Fool Me Once

“There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again.”
―George W. Bush

Oh, but you can. And you probably will be fooled again, particularly if you’re an American and you call yourself a Christian. I’ve attached a link to a current article on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. It concludes, “This deportation crackdown isn’t a divine mandate, it’s a national disgrace, and faith communities will not be fooled into blessing it.”

Wanna bet? I have some swampland in Florida I’d like to sell you. Maybe you can set up a concentration camp there.

Anyone paying attention to current events and with a modicum of Bible knowledge can cite hundreds, perhaps thousands, of examples of the failure of Christians to apply Christian principles, typically encapsulated in the life and teachings of Jesus, to those current events. Christians these days can and do look at the mosquito-infested, gator-chomping environs surrounding Alligator Alcatraz in the Florida Everglades, witness the inhumane conditions facing imprisoned immigrants[1], hear the stories of torture, and nod approvingly, and call it all “following Jesus.” Never mind what Jesus taught. Really. Never mind what Jesus taught. He was woke, and we godly folk know better these days.

Look, there are reasons, and good ones, why 41,000,000 fewer Americans[2] attend Christian churches than they did in the year 2000. The Christian Church will trot out its usual assortment of excuses and rationalizations to explain this - call it “backsliding,” being corrupted by “secular humanism,” blame it all on the mindless pursuit of good ol’ hedonism, etc.

But here’s the main reason, and I have to insist on it, even though 82% of White Christians will cry out in dismay: the American Christian Church doesn’t look anything like Jesus. Not even remotely. And I’m guessing that many of those 41,000,000 Americans see that too.

Don’t believe me? Consider that in 1976, a year after my “Born Again” Christian experience, Newsweek slapped Jimmy Carter on the cover - good ol’ Jimmy, with his dedication to human rights, peace, and social justice - and labeled that long-lost Bicentennial Year the “year of the Evangelical.” Compare and contrast with the current 82% of the White Evangelical American Church who voted for the inhumane conditions of Alligator Alcatraz. The only good immigrant is a dead immigrant, amiright? I’ve said it before, but it needs to be said again. I didn’t leave the Christian Church. The Christian Church left me.

[1] 72% of whom have no criminal record. Their crime is their brown skin.

[2} Based on current data from The Pew Research Center and The Barna Group, two organizations that have studied and analyzed Christian demographic trends for decades.

The DHS is blasphemously quoting Bible verses to defend deporting migrants