Deconstructing the Myth of the Conservative “Christian”

I’ve made no secret of my feelings that I don’t believe many conservatives who consider themselves Christians are in fact actual Christians. It’s just never made much sense to me how a party that loves guns and greed while simultaneously vilifying the poor and the needy could call themselves “Christians.”

It’s like I’ve said plenty of times, even if you view Christ as a fictional character instead of an actual person who lived over 2,000 years ago, it’s without question that he symbolizes hope, love, acceptance, giving and emphasizing an importance on helping the poor and the needy.

But where are any of those values represented in the Republican party? I just don’t see them.

The Republican:

Media is driven by fear.

Economic ideology is based on feeding greed.

Stance on health care is that it’s only for those who can afford it.

Social platform outright treats homosexuals as second class citizens.

Stance on immigration is to treat illegal immigrants more like animals than actual human beings.

Party constantly props up big business as the “good guys” while attacking the poor as “lazy moochers.”

Again, where are Christ-like values found in any of that?

No matter what issue it is, Republicans are almost always on the side of every issue that seems to be almost the complete opposite of where Jesus Christ would stand on these issues if he were alive today.

They have no problem spending hundreds of billions of dollars on a massively bloated national defense budget, yet scoff at the idea of spending a few million so that children living in poverty have more food to eat. This country “can’t afford” to provide health care for every single one of its citizens – but it needs to continue to build a super military to “protect its citizens.”

Well, tell me, what kills more Americans each year:

Heart disease and cancer – or - Terrorists

I won’t spoil the answer for you, but I think most sane people can figure out which one claims more American lives every year.

So what’s the point of building this “super military” if the society we’re defending has a crumbling infrastructure, tens of millions of Americans without basic health care and millions more living in poverty? (Most of whom are children, by the way.)

Republicans seem to believe Jesus Christ would be some gun-loving “good ol’ boy” who’d pose for pictures straddling a missile, wearing a flag for a bandana with an AR-15 strapped to his back. They seem to believe that because many of them have a solid attendance record at church and blindly follow a few handpicked excerpts from the Bible, that they’re suddenly “closer to Christ.” Except, being a Christian and following the Bible are not mutually exclusive. It’s very possible to believe in the Bible – without actually being a Christian. And most of what right-wing ideology is based on comes from the Old Testament, which was before Jesus Christ.

The Republican party’s claim that they’re the “party for Christian values” is an absolute myth.

If someone is pressed to label a party that most represents “Christian values,” it’s Democrats. They’re the party that wants to see that every American has access to health care; that poor people have food on their table; that our elderly have programs that help them survive; that our students have access to a quality education; and that our economic polices are built upon helping the poor and the middle class instead of giving more to the richest among us.

But I know the right-wing response to that: Yeah, and they also support abortion and gay marriage.

Well, guess what two issues Jesus Christ never spoke about? If you guessed abortion and homosexuality you would be absolutely correct. So you can’t really claim “Christian” values based on two topics on which Jesus Christ never spoke.

You can claim Biblical beliefs, but as I said earlier, it’s possible to follow the Bible without being a Christian.

So the next time anyone reading this encounters a conservative who goes on endlessly about how Republicans are the party for “Christian values,” I would highly encourage them to ask that individual to please point to specific examples within the policies that the GOP supports that represent actual values for which Jesus Christ spoke and lived.

I’ve done it several times and almost always the results are quite comical.