Rep. Lauren Boebert, Colorado’s lap dancer turned Congresswoman, wants the United States to be a “Christian nation.” Sixty-one percent of her fellow Republicans agree with her.
Since 1950, I have been a United States citizen: and since December 10, 1970, I have been a saved-by-the-blood, baptized-in-the-spirit, Bible believin’ Christian, so I have a few thoughts on the matter.
First of all, most evangelical Republicans wouldn’t know true Christianity if it bit ‘em in the fundament. These GOP snake-handlers yearn to tear down the wall between church and state because they’ve deluded themselves into thinking that Christ’s message has something to do with politics.
Maybe the GOP is relying on Trump’s upside-down Bible, with its scratch-n-sniff centerfold of Armageddon and Babylon the Harlot. Religious fear is, after all, a great way to manipulate and control people.
But my ol’ bedside Bible – King James Version, of course – tells a much different story of the teachings of Jesus and the lives of his followers.
For example, here is a verse that the GOP doesn’t quote much when the “prosperity gospel” is preached in their crystal cathedrals. From the Book of Acts (the history of the early Christian church), Chapter 2, verses 4 and 5, “And all that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.”
It must give Rep. Boebert and her hypocritical friends the vapors to read that the early Christians were collectivists and communists, living communally and distributing the wealth. I don’t think that is the type of “Christian Nation” they have in mind.
Christ himself taught on the separation of church and state, and on money in Luke 20: 22-25, “
22Is it lawful for us to give tribute unto Caesar, or no? 23But he perceived their craftiness, and said unto them, Why tempt ye me? 24Shew me a penny. Whose image and superscription hath it? They answered and said, Caesar’s.25 And he said unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar’s, and unto God the things which be God’s.
Today’s Christian Nationalist don’t quote that verse very often, but they should. Nor do they spend much time reading the Sermon on the Mount. Their concept of Christianity is adulterated by politics and economic gain.
Christ’s message really isn’t that hard to grasp. He summed it up very nicely in Matthew 22:37-40, “37Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38This is the first and great commandment. 39And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 40On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
The Christian message is all about love, and has nothing to do with politics, power or money. But that kinda talk can get you tossed out of most evangelical GOP churches these days.
I’ll bet a dollar to a donut that Boebert and her co-religionists are more comfortable with the Old Testament god who killed all the firstborn of Egypt, and sent bears to eat the kids that mocked his prophet. That kind of thing dovetails nicely with the slash-and-burn, vengeful message of the “Christian” nationalists. And it fills collection plates.
If these false prophets have anything at all to do with the New Testament, they were the moneychangers in Matthew 21 that Jesus drove out of the temple; they were the Pharisees who always doubted and questioned him.
For charlatans like Boebert to cloak themselves in Christ’s message while they spout hate and greed is blasphemy. It is taking the Lord’s name in vain.
Boebert and the “Christian Nationalists” miss the important message from the life of Jesus, that if you want to live in a Christian nation, then live like a Christian.
