American evangelicals justify a lot of attitudes and actions that defy the Christ they claim in order to reach their ultimate political goals: criminalizing abortion and justifying discrimination against LGBTQ persons.
Such has become the two-faced public witness of American Christianity today.
This “at-any-price” political onslaught naively ignores the reality that, should Roe v. Wade be overturned, states will vary in abortion services provided. The result will not be the end of abortions, but the limiting of services to persons with the financial means.
And the push for legal discrimination against LGBTQ persons is selectively abusive and redefines the treasured American guarantee of “religious liberty” — reserving it for the cultural dominant faith only (which is an American civil religion that uses church language; it is not the Way of Christ).
American evangelical leaders have made it clear they will tolerate (and sometimes join in) lying, abuse of power and other unethical behavior — all in stark contrast to the life and teachings of Jesus — in order to reach these elevated, political goals.
It is a last grasp at retaining the cultural and political dominance they see slipping away — and enforcing their religious/political beliefs on the masses.
Even if rooted in honest concern for the unborn and a belief that somehow such efforts are “biblical,” it is a self-serving perversion of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
There are better ways — ways that follow the Way of Christ.
Director of the Jesus Worldview Initiative at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee and former executive editor and publisher at Good Faith Media.