Why Almost Anything is More in Alignment With Jesus' Teachings than Pro-Trump Christianity\/Catholicism<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"For me to reject a particular flavor of Christianity \/Catholicism, it must be a "White-only," "Pro-Trump" fundie agenda for me to reject it. I don't\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alltexansnotsometexans\/2023\/05\/why-almost-anything-is-more-in-alignment-with-jesus-teachings-than-pro-trump-christianity-catholicism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Almost Anything is More in Alignment With Jesus' Teachings than Pro-Trump Christianity\/Catholicism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For me to reject a particular flavor of Christianity \/Catholicism, it must be a "White-only," "Pro-Trump" fundie agenda for me to reject it. I don't\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alltexansnotsometexans\/2023\/05\/why-almost-anything-is-more-in-alignment-with-jesus-teachings-than-pro-trump-christianity-catholicism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"All Texans, Not Some Texans\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-05-08T14:06:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-05-09T02:36:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/1519\/2023\/05\/Golden-Rule.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"481\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Julie Nichols\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Julie Nichols\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alltexansnotsometexans\/2023\/05\/why-almost-anything-is-more-in-alignment-with-jesus-teachings-than-pro-trump-christianity-catholicism\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alltexansnotsometexans\/2023\/05\/why-almost-anything-is-more-in-alignment-with-jesus-teachings-than-pro-trump-christianity-catholicism\/\",\"name\":\"Why Almost Anything is More in Alignment With Jesus' Teachings than Pro-Trump Christianity\/Catholicism\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alltexansnotsometexans\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-05-08T14:06:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-05-09T02:36:31+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alltexansnotsometexans\/#\/schema\/person\/3feff188e6728f8d4e30ab80f1e35bb6\"},\"description\":\"For me to reject a particular flavor of Christianity \/Catholicism, it must be a \\\"White-only,\\\" \\\"Pro-Trump\\\" fundie agenda for me to reject it. I don't\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alltexansnotsometexans\/2023\/05\/why-almost-anything-is-more-in-alignment-with-jesus-teachings-than-pro-trump-christianity-catholicism\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alltexansnotsometexans\/2023\/05\/why-almost-anything-is-more-in-alignment-with-jesus-teachings-than-pro-trump-christianity-catholicism\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alltexansnotsometexans\/2023\/05\/why-almost-anything-is-more-in-alignment-with-jesus-teachings-than-pro-trump-christianity-catholicism\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alltexansnotsometexans\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Why Almost Anything is More in Alignment With Jesus’ Teachings than Pro-Trump Christianity\/Catholicism\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alltexansnotsometexans\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alltexansnotsometexans\/\",\"name\":\"All Texans, Not Some Texans\",\"description\":\"Diving into Jesus Christ, church history, modern-day theological challenges and the real-time effects of Texas politics on marginalized people.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alltexansnotsometexans\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alltexansnotsometexans\/#\/schema\/person\/3feff188e6728f8d4e30ab80f1e35bb6\",\"name\":\"Julie Nichols\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alltexansnotsometexans\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/02836928329f25c38e15faacb6a142ec?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/02836928329f25c38e15faacb6a142ec?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Julie Nichols\"},\"description\":\"Julie Nichols is a \\\"Catholic on-the-margins,\\\" a Native Texan, wife of 32 years, a mother of LGBTQ+ young adults, plus a daughter-in-law. She is an Educational Therapist and Vocational Rehabilitation Specialist who serves children and adults with developmental, learning disabilities, and cognitive disabilities, a part-time advocate for disabled and LBGTQ youth and their families, an early-onset Parkinson\u2019s Disease patient, and was the first recipient of Advanced Deep Brain Stimulation Surgery in South Texas in 2017. Julie loves modern-day theological challenges, walks with the dogs, attending Mass\/Church, and eating Mexican food on the San Antonio Riverwalk with her family. Her work has appeared in her Patheos column, New Ways Ministry, Outreach, Therapist.News, Righting America, Faith-on-View, other medical and educational publishers, and CathNews New Zealand.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alltexansnotsometexans\/author\/jnichols\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Why Almost Anything is More in Alignment With Jesus' Teachings than Pro-Trump Christianity\/Catholicism","description":"For me to reject a particular flavor of Christianity \/Catholicism, it must be a \"White-only,\" \"Pro-Trump\" fundie agenda for me to reject it. I don't","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alltexansnotsometexans\/2023\/05\/why-almost-anything-is-more-in-alignment-with-jesus-teachings-than-pro-trump-christianity-catholicism\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Why Almost Anything is More in Alignment With Jesus' Teachings than Pro-Trump Christianity\/Catholicism","og_description":"For me to reject a particular flavor of Christianity \/Catholicism, it must be a \"White-only,\" \"Pro-Trump\" fundie agenda for me to reject it. I don't","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alltexansnotsometexans\/2023\/05\/why-almost-anything-is-more-in-alignment-with-jesus-teachings-than-pro-trump-christianity-catholicism\/","og_site_name":"All Texans, Not Some Texans","article_published_time":"2023-05-08T14:06:45+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-05-09T02:36:31+00:00","og_image":[{"width":800,"height":481,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/1519\/2023\/05\/Golden-Rule.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Julie Nichols","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Julie Nichols","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alltexansnotsometexans\/2023\/05\/why-almost-anything-is-more-in-alignment-with-jesus-teachings-than-pro-trump-christianity-catholicism\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alltexansnotsometexans\/2023\/05\/why-almost-anything-is-more-in-alignment-with-jesus-teachings-than-pro-trump-christianity-catholicism\/","name":"Why Almost Anything is More in Alignment With Jesus' Teachings than Pro-Trump Christianity\/Catholicism","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alltexansnotsometexans\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-05-08T14:06:45+00:00","dateModified":"2023-05-09T02:36:31+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alltexansnotsometexans\/#\/schema\/person\/3feff188e6728f8d4e30ab80f1e35bb6"},"description":"For me to reject a particular flavor of Christianity \/Catholicism, it must be a \"White-only,\" \"Pro-Trump\" fundie agenda for me to reject it. I don't","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alltexansnotsometexans\/2023\/05\/why-almost-anything-is-more-in-alignment-with-jesus-teachings-than-pro-trump-christianity-catholicism\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alltexansnotsometexans\/2023\/05\/why-almost-anything-is-more-in-alignment-with-jesus-teachings-than-pro-trump-christianity-catholicism\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alltexansnotsometexans\/2023\/05\/why-almost-anything-is-more-in-alignment-with-jesus-teachings-than-pro-trump-christianity-catholicism\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alltexansnotsometexans\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Why Almost Anything is More in Alignment With Jesus’ Teachings than Pro-Trump Christianity\/Catholicism"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alltexansnotsometexans\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alltexansnotsometexans\/","name":"All Texans, Not Some Texans","description":"Diving into Jesus Christ, church history, modern-day theological challenges and the real-time effects of Texas politics on marginalized people.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alltexansnotsometexans\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alltexansnotsometexans\/#\/schema\/person\/3feff188e6728f8d4e30ab80f1e35bb6","name":"Julie Nichols","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alltexansnotsometexans\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/02836928329f25c38e15faacb6a142ec?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/02836928329f25c38e15faacb6a142ec?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Julie Nichols"},"description":"Julie Nichols is a \"Catholic on-the-margins,\" a Native Texan, wife of 32 years, a mother of LGBTQ+ young adults, plus a daughter-in-law. She is an Educational Therapist and Vocational Rehabilitation Specialist who serves children and adults with developmental, learning disabilities, and cognitive disabilities, a part-time advocate for disabled and LBGTQ youth and their families, an early-onset Parkinson\u2019s Disease patient, and was the first recipient of Advanced Deep Brain Stimulation Surgery in South Texas in 2017. Julie loves modern-day theological challenges, walks with the dogs, attending Mass\/Church, and eating Mexican food on the San Antonio Riverwalk with her family. Her work has appeared in her Patheos column, New Ways Ministry, Outreach, Therapist.News, Righting America, Faith-on-View, other medical and educational publishers, and CathNews New Zealand.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alltexansnotsometexans\/author\/jnichols\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alltexansnotsometexans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alltexansnotsometexans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alltexansnotsometexans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alltexansnotsometexans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4708"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alltexansnotsometexans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alltexansnotsometexans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alltexansnotsometexans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alltexansnotsometexans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alltexansnotsometexans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alltexansnotsometexans\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":2949,"date":"2023-05-08T09:06:45","date_gmt":"2023-05-08T14:06:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alltexansnotsometexans\/?p=2949"},"modified":"2023-05-08T21:36:31","modified_gmt":"2023-05-09T02:36:31","slug":"why-almost-anything-is-more-in-alignment-with-jesus-teachings-than-pro-trump-christianity-catholicism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/alltexansnotsometexans\/2023\/05\/why-almost-anything-is-more-in-alignment-with-jesus-teachings-than-pro-trump-christianity-catholicism\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Almost Anything is More in Alignment With Jesus’ Teachings than Pro-Trump Christianity\/Catholicism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

For me to reject a particular flavor of Christianity \/Catholicism, it must be a \u201cWhite-only,\u201d \u201cPro-Trump\u201d fundie agenda for me to reject it. I don\u2019t reject the people in it, but I do reject their continued unconditional allegiance to Trump and the Republican party which is the American variation of aligning with Hitler and the Nazi party.\u00a0 \u00a0I can respect other non-fundie branches in religions of Hinduism, Buddhism<\/a>, and Islam so much more than I can respect a fascist bastardized brand of the Christian faith. The primary teachings of all major world religions align with The Golden Rule which is to love our neighbor as ourselves.\u00a0 \u00a0A pro-Trump, all-white fundie version of \u201cChristianity\/Catholicism\u201d teaches the opposite, that if someone is not white, Republican, straight, \u201cChristian,\u201d and neurotypical, that person is \u201cout.\u201d Therefore, that person is a \u201cless valuable\u201d human being than \u201cThe Perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n

For example. please observe this chart highlighting Golden Rule taught in every major world religion.<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/p>\n

Even atheism and agnosticism are more in alignment with the teachings of Jesus Christ than the bastardized brand of Christianity combined with Trump and the Republican party.\u00a0 Let\u2019s take a look.\u00a0 \u00a0Both atheism and agnosticism teach that there isn\u2019t a God or one is not sure if there is a God.\u00a0 In both, I haven\u2019t met one agnostic or atheist person who doesn\u2019t believe in The Golden Rule, loving our neighbor as ourselves, and equal human rights for all people unlike the pro-Trump brand which classifies people into a caste system and devalues their humanity based on their \u201ccriteria.\u201d<\/p>\n

All of these groups which are NOT pro-Trump, all-white, and fundie have one thing in common, inclusion and love of neighbor. The exclusive all-white pro-Trump fundie brand of the Religious Right not only defies the teachings of Jesus Christ, it defies the primary teachings of every major world religion, The Golden Rule, and basic human decency which unites humanity.<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/p>\n

How does the Christian faith and the Catholic Church move forward. I think there is only one answer. Find common ground with those who do not share our beliefs and values and form alliances with them to improve the lives of others through charity and service.\u00a0 For the Catholic, this would be following Catholic Social Teaching which unites and provides good for all people and the world.\u00a0 As Pope Francis says above, \u201cWe must meet one another doing good.\u201d\u00a0 If we can find someone doing good will for the common good of the world, I believe we find God there, no matter how someone sees or doesn\u2019t see God.\u00a0 As one of my dearest friends and Catholic theologians named Dr. Clarence White says, \u201cI believe everyone who follows the teachings of Jesus is a Christian whether that person identifies as a Christian or knows this or not.\u201d I will say this. I believe undoubtedly that God is much more pleased with anyone who seeks the good will of others, gives of his\/her time for the betterment of others, than he who admires and follows the pro-Trump all white version of fascist Christianity\/Catholicism.\u00a0 This hateful brand of fundamentalism, just as other brands of religious fundamentalism, many times leads to death and destruction.\u00a0 I will close with a quote about religious fundamentalism once more from Pope Francis and a quote from St. Francis of Assisi.\u00a0 \u201cPreach the Gospel at all Times, and if necessary, use words.\u201d St. Francis of Assisi<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n