“Absalom said moreover, ‘Oh that I were judge in the land! Then every man with a suit or cause might come to me, and I would give him justice.’”
This past Friday morning, while waiting on my hair to air dry, I found myself carrying out the dreary, self-imposed task of reading the comments section of the New York Times’ recent profile on U.S. Sen. Katie Britt.
Responding to the profile’s emphasis on Britt’s Christian faith – including her practice of opening her self-annotated childhood Bible every day before 5 a.m. – I was struck by how many of the Times’ readers were so quick to use their own interpretation of the Bible as a weapon to usurp any claim to moral authority from Britt and the GOP.
“MAGA reads a very different Bible from the one I grew up with,” wrote one commenter. “Even Katie Britt doesn't seem to read the same one, or she couldn't possibly support Republican policies that punish the least of these and throw out the stranger. They all really lost the Christian plot long ago.”
“You either believe in the principles of the Bible that you study and quote or not,” another wrote. “I pray that you start to stand unequivocally for what is right.”
“I am so tired of people on the right co-opting Christianity with their cross necklaces,” said another.
Yet, what struck me more than the left’s cocksure use of Christianity to tear down Britt’s Christianity was how familiar the comments were to things I have heard for years (and perhaps said myself) in the right-wing echo chamber I have long called home.
Indeed, change the direction of the accusation and the political issues at hand, and the Times’ comments are functionally indistinguishable from many right-wing rebukes of the left’s claim to any Christian moral authority.
“The Left reads a very different Bible than the one I grew up with,” a conservative Christian might say.
“A Christian couldn’t possibly support Democrat policies that have allowed for, and even encouraged, the slaughter of millions of children in the womb while throwing out thousands of years of tradition in regard to marriage, sexual sin, and the structure of the family,” another might add.
“They all really lost the Christian plot long ago. You either believe in the principles of the Bible that you study and quote or not. I’m so tired of progressives co-opting Christianity with their reductive, socialist WWJD bracelet-wrapped brains," says another.
Indeed, both sides of the political aisle in America are as swift to claim the mantle of Christian moral authority as they are to strip their political opposition of any righteous claim to Christianity.
Most Americans still claim to be Christian (especially those in political office), yet most American Christians seem to have trouble agreeing upon what Christianity actually entails practically and politically, let alone theologically.
This phenomenon suggests two paths for this Christian nation – one hopeful, the other bleak.
On the hopeful side of the ledger, perhaps accepting Christianity as the bedrock of America’s moral authority is a welcome return to first principles and deep roots untouched by human hands. Perhaps, the more that Americans earnestly turn to the Bible every day before 5 a.m. to find answers for their troubles and just causes, the more likely some newly emergent Christian national consensus will bear the blessings of good fruit – a harvest of plenty conceived in God’s gift of liberty.
Yet, on the bleak side of the ledger, perhaps the use of the Bible to selectively skewer the sins of opposing political causes (but never one’s own) suggests the spirit of Absalom is alive and well in the politics of Christian America. Perhaps, Absalom is conspiring at the gates, listening and whispering to any who have reason to hear – all while trying to steal the hearts of Americans for personal ambition and resentment’s sake – a divine curse fulfilled brought upon by the sins of the father.
“If only our interpretation of Christianity was the judge over all the land,” the American Absalom might say, “Then every man with a grievance might come to us to find justice!”
I do not pretend to know which path Americans will take (or which road we may already tread.) It is one thing for Christians to have honest disagreements and debates over Scripture and theology, privately and publicly. Such dialogue has existed since the founding of the Church.
But woe to the nation that falls under the yoke of those who wield the Bible – not to teach men to observe and obey all that Christ Jesus commands – but as a weapon of shameless self-promotion to usurp authority and power simply for authority and power’s sake.
If we Americans, left or right, only ever use the Word to tear down sinners so that we may be lifted up like dirty rags in our own pride and glory, then just like Absalom, we should expect to be caught up by our own hair and left out to dry.
Joey Clark is a native Alabamian and is currently the host of the radio program News and Views on News Talk 93.1 FM WACV out of Montgomery, AL, M-F 12 p.m. - 3 p.m. His column appears every Tuesday in 1819 News. To contact Joey for media or speaking appearances, as well as any feedback, please email [email protected]. Follow him on X @TheJoeyClark or watch the radio show livestream.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News. To comment, please send an email with your name and contact information to [email protected].
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