One of the first songs I learned in Sunday School was, “Jesus Loves the Little Children” wherein the song proclaims that Jesus loves all the children of the world and how they are red and yellow, black and white, and how they’re all precious in His sight. Another basic Sunday School lesson was about the importance of truth, being truthful, and how it is the truth that sets us free. And finally, the key lesson in Sunday School was to love God and our neighbor as much as we love ourselves. For years, the religious right Republicans claimed that they had the corner on Godly morality. They were the protectors of life and morality. They were the law and order party. They were the family values party. That is no longer accurate. Their full-fledged embrace of Donald Trump, the opposite of espoused Christian values like diversity, truth, and love for God and others, has corrupted their party to its core.
It saddens me to see supposed Christians turn a blind eye to the dehumanizing and demonization of immigrants. Christians, following Trump, abandoned basic Christian values by ignoring or even endorsing the separation of babies and children from their parents at our border. They forgot that a very pregnant Mary and Joseph were immigrants desperately fleeing danger at home. They forgot the parable of the Good Samaritan wherein Jesus taught us to welcome the stranger. Notably Jesus pointed out that it was the religious folk of the day who lacked compassion. Sound familiar? They’ve forgotten the condemnation Jesus had for those who harm children. They instead remained silent or complicit in the face of human cruelty and condoned the lie that blames the victims, abandoning the compassion Jesus requires of His followers. Instead they follow Trump. Sounds like idolatry to me. But that’s yet another problem right wing Christians are having and that a few upstanding Evangelical pastors are trying desperately to combat.
It confounds me to watch supposed Christians embrace a liar and then repeat lies he tells them. Christians were taught in Sunday School that the devil was a liar from the beginning and that he is the father of lies. Jesus taught us that it is the truth that sets us free. How can these Republican Christians completely forget that the Bible says that all liars will be cast in the lake of fire? And how can they completely ignore the lesson that bearing false witness is among the six things that God hates the most? The Bible, which they claim as their guide for living, repeatedly warns against lying and siding with liars. There are so many Bible references for the plight of liars. Here is just one: “A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that speaketh lies shall perish.” (Proverbs 19:9) This is basic Sunday School 101 and Republican leaders and even some Evangelical ministers are repeating lies that come directly from a confirmed liar, Donald Trump. Their source is the one who comes to kill, steal, and destroy and it’s so sad to hear that nonsense coming from the pulpit on Sunday mornings.
However, the worst of the worst is their total abandonment of love for neighbor. As they move to deny voting rights, human rights, public health, and human compassion in favor of protecting a non-existent plea for liberty disguised as white supremacy, we are all in peril. There is not a love for neighbor, but a fear and hatred of anyone who does not look like them, worship like them, or love like them. They are in favor of gun rights that claim innocent human lives in this country more than any other. They claim to be pro-life, but refuse to wear masks, social distance, or take a vaccine to protect us from COVID-19. They are actually just pro-white seeing how it is people of color who are dying the most from COVID-19 due to years of poverty and healthcare neglect.
All of this stems from the fact that the number of whites in this country is declining and people of color are making some political and economic progress. They feel threatened. Their pro-life abortion stance isn’t about anything other than how the statistics show that the highest percentage of abortions is among white women at greater nearly 60%. And most of those are among educated women who are claim Christianity as their religion, whether Catholic or Protestant. White supremacist want to stop this. They don’t care about black and brown babies; they care about white ones and getting that birth rate up. It is no surprise that black and brown women are more likely to die in childbirth due to lack of care and the downplaying of complications in childbirth. White supremacist masquerading as Christians have shown time and time again, that only their white lives matter. They push Jesus aside when they get bent out of shape when anyone else claims, what God Himself has said, that their lives matter, too.
It saddens me to conclude that white supremacy has supplanted true Christianity. But many may argue that this truth dates back to slavery itself and Jim Crow and lynching. They have forsaken their Sunday School lessons that center around love and truth in exchange for a bunch of political stances that are based in hatred and lies from the father of lies through his mouth piece, Donald Trump. I’m reminded of a scripture that talks about how God will eventually give godless and wicked people over to a reprobate mind. And it has become pretty apparent that the Republican Party has become morally bankrupt and incapable of living in reality. Their cowardly party leaders need to be ousted. But ultimately, I trust that the promises of God are true and that these lies and liars will meet their just end. If nothing else, their lies about COVID-19 will find them and hell will be their destination sooner than they think.
As for our country, it is up to the rest of us to make sure that we do not allow this immoral political party to succeed with their hateful white supremacist agenda. We have to keep the House and Senate in 2022 which means we’re going to have to vote like our country’s survival depends on it, because it literally does.