I don’t consider myself to be the most moral person in the country nor am I now a Christian, but for decades, I could rely on the Conservative Christian Right to tell me if we, as Americans, had crossed a moral barrier. I didn’t always listen to them because, frankly, sometimes they overreacted about things. I learned early on as an adult that if the CCR were up in airs about something, to check the moderate conservatives and centrist liberals to judge exactly how “out there” the CCR was reacting about any given topic. For the most part, the CCR relied on Bible scriptures to pump up their tirades. They seemed to have a scripture for anything they deemed immoral. I always had this fear in the back of my mind that some day the CCR would take control of the entire political system and we would end up in a theocracy instead of a Constitutional Republic. Now, however, there seems to be absolutely no moral compass at all coming from the CCR. They have so completely enveloped Trumpism and seem to give Trump a pass on everything once deemed immoral by their own mouths.
I’m not saying that the CCR was America’s only moral compass. In fact, I think they were reactionaries more than morality setters. However, I do think we Americans depended on the CCR to set a tone or pace in the USA that we could all measure our own moral compasses upon. If I thought the CCR was being outrageous about topics like the LGBTQ community or abortion, for instance, I could weigh my own values against theirs. This often forced me to do research and seek out others’ opinions – in a way, it created a balancing act for me. I guess that is why now, in the age of Trump, I feel unbalanced. The CCR has become so outrageous, so corrupt, that there is no balance anymore.
Sure, they still scream about gays being an abomination and those who seek an abortion as “baby killers”, but now they give passes on adultery, pedophilia, unabashed lying, blatant antisemitism against Jews (while professing to love them so they will convert to good Christians and usher in Armageddon), xenophobia against Muslims, and blaming their woes on “other-isms” (toward immigrants and other POC) that is running rampant in this country.
Maybe I just completely missed something during my years as a Christian, but I always thought that in order to be a good Christian, you tried to obey the 10 Commandments and Jesus’ ideal of “loving thy neighbor as thyself,” and follow Jesus’ other teachings and complete acceptance of Jesus’ love. I also thought that the meek would inherit the earth and rich men wouldn’t easily get into heaven. And yet we now have prosperity preachers (some very much members of the CCR) telling people that it is okay to be wealthy, in fact, God wants us all to be wealthy, which creates an atmosphere of envy, jealousy and greed.
It also doesn’t help that some on the Right have adopted Ayn Rand’s Objectivism philosophy, which suggests that the proper moral purpose of one’s life is the pursuit of one’s own happiness, individual rights and pretty much to hell with anyone else. This has caused many on the Right, including Paul Ryan, to become extremely selfish. While these people confess to be Christians, they certainly do not act like followers of Christ who taught love, compassion, and charity to the poor, the sick, children and the elderly. No, these people only care about what’s in it for themselves and to hell with anyone else. We are seeing this play out now in the Trump Administration:
- Trying to knock thousands off of healthcare by continuously trying to repeal the ACA (Obamacare – a name they gave it to make their base rally against it)
- The erosion of women’s reproductive rights by constant attacks on Planned Parenthood (which does much more than advise on abortions, which many women, children and even men in poor neighborhoods depend on for free health services)
- Attempts at privatizing Social Security, slashing it, or killing it outright (something the elderly and disabled depend on)
- Wanting to do away with Medicaid (which millions of poor American’s depend on, especially for their children)
- Rolling back regulations for clean air, water and food that will effect everyone, except perhaps the very wealthy
- Giving permanent tax cuts to the uber wealthy and corporations, but for lower incomes, those tax cuts will expire in a few years.
I could go on and on with the things this Administration has attempted, has succeeded, and still wish to do that will have devastating effects for millions of Americans. And throughout it all, they still claim to be Christians and are attempting to push their brand of Christianity onto all Americans – a restrictive, cruel, and selfish brand of Christianity (I can definitely see phantoms of Margret Atwood’s Gilead in our future if they succeed).
With all of this selfishness and greed setting the tone in this country, I no longer know where our moral compass lies. I struggle daily to understand all of it. It puzzles me that so many CCRs still consider Trump and many in his Administration and those in Congress to be following the tenets of Christianity. I find myself turning more and more to Buddhism (my now chosen belief system) and Christ Consciousness for answers and as my moral compasses. It’s a shame how far the Right has changed in the past few decades and I wonder if they will ever find their own moral center again and if they don’t, what devastating effects it will have upon our entire nation if they remain in power.
If any of my readers would like to share their thoughts with me about this, please leave a comment below. Thank you.
As the Fates Would Have It 