It's a fun argument to watch on social media. On the one hand, you have the Conservative, and on the other, the Liberal. Both arguing about an entity neither of them believes in… Jesus. When a liberal argues Jesus, they usually argue his compassion towards the poor and his ability to reach out to those whom society has abandoned, the children, the widows, and orphans.
Conservatives demand that Radical Leftists are turning Jesus into a bleeding-heart Liberal, which is confusing for those who have cracked open the gospels and read them. They (Conservatives) wear the cross of Jesus around their necks. They have massive bumper stickers announcing their proud Christian heritage. They put the fish on everything from books to cars. And they even go so far as to try to rewrite history so that it calls us a Christian nation. They shout, “Jesus is my Lord and Savior,” and they get furious if you suggest otherwise. And yet, we see no evidence of Jesus’ personality in any of them.
Much of this problem can be traced back to the early 1940s. We were just coming out of the Great Depression, and people were furious with the bankers who devastated our economy. As a result, many social safety net protocols were making their way through Congress to ensure that there would always be help for those who needed it. The bankers needed two things: Number one, they needed to find a way to get into the good graces of Americans. And Number two, they needed to stop Roosevelt from pushing his liberal agenda through Congress.
To that end, they enlisted the Evangelical community to tell their congregations that Roosevelt's New Deal was communism and that they should fight with their very soul to protect our country from such doctrines of demons.
This would also lead to a nasty little doctrine called “The Prosperity Gospel.” The premise of this gospel was that Jesus wanted his followers to be rich, and if they weren’t wealthy, that was because they didn’t have enough faith, they weren't praying correctly, or there was sin in their life. This also created another reason to hate the New Deal. Roosevelt was leading us away from Christ and directly down the road of communism.
Among such Evangelicals who began preaching this doctrine was none other than the young Billy Graham.
In the Reagan era, we saw another deal with the devil when the Republican Party joined forces with Evangelical juggernauts like Jerry Falwell and Focus on the Family in order to win elections.
As a result, the radicals began to take over our political system.
Then we ended up with George W. Bush, who couldn’t go a single speech without referring to how his Evangelical faith motivated his decision—even his decision to take us to war. His faith led him to use a national tragedy to go after a country that had absolutely nothing to do with it. Simply for his own personal vendetta. A war we would be mired in for decades. He showed us how integrated vengeance is to the modern Evangelical.
When Barack Obama, a mixed black and white president, was elected president, racist Evangelicals started coming out of the woodwork, slinging slurs and epithets. He experienced a level of contempt and disrespect so out in the open yet in a passive-aggressive tone. Obama was himself a Christian, but Evangelicals would not accept that. Instead, they called him a Muslim. For most of us, being called a Muslim wouldn’t be any insult, nor was it one for Obama. But the point was to de-legitimize him and accuse him of being the thing they hated most in the world. Since Islam was a “satanic cult” in their mind, associating Obama with them gave them a reason to really hate the president.
When John McCain ran against Obama, he introduced the world to Sarah Palin—a person so vapid and ignorant she couldn’t even answer a question about which magazines she read. In fact, she called it a “gotcha question.” But hey, she could see Russia from her house.
Sarah Palin would unleash and legitimize the most simpleminded. And this brought out the dumbest in Evangelicals. Hiding underneath the facade of “Jesus” was their racism, bigotry, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, and nationalism.
They had managed to keep a semblance of control over it, even though it was seething under the surface, but the election of a black man to President of the United States released the Kraken. They could no longer hide their darkness. However, they could pretend they were reacting to an evil man who wanted to make us a socialist country.
Donald Trump seemed a “logical” outcome to the presidency of Barack Obama—at least for Evangelicals. Now that these people had been exposed as racists and bigots, they had to find a way to make it not their fault. Trump embraced their racism and bigotry from the moment he stepped off the Escalator at Trump Tower on Fifth Ave.
When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best. They're not sending you. They're not sending you. They're sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems with us. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.
Evangelicals had a friend, and they embraced him wholeheartedly. And what’s more, they didn’t have to worry that they were turning their backs on Jesus. Trump became their messiah, their direct line to God, thereby being allowed to skip Jesus and all the liberal woke stuff he was asking them to do.
A cult was born—the MAGA cult.
Representative Adam Kinzinger said in an interview with The Hill that some people—particularly his family— equate Donald Trump with the person of Jesus Christ in their hearts.
[some people...] “equate Donald Trump with the person of Jesus Christ” in their hearts. “To them, if you even come against this amazing man, Donald Trump, which obviously quite flawed, you are coming out against Jesus, against their Christian values. And when you go after their religion, that violates the depth of who they are.”
Crazy cult member Marjorie Taylor Green linked the prosecution of Trump to the prosecution of Christ during an interview. Marjorie Traitor Green said of Trump's arrest:
Trump is joining some of the most incredible people in history being arrested today. Nelson Mandela was arrested, served time in prison. Jesus — Jesus was arrested and murdered by the Roman government.
… radical, corrupt governments. And it's beginning today in New York City, and I just can't believe it's happening, but I'll always support him. He's done nothing wrong.
The Roman government arrested Jesus. Many people throughout history have been arrested and persecuted by radical corrupt governments, and it's beginning today in New York City.
When it was revealed that Trump paid off porn star Stormy Daniels, evangelicals such as Robert Jeffress and Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham, all had nothing but “forgiveness” for Trump. President of the conservative Family Research Council, Tony Perkins, said in an interview:
Yes, evangelicals, conservatives, they gave him a mulligan. They let him have a do-over. They said we’ll start afresh with you and we’ll give you a second chance.
Conservative leaders said that Trump was a man of God. Like King David. But ironically, they didn't mention that because of David’s affair, God killed the baby seven days after it was born, then tore his Kingdom in half. And the King would spend many years running from his son Absalom. But the Conservatives never mentioned that.
Republican Colorado representative Lauren Boebert told a group of cult members that they:
…get to be a part of ushering the second coming of Jesus; it's an honor to serve in this time. I believe that many of us in this room believe that we are in the last days, and then it's not a time to complain; that's not a time to crumble, to be dismayed, to be disheartened, but a time to rejoice.
So here we are at the moment in history when Evangelicals have thoroughly scrubbed Jesus from their theology.
Russell Moore, a former leader in the Southern Baptist Convention until 2021 and current editor-in-chief of Christianity Today, gave an interview explaining why he left the Baptist convention. Moore said in an interview with NPR:
It was the result of having multiple pastors tell me, essentially, the same story about quoting the Sermon on the Mount, parenthetically, in their preaching — "turn the other cheek" — [and] to have someone come up after to say, "Where did you get those liberal talking points?" And what was alarming to me is that in most of these scenarios, when the pastor would say, "I'm literally quoting Jesus Christ," the response would not be, "I apologize." The response would be, "Yes, but that doesn't work anymore. That's weak." And when we get to the point where the teachings of Jesus himself are seen as subversive to us, then we're in a crisis.
Evangelicals think Jesus is “woke,” and they can’t have that. They now openly admit that his advice to his disciples and followers is weak. It won’t work. They have now signaled that Donald Trump is their savior, and all these legal indictments are just him suffering at the hands of Satan and his minions to protect their right to racism and bigotry. And the worse things get for Donald, the more they will worship him.
So long, Jesus. It was good while it lasted.