If the current era of U.S. politics has taught us anything, it’s that Christianity in America is a fluid thing that lets you abandon your once-sacred beliefs the second those beliefs prove inconvenient. It’s especially true among politically conservative “Christians” who spend all their time railing against sin when they’re not busy embracing it.
I’m pretty sure this has always been the case in America (we’ll get to that later). But it is writ large in the Year of Our Lord 2025, as millions of erstwhile true believers turn a blind eye to the wicked doings of President Donald Trump, an unrepentant sexual predator who finds himself ass-deep in a sex-trafficking scandal that threatens to engulf him and his whole stupid, corrupt regime.
The president’s role in a creepy sex scandal is hardly surprising. He has a long history of forcing his sexual urges on anyone he wants to – whether they want it or not. He’s been found legally liable for sexual abuse, openly bragged about “grabbing [women] by the p***y,” and been accused of sexual misconduct by more than two dozen women.
He almost certainly had firsthand knowledge of the sex-trafficking/pedophile ring in which rich and powerful men (and at least one woman) sought and demanded sexual favors from underage girls against their will, in violation of not only the law but also any precepts of morality.
Whether the president was an active participant in the pedophilia ring, we may never know. He’s taking plenty of heat for his role, though, and the public will soon learn a lot more about it now that at least part of the official record will be released.
What we do know is that the president was good buddies with the sex-trafficking ring leader, Jeffrey Epstein, who committed suicide in jail a few years ago under the murkiest of circumstances.
Trump is not the only one caught up in the scandal – not by a long shot. Many others have also been implicated, from all walks of life and across the political spectrum. Quite a few of these folks are famous, and all are powerful in their own way.
Again, this isn’t surprising. It’s just part of the human condition, the most powerful preying on the least powerful.
Alas, it’s also not surprising that this sordid affair is being downplayed by the very people – right-wing Republican “Christians” – who not that long ago raged against the evils of the aforementioned pedophiles. Of course, that was back when they thought those evil pedophiles were mainly left-wing Democrats.
But now that their cherished president is at the center of the storm, there’s a strange silence coming from the Christian right in America – all those God-fearing, scripture-quoting, self-righteous performance artists who normally spend their days raging about moral decay in general and sexual deviance in particular.
But now?
But now?
Suddenly, they don’t seem to care about all this stuff. Suddenly it’s no big deal. Suddenly, they want to change the subject and move along.
Here’s an example:
Megyn Kelly, a smug, right-wing, fake-Christian, fake-tough, borderline racist Barbie doll podcaster and failed newsperson once unleased major vitriol against dipshit comedian Russell Brand for allegedly raping a 16-year-old girl.
But now?
But now?
Kelly suddenly thinks it’s okay if grown men have sex with 15-year-old girls because, you know, it’s not like they’re having sex with 5-year-olds or anything.
Odd how their beliefs have evolved, right?
*****
I was baptized in the Christian faith. I went to Sunday school just about every week as a youth and all the way through my mid-teens, and was confirmed in the Methodist church. I grew up in the American South, maybe the most religious section of the country. I know a whole, whole lot about Christians.
I know just how big a role their faith plays in the fabric of America, and how that faith rarely seems to jibe with actual Biblical scripture.
The United States is home to an estimated 235 million souls who identify as “Christian,” or about 69% of the population. I’d be willing to bet that roughly 234.8 million of them don’t follow the actual teachings of Christ.
Most only use Christianity as a shield, a crutch, a weapon, a means to an end, a way to connect socially, or advance professionally, or win public office, or avoid jail, establish an image, win over Facebook friends, whatever.
If that sounds cynical, it shouldn’t. It’s just how things are for all but the very devout. It’s hard to live a life truly aligned with the teachings of God, regardless of your religion. I imagine the vast majority of the world’s population falls short.
Throughout the ages, billions of pious and otherwise decent people have borne witness to the evils of the world without lifting a single finger to stop it. That’s just fact. If it weren’t fact, then the world bear witness to a lot less evil.
Over the last century there have been numerous genocides around the world that have led to the deaths of millions of innocent people. And yet nearly everyone on earth just sits back and allows it to happen.
The United States government was founded on “Christian” principles, and still puts “In God We Trust” on all of its currency.
Yet you can’t help but wonder what God would think about the government-sanctioned slaughter of millions of Native Americans, enslavement of millions of Africans, and systemic oppression of millions of others based on their gender, ethnic background, religion or income level.
I don’t blame Christians for falling short of Christian ideals. We are, after all, an imperfect species.
But I do blame them for using Christianity as a weapon to harm others while rationalizing every bad thing under the sun.
That’s a sin that should never be excused – but it’s the central theme of a political movement led by a president who pimps “God Bless the USA” bibles, has zero knowledge of actual Biblical scripture, and cozies up to “Christian” fundamentalists even though he is the exact opposite of everything Christ stood for.
The “Christian” right simply loves this guy, despite his history of sex crimes and financial fraud and gestapo troops arresting and abusing brown-skinned people from coast to coast.
In a country that truly values God, faith and Christianity, he’d probably be in jail right now instead of sleeping in the White House. But America isn’t that country.
In America, Christianity is just another marketing scheme, something to be packaged and sold like cars or lipstick. You can shape and shift it any old way you want if doing so serves your purpose.
I doubt Jesus Christ would approve. And nobody else should, either.
Image: AI generated
Vance Cariaga 
Once again, I agree with everything you’ve written here, Vance. I was raised Catholic, but turned Atheist by the age of 20.
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Thanks again for the feedback and sharing your situation. That was also about the age I turned into an agnostic. I’ve never turned back, despite more than a few people trying to save my heathen soul down through the decades…. 🙂
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Groups will always use whatever weapon they can to justify their own supremacy over others. That’s human nature, which plays out over and over again. And when one angle no longer works, they simply try another. Human nature doesn’t change. Just the names and labels change.
Like you say, when it comes to religion, most of us fall far short of the ideals we believe in. But it’s a deception to fall for the ‘all or nothing’ paradigm: if we can’t live up to our faith completely, we accept we’re imperfect and will never succeed, and allow ourselves to fall into ways which contradict our tenets.
That’s the easy way out, because – in my view – the correct path is to *try* the best you can to live your faith, even when you know you’ll never fully succeed. God doesn’t expect perfection from us…only belief and sincere effort.
I think many people fall for that all-or-nothing trap. So they hang onto their faith as an *identity*, but in *practice*, they end up vulnerable to an anything-goes attitude, which can degenerate into the sorts of abuses we see from the powerful.
Obviously, the widespread acceptance of secularism as our modern ideology just fuels that descent, because the highest authority is law designed by imperfect humans, rather than laws set out by a perfect Creator.
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Hi Yacoob, thanks as always for your thoughtful comments. I know this is a topic very dear to your heart.
Here are a couple points I’d like to make, though:
I certainly agree that it’s impossible to live up to the ideals of God, and that faith should not be an all-or-nothing proposition. But regardless of the teachings of God, or any particular religion, it’s a very low bar to expect people not to accept the sexual abuse of minors, or the oppression or mass slaughter of other humans based on their religion, race, ethnic background, whatever.
That should be the very least we aspire to, and yet we fall short over and over again. It should not be that difficult to send clear messages that we are opposed to the worst evils against other humans, the most obvious evils. But again, we fall short.
And I don’t think this has anything to do with secularism, either. Even before secularism began its spread, during periods when religious leaders made all the societal rules, there was widespread slavery, genocide, war, etc. This happened for hundreds of years. It was probably even worse then because a lot of this was officially sanctioned by the church, so few dared oppose it for fear of being hung or burned at the stake for heresy.
In America, as elsewhere, God and religion have been co-opted for political purposes and used to defend the indefensible. Not only that, but there is this idea that out of all the hundreds of religions in the world, only one can be the true representative of God.
In America one thing you hear over and over again is that true faith means accepting Jesus Christ as your personal savior. That’s the most important rule in Christianity, the ticket to heaven. But it’s obviously not the rule for followers of Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Sikhism or any other religion. So what you have are religions constantly doing battle and harm because they won’t accept the teachings of others.
I know there are millions of faithful people from all religions who only want to spread the message of peace, hope, friendship, kindness and salvation. I wish they would make their voices louder.
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Hi Vance.
In no way am I saying that it’s justified for people – ANY people, of any faith – to accept those atrocities as acceptable. Really, it’s innate human disposition to be against these evils, regardless of who is involved. That’s something that every single human has in them – the hatred of that. But when the heart becomes corrupted, little by little, the person slides into such a state that they don’t see the evil of those actions. I’m hoping that for many of those you talk about in the post, they still DO recognise the immorality of those actions, but I’m guessing their pride or egos stop them from admitting that those they look up to are criminals.
In terms of accepting the teachings of others, I can’t speak for other views, but I know that in Islam, there’s no compulsion in religion. We don’t force our views on others, and the Quran actually tells us to NOT mock other faiths, lest those on the receiving end mock ours. True – we don’t *accept* some views, but we still accept that everyone has a right to their views, no matter how different they may be from ours. And there definitely shouldn’t be harm to others because of different beliefs.
In terms of those wanting to spread the universal values of peace, hope, etc not being loud enough, I feel it’s a matter of whose voices are amplified most. When much of the mainstream media is controlled by forces who are more interested in power and money, and the supremacy of some over others, it’s easy to see why their views are the loudest. Other voices need to work exponentially harder to be heard, and even then, they are drowned out by the sheer repetetiveness of narratives which are set by the powerful and wealthy.
Now, I’m not saying *all* media are bad. I know there are many journalists still out there standing up for justice, and doing their best to get the truth out. You’ve argued that point many times here, and I believe you.
But in terms of exposure, independent media, citizen journalists, etc simply can’t compete with the reach that these media powerhouses have. It’s not all bad, though, because technology has allowed these diverse views to get through. Just not as loudly as the giants who are backed by millions and billions of dollars.
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Interesting points, Yacoob, and thanks for taking the time. I hope more people will follow your lead, or at least read your words (which is why I will keep my reply short this time). 🙂
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