Why is it always Christians though?
Every time we find out a new terrible thing in the US, there are the Christians
As a long time atheist activist and leader of a secular group in the midwest I often find myself the odd person out when it comes to discussions about politics or cultural issues. What many other well meaning folk will attribute to “silly folks” or “we aren’t like that anymore” when some awful new legislation is brought up or some horrible viewpoint is espoused, I will often attribute to the elephant in the room that well meaning folks don’t want to point to: religion.
Specifically in the United States, this will be Christianity.
This is often met with looks of “hooo boy here we go again” and eye rolls, head shaking, and shrinking away from the conversation. I attribute this partially to the old boomer canard of “we don’t talk about religion and politics” where folks see this as some taboo topic that is just off limits for polite discussion. I also attribute this to a defense mechanism when someone feels “their team” is being blamed for something that they think isn’t entirely fair. Thankfully we are seeing this nonsense melt away as our country is steadily marching towards theocracy and fascism, but I am getting ahead of myself here. The point remains that talking about issues of faith or politics is often seen as a hot potato, something that is inherently uncomfortable or rude or somehow beyond reproach.
Yet, when we talk about the things that we purport to value, things like democracy, fairness, egalitarianism, inquiry, expression, and even how we feel about ourselves and the possibilities for our future a lot of us find common ground on these. We have no problem expounding on how great it is we vote and how awful it was that people of color were disenfranchised. These expressions generally go beyond political party and are what we as Americans like to cite when we talk about the United States being the greatest country in the world. When we look at history or contemporary politics, though, its often seen as a temporary set-back, something that we as Americans can get through and agree that was a dark time and Things Should Be Better. Those Other Folks did the Bad Things and we are past that now.
But what are those Other Folks on about? Why would they do things or join movements that are so clearly and blatantly against the things our American project is supposed to support and enjoy? Isn’t it obvious that disenfranchising black people is bad if we care about everyone? Shouldn’t we WANT to feed all of the children in our communities? Isn’t it a good thing if someone changes their mind or adopts a new position if there is new evidence? Wouldn’t we all be better off if we had different systems for things like healthcare, education, or even just the way we pay our taxes?
Why is there always some group that seems organized and dead set against progress in our country?
And why is the common denominator that it in some way always organized Christianity?
Now is it fair to lay every greivance or misdeed at the feet of Christianity and those that believe in it? Nah, that isn’t fair at all and it isn’t what I’m saying. However, we have to recognize as a culture that Christianity has found itself on both the right AND wrong side of many of the seemingly obvious issues. This isn’t to say that ONLY Christians are responsible for bad things, but for an ideology that claims to have an invulnerable moral core and agreement with the creator of the universe, it certainly gets a lot of things wrong. Or more accurately, the people that claim to follow it do.
If Christianity is such a net good and source of morality, why does it consistently in the modern era find itself on the wrong side of things and non-Christians consistently on the morally correct side? Lets run down a few things that we are familiar with in the United States.
Slavery. Christians were on both sides of this issue with the most vociferous defenders of slavery being the same defenders of Christianity. Why were the defenders the most staunch believers? Notably the Bible does NOT condemn slavery, perhaps this is why?
Segregation. Christians cared so deeply about racism and otherizing people of color that they retreated to their religion in order to justify avoiding adhering to equality laws. One could argue that this is a distortion of their faith, but if it is, why did - and does- it work? Why do the Southern Baptists still exist to this day as a tax exempt respected and politcally powerful faith based ideology?
Civil Rights for women and minorities. The strongest organized opposition to the expansion of civil rights has long been white conservatives, particularly Southern ones. What was the single most prevalent marker for the opposition outside of whiteness? Christianity. The KKK organized around Christianity and became a massive force of opposition to the well being of religious and ethnic minorities, specifically using Christianity as the package to deliver their hate. Why were so many Christians taken in by these terrorists and willing to dump milk shakes and scream at people for asking to be recognized as human?
Womens rights and abortion. The entire argument from the pro life movement is that god is real, souls are real, and women are less important than the first two things. That is it. In this instance effectively the entire movement to restrict womens rights and make women second class citizens is Christian. There are no serious secular arguments for the legislation and cultural position of the pro life movement. How are Christians getting this one so wrong? Why is the total opposition to equality on womens healthcare from the faith based Christian organizations?
Climate change. This one is a bit more indirect but the throughline is the same. Corporate interests have long been caught out for blocking legislation and pushing aside the well being of the public in order to maximize profits and capture markets. Those that follow Jesus you would think would be first in line to stop such an abgrogation of their responsibility to their fellow citizens. But no, we literally have Christians organizing to prop up these companies because their cultural disdain for others outweighs the self interest of themselves and their grandchildren.
Health and general welfare. You would think that for a faith that was a de-facto net good for humanity, the places that had the highest rates of Christianity would also have the best outcomes for the folks that follow the faith. But we find this to be exactly the opposite- the higher the instancesof Christian belief the lower the life expectency, the more income inequality there is, higher infant mortality, worse health outcomes, and the lower the literacy rates. This correlation should be troubling for even the most die-hard believer.
Democracy. Christians are all too willing to forgo democracy and equal protections under the law if it means they can secure short term benefits for themselves. From church state separation, to taxation, to representation, to even the ability for folks to express themselves in public, you can be sure that if there is a movement to erode civil rights and tamp down on these things, there is a Christian organization behind them. Whether we are talking about defunding public schools, criminalizing the LGBTQ community, stripping away court protections for defendants, or even just wanting to go to a doctor, Christians are in the mix every time.
These aren’t secrets. These aren’t the meandering thoughts of one atheist in the midwest. These are the facts and we all know it. The KKK was an explicitly Christian organization. The Pro life movment is funded, hosted, and propped up exclusively by religious organizations and churches. Slavery and segregations most staunch and vocal defenders are White Christians. Climate change deniers are Christians. Forcing religion into public schools and privileging faith over non faith is being done exclusively by Christians.
From the lavender scare to the red scare to the satanic panic to the trans panic to even learning about how the human body works, Christians are behind every regressive movement in the United States’ history including up to today.
This doesn’t mean all Christians support this, but it does mean that there are enough that do and there is apparantly enough theological ground for it to make sense for it to continue. We have to ask ourselves though, are Christians that care about the rights of others actually a minority of believers at this point? If this is true, doesn’t this fly in the face of the idea of Christianity and Jesus’ teaching being inherently good and useful as a safeguard against immoral behavior? When are we going to stop rolling our eyes and stomping our feet about the critiques of religion and start taking them seriously? When are we going to stop saying the Christians referenced above are somehow “doing Jesus wrong” or “that isn’t MY Bible” and recognize that some Christians don’t have a monopoly on faith just because they may end up being good people and opposing these things.
A lot of his you have probably figured out is what folks are on about regarding Christian Nationalism. A lot of Christians will tell you they oppose this and that its antithetical to the Christianity they believe in. They’ll act like this is some new phenomena that is put together by those dastardly think tanks or charismatic leaders that are leading people astray. But this is to ignore the history of Christianity, specifically Christianity in America. Since its founding as a political force more than a thousand years ago, the history of Christianity is one of oppression, suppresion, and violence. It is only in the last few hundred years that we have seen progress that leaves the worst aspects of it behind, but that aspect will always be there. And every time our society -Christians included!- wishes to take a step forward for the betterment of all, tugging back on those shoestrings we can be sure to find the followers of Jesus. It is at the core of an ideology that commands adherents to toss aside their humanity and empathy and instead pledge fealty to a divine being through a very flawed and untrue book.
Why is it always Christians though?
If you are a Christian and you find yourself appalled that your faith is being described as it has above, maybe we should contemplate why that is and ask yourself, why is it always Christians ? If this is a misread of your faith and something antithetical to your beliefs, why is it so easily coopted by bad actors? Why do you find yourself arguing against and voting against not atheists, not Jews, not Muslims, but Christians? All Americans, especially Christians have to recognize that without and organized Christianity, these projects don’t even get off the ground.
We know that there are absolutely different sides to each argument and conflict in our history as a country. Yet every time we look at who is doing what, its a coalition of folks, Christians, atheists, Jews, Muslims, and various other groups on the moral and idealistic side of civil rights and liberty, and almost exclusively the bad guys in the story on the other side are devout Christians. And not only are they Christians, they are the ones that claim to be the MOST Christian and they have scriptures to back them up.
Are Christians that care about the rights of others actually a minority of believers at this point? If this is true, doesn’t this fly in the face of the idea of Christianity and Jesus’ teaching being inherntly good and useful as a safeguard against immoral behavior? If you care about those American ideals listed above, why is every candidate and party you oppose explicitly Christian in nature? How can we reconcile that the best defense Christians have against Christian Nationalists is just that they are doing Christianity wrong when they can, and do, say the exact same thing to you? Pundits, historians, analyists, and yes Christians have to ask when confronted with the problems in our midst “Why are the bad guys always Christian, though?”
Maybe the problem with Christian Nationalism isn’t just the Nationalism part.
Jason Benell lives in Des Moines, Iowa with his wife and two kids. He was an army brat that lived on multiple continents before settling down in a tiny town in South East Iowa. Jason was deployed to Iraq in a combat role in 2005 and returned from duty in 2006 where he settled down in Des Moines, Iowa. He has a B.S. in Sociology with a minor in Philosophy. Jason has been a secular activist with Iowa Atheists and Freethinkers for over a decade and a longtime advocate for early childhood education in central Iowa. He is the recipient of the “Nothing Fails Like Prayer” Award from the Freedom From Religion Foundation and one time candidate for Des Moines City Council.
Should we really care about PC?
So you're not wrong, but this is not PC, lol