For years now I have questioned the idea that the conservative base of the Republican Party is in line with the teachings of our Christian values. As they say, action speaks louder than words. To kick millions off of their healthcare is certainly not something that I can imagine Jesus being in favor of. The GOP favors the rich and ignores the poor, disadvantaged, sick, elderly, and other unfortunates. Don’t get me wrong, there are good and godly people who vote Republican and serve in elected office, however, the association of the name of Christ with the Republican Party of Trump is a scourge of shame for the church.
We must face the understanding that Evangelicals who have taken control over the Republican Party are basically Christian in name only. They are Christian Nationalists who believe that they have the right to have dominion over our nation. They want to take control of what they call the Seven Mountains of Influence, being Religion, Family, Education, Arts and Entertainment, Government, Media and Business.
During the time of Reagan, the Republicans were losing voters. Someone came up with the genius idea that if they could get Christians on board, and rebrand the Party as the Party of Jesus, church, and family values, they could sell themselves. They assembled a band of preachers to sell their goods and declared war on whatever they chose to go against what they determined was the “right” way to live. They took their message into the pulpit to brainwash their church that if you wanted to live a patriotic Christian life then you must vote Republican. All of the fancy preachers like Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and Oral Roberts, and others jumped on the bandwagon and their influence spread like wildfire across the nation.
I recently watched a documentary called “Bad Faith” that gripped my thinking of how we got where we are. This film reveals the mastermind behind the Christian Nationalist Movement that explains the strategy of today’s Evangelical way of thinking. Paul Weyrich was the political activist associated with the New Right. He also co-founded the Heritage Foundation. Just to remind you, the Heritage Foundation is behind Project 2025, that we are seeing as the Republican’s new playbook. Weyrich is also co-founder of the Free Congress Foundation and the American Legislative Exchange Council with Jerry Falwell. Weyrich also founded the Council For National Policy which officially doesn’t exist. It operates clandestinely. Its membership is secret and its meetings are closed to outsiders. With the CNP providing invisibility and vast amounts of money, Weyrich engineered the merger of conservative Evangelicals with the Republican Party into what became an armed Christian Nationalist movement intent on overthrowing democracy.
Then in walks the most un-Christian Republican in our time, Donald Trump. He makes Carter look rich, Ford look suave, Nixon look honest, Clinton look faithful and Bush look smart. With a little help from a corrupt GOP, he picked three judges to the Supreme Court so they could take away the Constitutional rights of the American people. Finally, the so-called Christians had their inside crew ready and willing to crucify the Constitution and send democracy to hell in a handbasket.
Those of us who are still reeling from the attack on our Capital have to repeat ourselves to ask if the Christians are okay with Trump mocking a handicapped person, degrading our Veterans, bragging about his lust for his own daughter, paying off a porn star, and constantly lying, just to name a few. To this day, I have yet to have one single person to justify this to me. It is hard for these people to separate religion from politics because of what they hear from the pulpit on Sundays.
Many right-wing Christians who are an important power base within the Republican Party believe that if a law is passed that forces people to live by their personal interpretation of the Bible, they have done good in God’s eyes. So, when they die, they can say to God “See God, we used our power of government to make sure them gay fellars couldn’t get married.” What are they going to say when God says “Why didn’t you use your power of government to make sure the poor had food to eat?” God never said much about “gay fellars getting married” but he sure said a lot about healing the sick and feeding the hungry.
Sadly, in the rural South, most preachers will not talk about scripture that contradicts their political views. In this kind of church, you get the “Republican Jesus” instead of the real thing. After a while, people actually start to believe that you can’t be a Christian and vote for a Democrat. You do not realize that this is in their plan. They do not want you to question low taxes, capital punishment, and obsession with guns because that doesn’t fit into the teachings of Jesus. Some of us still have the integrity to refuse to sacrifice sound theology on the altar of Republica politics. Most are afraid to because if you speak scriptural truth to Republican politics in a deep red state, you will lose your friends and even family members. I have had business owners tell me, “I can’t come out as a Democrat or I will lose my business.” So, you hide your truth and bend to the whipping of society, and set aside what you know to be true in order to fit in.
Now is the time to be more proud than ever before to be a Democrat. Do not let the right-wing fake Christian narrative define who we are. We have a long-standing history of marching for civil rights, standing up for equality for everyone, supporting our Veterans, fighting to save Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, standing in those picket lines beside blue-collar workers, supporting those with disabilities to have a quality of life, making sure that everyone has quality healthcare, supporting poor families that they will have food for their children, shelter for the homeless, and the freedom to love whom we choose. When the rich TV preachers start giving more money to the poor instead of buying private jets and trading their Rolex watches to open a soup kitchen then we’ll talk about being Christians.
Lynda Kirkpatrick
Marion County Democratic Party Chair
House District 17 SDEC Rep Alabama Democratic Party
Vice Chair Alabama Democratic County Chairs Association District 4
Communications Alabama Democratic County Chairs Association
United Democratic Volunteers of Alabama
Blue Print Alabama
United Democratic Voters of Alabama