Preface: I lean Left on most issues, and I lean Left BECAUSE of, not in spite of, my Christian faith. I lean Left because of the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats; because of the Parable of the Good Samaritan; because of the prophetic injunction to do justly and love mercy; because of the example of a God who became homeless and powerless, and hung out with the homeless and powerless.
BUT: I know
that the people who lean Right are, for the most part, decent human beings who
are trying to do the right thing, for what they believe are the right reasons.
I grew up with conservative Evangelical Christians who voted Republican because
they believed it was what God wanted them to do. I know you, Evangelicals, and
I know you’re good people. I know that the majority of you are not hateful, not
bigots, do not hate women or Muslims or gay people. You give to charity (often more than you can afford), you
help each other and your neighbors during hard times (even people you don't like), you do your best to be
the love of Jesus to the world.
I think you wanted to send the message that you
oppose abortion, you want to affirm your beliefs about the sanctity of
marriage, you want America’s values to be more closely aligned with the
Christian values you hold. You also wanted to send the message that the economy
isn’t working for the middle class, that your taxes are too high and your wages
too low, that you think the government is interfering with things it has no
business interfering in. And no doubt you wanted to send other messages that the rest of the country hasn't been hearing for the past 8 years.
But that’s not the message your vote sent to many people I
know and love.
You could have chosen another candidate to represent you and
send the messages you wanted to send.
But you chose Trump.
The message that sent to people I care for, was NOT the
message that I think you wanted to send.
The message you sent was that the body of Christ is okay
with these things:
·
I know
SIX-YEAR-OLDS who are afraid of their families being attacked or deported now. In the name of the “family values” party,
and IN THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST. (“He who offends against one of these
little ones, it were better for him that a millstone be tied around his neck,
and he be cast into the sea”.)
·
I know
gay couples who are afraid of losing health insurance if their marriages are
declared illegal. Because Jesus loves them, as long as they just stop being
gay. (“Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She
and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the
poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things
before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen.”)
·
I work with people who have developmental
disabilities, and I’m afraid of what will happen to them in a country whose
leader openly mocks and belittles them, and says he wants to cut the Social
Security programs that keep them alive. (“Whatever you did not do unto the
least of these, my bretheren, you did not do unto Me”).
·
I know
elderly people who are afraid of what will happen to them if Social Security is
gutted. (“You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an
old man, and you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.”)
·
I know
families who will have no health insurance options, if ACA is repealed without
being replaced by something better. (“For I was sick, and you decided I
didn’t deserve health care because I didn’t have a job that offered insurance.”
#ThingsJesusNeverSaid )
·
There are
many refugees who are afraid of being sent back to countries whose governments
will kill them. (“Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were
foreigners in Egypt.”)
·
I know
many women who’ve been sexually assaulted and are afraid that sexual predators
will now feel emboldened to continue without fear of consequences – after
all, if the President sees no problem with grabbing women sexually and just
assuming “they’ll let you”, why should anyone else? (The Bible, despite some
troubling passages that seem to allow rape under certain circumstances, also
has several clear examples of God condoning the killing of men, or even entire
tribes, that had participated in rape. It’s a crime God takes so seriously that
He has at times allowed wholesale slaughter as a way to avenge it. It is NOT
something the Almighty laughs off as “locker-room talk”.)
I know that the above outcomes are not the outcomes that
most of you were aiming for when you voted for Trump. I know many of you don’t
even like him, and held your noses as you voted for what you felt was the
lesser evil. I know many conservatives even voted third-party, believing that
might cost the conservatives the election, because you could NOT in good
conscience vote for Trump, and I respect you highly for that. I know that most
conservatives do not want the outcomes I just described.
But I do hope you’ll try to understand that those who
opposed Trump have legitimate reasons to feel angry and afraid, because we know
and love people who will DIE if Trump actually keeps his campaign promises.
(Though, to be fair, if he keeps his campaign promises like
he keeps his business promises, we probably have nothing to worry about.)
I personally am also angry, as a Christian, that so many
Christians sent the message that these things are the things that God WANTS His
people to bring about. Again, I know you’re good people trying to do the
right thing for the right reason, because I grew up with you. But the rest of
America now equates “Christian” with “Person who’s in favor of all the hateful
things Trump says (and is cool with unabashed racists on the Cabinet).” The
rest of America didn’t get the message that Christians are concerned about
protecting unborn children; they got the message that Christians would be
perfectly happy to elect the Devil himself, as long as he ran as a Republican.
Do you think the church will be winning any converts now
among minorities, LGBTQ people, people with disabilities, Muslims, women who’ve
been sexually assaulted, or any of the other people Trump (and, people will
infer, Trump’s supporters) holds in such contempt? We ought to be concerned
with winning people to the love of Christ, not with winning earthly power. Jesus Himself
was crucified for DEFYING the conservative religious politicians of His day –
the Pharisees and Sadducees, the Sanhedrin and High Priest. But the solid
Evangelical support for Trump has convinced millions upon millions that their
long-held suspicions are correct – Christians are merely a political faction
hostile to them, not the incarnate love of Christ. I already know many people
who are saying as of Tuesday that they will never again darken the door of a
church. What does it profit Evangelicals, to gain the world but lose those
souls?
And I’m afraid of what will happen to Christians when the
pendulum swings the other way – AND IT WILL - in 4-8 years when people realize
that a trust fund billionaire who overcame four bankruptcies by gaming the
system is not in fact interested in changing the system so people like him can
pay more taxes, or higher wages to their workers. They’ll see that Trump didn’t
help the working class any more than Obama did, and they’ll vote in a bunch of
Democrats just to send the message that they want SOME kind of change. Or the
change could happen even sooner. Trump’s already made it clear that, like any other
sociopath, he will dump people as soon as he’s finished using them (ask Chris
Christie, or Trump’s first two wives) - and he’s already gotten everything he
needed from Evangelicals. All the people who are now convinced that Christians
are no more than pawns of the Republican Party… do you think they will be kind
to us when they DO regain control? Do you think they’ll be willing to listen to
the concerns of Christians? They will laugh in your faces, when you say you’re
concerned about the moral direction of the country, after you voted for someone
so utterly amoral. They will laugh in your faces when you call yourselves
pro-life, after voting for someone who made it clear he doesn’t care about the
lives of the “least of these”. They will laugh in your faces when you speak of
family values, after you voted for someone who is fine with sexual assault and
adultery. They will laugh in your faces when you claim to follow the Christ who
told His followers to turn the other cheek, after voting for someone who can’t
remember any Scripture except the phrase “An eye for an eye” (or remember that
Jesus was saying NOT to do that). When the pendulum swings Left again, if
Evangelicals have not been EXTREMELY vocal in denouncing the evils that the
more extreme Trump supporters are gleefully perpetrating, the country will have
only one thing to say to Christians: “If the last four years were what your God
stands for, then fuck your God and fuck you.”
You won the election, but you lost any remote chance that
people who aren’t currently Christians will “know we are Christians by our
love” and be drawn to join us. Not for the next four years; not for the next
forty years; not EVER, will the people your candidate spat upon forget the
choice you made this week.
So, congratulations on carrying the election. But do you remember
what our Lord chose, when the Devil offered Him power over all the kingdoms of
the world, if only He would bow and submit to evil?
You have made the bargain that our Lord rejected. You made a
deal with the Devil to gain earthly power.
I want you to
remember this every day for the next four years:
The Devil is a liar,
and will not keep his end of the deal.
But he WILL make sure
that you pay.
© John M. Munzer
