A prominent voice in mainstream media is Cultural Christians who care more about the culture than they do about actually following the teachings of Jesus.
You know who they are — sycophant, sympathetic apologists for sexist, racist bigots and patriarchal white men who worship a god of power, not the God who gave us Jesus.
They are enmeshed in politics and use hot button issues to appeal to their base — abortion, marriage, birth control, sex — they claim the issue is morality, too often the issue is controlling women. And gay people. And separating their base from everyone else. They follow a faith that divides rather than unites.
Too many are little more than Cultural Christians.
They wave nationalistic flags, are more concerned about party over people, and speak as though they’ve never read the Bible. (Jesus would oppose executions, sexism, bigotry, bombings and torture, for example.)
Cultural Christians think they “have a relationship with Jesus,” or feel they are doing “God’s will,” but seldom are they called to do things they didn’t already want to do. (This is the actual point of the story of Jonah, for example, which is not a story about a whale.)
It’s curious how the wants of Cultural Christians somehow become God’s wants.
Miraculously, their view on abortion, marriage, birth control, and sex somehow becomes God’s view on abortion, marriage, birth control and sex.
It’s no surprise so many Cultural Christians excuse the blatant, amoral sexism and racism of Donald Trump — they are ignorant of the actual teaching of Jesus and their morality is a moral relativism.
Cultural Christians worship a god of their own creation, a hollow, cheap knock-off of the actual Creator of the universe. Their message of god is whatever suits their politics and bigotry.
They rationalize and excuse un-Biblical behavior among those they support, and ignore true manifestations of faith among political opponents.
Cultural Christians are not Christian. Mistaken and misguided, they demonstrate their lack of true Christian values when they show little regard for the damage they do to the lives of others or the reputation of the Kingdom of God. Cultural Christians project their own biases and bigotry onto the god they create and overlook the God of Creation.
What’s the difference between Cultural Christians and Christian followers of Jesus?
Love.
The message of God, delivered by Jesus is, “love God, love others.”
Jesus followers follow his example and love others. Jesus said loving others is the most important thing.
Bigotry, sexism, racism, and nationalism aren’t how we show others the love of God.
Jesus called out hypocrites who discriminated against others and opposed those who abused power, and then he walked with broken outcasts rejected by the mainstream.
Followers of Jesus stand with the oppressed. Cultural Christians are oppressors.
Jesus is always on the side of the oppressed. Always.
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