About five years ago, a friend asked me what I thought was more likely: a revolution based on race, a civil war centered on religious beliefs, or a governmental overthrow based on politics? At the time, I laughed and said “All three. At the same time. For the same reasons.” I knew he actually wanted to debate the entire ball of wax, I just wasn’t that interested in listening to the same, tired arguments over the same, overly-rehashed points. Thus I handed him an answer that sound plausible, but really wasn’t.

But I have had an advantage since that conversation. I’ve been sitting on the outside, for the most, and just observing. There’s still major divisions in today’s societal culture over race, religion, and politics. We’re still fighting battles all over the world based on whose religion is right or wrong. We spend time talking about whether “black lives matter” or not, and sometimes the talking isn’t enough. We spend time destroying things, battling police offers and other branches of law enforcement – trying to get the government to acknowledge the issue in a manner that we can agree with and accept. With a Presidential cycle on the near horizon here in the United States, the political rhetoric and anger seems to get thicker every single day. Insults and veiled threats are seemingly the common cry of the day. I just found out that someone I know threatened a public official a few months back…and I would never have guessed that this person would ever do something like that.

We have talked about how the “Us v. Them” syndrome helps no one’s cause. In fact, it drives the wedge of difference further down between all of us, emphasizing that each of us is not only individual in our makeup, ideas, and thoughts. It also galvanizes the driving rhetoric between us to take those emphasized differences and turn these into factors of why we should dislike one another. It changes the alchemy from one of working together to resolve issues, and work together to make this planet better for all, to a metal where we claim parts of the environment and the resources contained within our Mother Earth as something for only one group of people.

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

–Genesis 1:28, English Standard Version

And that’s only one of a handful of Biblical verses that dictate that the Earth was placed here for Christian consumption. Its merely a resource to use and flip over our shoulder when done. Just like a soda can.

Luckily, a lot of folks have started to realize that there is more than just them on this planet – that we all share in its fate. But not everyone. Political groups, such as the Tea Party, see the earth’s resources as something to use. Something to profit from. Furthermore, the services provided by the government, for the people who pay the taxes, are also under fire from the Tea Party movement. The idea is to cut back spending by the Federal government and give taxes back to the people. I heard this concept most recently on today’s Fox 4 News, where Tea Party radio yapping head, Mark Davis made a handful of statements.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao8wTQaj_ow

Notice the heavy emphasis on tax dollars. This is the Tea Party’s religion: money. Money over everything. There’s no desire to make the world better for everyone, just to make their pocketbooks a little better than before. To the Nine Hells with everyone else. And yet, I watch more and more people become entrapped by their dangerous ideology.

Folks, its not the Christians that are dangerous. Its not the politicians that are dangerous – its the extremist fundamentals, such as the Tea Party movement, that are dangerous. These people advocate their pocket book above all else. Yes, they utilize Biblical statements to augment their arguments…that doesn’t make them Christians. It makes them opportunists.