It's stunning, really, how complicit the Christian right is in the anti-democratic rigging of these past 40 years. Their commitment to patriarchy trumps any kind of discipleship, any kind of cross-bearing ethic. And they've fully and grimly embraced the ways of empire and oppression. To be honest, Mitch McConnell and Lindsay Graham would be nowhere without the church. Donald Trump and William Barr would be nowhere without the church. And that should give every one of us pause.
What's even more disturbing is the way these same bigots have claimed and fully colonized "religion"--as if to say that their controlling, fear-pedaling, race-baiting misogyny is the only real religion there is. I can't stomach it: as if Jesus were a white supremacist misogynist--whose only real purpose was protecting male power and white privilege from erosion. (Amy Barrett, welcome to the Supreme Court. Thanks, Federalist Society.)
My God, just about everything Jesus said and did suggests he intended to subvert and dethrone male power and racial privilege. The crucifixion and resurrection--at least, in my reading--are all about the death of our perversions and the liberation of human kindness and communion. Baptism is our surrender to that death, and our celebration of new life in Christ and new partnerships in human community. Sign me up for THAT church.
