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I’m Not Sure I Want to Call Myself a Christian Anymore
Evangelicals have supported Trump, resisted Black Lives Matter, and propagated conspiracies. Is that what Jesus would do?
This is the story I never thought I would write. I normally write about business, leadership, and personal development. Religion — although very important to me — has never been in my writing wheelhouse. And unfortunately, religion now seems to intersect so closely with politics that by covering one taboo topic, a writer must cover them both.
C.S. Lewis was the one who finally spurred me to action. Tonight I was reading a passage in his book The Four Loves, in which Lewis talks about Christianity’s “specific contribution to the sum of human cruelty and treachery.”
How sad it is that those words ring true. A religion begun on the virtues of loving one’s neighbor and caring for the poor has been bastardized into an unrecognizable force of vitriol, injustice, and hate.
Growing up, I heard snippets of my religion’s tarnished past. In the Middle Ages, Christians led the Crusades that killed millions of people. In the 1930s and 40s, Christians largely supported Nazi Germany as Hitler and his SS slaughtered millions of innocent Jews. And in early American history, the Bible was used to justify slavery.
When I heard stories like those, I jumped to two conclusions:
- The Christian church is comprised of humans, and humans make mistakes.
- Christianity has learned its lesson and will not repeat those mistakes.
Although I was right on the first count, I was woefully wrong on the second. In the past four years, Christians have helped bring to power a President so corrupt and vile that his brand name is associated with sexual harassment, narcissism, nepotism, division, racism, and injustice. The same Christians who decried Bill Clinton’s infidelity in 1998 have praised Donald Trump despite his dual divorces, innumerable infidelities, and shocking sexist comments.
The New York Times wrote, “At key moments for the past four years, conservative Christians have time and again offered their uncompromising support…
