What I should have said two years ago...

I originally wrote this on 1/9/2021, but didn't publish it out of respect for my Evangelical friends and family. 

But that was before their actions and failures to act killed people I knew and loved. If Evangelicals want my respect, they'll have to earn it back. 

So here's what I should have said two years ago...

Well, Evangelicals: I told you so.

I warned you four years ago that when you make a deal with the Devil in order to gain earthly power, he will not keep his end of the deal, but he will make sure that you pay.

And four years later, the bill has come due.

You’ve lost the House, you’ve lost the Senate, you’ve lost the White House. Your conservative Supreme Court hasn’t done jack about abortion, and never will.* You lost all the earthly power you’d gained, and got nothing out of it even when you had it.

And you ALSO lost any moral or spiritual authority you ever had. For at least a generation, you are all now going to be lumped in with the far-right lunatic fringe, because that’s what you voted for even if that’s not what you actually wanted. You are now going to be forever associated with the traitors who stormed the Capitol with guns and plastic handcuffs, intending to hold your elected representatives hostage or kill them, at the instigation of the guy you elected and kept supporting. You are losing younger members in your churches, and they aren’t coming back. You are losing black and Latino members, and they aren’t coming back. You already lost most of your gay members decades ago, and now more of your members are willing to admit they’re gay… and they won’t come back.

You thought you had it bad when you first started losing the culture wars, back when everyone associated you with Ned Flanders? Well, people back then thought your beliefs were silly but at least believed you were decent and sincere – like Flanders. You will REALLY have a hard time being taken seriously now that everyone associates you with Donald Trump. People now think your beliefs are toxic and dangerous, and believe that you are liars and swindlers – like Trump. And you have no one, no one at ALL, to blame except yourselves.

I TOLD you so.

Are you ready to listen now?

Because if you listen now, and I mean RIGHT now, you might have one last chance to undo some of the damage you’ve done to your witness.

You can demonstrate that you mean what you say about repentance – when you do something that causes harm, even if that wasn’t your intent, then you stop doing it, turn things around, and start making things right.

You can demonstrate that you mean what you say about doing what’s right even when it will cost you.

You can demonstrate that you mean what you say about how character matters in a leader, and how a nation must repent if it allows its leaders to do evil.

You can demand that Trump be removed from office, immediately and permanently. Demand, now, today, that your legislators impeach and convict. Tell them they will lose your vote if they don’t.

You can finally admit that you made the wrong choice, stop doubling down on it and start choosing different.

That won’t save you from the loss of political power. Nothing will do that now, for the next couple years at least.

But it will show that you have the level of integrity that you’ve always said is important to have. It will go a long way to restore the general public’s belief that you are decent and sincere. It will go a long way to restore the respect that you’ve lost. It will mean that people who aren’t already Evangelical might be willing to consider attending one of your services, might be willing to think there could be something to this whole Christianity thing after all, might be willing to repent of their own wrongdoing, might be willing to look at the speck in their eye now that you’ve removed the beam in yours.

 

Or you can keep doing what you’ve been doing, and keep getting what you’ve been getting.

And if so, you will go on feeling hurt when your children or grandchildren reject your faith, when you continue to get made fun of by comedians, when people unfriend and block you, when people tell you to fuck off because you tried to share your faith, when your gay co-workers won’t speak to you, when everyone laughs at your claims to stand for Christian values, when everyone laughs off your concerns about religious liberty as a “persecution complex” … and I can sympathize with how much you’ll feel hurt by that, but you’ll have no right to pretend it’s a surprise.

You have one last moment to repent before it’s too late. Do you have the courage and honesty to do it?

I’m afraid I already know the answer. And it’s profoundly sad to see you lose the values you raised me to have, while gaining nothing in return.

Postscript, 1/6/23:

Spoiler alert - I was right. They absolutely have doubled down on Trump and Trumpism, and most of them still think Trump is the legitimate president. They absolutely did not have the courage and honesty to admit that they were wrong and try to do better. For people who talk so much about repentance, they sure are bad at it. 

Also:

* Turns out that the majority even of conservative voters didn't actually WANT the Supreme Court to strike down Roe vs. Wade, and that was a factor in the Republicans' failure to regain power in the midterms. The problem with a Faustian bargain is that you always get what you asked for, but you never get what you actually wanted.