The Christian Right Has Ceded All Moral High Ground

When I was a kid, I was exposed to two diametrically opposed versions of Christianity.  From my father’s family, I learned about the kind, loving God.  From my mother’s, the fire-and-brimstone, hateful, terrifying God.
Guess to which one I was drawn?

I assert most unhesitatingly, that the religion of the south is a mere covering for the most horrid crimes–a justifier of the most appalling barbarity, a sanctifier of the most hateful frauds–and a dark shelter under, which the darkest, foulest, grossest, and most infernal deeds of slaveholders find the strongest protection. Were I to be again reduced to the chains of slavery, next to that enslavement, I should regard being the slave of a religious master the greatest calamity that could befall me. For of all slaveholders with whom I have ever met, religious slaveholders are the worst. I have ever found them the meanest and basest, the most cruel and cowardly, of all others. -Frederick Douglass

Christianity was often used as a reason to support slavery, and, as the almost-200-year-old Frederick Douglass (of whom we expect many great things going forward) can attest, the “religious slaveholders are the worst.”  Sounds like Douglass knows Jason Rapert!
Today, much like in the run up to the Civil War, right-wing Christianity is about power over those who are in the weakest positions, such as the poor, immigrants, and women.  There is nothing “Christian” about today’s Christian right, and I never want to have another right-wing alleged Christian preach to me that I should follow their moral high-ground.
Let’s think of the children, shall we?
The Christian right (CR) loves to think of themselves as the savior of unborn fetuses, but this is little more than a disguised powerplay by the CR over women.  If there was never another abortion in the history of man-kind, I couldn’t be happier.  In fact, abortions are at a low point because of improved, non-religious sex education. However, the CR and people like Rapert want to outlaw abortion, thus making the lives of those coping with unplanned, unwanted pregnancies much more difficult.  That’ll help the children, right?
And in case you didn’t think it was about power, here’s a quote from an Oklahoma lawmaker this week:

I believe one of the breakdowns in our society is that we have excluded the man out of all of these types of decisions. I understand that they feel like that is their body. I feel like it is a separate — what I call them is, is you’re a “host.” And you know when you enter into a relationship, you’re going to be that host and so, you know, if you pre-know that, then take all precautions and don’t get pregnant. So that’s where I’m at. I’m like, hey, your body is your body and be responsible with it. But after you’re irresponsible then don’t claim, well, I can just go and do this with another body, when you’re the host and you invited that in.

Get that, women?  You are a HOST, not a human being.
So, the CR has forced you to bring a child you don’t want into the world.  I’m sure they’ll be more than happy to help, right?
Well, no.  If you’re a working-class woman, the CR wants nothing more than to take away your healthcare (if it’s not employer based) and any other social-safety-net benefits.  I think this (not so) hilarious cartoon sums up the hypocrisy nicely:

Again, this is about power, not lives.
So, you’ve been forced to bring a baby to term, and now you have difficulties keeping it fed and well-cared for?  At least they’ll get a fantastic public education, so their lives can be made better than yours, right?  Well, your new Secretary of Education, Betsy “Grizzly” DeVos, who bought her way into a cabinet-level position, abhors public education.
The CR cares so very deeply about the children.
The CR only cares about power and, most of all, keeping their tribe in power.  After all, why else would they willingly vote for a lying (sin), cheating (sin), narcissistic sociopath (not a sin, but perhaps it was on the dropped tablet)?  It’s not because the Christian right believes in their religion as much as it believes in power over the “other.”  The Christian right is utterly bereft of class, credibility, or real, actual Christianity.
The early challenger for word of the year is applicable here: the Christian right, those that voted for Donald Trump, are Pharisees.  From now on, they should be treated as such, by which I mean with utter contempt.