I was raised Evangelical. Bible Studies. Retreats in the woods. Worship team practices. Potlucks. The whole nine. I knew the faith. I knew what I had to believe in order to be right with God. And I stayed true to the path as best I could.
But here’s the God’s honest truth.
It was basically all a lie.
Since leaving the church over 10 years ago, it has become the very thing it preached against for all those years. It warned of monsters and demons and antichrists and has become those things.
Nietzsche warned of this very thing when he said, “Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster.” The church has not heeded his advice and it shows.
All throughout this country, Christians have become the very thing they used to say they were against. They all but worship a sexual abusing, unrepentant gaslighter who mocks the disabled, the immigrant, the poor, and the oppressed. Whereas Jesus lifted these folks up, the MAGA crowd demonizes them.
Oh, but it’s not about that, they’ll say. They like his economic policies. Well, when I was in the church, what mattered most wasn’t your view on macroeconomics or even if you were a good leader; what mattered most was your character. Now, however, character doesn’t matter. You can sexually assault women, pay them to keep quiet, attempt to steal an election, lie through your teeth at every turn, and most of the Evangelical church will come up with excuse after excuse as to why these things don’t matter as much as Hilary’s emails or Hunter Biden’s business dealings.
What’s perhaps even more distressing is how the MAGA Christians will cancel you if you don’t toe the company line, taking plays out of the playbook of basically every cult in history. Take Liz Cheney, for instance. This is a woman who has voted with Trump 93% of the time. For all intents and purposes, she is someone I generally do not respect and do not agree with. But because she drew the line at literal treason, she lost her bid for reelection in a landslide.
And yes, some are abandoning ship right now because it doesn’t benefit their careers to stick with Trump. But for the most part, Evangelical Christians are standing by him, as all good cultists do.
I don’t mean to sound petty or bitter by calling these people cultists, but I don’t know what better word for what I’m seeing. When I grew up, everything was about Jesus. And while I don’t agree with 95% of the theology of my upbringing, I can at least respect the consistency in the message: Love God, love Jesus, help others, be respectful, show humility, and so on. But in becoming the monster they warred against, the church has altered its message beyond recognition and have given their hearts to a new lord — Lord Trump. And in doing so, they’ve become just like him: loud, obnoxious, braggadocios, mean-spirited, and haughty.
This is why the church no longer has credibility. None. They’ve made their bed, probably with red MAGA sheets and a Trump flag blanket, and now they have to sleep in it. History won’t be too kind to these people, just like history wasn’t too kind to the German Christians who aligned with Hitler. And while I’m not saying that Trump is Hitler, I am saying that the same type of Christian Nationalistic spirit led to both. Both are toxic. Both are monstrous. And both are antithetical to the teachings of Jesus.
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