Category: Powers and Principalities

First they came…

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My on-and-off again Christian blog, Under the Rubble, might as well be named Under the Radar. Few people read or follow it – but that’s not my point. The point is, what I write stays written. It’s a record of disruptive thought, sometimes even prophetic. And it is there on the ‘Net forever.

In the back of my mind, I wonder if all the negative things I’ve written about Christian Nationalism will someday come back on me. An old evangelical meme says, “if you were accused of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” In an authoritarian court, my writings would be more than enough to convict me.

Should I be packing my toothbrush? Its very possible; many true believers could be apprehended and incarcerated under another Trump regime. The charge? For not being the right kind of Christian: a fervent Christian Nationalist. Trump – who never steps into a church – speaks of “our religion”. His pardoned flunky, Michael Flynn, claims America has to have “one religion”.  As long-time evangelical, Tim Alberta points out, Christian Nationalism has spread deeply into churches. This is not yet a Bonhoeffer moment, but way too many parishioners have pledged undying loyalty to Donald J. Trump.

It seems the loudest evangelical voices crying “persecution” can’t wait to return the favor. Based on the multi-millionaire tele-grifters and spiritual phonies Trump previously surrounded himself with, its not hard to imagine the religious flotsam a re-empowered Trump would appoint to oversee and purify American religion.  Churches, already riven by sectarianism and political intolerance, will be divided among perpetrators, bystanders, and resisters. And its not looking good for resisters. “They all have to be purged”, Steve Bannon says about those not Christian nationalists.

Looks like I’ll have to be purged then as an enemy of the State – not to mention God. I’m not a flamin’ librul. I don’t have a martyr complex. I’m just a believer clinging to the words of Jesus, no agenda except His, with no creed other than Nicaea. Considering how evangelical Christianity is circling the political drain, I’m just wondering out loud, “where is it headed?”

First they came for the Communists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Communist

Then they came for the Socialists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Socialist

Then they came for the trade unionists

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a trade unionist

Then they came for the Jews

And I did not speak out

Because I was not a Jew

Then they came for me

And there was no one left

To speak out for me

“You Muslims must die!”

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Six year old Wadea Al-Fayoume was busy playing in his Chicago apartment, when the landlord barged in, raging “you Palestinians don’t deserve to live.” He then proceeded to kill the young boy – stabbing him 26 times. Writing for Religion News Service, Omar Suleiman asked “for what crime did Wadea Al-Fayoume, a 6-year-old in Chicago, die?”  Despite his saying that every Palestinian child is as worthy of a soul as any child around the world, one commenter had the “biblical” answer: “Wow, what do say, Omar, to the Israeli children who were beheaded or burned or kidnapped by your colleagues in Palestine?”

So much hate. So much misguided thinking that more hate will solve it.

At Wadea’s funeral, several Chicago rabbis received permission to stand with the boy’s community as they mourned this loss. “I can’t say that it was simple to be there’, said one. His family and synagogue have relatives suffering in Israel.  They knew some of the 1,300 Israelis killed thus far. “My entire community is in deep pain”.  And yet, there he stood, showing support for another heartbroken family, weeping along with hundreds of Islamic mourners.

“We bear a simple message for our neighbors. You are not alone,” the rabbi said.: Misery, it is said, loves company. It needs the comfort of company. From ones, who in their own hurt, have room in their own hearts bear up others’ pain, too. His was a simple – but risky – gesture born out of shalom. “At the end of the day, we’re all human beings,” he said. “At the end of the day, we have to find a way for our children to live together in peace.”

The killer and the rabbi: Which of the two did what his Father wanted?

N.B.- No Christians were moved to do likewise.

Return of the Christian Super Hawks

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Another war, another letter from Christian war hawk Richard Land. You may recall his 2002 open letter to President Bush stating his “Bible-believing”  scholarly imprimatur – grounded in scriptural authority. Sanctioning unilateral war against Iraq “fell well within the time-honored criteria of just-war theory.” The letter, co-signed by a bevy of right-wing, neo-fundamentalist leaders, granted the Bush government a theological dispensation to inflict divine punishment. “The question is not if God is on our side, but if we are on God’s side,” Richard Land was quoted as saying about the Iraq invasion. “Then, with a wink of the eye, Land added, ‘But I think God is on our side in this one.’”[i] Gott Mit Uns!

But as firstly envisioned within Catholic public theology, Just War was the last resort. Not a shallow checklist before launch; not a divine set of minimums to bless waging it. Evangelical misuse of  Just War theory conceals its double-speak behind lofty philosophical presuppositions.  Influential pastor Jack Hibbs speaks for many evangelicals when he declares it is unchristian to demand that Israel’s response to the attacks from Hamas be “proportional.”  To our shame, we really don’t mean what we say.

Any war becomes entangled in a moral morass once the tit-for-tat shooting starts. By then, its too late to play by Marquess of Queensberry rules. Especially concerning the inevitably targeted civilians and noncombatant casualties.  Even from those whose motives are spiritually clean, where going to war could not possibly have been anything else but pure. As any military commander can tell you, even the best of plans go out the window when combat begins. Truth, as we are often reminded, is the first casualty. Some 500 people died in the October 17th aerial attack that hit al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City. Each side blames the other. Whether by mistake (like the Mukaradeeb wedding massacre), or deliberately (like My Lai) innocent people are just as dead, whether Just War – or just a war. 

Theologian Walter Wink had this to say: “ Declaring a war ‘just’ is simply a ruse to rid ourselves of guilt… If we have killed, it is a sin, and only God can forgive us, not a propaganda apparatus that declares our dirty wars “just.” In fomenting war and political objectives, Christians have lost our orientation by doing the will of the demonic enemy within ourselves.”  As Walt Kelly’s Pogo says, “We have met the enemy, and he is us”.  

But we are seeking answers to the wrong question. We need to ask how to achieve the shalom of Just Peace, rather than tidying up messes caused by all our presumptive “just” wars. Even King David was barred by God from building the Temple because he “shed so much blood on the earth before Me”. (1 Chronicles 22:8). Despite doing what he thought was the Lord’s will, he was far from sinless in the process. We, proud and rebellious people that we are, often find ourselves in the same need for confession and forgiveness.

Sin. None of us are immune from its deceitful and predictable end in death. Not individuals, not nations – Jesus said there would be wars and rumors of war. But he also blessed the peacemakers. They will be called children of God. (Matthew 5:9). And yet, the naysayers dismiss Just Peace as “simply inappropriate to the realm of political life…  At the risk of oversimplification, their argument is that the condition of perfect peace and justice denoted by the term shalom can be brought about today and through human action”.  

Bible nay-sayers are war-mongers who search for scriptural “nails” on which to hang a war, contradicting what the Bible intends. Christians are those who promote God’s peace.. To become peacemakers, we must begin with ourselves. We are commissioned to teach the nations “to obey everything I have commanded you”. We are to pray “Thy will be done”, not ours. We are commissioned to inject the empires of politics with the new order of shalom inaugurated by the One of Peace.  The power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8) enables us to live out Jesus’ teachings on love and compassion, and achieve what otherwise seems humanly impossible.  

What can poor little me do???? Many individual small ways add up as we live out His mission of love .During my weekly grocery shop this week, my clerk was a displaced Ukrainian.  The woman behind me in line wore a hijab. I made it a point to say I was praying heart-broken prayers for each. Peace, said Mother Theresa, begins with a smile..That’s a start. Shalom begins with you and I:

Let there be peace on earth

And let it begin with me

Let There Be Peace on Earth

The peace that was meant to be

… With God as our Father

Brothers all are we

Let me walk with my brother

In perfect harmony.

… Let peace begin with me

Let this be the moment now.

Pray For The Peace Of Jerusalem

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Let us pray earnestly for the safety and peace for the people of Israel, entreats John Hagee. “I certainly am praying for the people, the Israelis”, declares Franklin Graham. “I’m not praying for their enemies. I pray that God will give them victory over their enemies.”  Sorry, no prayers for the innocent Palestinians caught in the crossfire.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). Christians are to be Jesus-centered peacemakers. He commanded us to:

•              Go and be reconciled (Matthew 5:24).

•              To first take the log out of our own eye (Matthew 7:5 NRS).

•              To forgive those who sin against us (Luke 17:3-4).

•              To love our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:39).

•              And to love our enemy (Matthew 5:44).

The ruthless, bloody Hamas incursion is something no Christ follower can condone.  I abhor it, and believe Israel has a right to defend itself, no question. Murderous, and totally immoral , there are no apologia for Hamas’s atrocities. Yet, unquestioning loyalty to Israel – right or wrong – is a defining element of many evangelicals’ religious and political identities. I happen to fall on the more irenic side. Contrary to John Hagee, I don’t think the attack was entirely unprovoked. “Therefore, this must be said once again—we told you so. Ongoing oppression and injustice explode at unexpected times and places”, writes Amira Hass in Haaretz.

“Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia. Since the beginning of your life, since the beginning of the Party, since the beginning of history, the war has continued without a break, always the same war”, as Orwell famously wrote.  It’s not as if the Palestinians are not the only “bad guys” here. Peace negotiations have repeatedly come and gone – high points full of hope: including Camp David, Oslo, Annapolis. At the end of the day, neither side trusted the other to carry through. There were no “winners”.  Each is a recalcitrant loser who will not concede defeat. “They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace”. (Jeremiah 6:14).

October 7th already represents the bloodiest day for Jews since the Holocaust. Revenge is on the mind of Israel now. “The brutality of the surprise attack unites Israel around one goal: Crush Hamas”, reads a typical headline. “Every member of Hamas is a dead man,” Netanyahu said. Now is not the time cooler heads will prevail, where the blood lust of revenge easily outweigh sensibility and moral proportionality. It’s an emotional battle cry globally in conflicts that lead to horrific pain and desolation. “We are not going to stop until we capture the last remaining terrorist (gang member),” says the Salvadoran President of his country’s turmoil. Think of the sieges of Bakhmut and Sarajevo. And Vietnam: “We have to destroy the village to save it”.

Gaza’s situation was already dire before Hamas’s assault. And with Gaza now under siege, the Israeli energy minister has stated that no “electrical switch will be turned on, no water hydrant will be opened and no fuel truck will enter” until all hostages were freed. The Gazan population of 2 million has no food, no water, no electricity, no medical care, no shelter. Winter is coming – but no humanitarian help. Megapastor Robert Jeffress helpfully suggests that the biblical response (echoing word-for word Gen. Curt Lemay’s famous threat to North Vietnam)  is to bomb Hamas back into the stone age.. The collective punishment is only starting, with Israel planning a full scale ground invasion. Sitting ducks, Gazans have nowhere to escape, nowhere to live. The demographics of Gaza disclose that 65% of the population is under 25 years of age. There are almost 200,000 males in the 15–24 bracket. I worry about the life expectancy of innocent young men in that most vulnerable category.  And the children (on both sides). Especiallly Arab Christians, given Hamas perfidy in using innocents as human shields.

Shortly after the Bosnian war, I worked in international development. One inflection point involved the city of Mostar. On  side live the Muslims, the other is Catholic. It is split down the middle by the Neretva river, which for ages had been the city sewer. An international agency proposed a new waste treatment facility.  The quarrelling parties insisted there must be one for each side. They walked away without agreement. There was so much hate they didn’t want even their shit to mix. Another poignant story I overheard in Bosnia: God appeared to a one-eyed Serb, offering to grant him one wish. The condition was, that God would grant his Muslim enemy a double portion. The man thought about it a while, and then said, “take my other eye out”. Religio-ethnic conflict is the most difficult to resolve; intractable because it is holy. Each party is adamant that God is on their side. Both would prefer harming themselves than allow a blessing to their enemy.

What should Christians do? We must do what Jesus did. Christians need to be walking in Jesus’ sandals, and align our loves with the divine love. Jesus himself is our peace (Ephesians 2:13-14). That commits us to put aside war-mongering over against peacemaking in Jesus’ name. We should uphold the sanctity of all human life.- both Israeli and Palestinian – as bearers of God’s image, . “Accepting compassion and offering aid to the Palestinians in Gaza is morally imperative.” I like how Ilhan Omer put it: “Peace and justice will not come from the barrel of a gun. And that targeting an entire civilian population will only sow more discord and perpetuate the cycle of violence. The political solution to this horror, as ever, is a negotiated peace—with Israelis and Palestinians enjoying equal rights and security guarantees.” Otherwise, we surrender Christian morality to right-wing theocratic thugs like Pastor Greg Locke, who calls for Israel to “make the Gaza Strip a parking lot”.

The average Christian’s helplessness to alter these circumstances should breed a deeper sense of dependence on God to intervene. We need prayers of repentance and supplication. Our prayers should “extend beyond the immediate cessation of hostilities to encompass a broader and more enduring aspiration that both Israelis and Palestinians may come to embrace Christ as their Lord and Savior.” That all will “know that this man really is the Savior of the world”. (John 4:42).

Freedom Or Religion

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Former Vice President Mike Pence thinks religion means freedom. He claims that First Amendment rights do not protect Americans from having other people’s faiths forced upon them. “It’s nothing the American founders ever thought of”.  Evidently, he is not a scholar of Jefferson, who penned that “all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion”. The Constitution doesn’t mention any Supreme being; neither does the National Anthem.

An oft-repeated meme from Vietnam War days says, “We have to destroy the village in order to save it”. Putin likes the sound of that blessed violence – and the sound of his missiles bombing Ukraine, “dehousing” the civilian population back into the stone age. Serious indicators point to Russia preparing for total war – even going nuclear. Despite battlefield losses and chaos, retreat might be possible from worldly things, it’s impossible to retreat “from faith”.

And Putin has set himself up as Holy Russia’s defender of Christian morality. He has the military wherewithal to impose his will – and the anointing of God – to wage a holy “special military operation” against the Ukrainian forces of evil. And the Russians face the children of the Devil, who must be “de-Satanized”. According to Russian propaganda, there are no civilians there, just demons. And when we make others into devils, as C.S. Lewis said, this is “the first step in a process which, if followed to the end, will make us into devils”.

“We aren’t coming to kill you, but to convince you,” the “People’s Governor” of Donetsk threatened. “But if you don’t want to be convinced, we’ll kill you. We’ll kill as many as we have to: 1 million, 5 million, or exterminate all of you.” This religion has an ominous Old Testament ring to it. “So go now and strike down the Amalekites. Destroy everything that they have. Don’t spare them. Put them to death—man, woman, child, infant, ox, sheep, camel, and donkey alike.”(1 Samuel 15:3) Speaking on camouflaged piety, Reza Aslan notes that “a cosmic war transforms those who should be considered butchers and thugs into soldiers sanctioned by God”. Russian state media has suggested Ukrainian children should be drowned or burned, women deserve to be raped by Russian soldiers, and anyone who resists should be shot. What a moral difference religion makes!

Regrettably, we see the logical conclusion being played out in evangelical life. Those with whom we disagree are not just wrong, they are evil. Amidst the slaughter, Kremlin mouthpiece Tucker Carlson barfs out that Democrats hate Russia for being Christians. In rebuttal, we point to the some 400 Ukrainian Baptist churches having been wiped out. “It’s not just buildings that have been destroyed”, a Baptist pastor says, “but church leadership and congregations have been broken down”.  In persecuting any believer not under Moscow’s thumb, Putin is converting by bayonet. And American evangelicals echo Putin’s words: “We reserve the right to react and do everything to protect human rights, including the freedom of worship.” The “religious freedom” sought by Franklin Graham and his ilk entails the same Orwellian  formula to “force others to be free.” The evangelical war-god prefers using the same politics and combat methods as Satan: murder, destruction and domination. Pin the tail on the real Satan.

Having seen Putin carrying Russia’s divine mission to fruition, one can only dread what lessons-learned Christian Nationalists here are cooking up to impose when they get the chance. Mike Flynn, has-been Army general (pledged to support the Constitution) is now an evangelist touting Christian Nationalism. (Questioned whether he believed in the peaceful transition of power, Flynn took the Fifth). He alleges America needs “one religion under God”. If America is to be a Christian nation exclusively ruled by Christians, then who will be its Supreme Leader? Pick your thousand-watt celebrity of weirdness: Franklin Graham? Paula Cain? Sean “Guitar Jesus” Feucht?  “It’s time for the Church to rise up with one voice and tell our government leaders and the rulers of big tech that we refuse to be silenced”, Feucht sing-preaches.

But evangelicalism has never been “one religion”. It is polymorphic, with some 200 major denominations in the United States. Likewise, it is polycephalous. There is no Patriarch Kirill, no Pope, no Ayatollah, and no one “owns” the movement. Evangelicals agree on one Truth, but divergent secondary doctrines are equally valid small-T “truths”. Far from being a monolithic beast, its organic complex retains traditional tensions among different religious constituencies. Individual Results May Vary. And these religious play-actors setting themselves up as defenders of traditional morality are not even Christian but Christian-like bastards, “fusing deranged political ideas with a mangled version of the Christian faith”.

This is not Cookie Monster’s game, One Of These Is Not Like The Other. The Russians are missionaries just a bit farther along in their Christian Domination quest. Now if a heavyweight like Mike Pence – together with a religion-coddling Supreme Court – is now singing the Christian Nationalist blues, there is little hope for true freedom (religious or not) in Americans’ near future. If history is any judge, when the “Righteous” run out of enemies to kill, they’ll start devouring each other.

“Hitlers come and go”, a quote of Stalin reads. “But the German people and the German state remain”. The dictator of a Communist country that devoured itself sounded almost eschatalogical. The same aphorism could be applied to Russia or the United States. The house that has been evangelicalism is empty today. The spiritual weather forecast looks grim. But as my blog header announces, our perpetual ruins will be rebuilt; you will reestablish the ancient foundations.. God will protect his church. Even if a “Christian” sword demands Freedom Or Religion.

Mental Illness Versus Religious Performance

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When the president talks to God
Does he ever think that maybe he’s not?
That that voice is just inside his head
When he kneels next to the presidential bed
Does he ever smell his own bullshit
When the president talks to God?

– “When The President Talks To God”,           Bright Eyes

“When his family heard this they went out to restrain him, for they said, ‘He is out of his mind’”. Ever since Jesus began his ministry, religious fervor has been mistaken for mental illness. Physicians in the 19th Century ascribed many cases of mental illness to religious “excitement”. Nowadays, psychiatrists simply prescribe pills. Even so, psychologists struggle to find the dividing line. The Scientific American suggests even mental health professionals must frequently rely on conclusions based on observable behaviors.

In the Miracle of the Swine narrative mentioned in all three Synoptics, Jesus calls forth a “legion” of demons from a Gerasene man living among the tombs. Psychiatrists would diagnose the man’s pattern of self-mutilation as suggesting schizophrenia spectrum. Christians, on the hand solidly place this as demon possession, with the “legion” of demons crying out, saying, “What business do you have with us, Son of God?”

“You talk to God, you’re religious. God talks to you, you’re psychotic.” So goes the old saying. But not if you’re religious. Or at least a charismatic Christian, following a tele-preacher who acts as a conduit for the “Spirit of God”.  Especially those COVID-19 denying faith-healers whose Anointed Word from God has killed many of their own flocks, by claiming the people of God “have dominion and authority over COVID-19”. Including self-proclaimed “prophetess” Kat (Jesus-loves-dessert-in Heaven) Kerr who broke Satan’s lie that Biden had become president, by laughing it off in the Spirit.  She’s the same nut job, among other wacky prophecies, dispatched “1000 Special Ops Angels” to ensure Trump would get reelected. It’s just a smidgen of her spiritual looneyness that JoeMyGod takes a deep dive into.. And evangelicals – for which faith detached from reason plays well – keep nodding their heads in approval.

Søren Kierkegaard was spot on when he observed that “in paganism the theater was worship – in Christendom the churches have generally become the theater.” The best televangelists are accomplished thespians, knowing they are the lead performers acting in a religious theater.  It doesn’t matter what pours forth from the performer’s mouth – however toxic – so long as it keeps God’s people entertained. Is it performance art, or mental illness?

Ever since the Moral Majority days, an evangelicalism founded on racism has spilled over its self-righteous banks to put a voodoo curse on Others they don’t like.  In a recent pro-Trump rally, the crowd cheered as a “prophet” declared that the “Angel of Death” is coming for named Democrat politicians by the end of the year. Kill the Gays! Kill the Abortionists! Now the dam is bursting into society at large: Kill the Librarians! Kill the School Board! Kill Election Officials. Kill the FBI!  Kill the George Floyds!  Kill George Soros globalists!  Or whatever Demon-Du-Jour St. Tucker of Carlson anathematized the evening before. These are the divine commands they are receiving loud and clear now. Of course, it’s rarely been translated into criminal action – excepting Jan. 6th – but the imprecatory rhetoric is rampant throughout an evangelicalism bent on smiting its perceived enemies.

It gets deadly serious when the National Leader hears divine voices. People by and large adjust to presidents who formulate policy by personal gut feeling, or just plain lie about their inner motivations in executing it as they see fit. What about a foreign leader with claims to righteousness and to revenge, and who hears the audible voice of God?  Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, the Ayatollah, Putin?  Surely they were demon-possessed – or at least delusional. What about an American president?  

George W. Bush, for example. “I’m driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan. And I did, and then God would tell me, George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq... And I did.” Bush was not elected; he was ordained to carry out God’s commands, taking the leap from seeking to obey God’s will to embodying it as earthly redeemer. Bush claimed his anointed position obviated accountability to any mere mortal. “I’m the Commander – see, I don’t need to explain why I say things. That’s the interesting thing about being the President”. Those close to Bush were spooked by his “sort of weird, Messianic idea of what he thinks God has told him to do”. As Gary Wills noted, “the conviction that we might benefit by removing Saddam is not the same as believing that God wills it – except in George Bush’s mind.” Cal Thomas ascribed Bush’s dangerous arrogance to individuated religious feelings, which “supplant objective truth and make the individual a high priest unto himself.”  Meanwhile, estimates of total fatalities in his contrived Shock and Awe against Iraq vary between 800,000 and 1.3 million.   

I could go on and on about Presidents who were utterly unqualified, or otherwise psychologically and spiritually impaired. But cut to the short and say Donald Trump wins the prize. “Against his staff’s warnings about dictator Kim Jong-un, Trump boasted their personal “love letters” assured international peace. Despite that North Korea continued unabated at delivering a nuclear missile to “hit and wipe out” the American mainland. “Only I know”. Donald Trump didn’t ask Americans to place their trust in each other or in God, but rather in himself alone. I Alone Can Fix It. According to Trump’s psychologist niece, the former President is mentally ill with an attention-seeking Messiah complex.  Theologian  Diana Butler Bass agrees. “The King of Israel? The second coming of God? He thinks he’s Jesus. That’s where we are.”  His dangerous attempts to hold on to power after he lost the 2020 election almost convinced his cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove him from office. It had the opposite effect on millions of his “Let’s Go Brandon” followers, with many expressing their willingness to die for him. It becomes a shared psychosis, arousing a “similar pathology in the population that creates a ‘lock and key’ relationship”.

Oh, I can’t tell if he is a crook or a religious fanatic,” declares one of Sinclair Lewis’ characters in his political novel, It Can’t Happen Here. The man is listening to the nomination of presidential candidate Buzz Windrip. Supported by both fundamentalist Christians and large corporate interests, the cunning Windrip ultimately wins the election, and proceeds to transform America into a dictatorship. Is Trump an attention-seeking, Bible-fumbling performance artist, or is he certifiably insane? Either way, it appears our country is life imitating art at the whims of another wrong hero. One, like the deranged “precious bodily fluids” character in Dr. Strangelove, who has his finger on the nuclear button. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes. (Ps. 118:9). Sadly, Trump will keep his crowds entertained until the final curtain falls – directly on top of all of us.

Santa Ain’t Coming.

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Why should a fool have money in his hand to buy wisdom when he has no sense? (Proverbs 17:16)

Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions.  (Isaiah 30:10)

I am a rather plump older man with a large, flowing beard that is pure white. In fact, I get many requests to put on my red suit and portray Santa during holiday season. Which I accept, but only for free at nursing homes and for Special Ed kids. Invariably, starting this time of year, random kids gin up the courage to ask this stranger if I am Santa. Of course I play along, avoiding any promises about the presents they ask me for. For a kid, asking Santa is like offering a prayer. Because Santa is omnipresent like God – everyone knows he’s there, but no one’s ever actually seen him.

Large swaths of evangelism key in on that innate trust in other-worldly blessing.  Prosperity gospel pyramid scammers like Kenneth Copeland tell their children of God to ask for affluence (like he has), and God will give it to them. (But only if you first give bountifully to Copeland ). But even after delivering truckloads of Seed-Money, God doesn’t come through with a Learjet or hand them the keys to a spreading mansion. And Santa ain’t coming.

One Christmas, I was desperate for a BB gun. (Of course, I didn’t get one). But I still believed in Santa. It wasn’t his fault; maybe I didn’t believe hard enough. After trying my best to be a good boy, next year I knew he would come through for me. Funny, how so many adults still place their hopes in a God that looks more like Santa. Maybe, with enough faith – and send enough checks – they’ll soon hit their heavenly lucky numbers. But Santa ain’t coming.

Fabulist Word-Faith preachers promise big miracles for desperate believers. When the Heavenly Amazon doesn’t deliver, posing as God’s earthly surrogates, they plead that no person can know the mind of a god whose intentions and decisions emanate from a metaphysical realm. Their trade is in transcendence. After all, these are businesses that deal exclusively in the divine, not the natural world. Santa doesn’t sell toys; he’s selling dreams. And just like with Santa, you can’t sue God when you don’t get stuff from him. If parishioners miss out on God’s financial largesse, it’s their own fault because of their lack of faith. Any questioning is viewed as a spiritual attack of the Devil. And Santa ain’t coming.

Peter Popov vowed, “I can see God leading people into new homes, new automobiles!” Never mind that Popoff is a debunked faith healer, even today he has a popular nation-wide “ministry”. He brings a “feel good” message that resonates with thousands seeking the Christian self-improvement and emotional therapy he sells – regardless whether he was an enormous fraud. He nevertheless reflects who people want to hear, offering the good life.  But Santa definitely ain’t coming here.

Convicted felon, Jim Bakker, likewise has successfully resurrected his God-business.  What got him into prison was a Ponzi-scheme selling condominium time-shares at his Heritage USA property that bilked hundreds of his – mostly elderly – followers out of their life savings.  Today, it is an ugly, abandoned ruin that resembles eastern Ukraine. Santa never came.

Here’s Bakker’s problem: when these preachers move from commercialized transcendence to dealing in “here-on-earth” goods. You know, like ones involving legally enforceable contracts. Like the “Holy Ground Tiny Houses” manufacturer featured on social media, who promised to build 250 homes tiny homes, never delivered, and then declared bankruptcy.  “He came across as a godly person”, one empty-handed buyer remarked. “It was a Christian organization,” another said. “That’s the only reason I went with it.” NBC reports that, among other things, he “spent five years in prison for bilking more than $470,000 from investors”. Bernard Ebbers, former chairman of bankrupt WorldCom was sentenced to 25-year for cooking the books in a securities fraud which drained billions of dollars from retirement accounts. But Ebbers had the balls to tell his Baptist congregation, “more than anything else, I hope that my witness for Jesus Christ will not be jeopardized.”[i]  They’re full of apologies, but Santa ain’t coming here, either.

Like with my BB gun, people are often disappointed when what they wished for doesn’t materialize. Even when a big name preacher-man – or a smooth talking evangelical layman – promises for sure it’s God’s will. The moral here is not necessarily to avoid evangelical marketiers (although probably a wise decision). It’s about not being a “mark” yourself. Especially from trusting others on instinct just because they are Christians. Otherwise, you’ll be singing “I’m gettin’ nuttin for Christmas”.

[i] Jeter, Lynne W. Disconnected: Deceit and Betrayal at WorldCom. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 2004,  p. 188.

Die Juden sind unser Unglück

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There was a time when evangelicals just whispered the “J” word. Now, Trump has given license to say whatever bigoted stray thought that escapes their closed minds.  Take for example, QAnon Christian, Marjorie Taylor Greene, who blamed California wildfires on a space laser controlled by “Globalists” – code word for the Rothschild banking firm. And Jewish multi-billionaire philanthropist George Soros, who a motley collection of MAGA cultists see as a nefarious mastermind of international conspiracies. It was impetus enough for a Florida man to deliver a pipe bomb to the Soros home. “Soros was the one behind everything,” an acquaintance  recounted him repeating. “He was the one buying the whole Democratic Party, he was the epicentre of what is going wrong in the United States of America.”

Blame the Jew. “The truth is”, writes Seth Cohen, “there is only one sordid reason for why attacks on George Soros are constantly trending, and it is not because of his money or his politics. It is because he is Jewish.”  He shares that blame with Jews who “control” Hollywood, the media, banking and finance. The usual suspects: Janet Yellen, (Jewish Secretary of the Treasury) and Lloyd Blankfein (Jewish Goldman Sachs Chairman). Others “who don’t have your good in mind.” “I stand with the Christians worldwide not the global bankers who are shoving godlessness and degeneracy in our face,” fervent evangelical Wendy Rogers recently scapegoated. Her solution: build more gallows for these traitors.

Last November, I posted The Problem With Judaism: All The Good Jews Live In Israel  which identified Soros as the personification of Jewish blame for the moral collapse of Western civilization. (For Donald Trump, who claims American Jews are disloyal, as with a wide assortment of Christian Zionists, Israel-loving is “a different story.”)  “Most churches in America today do not think they are anti-Semitic. Many churches allow small attacks on Judaism that make larger attacks more likely”. Evangelicals blithely imprint Soros, a Holocaust survivor, while pretending the ugly trope is not an ambiguously disguised reference to Jews as a whole.

There was always anti-Semitism in evangelicalism. One can recall Billy Graham candidly speaking with President Nixon, unaware that he was being recorded. The Watergate tapes reveal Graham’s personal feelings about his Jewish “friends”:  ”They swarm around me and are friendly to me because they know that I am friendly to Israel and so forth. But they don’t know how I really feel about what they’re doing to this country”. Things have changed since. They’ve taken an extreme turn for the worse. And evangelical churches are a hub for radicalization. Forget that passé right-wing mantra, Judeo-Christian heritage. “We have to have one religion ” Mike Flynn spouts as he traverses the country speaking at churches.

Anti-Semitic Beliefs Grow Among Evangelicals, reads a Forward headline. Take for example, popular right-wing pastor Rick Wiles of Florida (a state where anti-Semitic incidents have increased by 50%). Wiles called the attempt to impeach President Donald Trump a “Jew coup”. He went on to claim Jews will “kill millions of Christians.” Perhaps he took a cue from Hitler-loving Trump himself, who outright threatened U.S. Jews to “get their act together and appreciate what they have in Israel – Before it is too late!” “We are called to be at odds with any religion that does not acknowledge Jesus as the Prince of Peace,” another Florida pastor declared. Or take celebrity convert Kanye West’s threat to go “death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE”. These are not outliers in an evangelical church disfigured into a politically-influenced identity cult. “This is not an aberration in behavior. It is the default.”

What to do? Firstly, Christians should verse themselves in what St. Paul commands: “Hate what is evil; cling to what is good”, and “as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone” (Romans 12). Secondly, determine you will love and pray for them, regardless. Thirdly, reclaim the Gospel from those kidnapping the faith, watching out “for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them.” (Romans 16).

If anything, Christians can learn a lesson from House Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern, who recently invoked a new committee rule against “batsh** crazy” legislation (in this case, from Lauren Boebert) from proceeding. “I’m sorry. We’re not doing this”, he declared. “We’re not doing this. I’m not going down that road. I’m not going to be part of any effort to legitimize people who are f*cking lunatics”.

Unless our opposition is vocalized and actualized, evangelical Christians will be facing the same fate as German pastor Martin Niemöller described under the Nazis:

… Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out – because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

Calling James Dobson. Are You There…? Hello…?

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For I am persuaded that none of these things has escaped his notice, for this has not been done in a corner. (Acts 26:26)

“I simply can’t in good conscience be a party to putting any of them in power, because I believe they’ll do irreparable harm to our country.” James Dobson in 2008 on electing McCain, Clinton or Obama

Years ago, as a young church-going parent, I listened to James Dobson’s tapes on Christian child-rearing.  Until I realized the futility of his advice to break children’s wills by bullying them with authoritarian parental control. Abuse doesn’t lead to redemption. From there, the child psychologist increasingly misapplied his media hold over millions of evangelicals for his own skewed political purposes. Confident in his role as Spiritual Daddy, he parleyed his combative fundamentalism to become a partisan kingmaker.

Bill Clinton “will never stop lying”, Dobson pronounced in 1998. His “disregard for morality is profoundly disturbing to me.” Clinton, he maintained, “is the only one in American history, to my knowledge, who has been specifically applauded for his deceit…  Character DOES matter. You can’t run a family, let alone a country, without it.” Again: “We are facing a profound moral crisis — not only because one man has disgraced us – but because our people no longer recognize the nature of evil. And when a nation reaches that state of depravity – judgment is a certainty.”

Fast forward to today, where Dobson runs spiritual defense for Team MAGA, including its pathological leader. He’s a man who remained stumm about Trump’s sexual infidelities, his cheating, his profanity – despite supporting “those who will lead the country righteously, honorably, and wisely”. And he’s a man who claims the 2020 election was stolen, because of “the overwhelming volume of evidence”.  

You might say Dobson is a hypocrite. But Dobson, like so many of his pious sisters and brothers in Christ, is not a religious phony. Dobson has spent his entire career telling others how to structure their lives. He, like the Pharisees, takes pride in narrow-minded “our-way-or-highway” religiosity. You’d think this witness for the Truth would have the discernment to distinguish right-ness from righteousness. Thus, he’s not a hypocrite when playing by his own interpretation of the rules. But you can know all the rules – and when to break them – all in a Christianity bereft of the teachings of Christ. And because, as Dr. Dobson put it, “our people no longer recognize the nature of evil”.  

“If there’s no meaning in it,” said the King in Alice in Wonderland, “that saves a world of trouble, you know, as we needn’t try to find any.” Evangelicals “talk good sense about wisdom and morality, at least until a Bible opens up. Then, suddenly, we are incapable of holiness,” writes Bart Gingerich. It becomes a free-for-all antinomialism. This isn’t just that they’ve been ignorant, which implies lack of knowledge. They hold false beliefs while knowing they are untrue, which implicates deliberate sinful intent. As Jerry Falwell, Jr. once explained, “we can argue about theology later after we save the country.”

As the disgraced Falwell himself personifies, the Moral Majority has never been about personal morality. At least from “our” side. That’s why you’ll never see Dobson condemn a dreadful person like candidate for Georgia governor, Herschel Walker. Character DOES matter, as Dobson once believed. Now, its just delivering political results. “All that talk about how leaders must exhibit personal morality was forgotten in favor of a ruthless pragmatism they make no effort to conceal. They just want to win by any means necessary and worship power for power’s sake.”

And just as Dobson led thousands into the front door of churches, he’s now pushing thousands out the back door. Hello, Dr. Dobson, are you listening to the door slam on their way out? Wonder why the evangelical church is withering? To paraphrase Dobson, when the church “reaches that state of depravity – judgment is a certainty.”

Behold, A Man In Whom Is No Guile.

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Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near. Matt. 3:2

You’d have to live under a rock to miss the contenders for Georgia senator. The incumbent Democrat, Rev. Raphael Warnock is pitted against Trump-endorsed Herschel Walker. It’s that season when the airwaves are rotten with campaign ads, and here in Georgia it’s no exception. Walker has made it a toxic race where his are primarily attack ads – very few concentrate on his own accomplishments.

That should not come as a surprise, given Walker has no political experience. More to the point, however, is that there is little virtuous to say about him. Other than he was a popular football star, if that counts. On the football field, he was a superhero. On his private playing field, by published accounts, he was a violent serial philanderer, domestic abuser, and deadbeat dad. Asked if he has ever spoken to any of the mothers of his children, his answer was “why do I need to?” Oh, I forgot to mention he professes to be a staunch “family values” Bible-believing Christian.

And Walker is a habitual liar. “He’s lied so much that we don’t know what’s true”, his own campaign staff admitted. A fictitiously-inflated business record, outright fabrications about being an FBI agent, claims that he graduated from college in the top 1% of his class – when he never obtained a degree. You know, just mere trifles anyone might not remember about their past. Oh, and that he failed to mention he pointed a gun to his former wife’s head and threatened to kill her. Or, that he kept secret – even to his own campaign –three undisclosed children born out of wedlock with various women on the side. There might have been more – but he reportedly paid another girlfriend (or more?) to have an abortion. Walker claimed he had no idea who this woman could be, a denial which was undercut by further reporting that she also had a child with him.

One might suppose all that would put the kibosh on pro-lifers’ support. But predictably, “Family Values” evangelicals merely doubled down.  “Walker’s Christian Fans Unfazed By Abortion Revelations”, a Politico article announces. This follows on a “prayer warriors for Herschel” campaign stop at First Baptist of Atlanta, where the preacher invoked God’s blessing for him to win. “So, we thank you that we can support our fellow conqueror, our brother, our friend, the one that we are praying for today.”.

In fact, the revelations of his private life spurred a vote of confidence by record-setting influx of donations, as most evangelicals dismissed the allegations as October surprise hit-jobs. Including Walker himself, who swore he didn’t do any of it. “They want you to confess to something you have no clue about.” And yet, without confessing these as these hidden sins and repenting, he pronounced himself forgiven “by the grace of God.” It’s somewhat akin to the story in Genesis 18 where Sarah lied and said, “I did not laugh.” “Yes, you did laugh”, the divine visitor replied. You put on a show for other people, cleverly thinking “no one’s gonna know.” But God knows. It nevertheless doesn’t matter to Walker. He pulls out some pages from O.J. Simpson’s book, If I Did It, to say, “And if I knew about it, I would be honest and talk about it, but I know nothing about that.” He then deflects to that old saw that “I’ve been born again”, so I have protection against everything.

“The left will do whatever they can to win this seat,” Walker said. “And I told you when I got in this race I’m gonna win this seat.” Funny how projection works. “I always hoped the influence was such that whether we were out in public or on the field,” long-time Dallas Cowboys coach and evangelical Christian Tom Landry once said.” We conducted ourselves in such a way to show Christian traits.”  Landry never allowed winning override his personal dignity and Christian virtue.  Sadly, our current world is bereft of men and women of similar honor. Who are hailed are those with dubious character, those utterly unqualified as leaders, or otherwise psychologically and spiritually impaired.

You might think this is a hit piece on Herschel Walker. He’s merely a bit player in the ongoing Christian Nationalist wet dream. And with a career of severe head injuries, is an ill man to be pitied and cared for. The real villains in this story are the evangelical leaders/grifters unable to accept the Truth and who foist him up as a Jesus-level hero. You know, those who condemn the sins of those on the “opposing” team. And yet turn a hypocritical eye away from their own. I recall Jesus saying many things against people for whom nothing matters more than raw power.

Frankly, I’m voting for Raphael Warnock on his record and Christian ethic.  If power-hungry evangelicals are willing to overlook their own candidate’s  total lack of a personal moral code for the sake of controlling the Senate, shame on them. They may win this election, because he’d be elected by Christians regardless of what Jesus said. But they are stone-cold losers. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?