Yesterday’s post about Hastert and the raft of pedophiles in the Republican Party, as well as the death of another evangelical Christian Republican abuser and grifter, Jim Bakker, got me thinking about how shy Democrats are about calling out the hypocrisy and bullshit about religion that surrounds MAGA.
Let’s start with Trump, who is about as much a Christian as I am a singer in a rock-and-roll band, which is to say, he ain’t. But when I say that he isn’t a Christian, there’s a lot of people who say “who are you to judge what’s in his heart” etc. Well, James Talarico is really good on this topic, and here’s a short video explaining how he judges:
Christian Nationalists walk around with a mouth full of scripture and a heart full of hate. Don’t tell me what you believe. Show me how you treat other people, and I’ll tell you what you believe. Jesus didn’t tell us to love our churches. He didn’t tell us to love our doctrines and love our creeds. He didn’t even tell us to love our scriptures. He told us to love our neighbors. And there was no exception to that commandment. Love thy neighbor regardless of race, class, gender, sexual orientation or immigration status. One of my favorite theologians, Barbara Brown Taylor, once wrote “The only clear line I draw these days is this: when my religion comes between me and my neighbor, I will choose my neighbor. Jesus never commanded me to love my religion.” You know what’s interesting. Not once in the entire Bible does Jesus ask us to worship him. All he asks is that we follow him. Love like he loved. Love the outcast. Welcome the stranger. Feed the hungry. Heal the sick. Free the oppressed. As the hymn says, “They will know we are Christians by our love.” We have to get back to that.
I’ve also heard Talarico say that your personal relationship with Jesus doesn’t mean much if your politics require cruelty. (I believe this was in his Jimmy Kimmel interview, which is worth watching.)
This is a harsh and divisive message, and I say that not as a judgment against it, but as a statement of fact. There are a lot of MAGA adherents who have bought the message from their grifter ministers: you can be as cruel and ugly as you want to others as long as you mouth the right Jesus words, attend church and tithe. One of the top results when you google “Talarico Christian” is a Fox News story quoting one of those grifters who says that Talarico is “butchering the bible”. Much has been invested in the mission of of separating evangelical Christians from their money while making them feel good about themselves even though they’re bitter haters, so any Democrat who
I don’t know if Talarico is going to win, but if there was a candidate grown in a lab who was more of a contrast with Paxton even though both of them are fairly similar (white, Christian, politician, Texan in Talarico’s case, “Texan” in Paxton’s), I don’t know who it could be. Paxton has done so much bad shit that it’s hard to single any of it out, but Steve M found one yesterday that I hadn’t heard — Paxton is investigating pediatricians for vaccinating children. He’s doing this as a sick effort to court, who else, MAGA Christians whose manipulative, grifting pastors spin antivax tales in an effort to get more recruits for their “flock”.
Talarico is showing the way to other Democrats. He has a lot more moral authority on the “what’s a real Christian” discussion, but there’s no reason that you can’t call out MAGA Christians as hypocrites by pointing out how their actions aren’t consistent with the words of their prophet. They will get really, really upset about this, and that’s a good thing if you’re interested in destroying MAGA. If you’re worried about offending them about their religion, well, you don’t understand the moment we’re in.
