Jerry Falwell, Jr., the apple that didn’t fall far from the
tree, says Donald Trump has been “born again.” The truth is that the
religionists once known as conservative Christians have been “born again.” They
have set Jesus aside and adopted Donald Trump as their Lord and Savior.
For mainline and progressive Christians, the departure of
the religious righteous feels a little like what we might have expected during
what they always described as the Rapture. We won’t have the Christian Right to
kick around anymore.
Eight years ago, 72 percent of all voters believed it
important that the president have strong religious views. Today that number is
at 62 and falling. According to a Pew Research Center poll, one in five voters
now claim no interest in religion.
That may explain why the religious right has unmasked itself
as far more supportive of extreme rightwing politics than it is of Jesus’s
Sermon on the Mount. They are likely in that group that finally admits it has
less interest in the Gospel than they do in right wing politics.
Liberals used to describe the Christian Right as neither,
i.e. neither Christian nor right. Regardless the Christian Right was once a
powerful political force in America, always delivering a reliable Republican
vote.
Over the years, the farther right they moved, the less
Christian they became. In 2016, that journey has been completed. They have
converted from Christianity to becoming far right Republicans.
Slate.com writer Michelle Goldberg summed it up pretty well
in her report on the recent “Road to Majority” conference sponsored by the
Faith and Freedom Coalition (the successor to the Christian Coalition) and
Concerned Women for America. The conference was convened for the purpose of
exciting conservative Christians about the 2016 Presidential race.
Ms. Goldberg observed, “The spectacle of self-proclaimed
Christian conservatives cheering a foul-mouthed ex-casino owner for his pledge
to turn away refugees tells you pretty much everything you need to know about
what the religious right has become—or maybe what it always was.”
It’s the sacred obligation of those who claim to follow Jesus to
involve themselves in politics. That is the arena in which many of the choice
are made about whether our state and nation will feed the hungry, house the
homeless, and clothe the naked.
Anyone who interprets Jesus’s admonition to render unto Caesar
that which belongs to Caesar and unto God that which belongs to God as a
warning to stay away from politics doesn’t understand Jesus. For him, everything
belongs to God. Once you’ve rendered unto God all that belongs to God, there is
nothing left for Caesar.
The Faith and Freedom folks have rendered so much unto Donald
Trump that they have nothing left to render unto God. In backing Donald Trump,
these folks have abdicated even their characteristic strict interpretation of
the scripture.
The Apostle Paul said, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor
free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Paul warned, “Be not
forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels
unawares.”
The religious right has determined that Paul and the Gospel are
anachronistic. They’d rather build walls to keep people out and target those
who believe differently. They have rejected the Biblical command to welcome the
stranger, feed the hungry, free the prisoner, and one of the two big ones, that
we love our neighbor as ourselves.
The Christian right has exchanged their trademark literal
interpretation of the Bible for a strict interpretation of the Republican Party
platform. More important, they have tried to defy Jesus’s teaching that one
cannot serve two masters. Jesus warned, “Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you
will be devoted to the one and despise the other.”
Realizing
that what Jesus said was indeed true, they have made their choice between God
and right wing politics and both Christianity and American politics will
be the better for it.
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