CNs & FCs
In recent years, my opinion of America’s politically active, anti-democracy Christian nationalist (CN) theocracy movement has turned extremely negative. My evidence- and reason-based ill-will (bad opinion) extends to Christians who do not explicitly support anti-democratic theocracy but nonetheless use Christianity for their own personal agendas, which seem to tend towards reliance on some form of authoritarianism and corruption. I call them fake Christians (FCs).
There is deep moral rot, shameless mendacity and shocking hypocrisy through the lens of both (1) my own moral values, and (2) the moral values that CNs and FCs self-righteously claim they believe in and live by. No one is perfect, but at least people can try in good faith to face inconvenient fact, truth and sound reasoning. They have the moral courage to face what is inconvenient. I see moral cowardice in CN and FC elites who cynically deny what is inconvenient and rational in their quest for wealth and power. But what about the rank and file who see nothing wrong and support bad Christianity? Yeah, exactly what about them? What is the state of their moral beliefs and their behaviors?
Dim views of fake Christianity
At least some other people have a pretty dim view of how CNs and FCs practice their faith. Over at his blog, Raven’s Song,
Raven posted a poem he wrote in 1984,
and the man says. It includes these thoughts about some TV preachers:
but if a man tells me that it is outdated
that he has more recent information
that he has just come from talking with god
himself
personally
then that man is either
a god blessed saint
or a god damned liar
and if that man is wearing
a five hundred dollar suit
in front of a fifty thousand dollar TV camera
and he is asking me to send him my money
so that he can feed the poor
or serve god
then you know which one
of the two possibilities
I believe
I can think for myself
just as anyone else can
they don’t have to listen to me
to tell them how to think or what to think
and they sure don’t have to listen to you
I know and they know
and the man in rags is walking down a street tonight
in the cold
with everything he owns in a paper bag
walking past the warm TV studio
in the cold
walking past the warm houses
in the cold
and he is going to die tonight
in the cold
because everyone is watching the preacher on TV
and getting closer to god
so they don’t need to go out
in the cold
and bring a smelly beggar inside
out of the cold
and feed him or give him a place to sleep
out of the cold
or care enough to
treat him like a human being
or save his life
after all
their souls have already been saved
by the preacher
so you can ask anyone else on this street
who in america today
is the holiest man
and he may tell you
billy graham, oral roberts, herbert armstrong
or maybe you
but if you ask me
who in america today
has done the most evil in the name of good
I will tell you
Now that feels like real Christianity to me. That is how I was brought up to understand it. That is the kind of Christianity I am comfortable with and support.
Raven put his poem to an artificial intelligence program called Suno that turns words into songs.
The AI-generated song can be played at this link. Like with most other things that humans do, opinions about what is real Christianity and what is fake vary widely.
And so does the empirical and moral basis for that variance.
There are intractable moral differences in the matter real vs fake religion. Democracies resolve the disagreement by reasonable compromise. Theocrats resolve it by force, e.g., forced birth laws, and bigoted, oppressive laws that discriminate against hated out-groups like the LGBQT community. That is a core moral difference between a pro-civil liberties democratic Christian and a pro-bigotry authoritarian Christian.
An interesting thought
Is it mostly true? Maybe
