Evangelicals Demean Christianity, Demonize the "Social Justice Gospel"

I have never had respect for those who wear their religion on their sleeves and then act in a manner utterly at odds with the supposed tenants of their faith.  Indeed, if one belives the Gospels, Christ roundly condemned the Pharisees who put outward display and feigned piety over behavior consistent with the faith they claimed.  Indeed, Christ referred to these falsely pious individuals as hypocrites or worse.  Today, the same condemnation is deserved by the vast majority of evangelicals who continue to swear fealty to Donald Trump and support Republican policies that are antithetical to the social justice gospel espoused by Christ.  Rather than love their neighbhors, they hate almost everyone and seek to government programs that support the poor, the homeless, and those in need. Add to this their open racism - which drives much of the desire to destroy the social safety net - and homophobia, and these evangelicals comprise a daily advertisement of why one would want to reject the "Christian" label.  A piece in Salon looks at this demeaning of Christianity and hypocrisy that defines so many evangelicals.  Here are highlights:

As an ordained minister trained at an evangelical seminary, I find that motivation to fight for the least of these within what is called the "social justice gospel." In recent years, however, that gospel has been twisted by the evangelical Republican machine, which now seeks to instill the belief that social justice is the gospel of godless socialism and communism.  

Over the last few years, the evangelical movement has gone to great lengths to vilify any message coming out of any church that connects with the social justice movement. In a brief statement widely circulated in the evangelical world, prominent Christian leaders and pastors have claimed that the social justice movement is a danger to Christians, "an onslaught of dangerous and false teachings that threaten the gospel, misrepresent Scripture, and lead people away from the grace of God in Jesus Christ."

The problem for evangelicals is that the Bible is quite clear around the issues connected to social justice. Ignoring these issues requires completely ignoring the teachings of Jesus. It is fascinating to me, in a grim way, that the very people who claim to be holding onto the true form of Christian faith are in fact committed to destroying it. 

Connecting the social justice agenda to socialism is an intentional lie . . . . The Christian faith pushes its followers to fight for equality of opportunity, and teaches a belief in the possibility for every individual to be better, if given the chance. Our faith calls for providing every human being a chance to succeed while offering the basic need of forgiveness, grace, mercy, and love.  

No one exemplified this calling more than a dear friend of mine who died a couple weeks ago. Her name was Gale Hull, and she created the finest example of a mission organization I have ever come across. Her organization, Partners in Development, started its work in Haiti and brought its mission to Guatemala, Peru and rural Mississippi. Her beautiful idea of "whole-person change" provided the opportunity for thousands to have a better life and inspired thousands more to be better people.  

Gale understood that people needed an opportunity. Through a mortgage program, micro-business loans, child sponsorship and free medical care, families thrived. People within the program pay for their own homes with money they earn from their own businesses while having their basic needs of education and health met. That is the type of social justice that lies at the foundation of the Christian faith. 

How is it that using the Christian faith to serve the poor, heal the sick and welcome the foreigner is destroying America — in the minds of far too many evangelicals — but manipulating the Christian faith to condemn women as murderers and condemn LGBTQ people to hell is somehow proper Biblical teaching?  

The truth is that the Christian faith should be used as a shield for the oppressed and a sword against the oppressors. The working poor have been completely ignored by the evangelical movement and it's time for people of good faith to find themselves some new leaders. Preferably among people who want to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, not the teachings of Donald Trump.  

 My dream is that people of faith and people of conscience, especially if they have voice, power and influence in our society, will begin to align with the idea of equality of opportunity. That would be doing God's work for real.