All Means All—Even Trump

Dear Progressive Christians, deconstructed Christians, post-Christians, and all the rest of you that still identify your beliefs under the influence or guidance of Jesus’ teachings, where are your grace and mercy? I haven’t seen it in many years. I started following your work, I read your books, and I listened to your podcasts so that I could learn to break away from hateful ideologies of fundamental Christianity, particularly Evangelicalism. But lately, all I see is a new batch of fundamentalism and it seems to all be situated on hatred for Trump, those who support Trump, and anyone that you may perceive as a Trump supporter simply because they are white.

Who are you, people? I do not see Jesus’ teachings prevalent in anything you have been preaching or teaching or sharing. What I do see is the same nonsense that Jesus was met with by the Pharisees. I see new doctrines of hatred, dogmas that justify condescension, and an entirely new Gospel dedicated to reducing the enemies—not loving them. Has anyone called you out for this yet? And if so, why did you not yield to the concerns?

Over the last 5 years, your rage, your contempt, and your anger have been entangled in the most prevalent presentations of your “new beliefs.” But I must tell you, it sure does look a lot like the systems of thought that you once deemed divisive. Have you become what you hated the most?

Perhaps that is because you have yet to understand that hatred has no room in the Good News?

President Trump announced that he and Melania have tested positive for Covid-19 and all I saw was celebration and glee coming from your “side.” That side that you claim Jesus is on. Did you know, as David Hayward has depicted, that Jesus walks around with a big pencil, erasing the lines that you make?

Couple the celebration with the condescending attitudes of those who so valiantly demonstrated their good graces by offering a prayer for our leader; I just cannot help but wonder if anyone actually believes in grace and mercy and love anymore. Whatever happened to keeping our prayers silent, locked away in a closet so that only God need hear it? Well, as can be expected, most of those who claim the “progressive” Christian title is no different than the evangelicals they claim to oppose— they all ignore the Sermon on the Mount teachings. “Those teachings are for the disciples, not me.”

I am at a loss, really. So many people that once inspired me to challenge myself and my beliefs have one-by-one stopped challenging themselves and have fallen prey to the same Pharisaic behaviors that Jesus challenged 2,000 years ago. Where is your love for your neighbor and your enemy? When did you turn the other cheek? When did you give up your coat and your shirt? We are called to walk 2 miles, and I see people laying down like toddlers at Wal-Mart, kicking and screaming and throwing fits because they couldn’t get a treat at the check-out lane.

It’s my fault, really. I invested faith in so many, thinking they would show me the Father, but instead, they continue to show me Judas. The truth is that only actions and words of love show me the Father. And because I know what love looks like, I know that I can only follow the One who is the absolute fullness of it. Silly me for following anyone of the world, right?

Don’t we all get caught up in that? When we follow the world, we turn away from following Jesus. The likes, the retweets, the shares, and the attention one receives from following the world makes us feel as if it’s the right mentality to imitate. It is not.

The only call I offer is this: If you are finding a way to justify your negative attitudes toward others if you are juxtaposing bible verses with your derogatory feelings about someone (that you have most likely never met in your life) to somehow feel exalted by your words; ask yourself if that’s really what Jesus would do. Because as far as I can see, Jesus never put others on blast behind their backs. Jesus didn’t tell others, “See these people, they are disgraceful, and do not deserve the love of God.” God loves all. God loves Trump, Biden, and even Hitler. God loves every slaveholder, every pedophile, every rapist, every murderer. ALL means ALL.