All In...The Whole Package

If you are like me, you much prefer the freedom of customizing to the constraints of having to accept the full package. Whether it’s the purchase of a new vehicle or planning a dream vacation, I don’t want to pay for features that I am not interested in.

As to the unholy relationship between the evangelical church and the MAGA package, there is no customizing. Clearly, the church was sucked into this sordid relationship by believing TRUMP’s promise to end the legal practice of abortion in the U.S. and I am sure many evangelicals were able to stomach TRUMP’s obviously disqualifying character and track record to save unborn children. They “held their noses” so that they could stay true to their commitment to the “sanctity of life”.

When I was a school teacher on strike in the 1990’s, I can remember joining huge protests to combat what we felt was an attack on the quality of public education by a far right government. On one occasion, my Principal and I drove hours to participate in a march to surround a hotel that was holding the government’s cabinet meetings. While marching, I looked around and was shocked to find that directly behind me was a team of protesters carrying a banner which said, “The Communist Party of Canada”. Upon recognizing the danger of association by proximity, we quickly scurried out of eyesight of our “comrades in arms”.

I am wondering how many evangelicals are looking around and realizing that the MAGA package also includes fascists, racists, misogynists, slanderers, conspiracy theorists, terrorists, capitalists, opportunists and the like. And all for what? TRUMP now recognizes that abortion isn’t a politically compelling issue and has flipflopped on his commitment to fighting it. Not to mention the fact that the majority of Americans, as shown even in the 2024 ballot referendums, want to protect a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion. Perhaps, some evangelicals are reconsidering their ill-fated choice to align with an anti-Christ movement.

Sadly, I am afraid, many are gladly swallowing “the hook, line, and sinker” of MAGA. They are whitewashing the slanderous assault on illegal immigrants, the subjugation of woman, the fear-mongering around minority and marginalized communities, the rebellion against all manner of authority, and the embrace of truth that is entirely subjective, to name a few. What is galling, is the fact that they doing all this in the name of Jesus Christ.

I can’t help but think that they have disregarded Christ’s warning concerning the yeast of the Pharisees. The religious leaders of His day, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, Jesus reserved for His harshest criticism. Those who claimed to be beyond reproach, the higher ground of godly wisdom, those who claimed to be the voice of God, were in fact, under the surface, agents of avarice, prejudice, pride, slander, manipulation, in Christ’s words, “white-washed tombs”.

I am afraid that the yeast is at large in the ungodly union of the evangelical church and the MAGA movement.