- If he stands in front of a church holding a Bible in his hand, that doesn’t mean he’s a Christian.
- If she wears a gold-plated cross necklace, that doesn’t mean she’s a Christian.
- If he advocates for a bill requiring schools to post the Ten Commandments in classrooms, that doesn’t mean he’s a Christian.
- When she turns her eyes upward to heaven at her husband’s memorial rally, that doesn’t mean she’s a Christian.
Lots of people do and say things that have the sound and appearance of being Christian. But holding (even reading and quoting) a Bible, wearing cross jewelry, pushing religious legislation, or saying a prayer with tears in your eyes doesn’t make you a Christian.
Back in the day, Jesus himself criticized and condemned all of it as perfunctory, hypocritical behavior. Indeed, he was especially scathing in his remarks about and against leaders who play at piety for the public image and social influence it garners. Snakes, he called them. Whitewashed tombs. Wolves in sheep’s clothing. He didn’t like them, and he called them out every chance he got.
I wonder what Jesus would say today to those among us who pose, parade, and profess their Christian identity at press podiums and photo ops.
Of course, holding Bibles, wearing gold-plated crosses, displaying rules of conduct, and saying prayers in public isn’t anti-Christian or necessarily hypocritical. It is hypocritical, however, and blatantly anti-Christian, when the one engaged in such performance is actively promoting racism, bigotry, retribution, and political exclusion.
And why is that? Because none of those attitudes and actions align with the person, message, and ethic of Jesus himself.
To be a Christian involves living as Jesus lived. He hung out with disreputable and socially marginalized individuals, even inviting them to break bread with him and share his cup of wine. He called all of us “children of god,” making us siblings of one family. Family members automatically belong, and if they happen to not get along all that well, violence and excommunication should not be an option.
Treat others as you want to be treated, Jesus taught. Love your enemies.
This, what is the clear core of Jesus’ teaching, is something the so-called Christian Right cannot get behind. Treating others as we want to be treated means that our kindness must be preemptive and unconditional, not based on how other people treat us. Much of the behavior on the Christian Right is grievance-driven, resentful and reactive. They’ve taken the American traditional attitude of “I don’t owe you anything” and turned it into “You don’t deserve my kindness.”
Jesus called his followers to be kind to others regardless.
And what about that doozy, “Love your enemies” – which, given its radical uniqueness among the religious and moral traditions of the world, is the one thing that gets us closest to the First Voice of Jesus himself? Is love for the enemy a priority of the Christian Right? It seems they are more invested in campaigns for getting rid of their enemies, not loving them – which, for Jesus again, also means including them, inviting them in, and going out to where they live.
Higher border walls, and shorter serving tables with just enough room to seat those who deserve to be there, are popular Christian-Right solutions to the enemy problem.
To cut the Christian Right some slack, the world after Jesus has had an impossible time being Christian. Already in the early decades of the movement following his death. Jesus was being made-over into a liege lord, the apocalyptic champion of the righteous, and vicarious sacrifice whose agony on the cross had “paid the price” and satisfied the conditions restraining god’s ability to forgive sin.
Ironically, the prophet who exhorted his followers to forgive an enemy that hasn’t confessed, repented, or made amends – because such is how God is towards them – was himself later transfigured by the Church into a substitutionary victim of that same god’s offended holiness and righteous wrath. Apparently not even god can forgive unconditionally; but Jesus expected more of his followers.
In other words, Christians have been doing their best from the beginning not to follow in the way Jesus taught and lived, preferring to turn him into an object of worship and doctrine rather than turn down his invitation or put him on a cross of their own.
Nevertheless, for millions of Christians through the centuries, this revolutionary ethic and radical teaching of Jesus on indiscriminate kindness and unconditional love have at least been acknowledged as representing a worthy standard none of us can fully or even consistently attain.
It is common to hear Christians say things like, “Jesus could do it because he was god,” or “Jesus knew that our inevitable failure to fulfill his mandate on love would ultimately drive us to surrender in faith” – and similar doctrine-infused excuses.
It may well be true that none of us can live up to Jesus’ ideal of kindness and love. Perhaps there were times when he himself struggled to realize the vision he professed. If he did struggle at times to practice what he preached, his call for followers might have not only been in the interest of transforming the human experience, but as recognition that they would also find encouragement in each other along the way.
The Christian Right, on the other hand, doesn’t just ignore the revolutionary life and teachings of Jesus. They turn his name against the people he cared about most. They call themselves “Christian,” rail against their perceived enemies, and suspend from gold chains the cross he went to in his love for the very same.
Tracts of Revolution 
