When did Christianity become so heartless?
Supporting Trump now means denying food to the hungry, medicine to the poor, and justice to the wrongfully accused, all while supporting a $1 TRILLION military budget, the ongoing slaughter of civilians in Ukraine and Gaza, constant violations of the Constitution, blatant corruption, the spreading of preventable disease, and so much else.
A fine example of the state of American Christianity is the response to my column from one or our local Christian “thinkers,” who justified letting African babies contract HIV as a matter of fiscal responsibility. But maybe the better example is Senator Joni Ernst justifying cuts to healthcare and food aid for impoverished Americans by dismissively proclaiming, “We all are going to die,” and then calling for those dying prematurely to just put their faith in Christ. “Let them eat cake” sounds pretty compassionate compared to “just die already; we need the money.”
Maybe the best example of the cruelty that has infested conservative Christianity is the stream of cross-wearing Republicans flying to the CECOT prison in El Salvador so they can pose in front of concrete cells packed with human misery, their photos reminiscent of those taken by white Southerners (also devout Christians) proudly posing with freshly lynched Black men a century back.
Maybe it’s always been like this. For two millenia Jesus has been invoked to justify burning women and philosophers, torturing political enemies, annihilating indigenous peoples, slavery, and wars beyond count. Even the German Nazis overwhelmingly considered themselves Christian, though today, as “unsavory elements” are being shackled and marched off to camps, it’s not under the swastika. It’s under the crucifix.
Before you dismiss this as hyperbole, just look at the composition of MAGA and the Republican party. You’ll see Confederates, neo-Nazis, and evangelicals sharing the same political space with zero friction. Eventually, evangelicals will have to face the fact that they’ve let fear and the lust for power displace love at the center of their faith.
Are there yet good Christians in this country? Of course. No doubt, the vast majority across the board are kind and decent people just trying to live their best lives. But the general silence of the churches — or all too often, their enthusiastic support—in the face of Trump’s barbarism is shocking.
And it’s why Christian churches are dying. When non-Christians look to the churches, all we now see is hypocrisy and greed, lies and manipulation, and a bobblehead Jesus with all the moral heft and spiritual significance of a football jersey.
https://www.dnews.com/opinion/opinion-1d57c844
Supporting Trump now means denying food to the hungry, medicine to the poor, and justice to the wrongfully accused, all while supporting a $1 TRILLION military budget, the ongoing slaughter of civilians in Ukraine and Gaza, constant violations of the Constitution, blatant corruption, the spreading of preventable disease, and so much else.
A fine example of the state of American Christianity is the response to my column from one or our local Christian “thinkers,” who justified letting African babies contract HIV as a matter of fiscal responsibility. But maybe the better example is Senator Joni Ernst justifying cuts to healthcare and food aid for impoverished Americans by dismissively proclaiming, “We all are going to die,” and then calling for those dying prematurely to just put their faith in Christ. “Let them eat cake” sounds pretty compassionate compared to “just die already; we need the money.”
Maybe the best example of the cruelty that has infested conservative Christianity is the stream of cross-wearing Republicans flying to the CECOT prison in El Salvador so they can pose in front of concrete cells packed with human misery, their photos reminiscent of those taken by white Southerners (also devout Christians) proudly posing with freshly lynched Black men a century back.
Maybe it’s always been like this. For two millenia Jesus has been invoked to justify burning women and philosophers, torturing political enemies, annihilating indigenous peoples, slavery, and wars beyond count. Even the German Nazis overwhelmingly considered themselves Christian, though today, as “unsavory elements” are being shackled and marched off to camps, it’s not under the swastika. It’s under the crucifix.
Before you dismiss this as hyperbole, just look at the composition of MAGA and the Republican party. You’ll see Confederates, neo-Nazis, and evangelicals sharing the same political space with zero friction. Eventually, evangelicals will have to face the fact that they’ve let fear and the lust for power displace love at the center of their faith.
Are there yet good Christians in this country? Of course. No doubt, the vast majority across the board are kind and decent people just trying to live their best lives. But the general silence of the churches — or all too often, their enthusiastic support—in the face of Trump’s barbarism is shocking.
And it’s why Christian churches are dying. When non-Christians look to the churches, all we now see is hypocrisy and greed, lies and manipulation, and a bobblehead Jesus with all the moral heft and spiritual significance of a football jersey.
https://www.dnews.com/opinion/opinion-1d57c844
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
