I’m No Theologian

The last time I picked up a Bible was back in the 1950s. I remember back then that “God is love!” and how god wants everyone to “love they neighbor” that we should care for those less fortunate.

But somehow that all got twisted to god is hate! “Hate they neighbor… if they are different from you!” and for those less fortunate… screw them I got mine and I’m keeping it.”

From the University of Connecticut Daily Campus…

The Left and Religion: Why Christianity need not be the enemy 

By Tomas Hinckley

April 18, 2025

It is no secret that in America right now, there has been a dramatic rise in a special sort of Christian nationalism, so much so that it has come to dominate the Republican Party and its base. On so many national issues, this far-right brand of the Bible has had an outstretched influence on the direction of the government due to their position as being President Donald Trump’s most loyal followers. This is not the work of a specific sect or denomination, but a consequence of a decades long trend which has seen the co-optation of religious symbolism by capitalist actors to push the dominant Christian narratives to the right. As a result, when people think of “Christian values” in relation to an issue, as an almost knee-jerk reaction, they immediately jump to a very conservative worldview.

But the thing is… Whose “Christian values” the values of the affirming churches or the “evangelical “fire and brimstone” “Christian values”?

Although there is a lot that has been said and done to create the illusion of separation between Christianity and the modern Left, owing in large part to misinterpretations of a certain quote about opium and the masses, the potential for power in their collaboration is far greater than it may seem. This isn’t a call for all revolutionaries to convert, but a word on the need to incorporate more voices and reach out to more people in the work of organizing. Although this country may be dominated by powerful voices that have given the word of the Bible a bad name, it does not and should not have to be that way. And I choose to believe that’s what God would think too.

The problem is that those in power now have weaponized religion and it their own religion… that of the “fire and brimstone” religion. Those that deny my existence! Those that want to control our bodies. Those that want to tell a woman that she cannot abort a fetus that threatens her life! They want to tell us who we can love! They want to tell us that we cannot have medically necessary treatment!

Affirming churches need to step up and have their voices heard. During the national debate on marriage equality… the news media only had the “fire and brimstone” preachers on the news, the affirming churches were either silent or shunned by the media which gave the impression that all religions were against marriage equality… they needed to speak up then and they need to speak out now about the injustice!

To remain silent is to give complicit approve of the hate in the name of religion.