A trip across Facebook this morning in the wake of the GOP House passing the Don’t Care Plan has me needing to write. I need to work out some issues, mostly anger. I usually do this by writing a little diary rant and then walking away. Today, I will rant but with links to some other writers that I found illuminating on this particular subject.
The subject of today’s rant is the religious and moral underpinnings of modern day Conservatism and, by extension, today’s Republican Party. That would be the party of the Religious Right, the Moral Majority, and the wealthiest among us. The truly confusing thing about this triumvirate is how they get people to vote for them against their best interests. So, buckle up for a trip through the underpinnings of Conservative morality and religion.
I) The Gospel of Prosperity
It all starts here with a religious philosophy that says that Jesus wants you to be wealthy and all you have to do is follow him, through the prescriptions of its proponents, to find material wealth and comfort. This is taught as “living a good life” and is promised to be rewarded with material success.
Nevermind the Gospels, the part about it being easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the Kingdom. I’m not trying to convert you or argue that following the teaching of Christ is the only way to a good life. I am, however, quoting a piece of the liturgy that is purported to be the basis of the religion and morality of the Christian Right.
First, it is all too easy to argue that the Religious Right is doing a poor job of interpreting the Bible. There is that aplenty. But it goes deeper than that. The Gospel of Prosperity does more than misinterpret. It directly contradicts the basic tenets of the faith they claim to embrace.
What is the Gospel of Prosperity? The Atlantic does a pretty good job of explaining. Surprise, Rep Mo Brooks of Alabama points the way.
From The Atlantic article:
The beliefs of some evangelicals connecting wealth to God’s favor became intertwined with faith healing, and both rose to new heights in the television era on the backs of men like Oral Roberts. While it became part of the cults of personality around the generation of Pat Robertsons and Peter Popoffs that followed Roberts’s lead, faith healing was also undeniably a policy statement. It at least partially rejected the role of science in public health and encouraged a view that faith, virtue, and good works could be enough to secure healing. And although the furthest extremes of the prosperity gospel often bring to mind church scandals, thousand-dollar suits, and parish helicopters, the basic idea that a healthy life was also a sign of favor fit right in with the gospel’s defense of riches. Health is wealth.
Sound familiar? This is a particularly American philosophy. Think Horatio Alger or Andrew Carnegie’s Gospel of Wealth. The logical conclusion of following this philosophy is that a life “well lived”, through Jesus and God natch, leads to wealth and good health. That this is twisting the intent of the very book they use to support the philosophy seems unimportant to them.
Again, from The Atlantic article:
The appeal of the prosperity gospel is intricately linked to the rise of Donald Trump, and it’s easy to see why. Much has been made of Trump’s ties to prosperity gospel-preaching televangelists, and his own wealth and success as something to which disaffected working-class people might aspire, however irrationally. But he also came along during a dire rise in opioid use, obesity, and deaths of “desperation” among poorer whites. Those health issues could be construed as a curse, especially since at the same time, the health of black and Hispanic people seemed to improve, and the Affordable Care Act seemed written to solve many of the issues of health-care access that had long wrecked communities of color.
This argument has been made for a long time. Think HIV/AIDS and blaming it on a “sinful lifestyle” or blaming communities of color for their own crime, drug, and health problems.
II) How The Administration Exhibits This Philosophy
Look no further than HHS Secretary Tom Price who appeared on Fox and Friends to defend the AHCA. After calling healthcare for those with pre existing conditions a “luxury”, Price said this.
“Well, it’s pricing for what an individual’s health status is, and that’s important to appreciate. Someone is going to pay for health coverage for the American people and the question is, how do you do that.”
Subtly buried in that seemingly innocuous remark is the Gospel of Prosperity. Namely, that each of us responsible for our health status and that “helping others” is something one should not be “forced to do”. Nevermind the part of the Bible about doing for “These, the least of my bretheren”. Yeah, the hypocrisy. It burns.
And then there’s Secretary of the Army nominee Mark Green, currently a Tennessee state legislator. In 2015, Green told a church group that sickness was a main avenue leading to Jesus and that relying on government for healthcare limited the Church’s role and ability to evangelize.
"The person who's in need … they look to the government for the answer, not God, and I think in that way government has done an injustice that's even bigger than just the creation of an entitlement welfare state," Green said. "In this setting, I'll share the story, I think it interrupts the opportunity for people to come to a saving knowledge of who God is."
...
"I see our sort of government-based assistance taking God out of the picture," Green said. "If you look at the Gospels and you go and study the Gospels, every person who came to Christ came to Christ with a physical need. It was either hunger or a disease."
"People go to God because of a physical need and they walk away with a spiritual need met," he said.
Surprise of surprises, Green is also against gay marriage, transgender bathroom rights and the teaching of Islam in public schools. Supposedly, this is his version of Christianity.
III) Those Who Believe What Is Being Sold
The moral depravity of the GOP and Evangelical Christianity is nothing new. But what about the people who vote for these people. Check out Meet the evangelicals who still love Trump at ThinkProgress.
Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. declared last week that evangelicals have found their “dream president” in Trump, and a recent Pew survey found that a solid 78 percent of churchgoing white evangelicals approve of his job performance so far. Meanwhile, Trump appears to be courting this support. He signed an executive order on “religious freedom” this week that — while not exactly popular with religious Americans in general — appears tailor-made to appease right-wing faith leaders.
And for an actual Trump voting Evangelical from South Carolina let’s listen to Chris Nickels. Nickels was interviewed twice by ThinkProgress since the election. Obviously, a Conservative Supreme Court was his first reason. The second shocked me. In his support of the MOAB bombing recently in Syria, Nickels said the following.
“ISIS is a special problem for Christians because, while they target all people, they also target Christians,” Nickels said. He later noted that others in his church men’s group expressed a “general level of satisfaction and relief” about the president’s job performance thus far, and that there is excitement surrounding the influence of Vice President Mike Pence, who he described as “a bit of a rock star” among conservative Christians.
Okay. White guy supports Trump. Not surprising. How about a Latino perspective. Enter National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC) vice president Rev. Tony Suarez.
“I think you find a lot of [Hispanic evangelicals] who are content right now,” he said. “But they are closely watching, and if DREAMers start getting deported in large numbers, and innocent undocumented immigrants start getting deported in large numbers, I think you’ll start seeing a shift in that support.”
So, there’s some hope. Or not. Suarez said this on his trip to DC to meet with the White House in a ThinkProgress interview.
“It took Jesus one conversation with Zacchaeus [to change him] — But I’m not Jesus,” he said, laughing. “So this is an ongoing relationship, but I think it’s important that we have a voice at the table.”
IV) My Conclusion
This bastardization of Christianity is wrongheaded, self serving, and unique to the US. Christian Evangelicals have created a false religion by their own definition. The book they proclaim to live by has been distorted to preach the Gospel of Wealth. They are preaching worldly gain in the name of Jesus. And they are screwing with the rest of us to meet their goals.