Originally published Oct, 2021
As the GOP remains intent on using fallacious logic to argue for the abandonment of reason, they’ve conflated a savior with a vigilante
We are living in strange, dangerous times to be sure. Beyond the obvious issues of overpopulation, ecological disaster, environmental catastrophe, growing famine, and ever-challenging pandemics, we are in danger of complete social collapse.
Half of the country is busy trying to gaslight the rest of the world, using fallacious logic to argue for a return to the dark ages and the ultimate abandonment of reason. The Republican Party, one of only two major political parties in our representational democratic system, no longer believes in our founders’ concept of government, fiscal conservatism, equality, liberty, free trade, or the rule of law. What’s even stranger is that they’ve joined forces with evangelical Christians who no longer believe in grace, humility, compassion, caring for the sick and poor, or the teachings of their Messiah, Jesus Christ.
What we have instead is a weird cult of contradictory ideologies held together with hate and spit, running around with flags, and songs that speak to their supremacy in victimhood. So strong is their belief in this, that they’ve abandoned all others to wholly embrace it.
I find it difficult enough to parse my own existential questions concerning the nature of the universe, the purpose of man, and the elusive answer to whether or not God exists, without the simultaneous collapse of the Christian church into a corrupt cabal of nihilistic greed for political power and influence.
Just as Republicans are plotting to destroy America from within, the Religious Right is busy tearing down the temple while worshipping a massive golden asshole. We might be able to withstand one or the other of these two calamities, but I’m finding it difficult to comprehend and oppose both. It’s wreaking havoc with any belief I might have once held for the basic decency of man.
What happens to our shared reality when we finally discover that our entire existence has been nothing but a lie? When faith and ideology abandon themselves, how far are we from descending into a massive Lord of the Flies scenario, complete with automatic weapons, religious fervor, and ungodly wealth?
In a recent Atlantic article by Peter Wehner titled “The Evangelical Church Is Breaking Apart”, Alan Jacobs, a professor of humanities at Baylor University said, “People come to believe what they are most thoroughly and intensively catechized to believe, and that catechesis comes not from the churches but from the media they consume, or rather the media that consume them. The churches have barely better than a snowball’s chance in hell of shaping most people’s lives.”
“What the media wants is engagement, and engagement is most reliably driven by anger and hatred,” Jacobs argues. “They make bank when we hate each other. And so that hatred migrates into the Church, which doesn’t have the resources to resist it. The real miracle here is that even so, in the mercy of God, many people do find their way to places of real love of God and neighbor.”
Wehner goes on to say, “For many Christians, their politics have become more of an identity marker than their faith. They might insist that they are interpreting their politics through the prism of scripture, with the former subordinate to the latter, but in fact, scripture and biblical ethics are often distorted to fit their politics.”
In the same piece, Scott Dudley, a senior pastor at Bellevue Presbyterian Church in Bellevue, Washington, says he’s “heard of many congregants leaving their church because it didn’t match their politics, but has never once heard of someone changing their politics because it didn’t match their church’s teaching.”
“[I’ve] heard of many congregants leaving their church because it didn’t match their politics, but [I’ve] never once heard of someone changing their politics because it didn’t match their church’s teaching.” — Scott Dudley
The third entity, beyond politics and religion, that Jacobs mentioned, that is actively and wantonly contributing to this profitable chaos, is the right-wing media. Like any good arms dealer, you can’t make any money if you can’t create and maintain any worthy adversaries. Their job isn’t broadcasting the news, and it certainly isn’t involved in investigating corruption, uplifting humanity, or uncovering the truth. Its sole purpose is fueling anger and resentment for profit.
“Too often, I fear,” writes Wehner, “when Americans look at the Church, they see not the face of Jesus, but that of Donald Trump.”
The religious right has re-created Jesus as an independent, vengeful, equalizer; protector of capitalism and misogyny; using his whip, not against the bankers but the poor, unwashed masses. Jesus as John Wick.
This is an update to the long-held American portrait of Jesus as John Wayne. The insurgent rebel with a righteous cause. The ruthless but honorable cowboy maintaining his own brand of justice in a lawless land. A killer of godless savages and protector of white women.
John Wayne might have been misogynistic and racist, but he had an old-fashioned, paternalistic morality of sorts. John Wick is little more than an amoral killing machine bent on revenge and destruction. When winning is all that matters, you can drop the pretense of any moral cause. Shoot first, let God sort them out. The ends always justify the means.
The Religious and Political Right have joined forces to bring about the abandonment of reason, and the embrace of anti-intellectualism, they’ve conflated a savior with a vigilante. A messiah loaded for bear and a bad attitude.
Newton’s third law states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. The original tagline for the John Wick franchise was “Every action has consequences.” It will be interesting to see how history views our ultimate collapse. How will America be remembered? How will Christianity? What will the reaction be?
Another line used on one of the John Wick movie posters was “Revenge is all he has left.” If the Republican Party stood for anything, you’d be hard-pressed to come up with anything more apropos than that.