God is Not Dead and Standing Firm in Faith

God is Not Dead: In God We Trust opened in theaters Thursday. According to its synopsis, the fifth installment in the God is Not Dead franchise “explores the enduring relevance of faith in public life and the critical fight to keep religious values at the heart of governance.” The film’s protagonist, a man who puts his Christian belief at the center of a congressional campaign, offers proof that God is not dead, and that “standing firm in faith” is what’s needed in our country.

The same week of this movie’s release, political leaders who identify as Christian posted on Twitter that Haitian immigrants living in Springfield, Ohio, were stealing and eating residents’ pets. This rumor has been widely debunked, and was fact checked by moderators at this week’s presidential debate, after former President Donald Trump claimed that immigrants “were eating pets,” offering as proof that he saw something about this on television. The Arizona Republican Party started a “Eat Less Kittens: Vote Republican” campaign, perpetuating the lie about immigrants with presumably clever wink-and-nod billboards.

What Standing Firm in Faith Is Not

Instead of denouncing those profoundly dehumanizing Haitian immigrants, though, some Christian political leaders perpetuated the rumor. Senator Ted Cruz, who identifies as an evangelical Christian and has said his faith guides his politics, tweeted a meme of cats, begging people to vote for Trump so “that Haitians don’t eat us.” (His entire Twitter feed is a barrage of propaganda about the supposed criminality of immigrants.)

Vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance, who claims his Christian faith is at the center of his campaign, tweeted on Monday that he has heard from constituents in Ohio that Haitian immigrants are killing and eating pets. After ABC journalists fact-checked his boss during the debate, then asked Vance later about Trump’s “they’re eating our pets” comment, Vance doubled down, asserting that even though those rumors might not “be exactly true,” the immigrants are causing problems, blaming presidential candidate Kamala Harris for communities “ravaged by immigrants.”

Megan Basham, whose recent book argues that Christians in government and church leadership have “traded the truth for a leftist agenda,” spread rumors about Haitian immigrants on her own social media pages, and then when pressed to provide specifics, cited a pastor friend in Ohio who can verify as fact that these image-bearers of God are eating pets, but also that they are also “causing chaos” in Springfield.

I could go on, because there are numerous examples of presumably Christian leaders choosing to lie about the criminality of Haitian immigrants specifically, and about immigrants to the United States more broadly.

There’s been a lot about our political climate that I’ve found discouraging over the last decade, but this, more than most anything else, has made me feel outright despair for the state of the church, the state of our nation, and the willingness of so many folks to disregard the teachings of Jesus, all in the name of “standing firm in faith.”

What Standing Firm in Faith Is

I believe that Christians have a role to play in how their communities are governed—the very title of this column reflects my sense that faith should be a part of the town square. But when I talk about faith in politics, this isn’t it. Dehumanizing others with scurrilous rumors is not centering Christian belief. Insisting that those who look and act different don’t belong in our communities? This is also not centering Christian belief.

Nor is showing zero empathy for people who have committed the apparently unforgiveable sin of being born in another country, and seeking safety for their families and for themselves. “Keeping religious values at the heart of governance” means actually treating people—all people—as image-bearers of our Creator, fearfully and wonderfully made, worthy of love (and food, and security) just as they are.

Given what I’ve seen of the earlier God Is Not Dead films, I’m not sure the latest iteration will tackle what spiritual and moral leadership in politics should look like. In other GIND films, a blameless Christian takes on an evil institution, saving the institution from the godless and thus proving that God is still relevant. But rather than tackling racism or misogyny or a zillion other ways our institutions perpetuate harm in others, these films lionize Christians who press their beliefs into classrooms and courtrooms, demanding that others embrace their particular worldview–or stay godless.

Perhaps I’m just jaded because the earlier films in this franchise seemed like evangelical propaganda. Or perhaps I’m jaded because the religious leaders I see now, claiming the mantle of Christendom for America, consistently remind me that their fidelity to money and power trumps their willingness to love God by loving others.

Because faith in the town square looks a lot more like Jesus eating with a refugee than spreading rumors that others are consuming pets; and welcoming the stranger rather than making his neighbors revile him; and providing comfort, even when doing so makes others uncomfortable. That’s what it means, in the language of the movie’s blurb, for Christians to “stand firm in faith and make their voices heard.”

Right now, the Christian voices being heard in our town squares are mostly mean, and petty, and hateful. Such voices are an argument that God is indeed dead–at least in the hearts of those choosing not to see God’s image in others.