Evangelicals cheer Republican U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore's pistol-waving Yosemite Sam impersonation and calls for what amounts to a Christian caliphate.
In 2008, then candidate Barack Obama took serious flak about remarks he made during a campaign stop. He described the bitterness of some small-town folks who "cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them.”
The events we've seen over the last few weeks bear out the truth to his words. The hypocrisy being played out around Republican support of Senate candidate Roy Moore in Alabama is a model for a philosophy that has gone sideways. These are people who evoke the name of Jesus and "love thy neighbor" while advocating for loosening gun regulations, spewing hate and generally dismissing those in need.
In the wake of the mass shooting at the church in Texas, the response from many surviving members of the congregation seemed to be resignation that the death of innocents as a part of “God's Plan.” Worse, suggestions to the contrary came from other churches in the area who offered solutions consistent with their worship of guns as well as God — to arm the congregation.
For the life of me, I just don't get it. Where is the outrage? Where is the anger and will to do something other than say "Well, they're in a better place with sweet baby Jesus now"?
Ken Paxton, the gun-worshiping attorney general of Texas, made the insane comment to Fox News that had the Sutherland Springs congregation been armed there would have been fewer casualties. To borrow from Piers Morgan, former CNN anchor and now "Good Morning Britain" anchor, only a brainless moron makes such a comment. As anyone in the military or law enforcement will tell you, he who shoots first wins.
The "good guy with the gun" is a false narrative the NRA continues to employ. Of course gun nuts made the guy who chased down the killer in Southerland Springs into a savior even though the results were suspect at best.
I wonder what Jesus would think of this flock that's gone down this dark path in his name.
Most evangelicals describe themselves as pro-life. I suggest that no, they are not pro-life, they are pro-birth. They reject a woman's right to choose and believe unwanted pregnancies should be carried out to the finish so they can get that kid born, and as soon as he can hold it, put a gun in one hand and a bible in the other. Just make sure that, God forbid, the kid doesn't turn out to have homosexual thoughts since 60% of evangelicals are against same sex marriage.
Some of the most strident homophobes like now-former Congressman Wes Goodman or Trump's Oklahoma campaign chair Ralph Shortey turn out to be alleged sexual predators while standing up for family values.
Alabama is Mecca for evangelicals, with over half the population describing themselves as such. They cheer Roy Moore's pistol-waving Yosemite Sam impersonation and calls for what amounts to a Christian caliphate. In their hypocrisy, they ignore or vilify his sex abuse accusers. In order to advance their twisted agenda, they'll look past any tragedy or reprobate.
Predictably here in Virginia, the ever pious Jerry Falwell Jr. jumped in to defend Moore. But that's to be expected from the Liberty University president who hired an athletic director that left Baylor in disgrace and tarnished with scandal.
They are now galvanized behind a man who co-authored a study course in 2011 saying "Women should not be allowed to run for office or work outside the home." And every day leading up to this Tuesday it gets more bizarre.
Trump wraps himself in the evangelical cloak as the defender of the faith, while at the same time violating virtually every commandment short of killing.
Meanwhile, Trump wraps himself in the evangelical cloak as the defender of the faith, while at the same time violating virtually every commandment short of killing. But then he also once boasted he could "shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and no one would care."
For his flock, he's about right.
All the while Trump's antics are a dangerous sideshow. And while we're all busy watching Trump — the tantrum-throwing man child and a wannabe strongman — Republicans in Washington are working diligently to dismantle the social safety net, pilfer the Treasury to hand benefits to the super-rich, and paying off the Pharisees of the Christian right and the NRA by stacking the judiciary with a load of hacks, kooks and unqualified zealots.
Their job is to work in a secular government, but as we've seen with other appointments like Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, qualifications don't matter to Trump. Only patronage and ideology.
Flying under the radar is the true believer, Mike Pence. He's not insane like Trump, but turning the U.S. into the theocratic Gilead from "The Handmaid's Tale" would suit him just fine. As much as Trump needs to be impeached, the remedy might actually be worse than the disease.
The "good guy with the gun" is a false narrative the NRA continues to employ.
In 2011, a poll by the Public Religion Research Institute found that only 30% of white evangelicals believed "an elected official who commits an immoral act in their personal life can still behave ethically and fulfill their duties in their public and professional life." By 2016, that number had risen to 72%.
Clearly the majority of evangelicals have moved to a Machiavellian ends-justifies-the-means approach to politics that seem to violate their own core beliefs.
As former Reagan speech writer Peggy Noonan lamented, "When a Washington Post journalist presented as fact in a 1993 news report that evangelical Christians are 'largely poor, uneducated and easy to command,' you know he was thinking of Southern evangelicals."
Yes, Peggy, and given what we see in Alabama, Texas and the rest of the evangelical world it must be true. I wonder what Jesus would think of this flock that's gone down this dark path in his name.
Meanwhile, Democrats in Congress are sacrificing Al Franken who apologized for his indiscretions but is required to fall on his sword in the name of moral purity that doesn't remotely exist on the other side.
There is a false equivalence out there and the evangelical right is winning in the name of a Jesus that they alone create.