Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Empathy Mining

Home
Progressive Christian
The Christian Right is under siege by a pandemic of hypocrisy

The Christian Right is under siege by a pandemic of hypocrisy

Last updated on: April 20, 2020 at 3:07 pm by Shane Phipps

The Christian Right is under siege by a pandemic of hypocrisy 2020-04-20T15:07:13-04:00 Shane Phipps

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

As the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown drags into it’s second month, the country is getting restless. That’s pretty understandable, this is uncharted territory for all of us and patience does tend to wear thin. After a honeymoon period where most of us were pretty much resigned to the fact that we were going to be hunkered down for a good while, there is now a growing movement of folks pushing to end the lockdown in order to get the economy back up and running. All of a sudden, sensing an opportunity on the wind to rally some of his biggest support base, President Trump is now pressuring governors to open their states back up earlier than almost all of the medical experts advise. As a result, once again, we see the Christian Right taking to the streets for all the wrong reasons and, in the process, shining an intense spotlight on their seemingly endless supply of hypocrisy. Let’s just look at a handful of examples, shall we?

All of a sudden, many on the Christian Right are desperately concerned with the welfare of the poor.

Don’t get me wrong, I think being concerned about the poor is one of the most Christ-like attributes one can possess. The issue here is that, until now, many on the Christian Right have not had much of a track record where this is concerned. Look at the social media page of a typical Right Wing Christian who is suddenly concerned about the nation’s poor because of the shut down and I’ll wager you won’t have to dig very far to find a bunch of previous posts that would suggest how the poor are entitled and lazy and looking for handouts–about how taxation is theft–about how they’ve worked and struggled for every dime they have and they don’t want their tax money going to support a bunch of lazy people. Now that the shoe is on the other foot, they seem to be seeing a different aspect of poverty.

Many on the Christian Right seem to be warming up to Socialism.

Anyone who’s paying attention has seen countless social media posts applauding “Trump’s $1200 stimulus checks” as if Trump was responsible for them. They seem to not understand that only Congress (Democrats and Republicans working together) had the power to appropriate those funds, despite the fact that Trump is insisting his name be stamped on the checks. I’ve seen many Right Wing Christians suggesting that perhaps liberals should tear their checks up since they are “coming from President Trump.” They think that’s real funny, so much so that they fail to see that the joke is on them. In lauding these stimulus checks, they are publicly praising Socialism. I guess, to them, Socialism isn’t Socialism if it puts money into their own pockets.

Many on the Christian Right don’t seem to understand quarantine and social distancing protocols at all.

If I’ve seen it once, I’ve seen it a dozen times; this notion that the lockdown restrictions are an attempt by liberals to take away religious freedoms. You’ve seen it, I’m sure. “If fast food restaurants are essential then why isn’t church?” Such a short-sighted complaint which shows zero understanding of how this works. Essential businesses that are still open, like restaurants, grocery stores, and certain other stores that carry items people might need are all operating under very specific social distancing protocols. They either limit the amount of people who can come in at one time or operate only by curbside or drive through transactions. They exercise extreme caution by sanitizing things after each transaction and have gone to great lengths to limit direct exposure from person to person. A better analogy to match what churches do would be movie theaters. Those are shut down because hundreds of people shouldn’t be sitting shoulder-to-shoulder in a room with one another. New movies are now being made available to rent and stream from home. Most of the responsible churches are having online services or drive up and park services where parishioners are not all under one roof. It’s pretty simple really, but you’d never know it if you were listening to some of these protesters.

Many pro-lifers on the Christian Right seem to suddenly be pro-choice.

As more and more anti-lockdown protesters take to the streets, they are exposing their blatant hypocrisy. Some far Right Christians–the very same people who say they’ll never vote for a Democrat because they are “baby killers”–are now on the streets holding signs that say “my body, my choice” as they demand to have restrictions lifted and go back to business as usual. They say if they wish to take the risk with their own bodies, they should be allowed to do so. This is the ultimate in selfishness. These same people, when it comes to a woman’s right to choose what to do with her own body, will scream that her choice is taking the choice away from the unborn fetus she carries. That argument, in and of itself, is not without merit, if you subscribe to the belief that a fetus is a human life, but it goes right out the window when you are willing to put many, many people at risk by refusing to follow the CDC protocols for social distancing. Anyone who is protesting against the lockdown by saying “my body, my choice” has lost absolutely all legitimate standing as a pro-lifer.

Far too few on the Christian Right are asking themselves what Jesus would do.

What would Jesus do in these strange times? I’m betting he wouldn’t be marching the streets demanding to be able to go out and make money right now. I believe Jesus would be more concerned with helping those who need it most, the desitute, the sick, the elderly, etc. I think he would be standing with the health care workers and the charities. I believe Jesus would walk up to these Christian Right protesters, many of whom are carrying high powered weapons, Confederate flags, and swastika banners, and tell them all to go home and sin no more.

I wrote this song just before the pandemic began to affect us. At the time, this song was about the healing that needs to happen within the Christian Church collectively. The song seems to have taken on new meaning now, so I’ll share it here to close this piece. Everyone stay safe.

Previous Post

April 16, 2020

The Art of the Deal...with the Devil

Next Post

June 1, 2020 2020: The Year That Brought Us Face to Face with Ourselves

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 150 word story 2nd Amendment AARP abortion addiction aging alcoholism Anderson Wigwam Andrew Jackson Appalachia Basketball bias bigotry Black Lives Matter Christianity Christmas, Constitution, Bill of Rights Civil War Clinton cloning confirmation bias Conservation Constitution Controversial Creationism Creepy tales David Bowie depression Dogs Education Election Electoral College Empathy Environmental Evolution exvangelical faith Family Family History Fantasy Genealogy Genesis George Washington Ghetto Global Warming Gun Control health care High School Basketball Hillary History Hockey homosexuality Hoosier Hysteria Hoosiers Hunting immigration income inequality Interview ISTEP Jurassic Park Kaepernick Ken Hamm Kids say the Darndest things LGBTQ Love MAGA Manifest Destiny Merit Pay Mike Pence Muhammad Ali Multiple Perspectives Music Music Review Nashville News media NHL No Child Left Behind NRA Paradox Parenting Pence Perspective Politics POTUS Poverty Predators Race Religion religious freedom Sci Fi Science Secret of Life sexual harrassment Short Stories Slavery Small Town Indiana Smashville Social Commentary social media sports Stress technology Terrorism Thomas Jefferson Trauma Trump Turning 50 Uncategorized war Washington DC White Privilege wooly mammoths words in red Writing Writing Process Writing, Writing Process Young Earth

Select a Month June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 August 2021 May 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which parable tells of a traveler who fell among thieves?

Select your answer to see how you score.

The Lost Coin The Rich Fool The Good Samaritan The Pearl of Great Price

Support this
Column