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I’ve come to view Jesus the way I’ve come to view Elvis. I love the guy, but some of the fan clubs terrify me.
“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” Jesus, Luke 6:46
And I was taught—relentlessly—that Christianity was about the things Jesus prioritized: Service to others. Forgiveness. Caring for the poor, the sick, the stranger, the prisoner.
These were the fundamentalists, the power-hungry grifters who took advantage of the fact that most people don’t know the Bible all that well. They were charlatans, frauds, hypocrites, and villains. And they made for great TV.
In recent decades, the US has witnessed fundamentalist Christianity publicly mutating into Christian nationalism: the belief that God intended America to be a Christian nation and that a “true” American should be Christian, too.
“Christian nationalism” is also becoming an umbrella term for all kinds of right-wing zealotry:
And if there’s one thing the Bible shows us, it’s that authoritarian government, aligned with some extreme conservative religious fundamentalists, literally killed Jesus.
Donald Trump never even tried to sell himself as an actual Christian to earn blind evangelical obedience. Rather, he easily attracted voters sympathetic to Christian nationalist ideas by branding himself as a defender of “Christians under siege.” Which is to say he pandered to and played up the persecution complex: “I will tell you, Christianity is under tremendous siege, whether we want to talk about it or we don’t want to talk about it…. And we’re going to reverse that trend big league.” January 30, 2016, campaign event in Dubuque
Religion, like all institutions of man, is inherently flawed, but irony will never let you down.
The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a Baptist, used the scriptures to shame white America out of the mutually destructive American apartheid of segregation.
I’ve learned, it’s that nobody hates like a Christian who’s just been told their hate isn’t Christian.
if your church isn’t telling you to love your enemies but keeps telling you who your enemies are, you’re not really in a church.
Jesus disdained wealth and earthly power, and challenged traditional laws of his own faith. He rejected earthly materialism, renounced the idea of revenge, and commanded us to welcome the stranger.
He said the first must be last, and that to follow him meant to take up one’s cross, to sacrifice oneself for others. These are hard teachings, however. If you want to build a movement and claim power for yourself, these teachings will get in the way.”
1. Focus on Jesus’s teachings—love, compassion, and social justice, which I understand for some are trigger words. 2. Try to know the Bible just a bit—be prepared to calmly reference specific verses while your opponent, who’s probably never been thoughtfully challenged on scripture, calls you a globalist baby-killing snowflake.
Be ready to calmly challenge misinterpretations or selective readings of scripture by using crazy concepts like context, historical understanding, and what Jesus said versus what he didn’t. 4. Remind them that parables are stories—which are open to interpretation. There are hundreds of different translations and word meanings that have changed over the millennia. 5. Focus on core principles we all agree on, like love, compassion, justice, and reconciliation. They’re kinda required for Christianity. Get them to agree on that. 6. Model respectful dialogue, even if you’re repelled by some
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Science and biblical literalism don’t mix, but science and faith can and do coexist. Both can answer different questions: Science explores how the universe works, while the Bible addresses why it exists.
If you’re ever looking for permission to slut-shame, Jesus ain’t your guy.
So when this woman praises Jesus’s mother for her baby-making and baby-feeding abilities, Jesus corrects her. He doesn’t want his mother blessed for birthing and nursing; he wants her blessed for the choices she herself makes. In front of everyone, Jesus affirms that women are not to be reduced to being only mothers, but should also be praised for having agency and doing the right thing.
Mary and Joseph were absolutely refugees according to both the dictionary and the Gospel of Matthew. They fled Herod’s kingdom to escape violence, took their child to Egypt and stayed there for years, in hiding. Our right-wing Christians are fighting to turn away the most desperate foreign refugees, all while worshiping Jesus, who was once a foreign refugee.
Number of times the Bible addresses poverty, justice, and compassion for the poor: over 2,000
lack of health insurance coverage, the number-one cause of bankruptcy in the US was inability to pay medical costs. In 2000 the World Health Organization had ranked America number thirty-seven out of 191 countries in the world in terms of health system performance. And while the ACA brought improvements, it wasn’t a “reform” of our healthcare system.
Jesus taught humility, self-denial, and service to others, often warning against the dangers of wealth and materialism: Matthew 6:19–21: “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth…. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven…. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
“With every cell of my being and with every fiber of my memory I oppose the death penalty in all forms. I do not believe any civilized society should be at the service of death. I don’t think it’s human to become an agent of the angel of death.” Elie Wiesel
James 4:12 says God’s the only one who can take a life in the name of justice: “There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?”
Guns don’t kill people, but NRA people who own congresspeople make it easier for deranged people to be heavily armed people who kill innocent people.
But an AR-15 for civilian use is not your “God-given right”; it’s your goddamn entertainment.
Note that Jesus never comes out against owning swords. He never vilifies swords, or calls for them to be banned. I would never claim that Jesus is anti–sword ownership. But he seriously comes out against ever using them on people.
We’re called to be compassionate to these folks, to never give up on love, empathy, or critical thinking to reach them. Maybe you’ve witnessed a fundamentalist who grows beyond what they were programmed to be. It can be scary and wonderful. And growth is not to be answered with smug liberal “I told ya so’s.”
We can’t hate them. But in a democracy, we must beat them.
