 220). He condemns the "Irreverend Haggard", George Bush, Dr Dobson, "Lite Loonies", Richard Land, Republicans, Evangelicals, neocons, Catholics, Michael Medved, Intelligent Design, the song "God Bless America", Ralph Reed, the pope, the Kansas Board of Education, and far, far too many others to list. It must be exhausting to loathe so many.
In his bitter moral outrage at Christians he rewrites the Beatitudes as he thinks the "Lites" act them out: "Blessed are the haughty in spirit...Blessed are those who exult over others...Blessed are the arrogant...' (p 265).
Dear Mr Mcelvaine: Pot. Kettle. Black.
 The Left's Answer to Anne Coulter
Well, I am one of the crazy right wingers that Mr. Mcelvaine thinks he has pegged.
I picked up the book because of the reference I saw to certain televangelist scam artists, and the emphasis I thought would be in the book on Jesus' real teachings. I despise the "name it and claim it, blab it and grab it" stuff going on in the name of Jesus. I believe wholeheartedly in caring for the poor, in self-sacrificial (rather than self-seeking) love. I believe in loving my neighbor regardless of race, gender, creed, or any other distinction--I just don't believe I have to think my neighbor's beliefs or behavior are correct in order to love him. ;) I agree that conservative Christianity has it's peculiar faults and problems. And we certainly have been shamed by the hypocritical behavior and vitriol and hatred spewed by a few.
However, I know many, many conservative evangelicals who are not hateful, greedy, money-grubbing, war-loving, cheap-grace monsters. The vast majority give generously and sacrificially to multiple organizations. They actively participate in organizations and activities geared at alleviating poverty, giving the poor a hand up, education, disaster relief, foster care and adoption, mentoring and providing financial help for teen moms, etc. Although I myself am happily "barefoot and pregnant", even in the conservative evangelical world, I am in the minority. Most evangelicals that I've run into think that having a large family is nuts, and certainly have no problem with a mother working and "finding fulfillment" in things outside the family.
I think Mcelvaine has missed the mark on too many points, having been blinded by outrage. He either misunderstands or misrepresents conservative theology and what it means to be a Biblical literalist. While some may teach "cheap grace", it is not a conservative viewpoint--rather, a twisting of the Biblical teaching just as wrong as legalism and works-based salvation.
The reason I was reminded of Anne Coulter reading the book is that it is written in a similar style--lots of rage, lots of broad-brushing and generalizations, and lots of not-so-great wordplay and puns and silly name-calling. My five year old has come up with better puns than either Anne or Robert.
 Christianity Terminators: Jesus as Prince of War
"Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord', yet do not do what I tell you?"
That's in the Gospel by Luke, I think.
Having been introduced into the murky waters of American Christian Fascism by author Chris Hedges, Grand Theft Jesus immediately appealed to this reader. In an erudite, yet so easy to read and often hilarious way, in a book that seems purposefully written to reach and positively influence as huge a public as it possibly can reach (even a woman translator in Mexico), Robert McElvaine creates in his readers the immediate and cristal-clear sensation that they are no Christian anymore because they do not follow what is the core of Christianism; that they are permitting, enabling in fact, the (anti)Christian activities, officially protected by the George W. Bush-created "Office for the protection of the Faith", which serve as (im)moral justifications for those who spread this fake religion, to do all they want to do, permit them to foist any outrage on other people who, if we are to literally belief gospels and what Jesus' teaches in them, are our neighbors (yes, even if they live in the Middle East, even if they're gay, even if they're women who have had to abort), and they do this foisting by waging, not defensive, not pre-emptive, not even preventive wars, but "wars of choice", a fine term to define what the Bush administration has been doing. In the end, Grand Theft Jesus talks of the bid for disposition of Jesus' true acts and teachings unto the garbage can of history. As a once-Catholic who seeks the Truth, one is tempted to call an angst-filled request: "Can We Start Again Please?"
Ultimately, what do Fake Christians have to fear? They -scholars of Fascist anti-Christianity like the late Falwell, James Dobson, Reid, Robertson -who's got his own version of the 6th Commandment- and other vultures whose prowesses are, if not revealed, certainly exposed for what they are in this book- I was saying, They "know" and they boast, that, believing that Jesus is their Savior they are saved, and they are! saved in this world to justify more visitation of mysery on the poor and world's disinherited, scandalous tax rebates for the mega-rich, whose influence and funds account for their mega-churches. For them Religion is Bread & Circus with which to make even the decent U.S. citizens remain in a slumber, and successfully stop them to consider what the U.S. Empire has done to the whole world, how the U.S. Empire's "aid" to countries in dire straits is more often than not only a meager reparation for the irreparable harm that the "Christian" officials who protect them and have been protected and justified by them for decades, have imposed on countries like Guatemala, Honduras, Chile, Nicaragua, which at present is a failed state, not having been able to stand up since Reagan & Bush Sr. & Kissinger turned her into a barren territory. Now maybe these Christian-Lites are blessing the militarization of Mexico and the effective occupation of what used to be our oil industry. Of course we knew a host of illegal contracts between PEMEX and U.S. companies had been executed for decades, however the new cynicism in gouging what is left is staggering. And all this kind of acts are blessed by Fake Christian Right. Why? It all comes from Manifest Destiny, I will guess.
Grand Theft Jesus is also a great and effective allegation against the Christian-Lites' misogyny, a trait of distorted Christianism not new -St. Paul, in his epistles, inaugurated in the New Testament, Old Testament is full of resentment against women. However Mr. McElvaine's book offers a most intriguing and interesting explanation of why women are second-rate Christian at best, for those who are firmly attached to taking Genesis 2 & 3 literally. As a relapsed Mexican Catholic, I would add to Mr. McElvaine's arguments for the blessedness of women's participation in survival and religion with the faithful Catholic strong belief in the Immaculate Conception. However, you must read the book to see just why.
You see, I'm prompting you to read it; to become conscious of how true Christianism, whose core are Jesus' teachings, started to be threatened with distortion & effectively distorted almost since the religion's inception. And then, or before, please read Chris Hedges' American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America.
Me? I wouldn't want to be a Christian anymore. I'd want to be a Jesus' teachings' follower.
 MAD BUT TRUE!
The professor's anger is hard to bear because it is so insistent,
but the content is clear and right on the money in diagnosis of a
"fundamental" problem. I bought a copy for a fellow pastor after I read
it, because the author really nails the issue of hostility to females
in evangelicalism, not to mention the limited vision of Dobson, Robertson,
et al in their understanding of the US Constitution.
Grand Theft American Christianity: A Damning Indictment from An Evangelical Protestant Historian
Drawing amply upon Scripture, Robert S. McElvaine, an Evangelical Protestant Christian historian at Millsaps College, offers a damning indictment of contemporary Fundamentalist Protestant Christianity in "Grand Theft Jesus". He mocks so-called American "Christians" who stress biblical inerrancy, as long as that doesn't include faithfully adhering to Christ's teachings. Instead, he refers to them as "Constantinians" and "Xians", claiming they've forsaken completely Christ's teachings by adhering to a faith which he describes, with ample sarcasm, as "ChristianityLite". Indeed, he compares the state of religious affairs in the United States with what Christ found in the Temple in Jerusalem, arguing persuasively that "leaders" such as Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and others of their ilk owe more in common with the very priests which Christ criticized, than with Jesus Christ himself. McElvaine contends that true Christians should follow Christ's teachings, which include doing "good works". He insists that merely professing one's faith in Christ isn't sufficient in becoming a true Christ follower. He also offers harsh criticism against the "prophets" of megachurches who advocate a "feel good" version of Christanity, as well as those "preachers" whose version of Christanity would condone every unethical act imaginable, as long as those committing these acts continued "to accept" Christ as their personal savior. His book is nothing less but a persuasive, well-written, polemic against what he recognizes is wrong about religious fervor in the United States today.
McElvaine's litany of harsh, often acerbic, observations and comments covers every issue of importance to the Religious Right in recent years. For example, in the chapter entitled "Unintelligent Design", he argues persuasively as to why the Religious Right is wrong about stem cell research, Intelligent Design and other flavors of creationism, and global warming. He devotes several chapters to the ungodly influence of the Xian Religious Right on Republican Party politics, noting how it has "enslaved" the party. His condemnation includes more than a few unflattering portraits of Xian preachers like Robertson and Falwell and politicians ranging from former congressman Tom DeLay to President George W. Bush. Will this explosive polemic about much of current American Protestant Christanity satisfy the millions who have succumbed to the charismatic preachings of the Xian Right? Probably not, since many will undoubtedly remain influenced by their so-called "preachers". However, hopefully, some will be challenged by McElvaine's provocative words to try instead to adhere to Christ's teachings as recorded in the New Testament, not as they've been subverted and perverted by Xian preachers.
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