The Religious Right Needs to Repent–My Own Changes

I want to clarify who the Religious Right is because sometimes conservative Christians become upset with me when I call out the shenanigans of the Religious Right. Here is a definition from Wikipedia although it’s not always the best source. “The Christian Right (Religious Right) are Christian/Catholic political factions characterized by their strong support of socially conservative and traditionalist policies. These specific political Christian conservatives seek to influence politics and public policy with their interpretation of the teachings of Christianity.”

I will add that the Religious Right seeks both political power for these causes and will do so at all costs. It’s rooted in the worst racism and patriarchal control imaginable and tries to abuse the human conscience and critical thinking of others at dangerous levels to achieve their agenda.  The Religious Right also seeks to erase the basic human rights, freedoms, and safety of many minorities, particularly gender and sexual minorities like LGBTQ+ people.  If all of this isn’t you, you are not part of the Religious Right.

I’ve had first-hand experience with these people in both the progressive Democratic pro-life movement (2 year stint from 2018-2020) and in the conservative wing of the Catholic Church and couldn’t quite put my finger on what they were trying to do until I entered the Catholic Church in 2017. It took me about 1.5 years to figure out that the Catholic Right combined with the Evangelical Right was involved with trying to overturn American democracy and democracy on a global scale for the sake of, “upholding socially conservative and traditionalist polices at all costs.” These people were trying to “use abortion” to destroy minority groups, usher in Project 2025, and elect Donald Trump at all costs. When I witnessed what the Church leadership was doing this through the conservative Anglican door to the Catholic Church (won’t say which Church), I grew to understand that serious danger was coming and that I must resist, speak, and write against it.

Thank God I fully woke up because this happened before any of my kids came out LGBTQ+ in 2021, and that awakening helped me reach the level of awareness I have today. My LGBTQ+ kids could have been in serious danger if God had not used these encounters to shake me. At least I believe God’s hand was in it.

Trust me, I still have a lot to learn and am way behind life-long liberals in their understandings. Innately, it was the initial overt racism which shook me in a profound way, close to the time of George Floyd’s death in May of 2020 and Trump mocking the disabled reporter in 2016 which planted the seed of disgust. It was my long-standing opposition to racism and disability discrimination which opened the floodgates for me to understand how all civil rights are interconnected. This is why I am now fighting so hard for transgender rights today.  This population only comprises a little over 1% of the population.  However,  the dangerous political machine created by the Religious Right has used this vulnerable minority population as a political scapegoat for many years, particularly within the last 3 years. If we allow and encourage this small population to be erased, we open the door for all other minority groups to be erased.  As Emma Lazarus said, “None of us are free until all of us are free.”