Moral character is wholly independent of religious identity, as mentioned in part I of the series. But religions typically give or describe the moral code of a society, and the efforts of the religious adherent to follow the moral code — or not — can be quite revealing.
One of the “jokes” I like to recycle on Twitter goes like this: there’s a reason they call themselves “evangelicals” these days instead of “evangelical Christians,” and the rebrand is on point. And “jokes” is in quotation marks because it’s not exactly funny.
To ask whether a right-wing fundamentalist scion such as Paula White actually believes in the sacraments and in the divinity of Jesus Christ, of course, is to answer it. Same with other evangelical leaders such as Rev. Johnnie Moore, Franklin Graham, Jerry Falwell Jr., and all the rest who boast of their worldly riches and their hatred of their enemies in the Democratic party. Those religious leaders who do still believe in the Gospels and don’t regard them as an MLM pitch for the rubes and suckers in the back pews have been excused from the party. And those remaining still able to quote Scripture chapter and verse, which is getting increasingly rare with evangelicals, do so not to guide people to Jesus but to own the libs.
There is no weakness more contemptible to the actual leader of conservative spirituality than turning the other cheek. One of his favorite standing threats is to punch his enemies back “10 times harder,” and it’s rather clear this is a world view that coincides with the harsh and unforgiving outlook of conservative thought leaders from Matt Walsh to Glenn Beck.
A conservative would shoot back that Jesus doesn’t mean all that much to the left either, to which I would heartily agree — and add that at least the left doesn’t pretend that He does. Yet even here, we need exceptions such as for the Black grandmother at Sunday services who has more godliness in her little finger than a megachurch full of MAGA evangelicals.
Fortunately, and I do not say that mockingly, some conservatives have taken up yet another rebranding, one even more honest than evangelical-without-the-Christian: “cultural Christian.” The cultural Christian dispenses with any pretensions of believing in Jesus, and is advertising himself as more of a fan of Western civilization, including its Judeo-Christian morals, and what we call “trad life” such as women being stay-at-home moms. You may find a defense of cultural Christianity as a bulwark against liberals from some MAGA Catholics here, and a dissent from a NeverTrump conservative here.
In any event, I was struck by a tweet from one of these guys a month ago. Obvious caveat: this almost certainly did not actually happen. But the fact that he would make something like this up to impress his followers speaks volumes to what we mean by cultural Christianity.
This sort of petty, venal act is comparable to stiffing an airport bartender you do not expect to ever see again, skipping over the long line of traffic to the offramp and forcing your way in at the last second, tying up the lone working ATM at the bank for 15 minutes doing God-knows-what, or buying up Taylor Swift tickets just to scalp them at a markup. As with breaking a pay-it-forward chain, none of these acts are illegal, but all serve to make the person’s life a bit easier at the expense of making life unhappier for everyone else involved.
Walsh and his equals such as Dave Rubin and Tim Pool rarely if ever are caught quoting Scripture. They instead market themselves to a more Millennial audience that has no time for church on Sundays, even if they belong to a political side that has wedded itself with the religious right since the Reagan administration. This means they identify Christianity as a political brand rather than a religious one… or a moral one.
Freed from the rather restrictive life teachings of a certain carpenter, these guys may then enjoy pulling stuff like this.
Who was Crowder, the guy from the “change my mind” meme, ridiculing by playing this message on their air? Some libtard, right? Nope. That was a (now-former) friend and a Daily Wire colleague of none other than Matt Walsh.
This little stunt demonstrates profound immorality of Crowder’s and the Daily Wire’s shared movement.
When I say immorality, I am talking of the absolute, immutable rules of human character that have existed for tens of thousands of years.
I do not speak to conservative political stances such as on guns, taxes, abortion, Israel, or the death penalty. Which is convenient, because guys like Walsh and Crowder rarely speak about those stances either. They would agree that that’s not what their movement is about at all.
It is instead about spreading misfortune and suffering among as many people as possible.
They would agree with this as well, with the clarification that they only wish to spread misfortune and suffering among Americans who are liberal, or LGBT, or otherwise their foes. Or as Newsweek editor Josh Hammer puts it, the overriding concern for MAGA conservatism, other than elevating a male strongman to reside above the law, is using the law to reward their friends and punish their enemies.
Which is true of their beliefs, as far as it goes. But as Crowder demonstrated, and as Trump demonstrates daily, their definitions of “friend” and “enemy” are rather… fickle. (Just ask Ron DeSactimonious.)
Evil isn’t; evil does. Good and evil are not judges of your soul but predictors of your future actions. The more you commit evil actions, the more you will — and eventually, must — commit evil actions. That is to say, the more you feed the wrong wolf of your inner two-wolf meme, the hungrier it gets. And, curiously, go down that road far enough and you no longer hide your sins like a normal person. You start to celebrate them.
And if you wind up turning on your confederates? Remember, you are out to benefit yourself at the expense of everyone else. And, sure, you’ll ally with others of similar disposition when convenient. But in the end… you’re out to benefit yourself at the expense of *everyone* else.
This stuff goes far deeper than politics. Once you’ve broken bad, you’re like that with everything no matter how apolitical. Marriage. How you treat your employees. How you treat your kids. How you treat your best friend.
Nothing in this post really has anything to do with politics. This has nothing to do with being a Republican and everything to do with being a bad person. If the liberals had gone over like this in 2016, I’d be writing this post about them instead.
Ok, but on that note: what if conservatives have no choice… that they have to be like this because their enemies on the left, or else the world writ large, are so unforgiving, brutal, and unhappy?
After all, he’s using the exact words Josh Hammer above, only to describe his enemies on the left. Aren’t they having to fight fire with fire?
First of all, if you think Joe Biden is a communist, you’re just pissing off actual communists.
But mostly: no. No, the left is not a mirror MAGA universe. Whatever you think about their politics — and again, this is no longer about superficial political stances on abortion or the environment or what have you anymore — AOC just ain’t MTG ethically speaking.
Oh sure, there are a few unfortunate souls on the left who are just as bitter and nasty as your average talk radio guy. Roger Waters is a good example. Let’s see what his former bandmate, himself a proud lefty, has to say about him!
… but is anyone as rotten and negative as Waters serving as a Dem or Labour elected official of any significance? Hosting a primetime MSNBC show? Writing a major The Guardian column? Enjoying tens of millions of listeners on their podcast or YouTube channel?
Take MAGA’s sworn enemies, practitioners taking care of trans people. These are the people major conservative thought leaders like LibsOfTikTok incites their viewers to threaten with violence. Are these practitioners doing what they do because they’re out to hurt people or make the lives of conservatives miserable? Or are they doing it because they are trying to do good? Even if you think the trans debate is all a bunch of hooey and these practitioners are all seriously deluded… do you really think they’re just out to hurt people the way the New Right proudly is?
Tell you what, the crazies of today’s left can’t hold a candle to the left of circa 1968 with the SDS and Weathermen and Patty Hearst. Or the anarchists of the 1920s. You think some university DEI officers even approach literal bomb-makers in crazy? You think CRT is worth ending democracy over when people like Ibram X. Kendi look like college Republicans next to the likes of Abbie Hoffman?
But in the end… even if today’s left really were as demonic as Rush Limbaugh, the true father of the New Right, told his listeners they were… would that really excuse the Right’s own professed eye-for-an-eye descent into vicious evil?
Huh, I wonder what Jesus would say about that?
Just as moral character is independent of religion, it is also independent of political leanings.
I would never have written this pre-2016 of either side. I would never be the kind to call someone evil for being pro- or anti-abortion or guns; for opposing or supporting gay marriage or the capital gains tax; or for believing in family values.
It even feels kind of archaic to be talking about mere “issues” anymore, doesn’t it? At least when conservative leaders such as MTG openly despise Americans who vote for Democrats so much they pine for a “national divorce.”
When you’re like that, no wonder you can gladly embrace a man currently doing business as “George Santos,” who once ripped off a disabled vet of money meant for his dying dog. That kind of thing is no longer a moral outrage. That’s just another day in the week for MAGA conservatives.
I am glad some at least are honest enough to openly shed the burden of Jesus’ teachings. These “cultural Christians” are not even that, of course, but hey. At least we can all agree, them included, that today’s Republicans ain’t exactly here to do the Lord’s work.
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