“As a Christian, I don’t think you can be both MAGA and Christian,” one person wrote in the comments of the video.
Two weeks ago, Jen Hamilton, a nurse with a sizable following on TikTok and Instagram, picked up her Bible and made a video that would quickly go viral.
“Basically, I sat down at my kitchen table and began to read from Matthew 25 while overlaying MAGA policies that directly oppose the character and nature of Jesus’ teachings,” she told HuffPost.
In the comments of the video ― which currently has more than 8.6 million views on TikTok ― many (Christians and atheists alike) applauded Hamilton for using straight Scripture as a way of offering commentary. Others picked a bone with Christians who uncritically support Trump.
You know the David Frum quote?
That doesn’t just apply to democracy. It applies to religion, too. They were never believers in scripture or Jesus socialist-humanist teachings. They are blind adherents of authoritarianism, and that is ultimately all that matters. Everything else is a smoke screen.
When you corner an authoritarian with “their own” scripture (which is very easy because very few actually know any of it, besides a few choice out-of-context snippets fed to them by their leaders), they will casually dismiss the entire conversation and walk away. Maybe they will say something like “even the devil can quote scripture”, without ever bothering to engage with the topic itself.
I also think it’s crazy how few American Christians understand to what level their ideology has been coopted by right wing extremists.
Nixon, and then Reagan, worked with celebrity megachurch pastors to manufacture abortion and anti gay beleifs in churches as a wedge issue.
Almost all political rhetoric from large churches since the 70s has been an attempt to create issues that Christians never had and then abuse their religious faith to maintain loyal and hateful voters for conservatives.
And it worked.