Notes from an Angry Christian

I came across this article on Medium: Why Are So Many “Christian” Stories Actually Against Christianity? | by Nathan LaDuke | Dec, 2021 | Medium

.. and I thought.. yep, that’s me. I am an angry Christian.

Why am I so angry? Let me count the ways.

1. A large number of Christians I know would vote for Trump tomorrow if they had the chance. This is infuriating for so many reasons. This has nothing to do with Biden and the Left and everything to do supporting someone who is antithetical to every bit of the Christ Christians claim to follow. There is a difference between paying your taxes to Caesar and wholesale Emperor worship.
2. Trashing “the Woke”. What is it to be “woke”? It’s always been about being aware of long lasting affects of systemic racism. When my grandpa was a kid half of leadership in the US belonged to the KKK. Between 2–6 million people were members. It was a LOT of the country. When his grandpa was a kid slavery was as American as apple pie. Our history is a toxic and violent milieu from which we’ve somehow sprung forth completely untarnished and unaffected because: Jesus. Bullshit. Because the KKK certainly wasn’t a Protestant thing at all. So, maybe instead of trashing the woke we should wake up and own the past, repent of our colorblindness and start seeing that there is still work to be done.
3. Anti-science gobbledygook. Many church going folk are making the thinking folk look real stupid. No, JFK isn’t coming back. Yes, COVID is a real threat and has killed millions. And yes, vaccines are a safe and effective way to keep your dumb ass out of the hospital so it can be used for people who trust science. While we are at: Climate change is real and it’s worth doing what we can to keep things from getting worse.
4. Capitalism and Communism. Just stop already. Jesus wasn’t a Capitalist or Communist, leave him out of these garbage debates. Communism is a cudgel bandied about since before Truman. We have a social safety net, you need permission from the Gov’t to do ANYTHING in business. There are freer countries out there. There are countries that pay less in taxes and get better services. These conversations are big and nuanced. No one is asking for free market anarchy OR communism.. if so they are definitely the extremes. We live in a socialist country, deal with it.
5. Christians have treated me like shit. And I’ve treated them like shit. All the worst people in my life have been Christians. From bullies to bad business partners. All of them have claimed Christ and have failed to manifest him. It’s a failure I can’t fully account for. I’ve not done a stellar job at turning the other cheek either. I fail everyday to live a Christ-like life. I am not any of the things I expect to see in others, and it makes me angry.
6. Christian Nationalism. All the Manifest Destiny, none of the humble repentance. Legislating morality was tried by the Israelites, it didn’t work then, it won’t work now. Faith doesn’t work when it enters the halls of power, at least not that I can tell anyway. The most Christlike politicians (hey, let give to the poor and make sure everyone is taken care of!) are the most hated by screaming Red Christians that dominate the news. We don’t want David, we want Saul. Truth be told, we don’t want any leader. That’s the rub, how on Earth do you even lead a whole country of “Independant free thinkers” that refuse to comply with basic human decency if they feel it impinges on their precious freedoms?

So, why now? Why all the anger? Because these things could be glossed over before. Problems arise out of friction. The 2016 election, the 2020 election.. and we wear our politics on our faces now. Christians have become legendary for wanting to create a fascist Trump led police state that is anti-science and run by his wealthy plutocrat buddies that can’t seem to help but sleep with teens. So, yeah, now is the time to be angry. I don’t think we are done turning the tables here in the temple. I’m not anyway.

https://geoffbaron.medium.com/membership