"… Whatever you did for one of the least of these … you did for me. / Depart [from the presence of God] … you who are cursed / For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, / I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me." ― From Matthew 25:40-45 of the Christian Bible (New International Version).
By Deauwand Myers
Many Americans pride themselves on being Christian, and on the right/far right of American politics, they even go so far as to say America is a Christian nation, founded on Christian values. Conservatives have always been ahistorical to a fault; it's part of their charm.
Notwithstanding the genocidal land theft of indigenous populations (replete with their own rich religions) having lived in America for thousands of years before Europeans even knew America existed, if "Christian" means being altruistic and good and kind and decent, the Christianity displayed throughout American history is anathema to anything resembling true Christians, or true human beings, for that matter. Slavery and Jim Crow just scratch the surface of this moral hypocrisy.
In truth, American Christians, certainly the most vocal and politically potent of those who profess said faith, have a very myopic, calcified, white supremacist, and ethnocentric view of how Christianity should be practiced. One must only believe in the story of the Christ, be anti-abortion, and homophobic to get into the membership.
We express our core beliefs through public policy. Conservative Christian voters, and the politicians who represent them, say abortions should be illegal, and thus proclaim women's bodies, once impregnated, are property of the state.
Yet, in that same breath, they are fiscally conservative, cutting all the social programs directly targeting the women (and their children) most likely to seek abortions (working class and women of color). This is maddeningly cruel, and again, morally hypocritical.
Conservatives and Republicans are not "pro-life." They are "pro-birth." They care about the life of the baby until birth, and nothing thereafter.
From the death penalty, to civil rights, living wages, paid maternal and paternal child leave, decreasing America's unusually high maternal birth mortality rates, subsidized childcare, environmental protection, affordable housing, and most glaringly, universal healthcare, the right cares about the wealthy and corporations, and the rest should just try their best.
Socialism for the very rich and big business juxtaposed with rugged individualism for most of the electorate is about as anti-Christian and just objectively immoral as one can imagine, but considering the bloody four centuries of American history perpetuated by gallant Christians, this is not surprising, just wholly depressing.
The COVID-19 pandemic, and America's late and frighteningly incompetent federal and state responses to it, lays bare the amorality of our so-called Christian nation, although a pandemic wasn't necessary to see the yawning gap in the quality of life for the few uber-rich and everyone else, particularly in regards to healthcare.
If America had universal healthcare and paid sick leave, average citizens wouldn't have to worry about making the Orwellian decision of whether to risk getting sick or going to work. Hospitals, not seeking profits, would have had ample supplies for the eventuality of a pandemic or nationwide disaster.
But because hospitals are profit centers, funds were never allocated for serious stockpiling of protective medical equipment and respirators, as the fiduciary responsibility of the hospitals are to their stakeholders, not public health and welfare.
Healthcare should not be a business model or a profit center, nor should pharmaceutical companies charge Americans 10 times what they do sane countries that demand fair pricing.
Korea is half Buddhist; Japan is mostly areligious; Western Europe is culturally Christian, but for the most part, non-adherent. How is it that non-Christian countries have a humane, Christian-like safety net? How is it that hyper-fundamentalist Christian America's Hunger Games/Chronicles of Riddick-style society (you keep what you kill) still exists to the point of secular ethos?
That's easy. Christianity, like most religions, is ideal in the abstract, but often nightmarish when mediated through human societies. You can explain away genocide and all manner of society through your interpretation of holy texts. It's one of the oldest stories in human history.
In America, Christ was never king. Cash is king, god-like and long-lived. And this god requires cruelty and malice.
Greed and the vilification of the poor, launched to great success by the conservative President Ronald Reagan 40 years ago, and perpetuated by all Republican administrations and governments thereafter, ridiculed and actively dismantled America's safety net and the federal apparatus used to competently handle major crises.
Turns out when everyone is the least of these, healthcare and a strong welfare state are actually necessary. Behold: this is what an emaciated government produces.
Deauwand Myers (deauwand@hotmail.com) holds a master's degree in English literature and literary theory, and is an English professor outside Seoul.
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Many Americans pride themselves on being Christian, and on the right/far right of American politics, they even go so far as to say America is a Christian nation, founded on Christian values. Conservatives have always been ahistorical to a fault; it's part of their charm.
Notwithstanding the genocidal land theft of indigenous populations (replete with their own rich religions) having lived in America for thousands of years before Europeans even knew America existed, if "Christian" means being altruistic and good and kind and decent, the Christianity displayed throughout American history is anathema to anything resembling true Christians, or true human beings, for that matter. Slavery and Jim Crow just scratch the surface of this moral hypocrisy.
In truth, American Christians, certainly the most vocal and politically potent of those who profess said faith, have a very myopic, calcified, white supremacist, and ethnocentric view of how Christianity should be practiced. One must only believe in the story of the Christ, be anti-abortion, and homophobic to get into the membership.
We express our core beliefs through public policy. Conservative Christian voters, and the politicians who represent them, say abortions should be illegal, and thus proclaim women's bodies, once impregnated, are property of the state.
Yet, in that same breath, they are fiscally conservative, cutting all the social programs directly targeting the women (and their children) most likely to seek abortions (working class and women of color). This is maddeningly cruel, and again, morally hypocritical.
Conservatives and Republicans are not "pro-life." They are "pro-birth." They care about the life of the baby until birth, and nothing thereafter.
From the death penalty, to civil rights, living wages, paid maternal and paternal child leave, decreasing America's unusually high maternal birth mortality rates, subsidized childcare, environmental protection, affordable housing, and most glaringly, universal healthcare, the right cares about the wealthy and corporations, and the rest should just try their best.
Socialism for the very rich and big business juxtaposed with rugged individualism for most of the electorate is about as anti-Christian and just objectively immoral as one can imagine, but considering the bloody four centuries of American history perpetuated by gallant Christians, this is not surprising, just wholly depressing.
The COVID-19 pandemic, and America's late and frighteningly incompetent federal and state responses to it, lays bare the amorality of our so-called Christian nation, although a pandemic wasn't necessary to see the yawning gap in the quality of life for the few uber-rich and everyone else, particularly in regards to healthcare.
If America had universal healthcare and paid sick leave, average citizens wouldn't have to worry about making the Orwellian decision of whether to risk getting sick or going to work. Hospitals, not seeking profits, would have had ample supplies for the eventuality of a pandemic or nationwide disaster.
But because hospitals are profit centers, funds were never allocated for serious stockpiling of protective medical equipment and respirators, as the fiduciary responsibility of the hospitals are to their stakeholders, not public health and welfare.
Healthcare should not be a business model or a profit center, nor should pharmaceutical companies charge Americans 10 times what they do sane countries that demand fair pricing.
Korea is half Buddhist; Japan is mostly areligious; Western Europe is culturally Christian, but for the most part, non-adherent. How is it that non-Christian countries have a humane, Christian-like safety net? How is it that hyper-fundamentalist Christian America's Hunger Games/Chronicles of Riddick-style society (you keep what you kill) still exists to the point of secular ethos?
That's easy. Christianity, like most religions, is ideal in the abstract, but often nightmarish when mediated through human societies. You can explain away genocide and all manner of society through your interpretation of holy texts. It's one of the oldest stories in human history.
In America, Christ was never king. Cash is king, god-like and long-lived. And this god requires cruelty and malice.
Greed and the vilification of the poor, launched to great success by the conservative President Ronald Reagan 40 years ago, and perpetuated by all Republican administrations and governments thereafter, ridiculed and actively dismantled America's safety net and the federal apparatus used to competently handle major crises.
Turns out when everyone is the least of these, healthcare and a strong welfare state are actually necessary. Behold: this is what an emaciated government produces.
Deauwand Myers (deauwand@hotmail.com) holds a master's degree in English literature and literary theory, and is an English professor outside Seoul.
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