My father was a Christian man. He was born in 1920, the third of nine children born on a small family farm in rural, northeast Missouri. Despite growing up dirt poor, he was able to graduate from college and then from seminary where he met and married my mother. Eventually he earned a PHD in Theology. My father’s oldest brother died in the barracks at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. In December 1946 my parents sailed to Japan to be missionaries. Since the US had successfully demoted the Japanese Emperor-God to just plain Emperor, General MacArthur thought the Japanese people needed God and encouraged Christian missionaries to go there. My parents were among the first to go, arriving in Japan at a time when there was hardly a tree as tall as a man in the city of Tokyo. First they learned the language. My father taught Bible era Greek and Christian Ethics to Japanese seminary students. He led Bible studies, taught Sunday School, started churches, preached in Japanese and for several years was treasurer of the mission. He earned a reputation among his peers that if you wanted something done right — let George do it. My father never touched tobacco, never tasted liquor and never, ever swore. An avid golfer, he didn’t even swear on the golf course and he didn’t cheat. My father never raised his voice in anger. He treated everyone with respect — even those he disagreed with. He was never heard to say anything demeaning or insulting about another person, either to their face or behind their back. He married one woman and was faithful to her until death did them part. He was frugal with money and met his tax obligations in two countries without complaint and never missed giving his 10% tithe to the church. My father was a Christian man and his life was a reflection of his faith.
Sadly, his is not the face of Christianity that we see today. Instead we see the old white guy with the greasy black hair on late night TV imploring his listeners to plant a $58 ‘seed’, promising that God will reward them. This is usually followed by a parade of people testifying about how they planted a ‘seed’ and soon received an unexpected check in the mail for thousands of dollars. Mysteriously, all the testifiers are people of color and no one reveals the actual source of their new found wealth. We see Kenneth Copeland defending his need to own an extravagant private plane because you can’t expect him to do God’s work cooped up in a metal tube with all those other people. The field is full of ridiculously wealthy preachers living like kings at the expense of their congregations. We see Joel Olsteen having to be shamed into opening his empty church to provide shelter for thousands of people displaced by floods. It seems they haven’t read their own book where it says “go and sell all that thou hast, and give it to the poor” (Matthew 19:21) and “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God” (Matthew 19:24). We see preachers proudly defying public health guidelines risking everyone’s health while claiming that God demands that they hold these giant services in person. They missed where Jesus says, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” (Matthew 18:20) We see Franklin Graham trying to prove how charitable he is by funding a much needed field hospital while insisting that all medical staff must sign a declaration that they believe the same things he believes. As if their personal religious beliefs have any bearing on their ability to provide medical care. We see Jim Bakker hawking his miraculous cures for everything, including the new virus. The man is a convicted criminal and is so crooked that even the credit card companies now refuse to do business with him. But he will take your check! Every time there is a flood, hurricane, epidemic or other natural disaster we are treated to Falwell and his ilk pontificating about how this is God’s punishment for turning away from him because we took prayer out of public schools, still allow abortion and support rights for the LGBTQ community. Never mind that these natural disasters pre date the Bible and science can not only explain their causes, they can even predict them with a fair degree of accuracy. And they wonder why their numbers are dwindling.
Of course these grifters and snake oil salesmen in preacher’s clothing have been with us for years but the rise of Trump has given them a megaphone. They threw their support, in the name of God, behind this man who not only has no morals, ethics, integrity or empathy, he doesn’t see any value in these qualities. They believed him when he claimed to be a Christian even while he boasted that he never prays and demonstrated his complete ignorance of the Bible. Two Corinthians — really!?! They excused the fact that he has had three wives, was never faithful to any of them and paid people to keep his dalliances secret. They overlook lie after lie after lie — even when he lies about things so easily proven false. After all, we have video and audio evidence that he did say what he says he didn’t say and statistics, facts and pictures that prove he just makes things up as he goes. They rallied around a man whose campaign strategy was to vilify, demean and lie about everyone who isn’t as white as he is or who follows a different religious path or who simple disagrees with him. A man who constantly boasts about how smart he is or how rich he is or how much better he is than everyone else — without a shred of evidence to support any of it. They hitched their wagons to a businessman who renigs on contracts and then keeps everything tied up in court until the other side gives up. A man who manipulates the value of his properties to appear valuable when he wants a loan but not worth diddly when it comes to paying taxes on them. A businessman who couldn’t even turn a profit on a casino. Some cringed briefly when he tore families apart with no regard for record keeping or their health and put children in cages. But they got over it. Incredibly they still have his back even as he puts their very lives in danger because he can’t admit that experts actually know things and he is not the genius that he imagines himself to be. They make excuses for him saying that’s just the way he talks or God often uses flawed leaders to do his work. Maybe they don’t care that those flawed leaders also had to face God’s justice in the end. These ‘Christians’ have given their voices and support to a man who has precisely zero Christian qualities and they are party to the most un-Christian administration in our history. They make a mockery of my father’s faith.
Certainly there are still thousands of real Christians and wonderful churches all across America. There are churches that maintain food pantries and help people with utility bills. There are churches that provide sanctuary for immigrants pursued by ICE. They take Jesus’ words seriously when he said, “Inasmuch as ye have done it to the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” (Matthew 25:40) Many churches welcome their LGBTQ brothers and sisters. They understand what Jesus meant when he said, “Judge not, that ye be not judged.” (Matthew 7:1) Good pastors have found ways to worship with their congregations and support them without putting their lives in danger. Theirs are many but small foot prints that are too easily stomped out by the big footprints and loud voices of the big dogs spouting their self righteous dogma. The one thing Trump does do better than anyone else is the con. The greatest con man ever has out conned the con men and has them kneeling and washing his feet. But no one lives forever and if there really is a God, there are going to be a lot of really surprised ‘Christians’ on judgement day when they are called on to defend their actions.