Organized Religion Is The Real Loser In The Alabama Senate Race

Organized Religion Is the Real Loser in the Alabama Senate Race
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Christians have had to do some Olympic level twists to come up with excuses to justify their support of Donald Trump and now Roy Moore. The party of family values, whose voters were appalled at Michelle Obama’s bare arms, suddenly doesn’t seem to mind that Trump had five children by three different women. Now with Roy Moore, these same people have made some epic excuses as to why Roy Moore’s allegations of child sexual abuse are not the dealbreakers that they should be if you claim to be the party of, you know, family values. Some of the more creative ones were:

  • Alabama State Auditor Jim Zeigler told the Washington Examiner, “Take Joseph and Mary. Mary was a teenager and Joseph was an adult carpenter. They became parents of Jesus. There’s just nothing immoral or illegal here. Maybe just a little bit unusual.”
  • Jerry Moore said his brother, Roy, is “being persecuted ... like Jesus Christ was”
  • Jerry Falwell, Jr. said “God called King David a man after God’s own heart even though he was an adulterer and a murderer.”

Now, I don’t claim to be a theologian, but I thought Mary’s pregnancy was the result of an Immaculate Conception but then I didn’t read pass 2 Corinthians like Trump. And it’s not really a surprise that people use the Bible to support Roy Moore. After all, that’s basically Roy Moore’s claim to fame. He displayed a monument of the Ten Commandments outside the courthouse and wouldn’t remove it even after a court order. He was also suspended for refusing to follow a court order to allow same sex marriages. It’s Roy’s shtick like any other fake televangelist. And just like some televangelists, it’s not surprising that Roy has a whole cemetery full of skeletons in his closet. So I get why Roy Moore would misuse religion, he’s a mediocre white guy who needed a gimmick to advance his career.

It’s the rest of the religious folks that will really suffer if Roy Moore is elected. Organized religion has already been on the decline even in the southern Bible belt states. And the overwhelming support by evangelicals of Donald Trump and Roy Moore has highlighted the disconnect between what religious folks claim they stand for and what they really stand for.

Even Roy Moore supporters’ claims that they are pro-life seem hollow. I will overlook the obvious lack of knowledge about biology for the supporters who claim Doug Jones supports abortion up until birth. But what about protecting young women? Their lives are forever changed, and a number of religious folks just seem to shrug that off as something they need to get over. It’s not pro-life; it’s pro-forced birth. After you’re born, these same religious people will call them a drain on society, suggest their mothers are promiscuous and say they are on their own.

Maybe the hypocrisy in the church won’t change the hearts and minds of the older generations who stubbornly cling to their Bibles, but it will be harder and harder for the younger generations to look pass the glaring double standards. If we have to ask What Would Jesus Do, and the answer is elect the accused pedophile to get a Senate seat, organized religion is lost.

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