I was listening to a story on Christian Fundamentalism in which one minister expressed the definitive explanation of the famous Jesus parable of the Workers in the Vinyard, a parable that exists only in the Gospel According to Matthew, Chapter twenty, verses one through sixteen. For those who forget these things, here’s how it goes in the good old King James version.
For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, And said unto them; Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you. And they went their way. Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise. And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle? They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive. So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the labourers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first. And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more; and they likewise received every man a penny. And when they had received it, they murmured against the goodman of the house, Saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day. But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny? Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good? So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.
Now the conventional understanding through most of Christian history is that this story speaks to the power of grace.
But this so-called minister was cited as saying this story explains why collective bargaining is a sin, against the laws of God.
Sadly, the term fundamentalism has for common usage lost its technical use as referring to a religious perspective that calls one to an idealized earlier version of the faith and to the principles perceived to be advocated in that “early” and therefore more authentic version. In Christianity Fundamentalism of this sort arrived at the end of the nineteenth century and took its full expression in the nineteen twenties.
Mostly when we say fundamentalism today we mean very conservative and obnoxious. Sometimes we use it merely to mean obnoxious.
But that’s an aside.
What scares the bejeezus out of me is that Fundamentalist Christianity has become the normative Christianity of an increasingly large number of advocates of that faith in America.
And the religion they call Christianity is one nasty piece of work, really little more than a stalking horse for the worst excesses of American capitalism.
They should count themselves lucky Jesus isn’t coming back. Based upon a plain reading of the texts attributed to him there’s no way he would recognize the religion they’re selling…
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In