Monday, June 18, 2018

Conservative evangelical groups & leaders care more about their fantasies than immigrant children


Evangelicals like Tony Perkins (top) & Franklin Graham (bottom) could do more to help the immigrant children the Trump Administration snatched from their parents. But they probably won't.

Religious groups and evangelical public figures have taken time out of their busy schedules of dehumanizing transgender people and spinning religious liberty panics in order to weigh in on who they feel is the real victim during this awful crisis of the Trump Administration's seizing of immigrant children from their parents

Donald Trump.

By either blaming the so-called liberal media, telling lies about "progressives" and "open borders," claiming that these children are in better circumstances, or even blaming the parents, groups like the Family Research Council and the American Family Association, and people like Franklin Graham are clearly showing where their loyalties and values lie.

And all of them give off the same inference - "it's terrible, it's a shame, but let's pray for a solution because that's all we can do." These are the same groups and people who orchestrated national panics on the so-called idea of "religious liberty" which made it to the Supreme Court. The same folks who initiated a huge boycott of Target over the lie that men were invading women's bathrooms and got over one million signatures for a petition about it in hardly any time at all.

Franklin Graham has been known to issue Facebook statements on current issues and within a day, he would have over 100,00 comments from mostly cloying followers either echoing his sentiments or praising him.

You cannot tell me that these groups and people can't do anything about this issue. It's simply that they don't care. Just like they didn't care about Trump's language, his less than Christian behavior, the fact that he has on more than one occasion cheated on his wife, his basic incompetence  etc etc. They don't care about what psychological damage  Trump's policy will do to those little brown boys and girls or their families. They don't care how many future terrorists Trump may be creating. Their weak tea statements and defiant lies were less about the children and more about keeping themselves in Trump's good graces, while simultaneously tricking the rest of us into believing  that they are actually concerned for those families and their children.They only care about access, being invited to White House meetings, being allowed to put their imprint on national policy, and thus being able to craft the country in the image of their version of Christianity, which we are now seeing has nothing to do with humility, or love, or basic decency.

Their version of Christianity  is about drilling into our heads the lie that  they are God's anointed, His elite and this country was made for them with the rest of us only being able to exist at their pleasure.   They use religion as a weapon a bouncer uses to control crowds They have taken the message of Jesus that you should pick up your cross and follow Him and bastardized it into an obscene dominionist wet dream which has falsely conflates being conservative, evangelical and white to being a Christian and the goodness in your soul  having more to do with how much money and influence you have and how you can manipulate Scripture to justify your world view.

Those who know me and this blog know that I despise the religious right simply because of the decades they have spent spreading propaganda and lies about the LGBTQ community. But even I have at times fallen under the same illusion that I have accused society of having when it comes to them.

Sometimes I unfortunately do think of them as religious leaders. That being the case, I get shocked when they show their hypocrisy. I expect them to do better, to be better.

But they can't and they won't because they are mere illusionists. They pretend to embody the qualities we expect from those who claim they work for a holier and higher power. But the power these so-called religious leaders care about doesn't come from God. It comes from cynical manipulation of fears and egos. They have no time to do any actual good works, such as remotely caring for the immigrant children Trump is victimizing.

Former First Lady Michelle Obama once said "being president doesn't change who you are, it reveals who you are."

Apparently that statement also goes for those who seeking influence with the president. We see who the Family Research Council, Franklin Graham, and the rest of that bunch are.  I hope we never forget it, especially the next time one of them starts talking about morals and values.

2 comments:

  1. If you don't want to be separated from your kids when you illegally enter the USA, don't illegally enter the USA.

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  2. Two things:

    1. Regardless, of anyone entering this country illegally or not, we do not separate children from their parents. It does not work as a deterrent. It is a cruel policy created to satisfy the xenophobic ignorance of some people who choose to blame others for their own inadequacies. In this case, that just happens to be immigrants, the majority of whom are merely looking for a better life and opportunity.

    2. Which brings me to point number two. A lot of folks are seeking asylum from threats and violence in their own countries. They are not crossing over illegally. They are looking to us for help. We have no right to treat them shabbily. Please bear in mind that nothing I said has anything to do with "open borders," or whatever the right wing talking points may be. This is about common decency.

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