Dem
54
Ties
2
GOP
44
The Christianity that has predominated in the American South for the last 75 years or so has tended to come in two flavors. The first of those is the apocalyptic stuff, where there is an emphasis on sin and damnation and how we're living in a new Sodom and Gomorrah. And somehow, it is necessary to both fight back against the forces of sin and evil (e.g., trans girls trying to play high school soccer), and yet to also accept that the end of times is probably upon us.
We can understand the scriptural basis for this view. Take a bunch of Old Testament, wrathful God stuff, and then add a dollop of Revelation, and we can see how you get there (even if you kinda have to ignore the middle parts of the book). The other flavor of Christianity is prosperity gospel; basically, the notion that you do what it takes to achieve material wealth, and if you are successful, that is proof of God's approval, and proof that you are a good person. This one, we cannot grasp the scriptural basis. That's not within a country mile of the message of Jesus' ministry, or of Paul's theology.
(Z) worked for several years for a specialist in the history of religions. And he always said that if you want to boil Jesus' message down to the basics, it's this: radical inclusivity. Yeshua ben Yosef found room for everyone in his movement, and emphasized that "It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; that defiles a person." In other words, it's not enough to just follow the "rules" or perform the rituals. You have to speak and you have to act in a moral and compassionate manner. If you read the Gospels without preconceived notions, you cannot doubt that Jesus would deem a Hindu or Buddhist who spends their lives helping the poor to be more worthy of entry into the Kingdom of Heaven than, say, Joel Osteen.
We write this because one cannot help but notice that in the past few years, and in particular on Tuesday, the more positive (and, in our view, accurate) version of Jesus' message is reasserting itself in Southern culture and politics. Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) has long embraced radical inclusivity. Sen.-elect James Talarico does, as well, and so too does Sen.-elect Adam Hamilton. Before them, we can't think of a Christian Southerner who embraced this more tolerant version of the religion, and who achieved real power, since Jimmy Carter.
If that is where things are headed, if the so-called Christian Left is ascendant, that would be a game-changer in American politics. If the Democrats actually make serious inroads with white, Christian voters, then the Republican Party is in big trouble, and would have to reconfigure dramatically.
It would also be a game-changer in terms of American culture. The fusing of an angry, feel-free-to-judge-others version of Christianity with right-wing politics is what gives us Christian nationalism. And actual Christian nationalists basically cannot compromise because their way is ostensibly "God's way." Meanwhile, phony Christian nationalists know they can get the real ones on board by leveraging things like gay marriage or gender-affirming care as wedge issues, supposed "proof" of the other side's wickedness.
It is true that the United States has always had a vocal population of finger-wagging Christians. But it doesn't necessarily have to be that way. And with young people drifting away from religion in large numbers, a more inclusive approach could be the way to get some of them back. There's gotta be a reason why the last two popes, when they speak/spoke, tended to sound an awful lot like... well, Jimmy Carter.
Have a good weekend, all! (Z)