The Religious Right: Trump is their Lord and Savior

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. 

“It’s okay Momma. I am with you.”

 “It’s okay Momma. I am with you.”

Highlands Presbyterian Church

July 10, 2016

“I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, that God may hear me. In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord; in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying; my soul refuses to be comforted.”

The words of the 77^th Psalm speak to us this morning.

This weekend across America millions gather in mosques, temples, synagogues and churches seeking to be comforted. I imagine many preachers, rabbis, imams, and other clerics seeking diligently to string words together in an attempt to say something that matters, something that comforts, something that helps those who gather to find meaning in the horrors of the last week.

Perhaps many will be more successful than I because as David lamented in the Psalm, my soul refuses to be comforted…how then can I comfort the souls of others?

A lot of people find themselves in the comforting business this weekend. The President was expected to say something to help his nation through the darkness. He tried as others tried. Despite his heartfelt eloquence, we find little comfort.

The prophet Jeremiah spoke of days like these. “They have treated my people's brokenness superficially, claiming, "Peace, peace," when there is no peace.” Or as another translation puts it, “They offer only superficial help for the harm my people have suffered. They say, 'Everything will be all right!' But everything is not all right!”

Our souls are not comforted because we know this is not the end of the violence. You might think that the horrors we saw this week…two men killed by policemen in two cities separated hundreds of miles apart and all on video cameras so that all the world could watch and then the ambush killing of five policemen in yet a third city might shock us into stopping the violence …sort of like fighting an oil well fire using dynamite to create a shockwave. The dynamite extinguishes the oxygen long enough that the fire stops breathing and therefore stops burning.  

One would think that violence could reach the point where it sends that same kind of shockwave through our culture and that it would blow itself out. But violence doesn’t work like burning oil. Violence is its own oxygen. Violence begats more violence.

It is not at all clear that the violence that plagues us is controllable.  It is deep in American culture. In his book, Gunfighter Nation: The Myth of the Frontier in Twentieth Century America, Richard Slotkin says there is something in this culture that believes that there is no problem so severe that it wouldn’t improve if we could just shoot someone.

If only the Rev. Martin Luther King were with us today. He’d remind us that, “The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy.

Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact,” he said, “violence merely increases hate.

“So it goes,” King continued, “Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”

Only love can end the violence? Really? Who believes that? Who is naive enough to believe that love can end the violence? Well, Jesus of Nazareth believed it.

Theologians Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan teach us that this was in fact the purpose with which Jesus entered the world. He came to give us a choice between the view of the Roman Empire, which seems to have been inherited by our culture, that peace can be achieved through violence or a new paradigm that says peace can only be achieved through love and justice.

2000 years later and how many of us still believe the Empire rather than Jesus? As a result more will die. We will see more cell phone videos of black men being killed by policemen and we will witness more policemen being killed for revenge.  Lasting peace has never been achieved through violence. As Dr. King told us just before he himself was murdered, “Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.”

But Christians must not feel hopeless or helpless. Jesus taught us better. If we believe him rather than the culture, it is we who can help our nation stop “adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.”

Neither for King nor for Jesus was love an ephemeral concept. For them, loving your neighbor includes giving your neighbor the justice he or she deserves as a part of their humanity.  Paul Tillich was a German American Christian philosopher and Lutheran theologian, widely regarded as one of the most influential theologians of the twentieth century. Tillich compared love without justice to 'a body without backbone', suggesting that justice is an element inherent in love.

Reinhold Niebuhr (Neebwer), the American theologian and ethicist, believed justice is love's best possible expression in what he called a 'sin-soaked world'. In other words, in the complex and imperfect situations in which we find ourselves, it is love that motivates the distribution of justice.

The cycle of violence in which our beloved country finds itself will not end, violence will begat more violence until and unless we choose love over revenge and express that love by demanding justice. If Jesus ever needed disciples, it is now

This morning remember the words of the Psalmist. “I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, that God may hear me. In the day of my trouble I seek the Lord; in the night my hand is stretched out without wearying; my soul refuses to be comforted.”

And so let us cry aloud to God, and stretch out our hands without wearying, and refuse to allow our souls to be comforted until the love of God is expressed through justice.

We can get there as a people by doing what we say we believe, being who we say we are…as disciples of Jesus who is with us, Jesus who taught us to love one another. We heard his reassuring voice this week. We heard it in the voice of a four-year-old girl’s voice as Philando Castile is dying and his girl friend becomes hysterical and the little girl can be heard saying, “It’s okay Momma. I am with you.”

It’s okay friends. We can do this. God is with us.

2016 election is about children

Wyoming is a good place to raise children. The Annie E. Casey Foundation tested the premise and found it to be true…at least for now. Wyoming ranked higher than all but 11 of the 50 states for being “child friendly.” People who care about children can’t help worrying how much the current budget crisis may change that in the coming few years.

Using 2014 data, Casey measured economic well-being, education, health, and family and community factors. But 2014 was a far different time than we will experience in the years ahead.

Wyoming finished first for economic well-being, a category including the numbers of children in poverty (13% WY, 22% USA), parents without job security (24%-30%), children in homes where costs of housing are overly burdensome (22%-35%, and teenagers in school and not working (4%-7%).

Our state ranked 18^th for quality of education. The category is based on data reflecting how many children ages 3-4 are not in preschool (58%-53%), fourth graders not proficient in reading (59%-65%), eighth graders not proficient in math (65%-68%), and high school students not graduating on time (18%18%).

The most alarming news came in Casey’s review of serious threats to the health of Wyoming children. Our children scored near the bottom. Only two states were worse. Casey measured the numbers of low birth-weight babies (9.2%-8%), children without health insurance (6%-6%), child and teen deaths per 100,000 (32-24), and number of teens abusing drugs and alcohol (6%5%).

Under the category of “Family and Community,” Wyoming ranked 7^th. Casey looked at risk factors such as the number of children in single-parent homes (27%-35%), households headed by someone without a high school diploma (7%-14%), living in high poverty areas (1%-14%), and teen births per 100,000 (30-24).

In the foreseeable future Wyoming will be challenged to prevent these numbers from declining and children’s lives worsening. Wyoming legislators haven’t exhibited the wherewithal to do much about this as they make choices without comprehending the enormity of the consequences.

During the recent budget session, legislators refused to accept millions of dollars by expanding of Medicaid. Those dollars would have provided badly needed healthcare for 20,000 low-income workers, bolstered cash-strapped hospitals, and pumped large amounts of money into the development of local communities’ healthcare infrastructure creating new jobs.

Expansion would have rendered unnecessary the severe cuts in critical programs that helped low-income families, the elderly, and disabled. Rejecting expansion also required cutting millions dollars from state education funding.

Now Governor Matt Mead has determined additional cuts are required immediately. He ordered state agencies to drastically cut already lean budgets approved by the legislature in February by an additional $248 million. With Wyoming already ranked 48^th of the 50 states in terms of health threats to our children, the Department of Health’s ability to address these problems will be further impaired. WDH loses an additional $90 million in state funds, triggering the forfeiture of more than $41 million in federal funds.

Governor Mead told legislators that the Health Department program cuts include $6.7 million from development and disability preschools, $4.6 million from behavioral health, and $1.3 million in reduction to senior programs. Substance abuse, mental health, and suicide prevention programs will be crippled. The Governor also slashed $13.9 million dollars from the Department of Family Services, the agency maintaining what’s left of that agency’s safety net for children and families.

The Governor predicted the cuts would echo across the private sector, costing 700 workers the jobs on which they rely to provide for their children and the jobs in which they serve the needs of others. This, of course, is in addition to the hundreds of job losses already experienced in the energy and related industries.

Our challenge is to protect children and families as revenues continue to decline. As the state’s unemployment rate rises and the situation facing parents worsens, the lack of mental health and other services will exacerbate the threat.

2016 voters need to make certain they elect thoughtful men and women who can meet this challenge.

Budget cuts and pay raises

Let me understand. The legislature cut or eliminated funding for critical programs on which the elderly, disabled and low-income people relied. The Governor approved those cuts.

Not long afterward Governor Matt Mead secretly gave select members of his staff huge pay raises. The media learned about it anyway. Mr. Mead’s chief of staff Kari Gray’s salary suddenly increased from an already-more-than-sufficient $126,000 to $175,000 per year, which is more than the over-paid members of Congress receive. Other top officials in Mead’s office also received substantial raises.

A few weeks later the Governor ordered state agencies to cut their already reduced budgets by nearly a quarter of a billion dollars. The Governor said these budget cuts were “necessary” knowing they will result in 700 private sector job losses.

After this revelation, Governor Mead defended his indefensible raises given his staff. Other hardworking state employees haven’t seen a pay increase for two years and none is in the foreseeable future.

But Mr. Mead said that’s okay. The Governor disingenuously claimed, “These raises were awarded in a better revenue environment,” said Mead, adding, “They were in place prior to the current fiscal crisis.” C’mon Governor. You gave your staff these raises literally days before demanding that state agencies cut their budgets. You gave these raises after more than 500 coal miners lost their jobs because of the declining energy prices that triggered state budget cuts.

He said hardworking state employees deserve more. The only people working hard enough, in his opinion, are those with whom he drinks coffee all day. No other state employee got a raise.

His decision to give special treatment to his staff during dreadful fiscal times and the ham-handed way he defends it boggles the mind.

By the way, the term 'boggle' comes from the word 'bogle', a word for a goblin or specter. Horses were said to 'boggle' when they made a sudden jerky movement, as if startled by something human eyes couldn't see. That seems to fit the Governor’s decision. Mr. Mead was startled to find the media learned of these secret raises and made “sudden jerky movements” to defend them.

The raises he gave his personal staff are simply wrong-headed. They are indefensible in light of the sacrifices being made by state employees and the citizens they serve.

While his personal staff received raises, the elderly and the disabled lost their sales tax rebates. Low-income families lost much of the energy assistance funding that helped them pay utility bills. Medicare patients with severe dental problems lost benefits to pay the dentist. Family literacy centers were closed and three dozen employees laid off.

While the Governor’s staff was getting raises, developmental preschools lost 6.7 million dollars. Mental health and substance abuse programs among others administered by the Division of Behavioral Health will lose $.6 million. Senior services were cut another $1.3 million and suicide prevention programs will be crippled. The Wyoming Department of Family Services will lose nearly $14 million dollars from a tight budget designed to provide a safety net for at-risk children and families.

While Mr. Mead was giving raises to his staff, the University of Wyoming declared a “fiscal crisis” as its leaders deal with budget cuts that will result in layoffs.

If the Governor’s staff cared about the suffering these budget cuts will cause citizens, they would refuse to accept them. If the Governor cared about the suffering that will accompany these budget cuts, he’d rescind them.

If the Governor had his ear to the ground, he’d realize there are not many people who work with his staff who think they deserve a raise in any time, much less when the economy is crashing and others are paying the price.

These raises are reprehensible. Though the Governor heard the complaints about these raises, he’s turned a deaf ear to them.

The pay raises and the Governor’s defense of them are signals that he’s enjoyed all the public service he can stand and is ready to return to the ranch.