And Jesus Said Unto Them, "Stop Digging"

and they did not

There are very few certainties in this world, but the openness of American Christians to taking advice from me on anything regarding the state of Christianity in America today would be one — an absolutely certain NO! I’m going to offer some anyway. Actually, I’ve already taken a few glancing shots in my evaluation of Ron DeSantis’ interpretation of the parable of the good Samaritan, in my piece about group narcissism, in discussing the abortion issue, about gender issues, and others. One might think I have a personal animus toward Christianity. I do not.

I grew up in the Methodist church and have known hundreds, maybe thousands, of fine Christian people. I’ll confess I was never “overly” religious, and my religious life would show, more or less, an inverse correlation to my interest in science if plotted on a time scale. Still, I find the basic teachings of Jesus an excellent model for human relationships — kindness, generosity, openness, courage and honesty are a few that come to mind. However, I’ve always had issues with organized religion, the more significant of which is this generally universal Christian concept that “I’m right and you’re wrong.” Ultimately, it is this foundational concept, along with decades of unceasing propaganda, that has put our multicultural democratic society and Christianity itself at risk.

I just finished reading The Kingdom, the Power and the Glory by journalist, writer and Evangelical Christian Tim Alberta wherein he charts the descent of white Evangelicals into the ready-for-civil-war insanity we’ve all seen assaulting our social and political landscape over these endless “Trump years.” His basic premise is that the direction of this particular segment of Christianity is focused (and acting) upon social and political issues in exactly the opposite way that Jesus and the Christian Bible (particularly the epistles of Paul) instruct. And he charts the history of this loss of focus back to the Moral Majority in the 1970’s, with its incessant and ridiculous propaganda, for example, that Christians in America are persecuted and under threat. Imagine Robert Keith Packer, the “Camp Auschwitz” Hoodie guy from the January 6th insurrection, standing shoulder to shoulder with pedophile Judge Roy Moore in Alabama defying a Supreme Court order to remove a marble monument of Jewish scripture from a public building. Persecuted indeed.

Alberta pins this latest, and most threatening, anti-social upsurge of Christian Nationalism to the forced closure of churches in an attempt to slow the spread of COVID in 2020, where after years of “the government is coming after us” crazy talk from their most recognizable leaders Evangelicals saw this public health action as fulfilling the “prophecy” and confirming that Christianity is under siege from evil, which would be everyone else of course. The book is a chilling, but excellent read.

For the most part The Kingdom, the Power and the Glory laments the loss of Evangelicals — his people — to the grifting, hate and threatened violence of the “new” Republican Party. I got a lot of interesting detail from his book, and, frankly, an incredibly excellent explanation of exactly how Jesus expected his followers to behave in the public arena. But I have not been surprised by the descent of Evangelicals into insanity — the amazingly simple “prosperity” gospel and occasional snake handling services have hinted at a certain instability for a long time in my view. What I can’t quite come to grips with is the deafening silence of the majority of “normal” Christians — the ones who haven’t given their child’s AR-15 a recent oil rubdown just in case the fighting breaks out sooner than expected. There are at least as many “mainline” protestants as there are Evangelicals, and Christianity as a whole is taking a societal beating in the credibility and “I want to be a part of that” arenas. The public view of Christianity has been trending negative for decades, and especially among younger generations. Notwithstanding the beating drums for a holy war after Trump’s defeat, American Christianity at this point in time is judged by others for its shocking abuse and financial scandals and the abject cruelty of its responses to sick pregnant women in peril after the loss of Roe v Wade protections. On the morality front, threesomes seem to be gaining in popularity, now that Jerry Falwell, Jr. and Bridget and Christian (no pun intended) Ziegler of “Mom’s For Liberty” (protecting our kids from literature) fame have cast off the cloak of shame. You might think the “when you find yourself in a hole, stop digging” wisdom would kick in, but not yet. The United Methodist Church just split over LGBTQ issues — do unto others.

I’m sure I’m painting with too broad a bush —I haven’t been on a dedicated and comprehensive search for “normal” Christians calling out the outrageous and threatening behavior tied to the Christian gospel, MAGA version. But why should I have to do a dedicated and comprehensive search — I can probably count on one hand the “resistance” of which I’m casually aware, like Alberta, Moore, French, Pavlovitz (how many fingers is that?) and I’m probably more aware than most. Why aren’t they demanding attention for a different view of Christianity in the public sphere? Why aren’t they voting for sane public officials? Maybe I’m wrong and they just aren’t there in numbers greater than I have fingers. A current poll shows that 64% of Republicans think Donald Trump is “a man of faith.” Polling seems to show Trump still favored by the religious (having, of course, won them overwhelmingly in the 2020 election), when voters with no religious affiliation went 72% for Biden in 2020. Maybe honesty and compassion and ethics and courage just aren’t a Christian thing anymore — digging is where it’s at.