A Golden Calf Becomes a Martyr – and Jesus Weeps

By: JANA GREENE

I struggled with whether or not to write this, but watched the Amazon Prime documentary, “Bad Faith” yesterday, and felt compelled to further the message by paraphrasing what of the social justice activists said: “The Christian Nationalists have a ‘Jesus,’ but it’s not MY Jesus!” And man, that resonated. I feel like my very best friend – Jesus – is being widely misrepresented, and it would be remiss of me not to defend his honor.

And I am also writing this because I can’t ignore the emperor’s-new-clothes mentality that has made his whole cult of personality, so that now he is some kind of “martyr.” I guess if you don’t believe that having someone shoot at you instantly gives you character and integrity, you are a part of the resistance? I wish no ill will or harm on anyone. But this seems to be the determining factor that made holdouts say, “The Lord made sure the bullet didn’t hit him! He MUST be the one!”

Resistance? So be it, then.

Jesus resisted institutions that persecuted the poor and marginalized. He resisted against the establishment who elevated the pious and religious, over the meek and humble. He was the resistance against self-righteous hypocrites who represented God with a cocky assuredness that theirs was the only way to please him. And he IS the Way. The Way himself was the Resistance.

We – as evangelicals – cut our teeth on scripture that gave us clear instructions: You will be able to tell followers of Jesus by the fruits of the Spirit. Show me one attribute of Trump’s – gentleness, kindness, peace-spreading, humbleness…go ahead, I’ll wait – that he has – even a low-hanging “fruit.” Jesus was laying down arms. Jesus was personal sacrifice. Feeding the poor. Providing aid to the sick. Jesus was humility. Jesus was Jesus-like. That’s kind of his whole bag.

But here we are – being asked to worship at the Golden Trump Calf, with nary a shriveled grape of the ONE THING we were told to expect as evidence that someone follows Jesus: LOVE. And it’s too bad for us, because he doesn’t display a single dingleberry. Anything at all.

Going back decades, this ex-POTUS’s MO had been screwing around on ALL his wives, cheating people, worshipping himself, making a god of money, looking down on religious folk as “weak,” stiffing the poor, grabbing women by the p*ssy (does reading that word in this context make you uncomfortable? It should.)

Now he slaps his name on the Bible and hints at encouraging domestic bloodshed, and we are all supposed to pretend like that’s holiness.

“But don’t you believe in forgiveness? Maybe he’s a changed man!” Okay. Again, I say, show me one single dingleberry of evidence that he operates from a pace of love now. He is USING CHRISTIANITY to further his agenda, and frankly, he is a shitty actor, and I feel like we are all living in a particularly terrifying episode of Black Mirror.

We are a nation blinded. And nothing and nobody will change the minds of those for whom cognitive dissonance is the accepted mindset. Open your ears, all that can hear. Open your eyes, all that can see. The Beast always comes in a savior suit. It’s a most clever disguise, but beloveds, we are supposed to know better. We are supposed to have graduated from “milk” to “meat,” spiritually. To be on the lookout for wolves in sheep’s clothing. We are supposed to have discernment – we were warned to expect this.

This IS the battle between good and evil, alright. Koo-koo bonkers on a whole other level. I want to be on the right side of history, and every cell in my sentient being heart is sickened by all of this.

Take heart, for Jesus has overcome this world. Good thing too. It’s WHACK here right now.

God help us all.