Times of disillusionment call for a delicate balance between facing realism and holding to hope. Living in despair is no more the answer than dismissing reality.
Holding out some degree of hope in such moments, however, is challenging but necessary. Now is such a time.
A most troubling and clear reality is that white Americanized Christianity is now largely aligned with fear, dishonesty, hatred, incompetence, corruption and cruelty.
It is a chosen identity that fuels the resulting carnage that harms both vulnerable people and the Christian witness. What possible appeal would this perverted religious ideology have for those who know at least enough about Jesus to see the stark contrast?
Now this is the point at which the quick denials appear—running on the dual rails of “both sides” false equivalency and “but abortion” deflections.
Such attempted redirections do not work in any honest way. Unquestionably, this current and controlling political movement fueled by professing Christians is void of compassion and deeply destructive.
Brown immigrants—even with legal status—are rounded up like the animals they have been called as a means of dehumanization. Even innocent children have their hands bound by burly, toxic men in disguise in the name of the law and order.
Simultaneously, white proven and convicted criminals, including drug dealers and those who’ve committed violence against law enforcement, are set free. For reasons of only race and ideological agreement.
Unsurprisingly, a woman who callously killed her own dog out of convenience is now tasked with the government’s assault on God’s human creations.
Totalitarian tactics of untruth, intimidation and selective force are on full display. And the health of millions is of lesser concern than the consolidation of wealth and power among the few.
These demeaning and discriminatory ploys simply would not be occurring without the overwhelming support of white Americanized Christians. That conclusion, while uncomfortable for some, is not mere opinion.
Among many recent studies, a Pew Research Center survey this spring showed that more than two-thirds of self-identifying white evangelicals expressed support for the current political efforts.
This is not a covert effort. These cruelties are precisely what was promised at political rallies and detailed in Project 2025, available to all.
The tragedy upon tragedy is that none of this would be happening without the overwhelming support of white Americanized Christians. Somehow, they claim an allegiance to Jesus while empowering the very opposite of what he called his followers to be and do.
Jesus’ prayer, “Father, forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing,” doesn’t apply here. This is the expected result from placing the least ethical persons in the nation’s most powerful positions.
The answer to how this could happen is tragically simple.
For many professing Christians, Jesus is largely irrelevant beyond his sacrificial role as an exchange for heavenly rewards. His life, teachings and calling are as easily and quickly denied now as when a rooster crowed thrice.
Finding a glimmer of hope can be difficult.
It helps to see how others, through such times and even worse—like enslaved Africans and their descendants who suffered great abuse, also empowered by white Americanized Christians—held out hope despite harsh realities.
Additionally, there are benefits to understanding the psychology at play when supposedly “good people” choose to be part of something at odds with every value they’ve ever claimed or taught.
Many have been swayed by warped understandings of being “Christian” or “biblical” that ignore Jesus in favor of contrasting ideologies—propped up by the poor rendering of a selected verse or two.
Understanding these dynamics, however, is not enough to evoke hope. So what is?
Somewhere deep inside, I still believe that Jesus is the answer.
That is not some flippant, religiously expected response. It is a call for all who claim his name to dig more deeply into the Gospels to see how he actually calls his followers to live.
Everything Jesus said and did is in stark contrast to a bastardized version of Christianity that permits the gross government-enacted corruption and selective cruelty on full display today.
Jesus did not stutter nor equivocate when identifying the primary commandment on which all others hang. And one cannot love God with all one’s being and one’s broadly defined neighbor as oneself and treat other people as they are being treated today.
Sadly, discrimination and abuse form the primary public Christian testimony today—whether one likes it or wants to admit it.
Therefore, those who truly profess Jesus as lord and not just savior, along with all other decent human beings, must stand and speak more loudly and clearly against such evil.
Pastors can’t do it alone. Many find that just mentioning this evil or simply echoing the teachings of Jesus is unwelcome, especially by those who have long chided them to “preach more on sin.”
Whether comfortable or not, it doesn’t take much of Jesus to reveal the conflicting values being carried out by so many who profess his name.
We can try other things like appeasement, denial or silence. But if Jesus is not the answer, who or what is?
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Editor Emeritus of Good Faith Magazine and Director of the Jesus Worldview Initiative.
