I have often said that nothing has validated my departure from Conservative Christianity more than the rise of this one man to our nation’s highest office. It remains true to this very day because nothing has revealed to me what I was actually a part of for all of those years when I thought I was following Jesus and seeking to become like him. There is nothing like Jesus or his disciples in what I am witnessing in our highest offices here in America. There is nothing like Matthew, Mark, Luke or John. I see no reflections of Hannah, Esther or Ruth and especially the Virgin Mary in it either.

We are instead living at a time when Christ following human beings have become so insecure in their own selves that to exist they must have a man to worship in government, someone to bow down to in order to feel safe in the world. As Christians gathered in the Oval Offices yesterday uttering prayers while knowing the cameras are running and that the video will be seen by millions, we should all be weeping. Religious or not, we should. all. be. weeping. Actions like this reflect nothing of the Christianity that the followers of Jesus knew.

In my thirties I spent a lot of time studying and applying to my life lessons learned in a Christian discipleship program. It was designed around the writings of Peter and can be summed up in these verses.

Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge, ⁶ and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance, and in your perseverance, godliness, ⁷ and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. 2 Peter 5:5-7

To say that I took this curriculum seriously would be a bit of an understatement. It was my life. It permeated everything that I did.

faith

moral excellence

knowledge

self-control

perseverance

godliness

I look at this list and can only say that I am beyond grateful for the maturity that this curriculum, said to be one to work toward my personal formation of becoming like Jesus, the Christ in my own life, did for me. In the greatest twist of irony, though, it was the maturity developed by a lifelong pursuit of these things that led me away from the Evangelical church and to a life that reflects simply being a good human being. I live my faith in Christ – very different from any kind of Four Spiritual Laws version – in the shadows now. I am so done with the theatrics of Evangelical religion and really wish we all were.

I have no credentials to ask y’all this but I will anyway. If you are still in a Conservative, Christian, Evangelical in a body of believers, please for the love of all that is holy, stop worshipping the religion and its political arm especially. Stop imagining its divine destiny of prosperity and control of others belongs to you. It does not. Stop imagining that the school boards are for Christians to take over. Stop running for offices you have no idea how to carry out with integrity in any arena! The nations of the world have not been given to you to control but to love and to serve. Humble yourself and see that you really are not all that special in the grand scheme of things – that is narcissism 101 and that is not for the followers of God. You are simply one human among billions!! Return to your self. Return to your God in the secret of your own prayer closet and listen. Leave this toxic place and go home. Grow up. Assert yourself to reclaim your life because if you do not, if we do not, we are all going to lose it for us and for our children.

The Bible calls this repentance. It is way past time for it to take us over.