I have been thinking a lot lately about the reality of our times as we come upon America’s 250 birthday. The state of our Nation’s Capital with the White House’s West wing under construction. Its destruction done without approval, its replacement ballroom without input from the American people, and its costs paid for with money taken from the American treasury by the Trump administration against the will of the people. Lie after lie, promise after promise broken, but America, now so accustomed to the reality of living life under the control of a gaslighting malignant narcissist, just moves on. It is especially egregious that elected Republican Evangelicals are the most duped of all.

Schooled by Bill Gothard, David Barton, Gary Bauer and a host of others for decades, they have completely lost the ability to inhabit their own skin and think for themselves. They have no idea how to discern truth from lies at this point. If I had a dollar for every time Mike Johnson has repeated a lie engraved on his soul from one of the Evangelical heavies and presented it as the one and only truth, I would be a rich woman by now. I have yet to hear him utter one original thought.

Claiming to be wise, they became fools. Romans 1:22

Evangelical Republicans, like Speaker Johnson, Ted Cruz, Kristi Noem and a plethora of others, most especially our POTUS, are showing us in real time what it actually means to be those who have been given over to a depraved mind. I know that’s harsh. It is simply the truth though. Steeped in this ideology for 30 years and told with absolute certainty that those with depraved minds existed only among liberals, I know it well. As I have de-constructed my entire worldview and Christian faith, I cannot shake the layers of memorized Bible passages and the thinking behind a worldview I no longer adhere to. I’m focused now on being a good human being without all of this baggage but have to deal with it because it’s now in the highest seat of political power in this country. I was told for decades that liberals were the depraved among us and the reason that the wrath of God was being poured out on mankind. I am certain I told others the same. Thus the reason I return to this language. It is the language of this present day Christian Nationalist movement. At this point in time, I have come to the conclusion that the judgment the Evangelical church at large has employed upon those outside their worldview has now come back to haunt them. Sadly, it’s haunting all of us but it is especially so as we witness the reality of what is happening across the country as a result of their theological perspective married to American politics. Read with me the following verses from Romans 1.

¹⁸ For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth ^[m]in unrighteousness, ¹⁹ because that which is known about God is evident ^[n]within them; for God made it evident to them. ²⁰ For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, being understood by what has been made, so that they are without excuse. ²¹ For even though they knew God, they did not ^[o]honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their reasonings, and their senseless hearts were darkened. ²² Claiming to be wise, they became fools, ²³ and they exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible mankind, of birds, four-footed animals, and ^[p]crawling creatures.

If you are an Evangelical Christian and you believe this to be true, wouldn’t you live your life with a sense of awe and a continual awareness of your own smallness in the whole scheme of things? If you also are of the belief that this eternal power and divine nature is evident by what has been made – the earth itself, human beings etc., wouldn’t you want to cultivate a deeper awareness of this evidence that God exists in the natural world and in relationships with humanity at large? I would. I do.

I know this sounds harsh but in all honesty, where have the people of faith actually gone? I am sure they are out there and I know that good other centered ministry abounds all over the country, but what we are seeing in our political life coming out of DC is just the most base and depraved version of human existence we have ever seen. This political movement is a movement of people who are not in love with a God of invisible attributes, eternal power and divine nature…clearly perceived in the stillness of one’s personal reflection. They are instead a people who acknowledge God/Jesus with words but live lives that are entirely disconnected with the essence of life itself. The verbal reference to God is not a heart awareness of a God as Paul understood in these ancient scriptures. It’s empty and void of reality. So focused on the liberal Democrat socialists yada, yada, yada, they are just mean. I do not experience them as people who are grateful for life itself as much as their own perspective of life as they define it. As for rational thinking? It is the most shallow cabal of supposed intellects that this Republic has ever witnessed. Professing to be wise, they are fools just living to keep a psychopath on the throne.

Our nation is being led by immature, ignorant and amoral people. It is that simple. Their focus on transexuals, on feminists and other people they love to blame for America’s ills seems to be just a way to keep them from the mirror. The moral rot of our country that Franklin Graham is always warning us about is in his own house.

At present the Southern Baptist Convention sits on an independent study of the sexual abuse crisis within its denomination. The leaders are doing nothing about it. This video For Our Daughters by Kristen Kobes Du Mez is a must watch if you care about this. It should have gone viral among Evangelicals but they simply do not want to face this reality. Why would they when daily the Commander in Chief of the nation is himself a serial sexual abuser and they refuse to acknowledge that. Please, tell me again where depravity really exists in America.

When I was in thick of things with the Evangelicals, the word repentance was a common one used in our way of life. It meant to acknowledge one’s missing of the mark (sin) and a volitional choice to turn directions. It is way past time for the Evangelical Republicans in America to stop blaming the others for the condition of the world and to do some serious soul searching. It is clear that the very people they have judged for so long are not the problem.