We saw it happening. It is no surprise.

Since Jerry Falwell started his Moral Majority, which was neither, religion became more obviously political than it had been. There had always been the unwilling acceptance of the assumption that religious leaders were those who could not inherit the family wealth so were sent to be part of the church and become a leader in its political form, but Falwell made the clandestine political machinations public, and soon, their political views were those of Jesus, and the Bible verses could be found to bolster that idea. Of course, that meant the verses that went against what the growing evangelical movement wanted were simply ignored.

Feeding the hungry gave way to restrictions on that with assistance programs being cut, ended, or not allowed in the first place. Strangers among us were no longer welcome and treated as neighbors as they restricted immigration even of those fleeing for the lives. Instead of welcoming people as openly as Jesus did, religious leaders began pointing out the people to whom evangelicals should address their anger and hatred because the religious leaders needed to scare people to Jesus because their presentation of the Message was failing.

They killed the Good Samaritan.

Atheists, agnostics, “fallen aways”, the casually religious , the indifferent towards religion saw Christianity become a political movement using the Bible as a weapon and substituting the teachings of Jesus with the ideology of hate and division, and now many evangelical pastors have become alarmed now that the beam has been removed from their eyes and what they had been working for all these ears has come to fruition and their congregations have become militant.

Pastors have found those in the pews being upset when they read from the Sermon on the Mount because of the principles of forgiveness and mercy central to Christian doctrine.

Evangelical Christian leader Russell Moore has lamented,

“Multiple pastors tell me, essentially, the same story about quoting the Sermon on the Mount, parenthetically, in their preaching — ‘turn the other cheek’ — [and] to have someone come up after to say, ‘Where did you get those liberal talking points?'” And what was alarming to me is that in most of these scenarios, when the pastor would say, ‘I’m literally quoting Jesus Christ,’ the response would not be, ‘I apologize.’ The response would be, ‘Yes, but that doesn’t work anymore. That’s weak.'”

Jesus has become weak in the eyes of evangelicals. He’s too lovey-dovey apparently and this whole Prince of Peace thing just has to go.

That explains their love of trading cards with politicians wearing military garb, clutching a flag surrounded by flames with weaponry and bald eagles. The manly man.

Peter before Jesus told him to put the sword down in the Garden.

And with beam and scales removed from their eyes, pastors have begun to admit,

“When we get to the point where the teachings of Jesus himself are seen as subversive to us, then we’re in a crisis,”

according to Moore.

Many Christians, members of the largest religious belief system in the country whose members of the government are of that religious tradition who make the laws and basically run the country, feel alienated and lonely. Being in charge while telling people those in charge are out to get you, or at the least ignore you, seems a little off to me.

“The roots of the political problem really come down to disconnection, loneliness, sense of alienation. Even in churches that are still healthy and functioning, regular churchgoing is not what it was a generation ago, in which the entire structure of the week was defined by the community.”

By their fruit you may know them.

They got what they wanted and lost Jesus in the process.

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