You too can be a bad Christian

Christ does not require perfection

A common trope on the internet is that “you can’t be a Christian if” and then the author inserts a personal gripe about Christians. These days, the trope is often followed by the words “Democrat” or “MAGA,” as commenters make claims that Christians can’t hold certain political views.

Guess what, they're both wrong.

ChatGPT representation of the crucifixion based on forensic analysis of what Jesus may have looked like (Isaiah 53:2-3)

Not only does my Bible not contain a political litmus test, I also see two parties that repeatedly fall short of God's glory. While I agree that God is not pleased with the Democratic Party's support for abortion and homosexuality, I think Christ might have even harsher words for the cult of religious grifters that has sprung up on the right, not to mention the Republican embrace of dishonesty, injustice, and intentional cruelty. Remember that “love your neighbor” was Christ’s second-most important commandment, and while Jesus displayed love and patience towards sinners, his patience ran thin and his anger showed through when dealing with religious hypocrites.

Human beings are inherently flawed. We know this from scripture if we can’t see it with our own eyes. We are selfish, bigoted, and filled with jealousy and hate.

Thank God that he doesn't require perfection for salvation. That’s what Jesus died for.

The same goes for our politics. We have two deeply flawed political parties, and Christians can claim either of them. I know Christians on both sides of the political divide who are good people with different priorities and understandings but who sincerely love Jesus.

I’ll also add that some are deluded. Jesus warned, “False messiahs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.”

At this point, is there any doubt that such deception is indeed possible?

In my view, it’s better to claim neither party. Christians are supposed to be in the world, but not of it. Claiming a party eventually becomes an exercise of tit-for-tat ranking and rationalizing sins to validate secular political beliefs.

Not claiming a party doesn’t mean not voting or involving yourself in politics. It does mean that your allegiance is to Christ and that you should vote based on real issues and candidate qualities, not some partisan notion that the worst of my tribe is better than the best of theirs.

Voting for a party doesn’t necessarily mean you endorse everything that party says or does, and it’s easier to maintain that degree of separation if you are not a party member or ideologue. With only two realistic options, we have a duty as Christians to pick the lesser evil (i.e., the greater good) in order to avoid the greater evil.

The trope has a backwards view of this. The trope assumes that Christians must have a perfect view of the world that aligns with the commenter’s view of perfection and respond perfectly. Nothing could be further from the truth. As Paul and James both described in the biblical books they authored, becoming a Christian does not mean an end to sinning. For most of us, our understanding of sin evolves over time in our spiritual journey.

Christian Nationalism also misunderstands this. Christianity has long been described as a relationship with Christ rather than a religious book of rules, but Christian Nationalists are seeking to establish a top-down version of Christianity based on the imposition of their version of “Christian” rules rather than the personal love of Jesus. Someone correctly pointed out a while back that Christian Nationalism seeks the same power that Satan tempted Jesus with.

Christian Nationalists have also cheered Donald Trump’s Easter message this week while discounting similar messages from Joe Biden and falsely claiming that Biden pronounced Easter to be a trans holiday. In my view, words proclaiming Easter from people who make a mockery of Christ’s teachings probably do more harm than good to the Gospel. That’s especially true following the news that the Trump Administration has ordered the deportation of Afghan Christian refugees over Easter weekend. Only God knows for sure what Trump’s spiritual status is, but we are told that we will know false prophets, wolves in sheep’s clothing, by their fruits, and Trump’s fruit is rotten.

If we look down through history, we see a lot of rotten fruit. Christians have done a lot of very bad things, often in the name of Christ. Crusaders conquered and killed innocents in the Middle East, Christian colonizers devastated and abused indigenous populations, and pastors defended racial slavery from the pulpit. Christians have lied, raped, invaded, murdered, and committed just about every other sin you can name. While we celebrate the sacrifice of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, we forget that most German Christians went along with the Nazi regime. If Christians can be Nazis, they can be pretty much anything (except atheists since being Christian by definition requires a belief in God and acceptance of Jesus as Lord). The greatest deception Christians face is when we deceive ourselves that our sinful acts are okay or even God’s will.

But being deceived and having an imperfect understanding of the world and politics is not a threat to salvation. Such flawed views of reality may put us in danger of secular laws, the government, and the consequences of our actions, but Jesus covers our sins with his blood, even when our sins are rooted in our own stupidity.

To paraphrase the 1990s catchphrase, what would Jesus have us do?

“If you love me, keep my commands,” Jesus said, not mentioning flowery Easter messages or seeking political power.

If you wonder what commands Jesus wanted us to keep, refer back to Matthew 22 and Mark 12 where he explained, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

That’s it in a nutshell. Love God. Love people. Keep his commands.

We aren’t tasked to judge others (in fact, we are specifically warned against this), to smite unbelievers, to bend sinners to our will, or to harass them on the internet. We are just told to love them and to spread the good news of Jesus. As it turns out, those are the hardest things for us to do as flawed human beings. We want to be Christian soldiers rather than Christian servants.

The story goes that early believers came to be called Christians because others around them thought they were “little Christs.” That story misses the mark. I saw a meme recently that said, “Setting Barabbas (an insurrectionist and murderer in the Easter story) free never made sense to me until I realized, I am Barabbas.”

We aren’t little Christs. We are little Barabbases.

So yes, both Republicans and Democrats can be Christians, but most of us aren’t good ones. We are bad people, but as the 12-step program says, admitting it is the first step. We are trying to get better.

I thank God that he does not hold us accountable for our mistakes and misunderstandings or our willful disobedience if we ask for his forgiveness. I thank God for Christ’s sacrifice, but at the same time, I want to do better.

Easter is about both of those attitudes. It is a celebration of thankfulness for Christ’s death that brings us forgiveness, while it also represents a fresh start. Let’s resolve to be better Christians and question our assumptions about the sides we choose. Let’s examine that fruit closely and be discerning fruit inspectors while we pray that God instills us with his love for our fellow man.

Happy Easter from all of us at the Racket News!

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