At the now infamous Trump rally in New York City last week, a lot of terrible things were said. Latinos, specifically Puerto Ricans, were insulted a number of times and VP Harris was called too many vile names to recount here. The Trump campaign has distanced itself from the “comedian” who called the island of PR a garbage pile, but it has become known that everything was on a teleprompter and therefore vetted. They knew exactly what was going to be said. Now, I was not there, and there are mixed reviews of the severity of what actually happened, but if the short clips that have been broadcast are any indication, it was a hate-fest. It’s as if there were no adults in the room – it’s as if all the decisions were left up to the worst people they could find.
One speaker, who did not get much press, is David Rem, a childhood friend of Mr. Trump. He waved a cross and called VP Harris the “Anti-Christ” and “the devil”, while businessman Grant Cardone suggested that VP Harris is a prostitute, saying that she “and her pimp handlers will destroy our country.” Last week, I wrote about Mr. Trump not being the anti-Christ, and that neither he nor the vice president are God’s choice to lead our country. It struck me that for a nation that seems to be getting less religious by the day, we talk a lot about fake religious ideas, often using imagery from the Bible to insult or accuse people. From where I sit, people who use the Bible to constantly defame others have not actually read it. And by the way – VP Harris isn’t the anti-Christ either. Grow up.
All of this pseudo-religious rhetoric proves to me once again that we are, and always have been, a religiously shallow nation. A colleague of mine from India told me 40 years ago that the church in his native land was narrow (small) but deep, but the church in America was wide (large) but shallow. The fact is that one of the most influential kind-of sort-of religious organization to ever rear its ugly head – the Moral Majority – grew out of a desire to control women and LGBTQ people. It was birthed in response to Roe v. Wade and the growth of civil rights movements, not out of a desire to make the world a better place in a God kind of way.
God is not a tool to be used against people we don’t like, nor is God an excuse for bad behavior. God is good – all the time – and to believe otherwise is to remake God in our bitter, angry image. That is the worst sin of all, to make God as shallow, bitter, immature, and vindictive as we can be. If someone is doing that, run away. They have no idea what it means to be a disciple.
Prayer – Forgive us, God, when we misuse Your name. Have mercy on us. Amen.
Today’s image is an actual billboard that was in Georgia.