I am not a Christian ...

... but I revere the words of the Nazarene, and respect those who have committed themselves to live according to those words.

As I have written before, you can’t be a Christian AND a Republican; you have to choose one or the other.

Christ admonished his followers to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, and care for the sick and dying. The Republican party has consistently cut funding for social programs that feed the hungry, from food stamps to free school lunches for kids in poorer regions. They tried (and thankfully failed) to overturn Obamacare, their failed bill would have denied affordable healthcare to millions of people. They have also gutted programs that assist the homeless – many of whom are veterans.

Christ told his flock to be their brothers’ keeper, and to treat others as they would be treated – a far cry from Republicans who label immigrants as animals, rapists, drug-dealers, and disease-carrying terrorists. He admonished his true disciples to love their neighbours – while Republicans applaud separating children from their parents, and locking them in cages.

Republican values are completely at odds with Christian values – and now they’ve gone even further with their anti-Christian rhetoric and policies under Trump. I have heard so-called Christians state that Trump was “chosen by God” to be president. What true follower of Christ would believe that God himself chose a lying, self-proclaimed “pussy-grabber” to lead a nation?

For those who want to go old-school when it comes to scripture, when did “bearing false witness” become acceptable? When did “thou shalt not steal” become an unimportant in the face of a “pResident” who established a “charity” that he used to personally enrich himself? When did “thou shalt not commit adultery” get tossed aside?

When did vilifying people of different races, religions, or ethnicity become a “Christian value”? When did demeaning homosexuals or those who get abortions become a “Christian value” – when Jesus himself never spoke a word against either?

There’s a reason the Republican party has very specifically courted the votes of Evangelicals – because they are the most easily-manipulated people on earth. And now we are seeing the fruits of that labour as a lying, bigoted racist is praised for his every statement and every action that literally flies in the face of everything the Nazarene stood firmly against.

Those “Christians” who have aligned themselves with the party that denies assistance to the poor, the homeless, and the sick are NOT Christians. And those who embrace Trump are the most un-Christian among them. Perhaps it’s Trump’s orange spray-on tan that has blinded the easily-led – in the same way the Jews who Moses had delivered from slavery in Egypt abandoned their faith in order to worship a Golden Calf.

If you are following the lead of a party and a “pResident” whose policies are the embodiment of anti-Christian principles, you are NOT a Christian. You are just another mindless sheep following the Judas Goat who is leading you to the slaughter of everything you pretend to believe in.

I’ll say it again, so there is no mistake: I revere the words of the Nazarene, and respect those who have committed themselves to live according to those words.

That being said, I feel nothing but revulsion for those who have abandoned every Christian principle they once pretended to live by, in order to follow a man – and a party – that epitomizes the very opposite of what Christ preached, and what he admonished his followers to do.

The Republican party knew what they were doing when they targeted so-called “Christians” as being ripe for voting Republican. They knew they were dealing with people who were stupid enough to be turned against their own beliefs by appealing to their bigotry, their racism, their xenophobia, and their homophobia – all un-Christian beliefs – because their “Christian values” never really existed in the first place.