The Christian Right is under siege by a pandemic of hypocrisy

The Christian Right is under siege by a pandemic of hypocrisy April 20, 2020

As the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown drags into it’s second month, the country is getting restless. That’s pretty understandable, this is uncharted territory for all of us and patience does tend to wear thin. After a honeymoon period where most of us were pretty much resigned to the fact that we were going to be hunkered down for a good while, there is now a growing movement of folks pushing to end the lockdown in order to get the economy back up and running. All of a sudden, sensing an opportunity on the wind to rally some of his biggest support base, President Trump is now pressuring governors to open their states back up earlier than almost all of the medical experts advise. As a result, once again, we see the Christian Right taking to the streets for all the wrong reasons and, in the process, shining an intense spotlight on their seemingly endless supply of hypocrisy. Let’s just look at a handful of examples, shall we?

All of a sudden, many on the Christian Right are desperately concerned with the welfare of the poor. 

Don’t get me wrong, I think being concerned about the poor is one of the most Christ-like attributes one can possess. The issue here is that, until now, many on the Christian Right have not had much of a track record where this is concerned. Look at the social media page of a typical Right Wing Christian who is suddenly concerned about the nation’s poor because of the shut down and I’ll wager you won’t have to dig very far to find a bunch of previous posts that would suggest how the poor are entitled and lazy and looking for handouts–about how taxation is theft–about how they’ve worked and struggled for every dime they have and they don’t want their tax money going to support a bunch of lazy people. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, they seem to be seeing a different aspect of poverty.

Many on the Christian Right seem to be warming up to Socialism. 

Anyone who’s paying attention has seen countless social media posts applauding “Trump’s $1200 stimulus checks” as if Trump was responsible for them. They seem to not understand that only Congress (Democrats and Republicans working together) had the power to appropriate those funds, despite the fact that Trump is insisting his name be stamped on the checks. I’ve seen many Right Wing Christians suggesting that perhaps liberals should tear their checks up since they are “coming from President Trump.” They think that’s real funny, so much so that they fail to see that the joke is on them. In lauding these stimulus checks, they are publicly praising Socialism. I guess, to them, Socialism isn’t Socialism if it puts money into their own pockets.

Many on the Christian Right don’t seem to understand quarantine and social distancing protocols at all.

If I’ve seen it once, I’ve seen it a dozen times; this notion that the lockdown restrictions are an attempt by liberals to take away religious freedoms. You’ve seen it, I’m sure. “If fast food restaurants are essential then why isn’t church?” Such a short-sighted complaint which shows zero understanding of how this works. Essential businesses that are still open, like restaurants, grocery stores, and certain other stores that carry items people might need are all operating under very specific social distancing protocols. They either limit the amount of people who can come in at one time or operate only by curbside or drive through transactions. They exercise extreme caution by sanitizing things after each transaction and have gone to great lengths to limit direct exposure from person to person. A better analogy to match what churches do would be movie theaters. Those are shut down because hundreds of people shouldn’t be sitting shoulder-to-shoulder in a room with one another. New movies are now being made available to rent and stream from home. Most of the responsible churches are having online services or drive up and park services where parishioners are not all under one roof. It’s pretty simple really, but you’d never know it if you were listening to some of these protesters.

Many pro-lifers on the Christian Right seem to suddenly be pro-choice. 

As more and more anti-lockdown protesters take to the streets, they are exposing their blatant hypocrisy. Some far Right Christians–the very same people who say they’ll never vote for a Democrat because they are “baby killers”–are now on the streets holding signs that say “my body, my choice” as they demand to have restrictions lifted and go back to business as usual. They say if they wish to take the risk with their own bodies, they should be allowed to do so. This is the ultimate in selfishness. These same people, when it comes to a woman’s right to choose what to do with her own body, will scream that her choice is taking the choice away from the unborn fetus she carries. That argument, in and of itself, is not without merit, if you subscribe to the belief that a fetus is a human life, but it goes right out the window when you are willing to put many, many people at risk by refusing to follow the CDC protocols for social distancing. Anyone who is protesting against the lockdown by saying “my body, my choice” has lost absolutely all legitimate standing as a pro-lifer.

Far too few on the Christian Right are asking themselves what Jesus would do.

What would Jesus do in these strange times? I’m betting he wouldn’t be marching the streets demanding to be able to go out and make money right now. I believe Jesus would be more concerned with helping those who need it most, the desitute, the sick, the elderly, etc. I think he would be standing with the health care workers and the charities. I believe Jesus would walk up to these Christian Right protesters, many of whom are carrying high powered weapons, Confederate flags, and swastika banners, and tell them all to go home and sin no more.

I wrote this song just before the pandemic began to affect us. At the time, this song was about the healing that needs to happen within the Christian Church collectively. The song seems to have taken on new meaning now, so I’ll share it here to close this piece. Everyone stay safe.


Browse Our Archives