The Problem is not Religion, the Problem is Power

I have many atheists among my friends and family. Disproportionately so because according to recent Pew Research Center findings, 83% of Americans believe in a higher power. That’s not too surprising as my friends and family tend to be artists, musicians and creatives in one way or another who see it as a part of their calling to question norms, explore diverse perspectives and otherwise subvert convention. There is a healthy overlap where many of them also nurture scientific and mathematical minds so there is a creative blend of critical thinking, skepticism and authenticity that tends to make many of my friends seek meaning and grapple with existential themes outside of traditional places.

A fairly common theme from these beloved atheists is that religion of any sort is problematic. Not necessarily because of individual belief – I sometimes get the, “you’re one of the good Christians,” line. It’s more that they see how religion is so frequently misused to justify harm and perpetuate privilege and power. It doesn’t take an anthropologist to understand how many religious leaders have used religion to control entire populations, suppress dissent in many forms and make excuses for inequality. The history of Christianity is literally soaked in blood.

I sympathize with these critiques. I’m frequently horrorstruck by the many ways American society abandons critical thinking and authenticity. But blaming religion for these abuses makes about as much sense to me as blaming a pickle fork for murder. Sure, you could kill someone with a pickle fork instead of using it to rehome condiments, but it’s an abuse not an intended use. Like a pickle fork, Christianity has some clear intents as well. We call those intents justice, mercy, humility, liberation and salvation and for 2,000 years we’ve been arguing and changing the meaning of those words. Elites have co-opted scripture and Jesus’ gospel to gatekeep authority.

Divine Right

One of the most disgusting misuses of religion and scripture to uphold power structures is the concept of Divine Right starting in medieval and early modern Europe. A frequent text cited by kings, politicians and other elites is from Romans 13 which begins, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God.” Clearly, Paul intended to make political accountability impossible and insist that our institutions are untouchable and shielded from critique and reform. Setting aside of course that Jesus was murdered by the politically powerful with the words, “King of the Jews,” pinned to his cross.

Lest you think grabbing Romans 13 out of context is something only medieval kings did, it’s striking how frequently it is used in modern American politics. Naturally, it is almost exclusively used by the right wing because many on the left want to keep church and state separate, may be nonreligious themselves or have the critical reasoning skills needed to understand that Romans is a long letter that needs to be understood in its entirety and its context. So some MAGA types seem to pop up every day in one of my social feeds claiming that Romans 13 shows that the Trump administration is divinely ordained. I’ve heard some of them say that the very act of protest is sinful. Afterall, the early Christian martyrs went to death for protesting rather than attack the government. To which I would say, “yes, exactly.” I mean, how and what exactly were they protesting when they were put to death if not publicly and against a tyrannical empire. Sounds like Alex Pretti to me.

The hypocrisy at this point is so obvious it should come with its own laugh track. The same people giving Trump his Divine Right were also challenging the presidential authority of Obama and Biden. Selective reading isn’t genuine faith, it is using religion as a tool for power. It is a bloody pickle fork. Some Germans used Romans 13 to prop up Hitler, too, so these MAGA types are not in great company.

Colonialism

Just as you can unjustly use religion to support governments, you can use them to justify colonization. We have many examples to choose from in history where Christians have done their worst to try to erase indigenous people. Our own nation was formed through territorial conquest and economic, political and cultural dominance, none of which seems very Christlike despite being frequently couched in missionary language. People in power misuse religion to frame colonial interventions and atrocities as a kind of moral duty. That has nothing to do with Christianity itself.

Today, we’re perhaps more sensitive to obvious colonial ambition, but that doesn’t stop us from exerting American influence anywhere we choose. Policies toward Venezuela are wrapped in the costume of freedom and human rights, but really seem to have more to do with access to resources and geopolitical control. In the past we might have outright claimed we were spreading the gospel when in fact, we were murdering and plundering. Today we destabilize economies and reshape the entire world order just as much for coercion and control, but marketed as free capitalism and democracy. Our culture and politics have been wrapped in our religious ideas for so long that the spread of our culture is just seen as the norm by many conservative Christians.

Nothing about this is normal for Jesus followers.

Slavery

What we’re living through today is terrible, yet few chapters in your history book show the abuse of religious authority more than slavery in the United States. Slaveholders joined with proslavery clergy to twist scripture into a defense of slavery. Unfortunately, it’s quite easy to find justification for slavery in the Bible because the Bible condones it. And it’s not just the old Hebrew Scriptures. It’s the barely less old New Testament as well. Ephesians 6:5 begins, “Slaves, obey your earthly masters…” How fun.

For centuries, bad people used religion to build a wall around the ideas of emancipation. Our very history came from a world where Christianity was weaponized against justice and liberation. It’s no wonder so many southern Christians are surprised that the Bible commands us toward social justice, equality and toward the identification with and protection of marginalized groups.

I’ve argued elsewhere in this chattering dispatch I call my blog that in order to be against slavery, you need to extend the example of Christ beyond the Bible. It is our privilege as followers of Christ to improve on the Bible in this way. The Bible reflects the realities of an ancient culture that is completely foreign to our own. So we get to decide what it means to love God and love neighbor while upholding racial equality, fighting for LGBTQ+ rights, and argue against stoning each other to death for doing the wrong thing on Saturdays.

As society and our own knowledge progresses, so does our understanding of scripture and morality. We’re not quite done with all the morons, as the pastor of an evangelical church with ties to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth once claimed slavery promoted “affection between the races” in the South. If that fact alone doesn’t make you change your voting registration from Republican to independent I cannot help you in your journey. Stop reading here and go back to your Ayn Rand. But most of us have joined in the church’s journey away from biblically-sanctioned slavery. It’s a terrific example of how Jesus followers get to reinterpret our faith and our consciences in an ever-evolving world.

The Cold War

Was Jesus a communist? No. But I only say that because the concept of communism is far more recent than the life of Jesus. Still, early Christians practiced communal living, shared their possessions and redistributed wealth. Jesus urged us toward this kind of communal life. Jesus demonstrated radical generosity and total lack of fear about scarcity. Jesus was as anti-wealth as you can get.

During the cold war of the mid-twentieth century, many Christians stood against communism in all forms in favor of American political power. It was an era much like today where American nationalism was the real religion and Christians corrupted the old faith of Jesus to fit nicely into an anti-communist box. I barely lived through the cold war era, but I lived through a parallel time after 9/11 where critics of the military or advocates of peace were branded as heretics. I mean, how could I stand up and say that Islam is a peaceful religion despite some nasty verses in the Qur’an? Well, pick up your own Bible because we’re just as nasty my folx.

This mingling of faith and nationalism was planned and intentional. The nation wanted Christians to sideline protest, antiwar movements, civil rights campaigns and calls for equity and inclusion. Religion was manipulated once again to serve power.

Let’s be clear that living as a Jesus follower is always more complex than the political argument makes it seem. If you oppose communism because you believe in the right to private property and freedom, I’m right there with you and I think that is Biblical. But that doesn’t mean I can’t also believe that healthcare, children’s nutrition, education and basic universal income are in line with Christianity. If you want to tell me that the Bible says the family is the basic economic unit and not the state, you got me. In fact, that’s a great reason to support gay marriage and families. If you want to tell me that Jesus would fight against coercive regimes and so we need to work against authoritarians like Putin, Trump and Maduro, we may agree more than you think. I just believe there are ways to go about it where fewer lives are lost and we don’t become the new coercers.

A Familiar Pattern

I could go on about how people twist Christianity into forms of bias, racism, nationalism, and even the perverse prosperity gospel. It’s not the work of religion to support evil, it is the work of evil people to corrupt religion to serve their power.

Fortunately, those in power follow a somewhat predictable path to debauch religion. Many times when quoting scripture, conservatives do it without much context or study. They favor selective readings because you can pull many clobber passages out on their own to support all kinds of bizarre things. There are various genocidal commands in the Bible. What these authoritarians don’t do is study the whole of scripture because they would see the prophetic arc toward loves, justice and humility.

They often make a reframing move where they don’t start with love, they start with structures and policies and then try to redefine them as a matter of Christian values. Start with love of God and neighbor and see where it leads you in your politics, don’t start with your politics and see if you can pull some random verses out to support your ideas. This reframing continues to grow in scope. Once they get some followers to twist simple ideas of power into faith, they do so with entire churches and denominations and even an entire national identity.

So many people have simply written off our faith because of the harm done in its name. I know it’s uncomfortable, but the only way to fight this off is to have real conversations about what it means to live out love and to live as a citizen of God’s kingdom, not the United States. Let the United States become a tool for faith, not the other way around. Fight power in all forms because it is so corrupting. Fight for economic equality and justice because your real citizenship in God’s kingdom demands it. Fight for lives regardless of where they came from. There are a lot of things I value in my own life, but I always ask myself if I value them because they are a natural extension of my faith and of Jesus’ teachings or do I value them for the wrong reasons. Am I upholding systems of dominance that protect my own interests or am I first willing to seek justice, compassion and salvation right here and now before I make up my mind about right and wrong?