America Needs Jesus — But Not in the Way You Think

Yes, what American culture needs is a lot more Jesus. But before you start cheering (or clicking away because you think I’ve become a religious bigot), let me explain what I mean.

Although we’re allegedly an extremely Christian country (even though that was never what the Founding Fathers intended) and 70% of Americans identified themselves as Christian in the 2020 Census, you would never believe it by the things we do or the policies we support.

What Jesus is not

Jesus is not celebrating migrant people drowning at the border, including an infant. I can’t say what his view on immigration would be, but I know it wouldn’t be that. I also highly doubt Jesus would support Greg Abbott’s practice of setting up buoys in the Rio Grande to deter more people from crossing the river.

It’s almost like I remember quite a few stories from the Bible that involved crossing rivers…I wonder if there’s any significance in that. Nah, probably just a coincidence.

But anyway, yes, this is going to be another one of those articles that reminds you that Jesus was actually a long-haired hippie of Middle Eastern descent with strangely socialist values (not a blond-haired, blue-eyed white, conservative and judgmental man.) Talk about making him an idol in your own image.

Jesus would not demonize anyone in any community; he regularly ate with sinners, including prostitutes and people whom society considered untouchable and unclean.

He definitely would not support the American government’s decision to refuse to condemn the attacks in Gaza. He would be absolutely horrified by the fact that we were funding the people of Israel to bomb thousands of Palestinians and would probably be the loudest voice in the “free Palestine” campaign. (Yet conservative Christians are the loudest in the pro-Israel camp because they think it’s going to be the site of the final battle that will finally reward them with going to Heaven. They are so certain they would make the cut that they haven’t considered the alternate possibility. I don’t know why more people aren’t scared of the fact that they are literally rooting for the destruction of the human race.)

He also wouldn’t ask if you were worthy enough to receive treatment before deciding to heal you. He never based any of his decisions on how worthy we were to receive help. Wasn’t that the whole point that we were supposed to get? It’s like no one’s ever actually read any of the gospels. (I often doubt that we were even reading the same book.)

As a nation, we have our values twisted inside out to be the exact opposite of Christianity. We collectively worship the rich so much that we give them even more because we want to be like them. The Bible says it’s not money itself that’s the root of all evil, but the love of money. Isn’t the love of money the most American of all values?

We’re the wealthiest country in the world by far and were once the shining beacon for people all around the world. Though we’re still a highly desired destination for many, that more reflects on the place they’re leaving than it means that America is really the “best country in the world.” We’re better than the shithole they fled. Maybe that’s not necessarily a compliment, let alone a reason for bragging rights.

We’re also the stingiest country on earth and our economy is intentionally hostile to the poor in favor of the rich. We adamantly refuse to fund anything to help any but the tiniest portion of our people and what we do give them is far below the standard of living. It reflects how little we care about whether they can survive at all. We would rather drop bombs on civilians in other countries than help our own people, that’s how little we think of our poor.

We simply aren’t the best place in the world anymore, at least in many measurable ways. This is only a good place if you’re rich or desperately want to be. We’re almost suspicious of our poor and we act like they have a contagious disease.

Even though every president we elect claims to be a Christian and we so far seem to require presidential candidates to be Christian, we’re a remarkably un-Christian nation in practice.

In fact, we’re practically the anti-Christ mecca.

I’ve always had strong beliefs

From a very early age, I’ve always befriended those who had no friends. I knew what it felt like to be alone and I didn’t want anyone else to feel that way.

I’ve been an activist for the LGBTQ community for most of my life. I’ve heard Matthew Shepard’s mother speak on two occasions many years apart in my community and was involved with the AIDS quilt project in the early 90s. I’ve sat with friends after they suffered from violence against them because of their sexuality (real or perceived.)

I’ve gotten death threats mailed to my house when a letter I wrote to the editor of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram got printed in the newspaper after the men were convicted of the brutal dragging death of James Byrd, Jr. I got “doxxed” in the pre-internet era, since they found out where I lived, even though my number was unpublished. I’d wonder how they found the information but I have pretty reasonable suspicions.

In it, I said that although I generally oppose the death penalty, I thought that to give them any less of a punishment in such a pro-death penalty state would be a tacit admission that Texas really was as racist as people believe it is. Fortunately (?) two of his killers did indeed get the death penalty.

I state my opinions vocally and proudly and I’ve faced consequences for doing so. There’s never any question about what I believe or what I stand for, so many LGBTQ people and people of color tell me a lot of truths about their lives that they would never consider telling the average white lady. The reason why I think that happens is because I treat them with respect and I genuinely care about what they think.

More specifically, they know I’m not a conservative Christian white lady. It’s a type, trust me.

You —the conservative white Christian — don’t believe them or trust them, which causes them to put up a wall to protect themselves. You are deeply unsafe to them, and they wear a mask around you in hopes of bypassing the hostility they know lives within you. They can see the true hatred in your heart and your mask might come off at any time, when you’ll snap. You are the human equivalent of expecting a jump-scare.

You’re only three wrong interactions away from using a slur against them. It’s just on the tip of your tongue.

What “Christian” culture really is

They unite in their hatred of you and your hypocrisy. You say that you love everybody and you’re such a Christian that you want everybody to know it but you’re honestly a pretty big bitch to other people. You under-tip on purpose and don’t hesitate to ask for the manager when some snot-nosed kid doesn’t show you the respect you feel you deserve.

You go out of your way to proudly support Chick-fil-A and Hobby Lobby, have a whole bunch of cross jewelry (how the torture device Jesus died on was chosen to be the symbol to identify yourself, I’ll never know) and you listen to K-LOVE, but you also think that a lot more people just need to toughen up and “get right with God.” You’re far more generous with your unsolicited advice than you are with your money.

It’s very performative but everyone can see right through it. People just can’t see anything remotely Christ-like in how you treat them.

Some of you lost your kids, family members, and friends by estranging them from you; if not literally, at least with your words.

You have alienated most of the people around you because no one feels safe enough to be real around you, which gets exhausting. You expect nearly superhuman perfection and you’re not generally understanding when people have human flaws.

You’re not aware of how differently you treat those who are different from you. They see it and so do I. Deep down, I believe you think “the Blacks” are almost good enough; they just need to try a little bit harder and then they would deserve to get ahead.

Your gay friends are constantly dreading the talk. You know, the one you have with them semi-regularly. They say you do it all the time but you swear you don’t because you don’t even see them that often. You have to tell them The Truth — of course, always in love, because they should feel how much you love them — that their gay “lifestyle” is going to send them to Hell, and you really don’t want that for them. They should ask for forgiveness of their sins right now and you’ve been ready to hear that prayer. If they just get right with God, you think they’ll magically become straight.

You think they’re really still your “friends.” Real friends don’t delight in each other’s failures or wish that they’ll find the opposite of what they actually want.

And, oh my word, are you judgmental. Of pretty much everyone and everything, unless they’re just like you. You have very strong opinions about what people should and shouldn’t do. You’re downright offended by how often you even have to see so much sinful behavior. Language, nudity, so much sex everywhere; it’s just disgusting.

You see so much sin around you. That makes you feel truly worried for all mankind; don’t people know they could get saved from all this just by accepting Jesus into their hearts and regularly going to church? It frustrates you that so many people are destined for Hell because they just don’t want to stop sinning.

You’re honestly just plain pretty mean. You never tell anyone anything good about themselves. You’re more inclined to think of yourself as life’s designated hitter for telling people what they don’t want to hear. You seem almost giddy about the misfortunes of others and you’re the first to tell them what they did wrong. You seem to go to great lengths to assign blame to people for what happens to them; every misfortune is something they deserve.

What you don't realize you’re doing is pushing them much further away. If “Christ’s love” looks like how you live and they’ll be in heaven with people like you, or be in Hell, many choose Hell (or decide that there isn’t enough evidence for an afterlife to worry about it.) There is nothing about your life that looks like something they want.

Many deconstructions begin because of you. You’re the reason most of your children are rejecting Christianity altogether. I don’t think that’s what evangelism is supposed to look like.

Growing up with “Christian love”

Think about all the LGBTQ young people you might know and imagine how you would react if they told you they were queer. All those things you’ve said about gay people over the years were shaping their brains and deeply rejecting what they knew in their hearts applied to them, too.

Some of them chose to risk telling you, and you confirmed that there was indeed something very “sick and disordered” about them, but you’re pleading with God every night to change them into the opposite of what they are. They know what you’re praying for; you’re not even trying to hide it. They know you think that the way they are is the worst thing that could happen to a person.

You may have gone to great lengths to try to cure them, but there was no greater effort made than how they themselves tried to “pray it away.” They carried around the shame of their failure until they finally decided to just embrace the truth about themselves, and that’s the point of celebrating Pride.

Some of them were literally driven to choose not to live anymore at all because they couldn’t stop viewing themselves as horrible and monstrous because that’s what you taught them as “the truth.”

Their blood is on your hands.

The results of your actions

You are spreading your hatred in every action you support.

You think people just need to work harder if they don’t want to be drowning in debt. Too many complainers are just looking for a hand-out these days. You’re all for helping people, sure, but there are definitely going to be conditions on it. Everyone’s a potential abuser and you don’t really trust anyone; you can only look out for yourself. You don’t think God’s really going to protect you.

Most of your world is divided into two camps: in and out. The “in” group is very small; you only truly like a limited number of people. The idea of having friends who mutually look out for one another of all different ages and ethnicities is completely foreign to you.

You hate drag queens because they’re such icons of self-love. You don’t understand why anyone would love themselves. That sounds like some of that Communist B.S. I don’t know why so many people are talking about self-love all the time lately but it just ain’t right. We need to know that we’re no good. Every human has a black, no-good soul, just like they teach us over and over in church. All of humanity is so fallen. Mostly everybody else, but especially those drag queens.

You don’t understand why so many people make such a big deal about health insurance, or even worse, call for universal healthcare. Don’t they know how close that is to socialism? Socialism is what the Nazis promoted! You think that if everyone just plays their cards right, the problem is easily solved. Nobody ever really gets sick unless they did something to deserve it. You know you don’t deserve it, so you’re good.

You think that a lot of people just don’t want to work. You think this country’s largest money is spent on welfare, which you feel comes from you very personally. You imagine every one of your tax dollars going to support the people on welfare — like you’re personally handing it directly to them straight from your wallet — when welfare is actually a tiny fraction of your taxes. Meanwhile, all you see are the people who are just shamelessly abusing it. We all see what we focus on, so of course you see welfare cheats everywhere you go: you’ve trained your brain to notice them.

If people want to complain about fast food jobs, well, they should just go to college and get something better. Everyone can do it, you know, and too many people just make excuses. This younger generation is terrible at making excuses. They need to toughen up and learn what real suffering is. Honestly, if truth be told, you think it would probably teach them a valuable lesson they need to learn.

Everyone knows all about your type of “Christian love.” They just want nothing to do with it.

From the outside, it only looks like hate. Actually, it looks like you hate almost everyone.

Why you might really be being persecuted

People are rejecting your definition of “Christian love” because it doesn’t look anything like Christ himself or what he taught.

Jesus said how you treat the least of these is how you would treat him. Clearly, a lot of you have never considered what that really means.

Jesus is the junkie under the bridge asking for money.

Jesus is the immigrant speaking another language in front of you.

Jesus is whatever politician you hate the most.

The homeless, queer, Black, fat, disabled people you know are all Jesus in disguise, too.

Do you really love them? Or is the best feeling you can muster for them pity? Is that, indeed, what Jesus would do?

Loving others is not supposed to be easy. If it is, you’re doing it wrong.

That’s what applying the teachings of the Bible really means. There are two Great Commandments — maybe you know them — ”You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

That means that nothing else supersedes either of these two commandments — certainly not anything about abortion (which Jesus never mentions once) or homosexuality (which is only mentioned in a roundabout sort of way in a couple of single verses.) Their mention in the Bible is certainly never said anywhere nearly often enough to be so important to be the basis of your entire expression of Christianity.

I think the second commandment means that you should love both yourself and your neighbor just as much — whomever they love or whatever color hair they may have — and that’s more important than any of the laws. I think most of you can’t even begin to understand loving yourself, let alone your neighbor.

To be a Christian is to be known for your love. What kind of love are you showing to anyone by protesting outside abortion clinics or ranting about how clear the Bible is that being gay is a chosen lifestyle that equals sin?

All the people that you think of as the worst sinners on Earth are very well aware that you think they’re the worst sinners alive. You can’t see how much Matthew 23 closely resembles you as the very definition of a Pharisee.

Meanwhile, there are many of us — who may not even go to church or believe in God at all — who just love everyone as they are and we’re far more Christian in our actions than I think you even believe is possible. We just understand what Jesus said in an entirely different way.

We know it’s the morally right thing to do and we don’t need a legalistic doctrine to threaten us into doing it. We have an innate sense of conscience. You, on the other hand, really do need the fear of Hell to keep you in line, because we don’t want to see what you’d do without it.