The perils of performative Christianity

Really, I could have entitled it The Perils of Performative Religion, but because we're in the United States, and much of the population still identifies as Christian, we'll go with that.

A couple of things crossed my radar recently. First was this feature from NPR. Russell Moore, a former high-ranking official in the Southern Baptist Convention, was never turned into a pod person by the ascent of Donald Trump. He sees the Trump movement as being disastrous for the evangelical church in America. How so? Well, this:

It was the result of having multiple pastors tell me, essentially, the same story about quoting the Sermon on the Mount, parenthetically, in their preaching — "turn the other cheek" — [and] to have someone come up after to say, "Where did you get those liberal talking points?" And what was alarming to me is that in most of these scenarios, when the pastor would say, "I'm literally quoting Jesus Christ," the response would not be, "I apologize." The response would be, "Yes, but that doesn't work anymore. That's weak." And when we get to the point where the teachings of Jesus himself are seen as subversive to us, then we're in a crisis.

Now, as you know, I often refer to the Grand Inquisitor scene in Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov. He returns to earth; the people recognize him and flock to him, seeking his grace and saving message; and the Church condemns him to death, as he upsets the order they have built. Eventually, the Inquisitor releases Jesus, telling him not to return. This synopsis gets to the heart of the matter:

The Inquisitor founds his denunciation of Jesus on the three questions that Satan asked Jesus during the temptation of Christ in the desert. These three are the temptation to turn stones into bread, the temptation to cast Himself from the Temple and be saved by the angels, and the temptation to rule over all the kingdoms of the world. The Inquisitor states that Jesus rejected these three temptations in favor of freedom, but the Inquisitor thinks that Jesus has misjudged human nature. He does not believe that the vast majority of humanity can tolerate the freedom that Jesus has given to them. The Inquisitor thus implies that Jesus, in giving humans freedom to choose, has excluded the majority of humanity from redemption and doomed it to suffer.

Despite declaring the Inquisitor to be a nonbeliever, Ivan also has the Inquisitor saying that the Catholic Church follows "the wise spirit, the dread spirit of death and destruction." He says: "We are not with Thee, but with him, and that is our secret! For centuries have we abandoned Thee to follow him." For the Inquisitor, it is the Devil who provided the tools to end human suffering and unite humanity under the banner of the Church. With the church thus correctly organized, the multitude is guided by the few who are strong enough to take on the burden of freedom. The Inquisitor says that under him, all mankind will live and die happily in ignorance. Though he leads them only to "death and destruction", they will be happy along the way, for he and his representatives in the church will relieve them of the terrible burden of freedom of conscience: "The most agonizing secrets of their consciences – all, all will they bring to us, and we shall resolve it all, and they will attend our decision with joy, because it will deliver them from the great anxiety and fearsome torments of free and individual decision."[2]

Now, of course, there's some Russian Orthodox jibing at the Catholic Church in this as being the Whore of Babylon; as we've seen during the war in Ukraine, Russia has no leg to stand on regarding morality. But the story-within-a-story does get to the crux of the problem of organized religion: Jesus offered freedom from the ills of the world; the churches, for the entirety of their histories, confine and condemn that same freedom, taking the carpenter's simple message and building edifices of wealth and power around his words. The Jesus portrayed in the Christian scriptures is not a Jesus meant for the world of politics and influence.

So, for me, the stories Mr. Moore relates are not shocking, nor surprises. It was evident for anyone to see that organized religion is not about faith or enlightenment, but it instead exists to perpetuate its own power and control over populations. 

In Trump, evangelical leaders saw a man who would lead them to their religious-authoritarian state. His animus and hate matched their own. He was the Messiah they needed: one who would hate those they hated, and inflict punishment upon them. Forgiveness and love have long fled fundamentalist hearts; they have no place in their souls, for their souls are filled with retribution. Where Jesus rejected Satan's offer to rule over the earth's kingdoms, fundamentalists of all stripes see it as their core mission, imposing their beliefs upon others. Oh, they'll say they do this to bring about God's justice on earth; but they serve the Adversary instead, accepting his offer of dominion where Christ abjured it. One cannot serve both God and Satan; many organized religions have made their choice, and it's not with the former.

Then we have this:

This is the zenith of performative Christianity. This act doesn't feed the hungry, house the homeless, or heal the sick. Far from healing the sick, it is a symptom of a terminal illness in this branch of Christianity. It is a Christianity devoid of love, grace, and charity. Like the pastors who have been told that Jesus' message of peace and forgiveness is too meek, this, too, has nothing to do with the message of the rabbi from Galilee. It is merely another performance to stoke division and hatred, and further the goal of a Christo-fascist state. Also, Mattel, Inc. thanks you for your purchase of the dreamhouse.

What Greg Locke did was to transform the Bible from a book of comfort to one of violence. (Yes, I know, the text is full of violence and outright genocide. But that's neither here nor there.) His conception of the Bible is not one of a book to which people derive wisdom, but a weapon to be used to destroy his foes. 

People are fleeing religion in the United States. Now, let's be clear: they're not becoming atheists or agnostics. They still have a belief in some sort of divinity. But the divinity they embrace is not the one worshipped by the likes of "Pastor" Locke, or Mr. Moore's former flock. They seek a spirituality which doesn't make them agitated all the time, one which doesn't have hate of the Other as its central message. When the doomsayers wail that humanity is doomed, I point to this. We do evolve, and we become better than we are. The likes of Locke are a dying race, and they should be allowed to fade into nothing. The God-shaped hole so many have can be filled by love and acceptance. True Christianity has a power which these carnival hucksters and their theology of destruction can't match. True Christianity should bring one peace and comfort, and a realization that we are all children of the Divine, in whatever form that ineffable essence takes. And yes, even we atheists and agnostics honor the Ineffable, because the Universe is wondrous and mysterious and full of life, and we will never know all its secrets. The dark is but a passing thing, and the light endures.

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