Indecent Christianity

Christianity has been in the news a lot lately – and not for good reasons.

Former judge and Senatorial candidate Roy Moore – who bombastically presents himself as a champion of traditional Christianity – has been publicly accused by five women (so far) of inappropriate sexual advances when they were teenagers. This is the guy who erected a monument of the Ten Commandments in front of the Alabama Supreme Court and refused to remove it under court order. Later, he refused to abide by the Supreme Court ruling allowing same-sex marriage. Moore believes homosexuality should be a criminal offense. If he had his druthers, all U.S. law would be written to reflect his fundamentalist beliefs.

The accusations against him are far more credible than his denials, especially since he maintains that he is the victim of a conspiracy of left-wing liberals led by Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (?) to reject “conservative Christian values.” These women had nothing to gain from speaking out. Most of them are life-long Republicans. They don’t know Mitch McConnell. But they know Roy Moore all too well, and decided the world needed to know about him as well.

But what is worse is how other Christians are defending Moore.

Jim Zeigler, state auditor of Alabama, says the former judge’s dalliances with teenagers when he was in his 30s has biblical precedent. “Take Mary and Joseph,” Zeigler said. “Mary was a teenager and Joseph was an adult carpenter when they became parents of Jesus.” What Bible is he reading? I don’t recall the gospels ever

telling us how old either of them were. But even if he’s right, drawing an equivalency between sexual perversion and Joseph’s decision to trust the word of an angel and “take Mary as his wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit” is as disgusting as it is inappropriate. Or is Zeigler willing to jettison belief in the virgin birth in order to concoct a justification of Moore’s behavior? Women in ancient Judea were treated as property and had no legal standing apart from their husbands. Would Zeigler find similar arrangements acceptable today?

Then, there’s Randy Brinson, head of the Alabama Christian Coalition, who just last night during an interview on CNN fumbled his way through the indefensible argument that what is most important to discover is not whether Moore is guilty but whether his accusers are politically motivated. In other words, Moore gets a pass on sexual misconduct (and, in at least one case, sexual assault) if it can be proven that his accusers want to derail his campaign. Think about that. Women who know that a man with a disturbing pattern of sexual molestation might be elected to the United States Senate decide – despite the fact they’ve been told repeatedly that no one would believe them – they had better speak out before he gets elected. And just because of that, their accusations – even if true – have no merit. Brinson is smarter than that.

Among Moore’s strongest supporters are super-Christians Franklin Graham and Jerry Falwell, Jr. And many evangelicals are now saying they are more likely to vote for him than just stay home because of these accusations. (I assume this means they believe the accusations are false and are therefore more motivated to stick with their man, but who knows, really?)

Reporters have been stopping Alabamians on the street to ask what they think about the charges against Moore. Many of those who grant an interview feel the need to lecture these Yankee heathens on the mandate of Christ to forgive. But Moore isn’t asking for forgiveness. He doesn’t even admit he’s done anything wrong. Here’s an excerpt from one of those interviews:

Reporter: What is your reaction to the accusations against Roy Moore?

Woman: Well, I’m a Christian, and as a Christian, I have a responsibility to forgive.

Reporter: So, let me make sure I understand. You believe his accusers, but you’re still willing to forgive Moore for what he did?

Woman: No, I don’t believe those women at all. I don’t believe he did anything wrong.

Huh?

Columnist Cal Thomas, himself a traditionalist Catholic, has written that the “Christian” defense of Moore signals “perhaps the final stage in the corruption of American evangelicalism.” Another social conservative, columnist Ross Douthat, characterized Moore as an example of the “distinctive swine” of cultural conservatism. Long-time Republican acolytes have lamented how the Moore saga is the latest chapter in the (take your

pick) “vandalism,” “self-destruction,” and “moral bankruptcy” of their party.

But what is more concerning to me is how this seamy drama illustrates the moral bankruptcy of a large swath of American Christianity, and threatens the vandalism and destruction of the larger Christian witness in this country.

As our culture becomes increasingly secular, fewer and fewer non-religious Americans have the desire or patience to distinguish between Christian demagogues whose faith is a thin veneer over narrow tribal loyalties and millions of Christ’s followers who are sincere about putting him first in their lives. Evangelicalism is fast losing credibility outside its shrinking bubble, which now accounts for only 17% of the population (down from 23% just three years ago). But all forms of Christianity have entered a new phase of institutional decline, and one major reason for it, especially among people under the age of 30, is the growing perception that the Christian religion is too often on the wrong side of the most pressing social issues of the day. Young adult Christians for whom differences in race, ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation are simply part of life find the judgmental pronouncements of people like Moore, Graham, and Falwell to be repugnant. For those who have left the Catholic Church because its leadership covered up priesthood pedophilia while condemning same-sex relationships, Moore is just further confirmation of the degeneracy of all organized Christianity. The rise of anti-immigrant, authoritarian populism among conservative Christians who used to demand adherence to “traditional family values” is, sadly, less surprising than it is clarifying.

Ultra-conservative Catholics and evangelicals who are willing to sell out basic human decency to support a mean-spirited political agenda aren’t just giving Christians a bad name. They are betraying Christ.

©2017 by J. Mark Lawson

Comments

[Michael Salamone]

Thanks, Mark, for calling out the Conservative Catholics and Evangelicals in the same piece of writing. As a Catholic, I have been ashamed to see how much they are becoming more like the ultra-right Fundamentalists. This "temple guard" wing of Catholicism gives the whole denomination a bad name and, I feel, hampers their growth among the youth.