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This Isn’t Ignorance. It’s Loyalty.

This Isn’t Ignorance. It’s Loyalty.

Last updated on: March 11, 2026 at 11:31 am by Stuart Delony

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This Isn’t Ignorance. It’s Loyalty. 2026-03-11T11:31:40-04:00 Stuart Delony

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A worn loyalty card held in a person’s hand, stained and scratched, with the words “Points Earned: Obedience” and “Rewards: Power, Certainty, Order,” symbolizing allegiance over moral truth.

Image created by DALL-E

There are moments when the moral lines are drawn in blood, not ink. Protesters gunned down. Families torn apart. Suffering broadcast in high definition while American Christians don’t blink—they rationalize, sometimes even cheer. Scripture is brutally clear: love your neighbor, love your enemy, welcome the foreigner. But clarity is only a problem if you intend to see it. Most don’t.

We call it ignorance, hypocrisy, evil—none of those really fit. What’s on display isn’t confusion. It’s a layered refusal to face reality, justified in pulpits, politics, and polite company.

It’s not a knowledge gap. It’s a loyalty oath.

Denialism as the New Creed

Denialism isn’t confusion. It’s the calculated art of stripping facts of any power to indict.

When immigrants die or get brutalized, denialists don’t say it never happened. They say it’s complicated. Bureaucratic buzzwords roll out—“operations,” “enforcement,” “regrettable outcomes”—as if suffering were a clerical error.

It’s a performance. Denial keeps the story intact and the system unblemished. Victims aren’t people—they’re data points. Violence isn’t violence; it’s “regrettable necessity.”

This isn’t a glitch. It’s the system defending itself.

Motivated Reasoning and the Selective Bible

Motivated reasoning is how Christians avoid asking if their actions are Christlike. The only question is: how do I justify it?

Scripture becomes a law library. Romans 13 is weaponized; Matthew 25 is quarantined. The Good Samaritan is just a quaint illustration, not a command. “Love your neighbor” gets embroidered on banners, shredded in practice.

Don’t call it biblical illiteracy. This is curation with intent. Anything that threatens the pyramid—nationalism, hierarchy, power—gets downsized or defanged. The Bible is there to comfort Caesar, not challenge him.

When someone points this out, the rage is instant. Heresy is always calling out the system, not building it.

The Cognitive Dissonance of Demonizing Protest

Protest is only a “problem” because it shoves moral failure into the light.

Christians don’t argue with the claims; they discredit the messengers. Protesters are labeled criminals, heretics, traitors—anything but right. Their anger becomes the only story. Their presence, the only offense.

This is how the cognitive math gets done: smear the messenger, incinerate the message, and declare the moral order restored. No need to engage with reality if you can just bulldoze it.

Epistemic Closure and the Sealing of Reality

Epistemic closure means the truth is whatever the tribe says it is. Approved sources only, outside voices exiled. Journalism is “fake.” Lived experience is “biased.” Even scripture is suspect if it doesn’t fit.

The gates are shut. No evidence, no suffering, not even Jesus himself gets through. “Love your enemy” is for someday. “Welcome the foreigner” is sentimental. If reality threatens the nation’s moral self-image, reality gets evicted.

Ignorance isn’t an accident. It’s the first commandment.

Willful Ignorance as Practiced Amnesia

At some point, ignorance isn’t just passive—it’s performance art.

If you see the bodies, hear the stories, read the red letters, and still yawn or sneer, that’s not confusion. That’s discipline. That’s loyalty to a worldview that can’t handle sunlight.

Willful ignorance is a muscle. Knowing would require repentance. Repentance would dismantle certainty, identity, power. So it’s all eyes wide shut.

And if that feels premeditated, it is.

When Christian Nationalism Becomes Christian Fascism

Denial, distortion, closure—these aren’t malfunctions. They’re features. They’re how an ideology survives when the evidence turns hostile.

Christian nationalism wants to rule. Christian fascism is what happens when ruling becomes non-negotiable.

Push back—through courts, journalism, demographics, protest—and the mask drops. Order matters more than justice. Authority trumps compassion. Cruelty is righteousness in uniform.

This isn’t a corruption of the mission. It’s the mission with the brakes cut.

Why Jesus Gets Silenced

When enforcement replaces persuasion, even Jesus is a liability.

His teachings are too radical, too destabilizing, too dangerous to the people holding the reins. So he gets spiritualized, neutered, or sent packing. Love becomes decoration. Mercy becomes an afterthought.

The gospel gets gutted so the nation can be armored.

Christ is sidelined. Christianity soldiers on.

Selling Out Reality

This isn’t a communication breakdown—it’s a moral ejection seat.

When cruelty is not just allowed but celebrated in God’s name, the question is no longer what Christians believe. It’s what they’re willing to become to keep power. At some point, ignorance becomes loyalty, loyalty becomes violence, and violence becomes virtue.

That’s not confusion. That’s complicity with the dark.

And history has never needed a translation for that.

Enjoy this article? You might also enjoy The Tribulation Survival Guide

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About Stuart Delony

I’m Stuart Delony, a former pastor who walked out of the church but couldn’t shake the ways of Jesus. These days, I host Snarky Faith—a podcast and platform that wrestles with faith, culture, and meaning from the fringe. I’m not here to fix Christianity. I’m here to name what’s broken, find what’s still worth keeping, and hold space for the questions that don’t have clean answers. If you’ve been burned, disillusioned, or just done with the noise—welcome. You’re in good company. You can read more about the author here.

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