We Should Chastise Fake Christians
They discredit the good works of others
There’s a guy I know who I’m about to cut out of my life due to his overly aggressive and often offensive support of Donald Trump. Whenever I promote an article through social media, he is always the first to respond.
“Lies!”
“Fake news!”
Then he posts a link to some nut-job, conspiracy theory YouTube video. I don’t appreciate how he attempts to leverage my platform to spread his message of propaganda, hatred, and blatant misrepresentations of reality. I delete his comments, but he immediately puts them back up.
Whenever he gets the chance, he’s quick to remind everyone about his steadfast Christian faith. But the thing is, I know things about this guy. I’ve witnessed his behavior firsthand. He’s not religious, and I doubt he could string together two words that appear together in the Bible. Why then do I feel a reluctance to publicly call him out on his lack of faith?
Respect religion
One of our social norms is to never be critical of another person’s religious beliefs. The old adage states that you shouldn’t discuss politics or religion in polite conversation. But maybe it’s time that we rethought that perspective.
Religious individuals frequently show little restraint from attempting to reshape our society. They often aspire to use laws to force everyone to comply with their faith-based thinking and give little thought to the negative repercussions that might result. There are always demands to bring prayer into school, and religious groups frequently want exemptions from laws that are designed to protect the population.
Religious individuals use faith based objections to refuse vaccines, or to fail to medicate their children when they fall ill. This is murderous behavior that directly contributes to the propagation of misery and illness within our whole nation. When topics like “family values” are tabled, it’s important to respond with examples of how often traditional values have been used to perpetuate systems that amount to torture and abuse.
My social media harasser
I met my “deeply religious” friend when we both lived in Peru. When you live abroad, it’s common to develop a social circle of Americans so you can get together and speak English. We’d invite Cliff to come and play poker with us. Cliff would always show up late, and half the time he would slip out before he paid his share of the bill.
When Cliff spoke, it was to regale us with stories about his latest experience at a disreputable massage parlor. He was also well acquainted with the local brothels.
His conversation would toggle back and forth from hailing the merits of intelligent design over evolution, to how he’d brought a girl over to his house and somehow lost his wallet. But in his mind, he remained “deeply religious.”
Cliff’s infidelity
Being an outside observer to Cliff’s train wreck of a life became a source of general amusement. He fell in love with a local Peruvian woman who had recently gotten married to a Canadian. I guess respecting the bonds of marriage did not fall into the list of “family values” to which he subscribed.
He even flew to Canada and rented a bungalow across the street from his girlfriend’s house so he could have clandestine meetings with her while her husband was at work.
Yet, when this guy turns around and posts about his religious faith on social media, somehow I’m the bad guy when I call him out?
When tolerance becomes self-defeating
The recent descent of our whole political system into absolutely madness has caused me to rethink many of my personally held convictions. People have accused me of being generous to a fault. My wife often tells me I give people too many second chances. Over the years, I’ve become more inclined to agree with her.
In the past, I used to have hope for people. I used to think that if you treated them with kindness, perhaps they’d give up their untoward behavior and come around. I didn’t think it did any good to cut them out of my life.
But now, we’re an election away from abandoning all the freedoms of our nation in favor of an autocratic dictator, and guys like Cliff are waving his banner completely ignorant of the horrible consequences that will come as a result of this deplorable choice.
They ignore the true message of the Bible
Throughout my adult life, I’ve witnessed our society stand silent as dark forces have perverted the good messages of the Bible and transformed religion into a tool of oppression. Religious groups claim they want prayer in school, but then they ignore that Jesus says we should help the weak, that the rich should give to the poor.
We don’t need religion in school, we need religion in church.
The corruption of religion has been made possible because, through social programming, good people stand by and say nothing. Nobody stands up to protect religion. We’ve been brainwashed into believing if you call out a man who routinely visits prostitutes as a bad Christian, that somehow you are the one responsible for the unforgivable aggression.
Jesus healed the sick
Sick people need our care, but in the United States citizens routinely do not have access to health care, and when they do they are crushed by medical bills. Religious people frequently stand in steadfast opposition to reforming our health care system.
I know that there are good religious people out there, but they need to speak out. They need to cast off their trepidation and take action to prevent the further corruption of their belief system.
If there are no examples within an individual’s behavior that indicate s/he is committed to following a path of humility, charity, and self-sacrifice, then we should not allow that person to make a self-declaration of their commitment to religious observation. They are liars, frauds, charlatans, and they tarnish the good name and reputations of true people of faith.
Even the Pope has been critical
“A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not of building bridges, is not Christian.” — Pope Francis
Donald Trump does not hold himself to the teachings of Jesus Christ. That is obvious through his commitment to lying, insulting behavior, and defiant aggression, but this problem goes beyond Trump and infects the whole GOP. My acquaintance Cliff uses his declaration of piousness as a cover for his frequent and questionable sexual transgressions.
It should not be beyond the purview of our society to demand accountability when a person indicates that he or she holds a strong religious commitment. If that person makes such a declaration, but cannot show even a single example of faith based behavior, then they are not entitled to the generous associated impression of piousness or honesty.
Just as we call it “stolen valor” when individuals who never served in the military dress up in uniforms for personal gain, we should denounce individuals who clutch a cross to protect themselves while they perpetrate acts of selfishness and abuse.
Lets give credit to the good ones
A truly spiritual person, no matter what religion they belong to, is a joy to be around. They exemplify kindness, generosity, and empathy. It is one of the great tragedies of our age that nefarious individuals have been allowed to get away with using the good reputation of religious affiliation as a pry-bar to force their way into an undeserved social status.
Religious sincerity should no longer be a topic of avoidance. If a person truly lives a life of faith, they should not have any reluctance to have their faith questioned. After all, we can all do more. We can all give more. We can all aspire to greater kindness. None of us is a complete and perfect person.
When a person bristles at an accusation that s/he is not a person of faith, it can be taken as a proof that they are not. A truly religious person would be thankful for the guidance on how they can continue to better themselves. We should all aspire to be of even greater service to the people with whom we are fortunate enough to share the world.
Every day should be seen as another opportunity to do the maximum amount of good possible in your brief lifetime. Let us celebrate those examples, and not provide undeserved credit to those who fail to meet the standard.
