Beware False Prophets

Definitely check out the the Rev. William J Barber’s piece in The Guardian, “Evangelicals using religion for political gain is nothing new. It is a US tradition.” Barber is, of course, the charismatic leader of the co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, and one of the more great lights of American Progressive Christianity.

In this piece, he argues that we should be saddened but not surprised that (mostly white) Evangelicals are supporting Trump. He traces their behavior and attitudes back through the various self-identified Christians who have supported segregation, lynching, slavery, and genocide. The sad reality is all too often people are willing to use God as excuse to do very evil things.

One particularly powerful paragraph reads, “Religious hypocrisy is not new. But Jesus and the prophets of the Bible make clear that God hates this abuse of the holy. ‘Do you expect me to overlook obscene wealth you’ve piled up by cheating and fraud?’ God asks through the prophet Micah. ‘Do you think I’ll tolerate shady deals and shifty scheming? I’m tired of the violent rich bullying their way with bluffs and lies.’ These are the biblical values we have heard too little about in our public life.”

Please check out my new book, Padre: To The Island, a meditation on mortality, grief, and joy, based on the lives and deaths of two of the most amazing and unconventional people I ever met, my mother and father.

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Michael Jay Tucker is a writer and journalist who has published material on topics ranging from the Jazz Age to computers. (Among his small claims to fame is that he interviewed Steve Jobs just after that talented if complicated man got kicked out of Apple, and just before the company’s Board came begging him to come back.)



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