Reclaiming Jesus from the Evangelicals
I asked her if she had read a certain Christian’s blog that we both followed at one time.
“No,” she replied. “I don’t keep up with anything out of the Evangelical community any more.”
I didn’t have to ask why; I already knew. The word “Evangelical” summed it all up.
It was difficult, another said later, working for a company that touted itself as “Evangelical” yet so little about the business model was the least bit Christian in nature. They hold prayer every day at work, thanking God for all the good in the world. But there is never any mention of the harm done to others. School shootings? Never any prayer for those families. Floods? Fires? No prayers for those folks either. Just prayers for those in their own tight circle of “family.”
Speaking of family, the company CEO is the father of a transgender daughter. It’s a known “secret” that his son is now his daughter, yet, there is never any mention of “her.”
Isn’t this a missed opportunity? An opportunity for this man to step up before the Evangelical community and help them understand how families can embrace a faith and their transgender children, too? Given that the family business is in the communication field, after all.
Probably, she agreed. But what are you going to do when that person is full onboard with Trump?
Yes.
Christian. Evangelical. CEO of one of the largest communication businesses in the country. Father to a trans. And a Trump devotee.
Go figure.
What sort of mental gymnastics must a person put themselves through in order to embrace a sex abuser cheat like Trump and yet reject their own trans child for disobeying the “natural order of God.” That argument only works in a patriarchal structure where you believe that God’s order was to give white men dominion over all things – including women, people of color, along with the animals of the fields. That sort of structure makes it okay for men to rape women, which is why Evangelicals can devote themselves to Trump and be okay with his hiring of porn stars, sexually assaulting women, and cheating on every wife he’s ever had.
The struggle is real y’all.
More and more of my friends, both men and women, are struggling to reconcile the Jesus they love with the Evangelicals we are surrounded by. I heard a report on NPR this week that said those over 65 trend Republican, and trend consistent voters who voted for Trump.
I don’t know if that is true. Most everyone I know in their 60s and 70s and into their 80s can’t stand Trump. Most of the people I know, all across this country, want to reclaim Jesus from Evangelicals, and toss out the patriarchal structure that has been the source of so much wrongdoing in this country. The raping and pillaging of people and land in Jesus’ name.
Tell me who you voted for in the past election and I will know how serious you are about following Jesus.
Karen Spears Zacharias is author of Where’s Your Jesus Now? Examining how fear erodes faith (Zondervan).
1 Comment
Mike Hannan
about 3 years agoHi Karen - Nice to hear your(our) voice saying what I have been thinking for the past 6 years with no place to scream out my sadness and resentment. Your Dad gave his life for our Country and Constitution and I and hundreds of our friends gave something, if not their lives, that has changed the course of their our, my, your, life. A few years after I came home (1967) my sister told me that she spoke with our Mom about me and what was gong on in my life in the early 70's and the work I was doing as a photo artist. My mother said she was glad I was doing that because it gave me an outlet I wouldn't have without it ............ and say what I had to say with out crying every time I spoke. Mother told my "little sister" that "your brother went away a happy person and came home with a heavy heart ..... a different person. I've put up a pretty good public face but when Trump appeared on the scene and I learned then that some very dear Evangelical friends forgot about our Jesus. our Constitution our Nation, the friend and partner of the down trodden, suddenly became a nation full of Neo-Nazis and white supremacists who loved the last 13 words of the Second Amendment and forgot about the truth and at the behest of our president attempted a coup, my war started over. AND it and he and his acolytes haven't and won't give it up until we are no longer the America of Emma Lazarus or Abe Lincoln or John Kennedy or Martin Luther King until someone begins to defend our First Amendment rights that the Trump Cult and Evangelical Christians believes they are protecting with the last 13 words of the Second Amendmen. Problem is that their First Amendment defense is for the vile, untruthful, destructive words of DJT.