Hiding Hatred

GOP lawmaker Adam Kinzinger has just learned a lesson. Do not DARE to stand up to hatred, or you will be shunned.

Adam is a US Congressman from Illinois that has drawn the ire of his family for the horrible act of voting against hatred. Specifically, he voted to impeach Don “the moron” Trump for his role in inciting an armed insurrection against Congress this most recent January 6th. His family decided to not only shun him, they wrote a letter which was shared with the media.

Mr Kinzinger’s family told him that his actions went against “Christian principles” and Mr Trump because he had supported Democrats – or the “Devil’s army” – in condemning the attack on the Capitol.

“How can you call yourself a Christian when you joined the ‘Devil’s Army’ believing in abortion,” the relatives added. “President Trump is not perfect, but neither are you or any of us for that matter! It is not for me to judge or be judged! But he [Mr Trump] is a Christian!” (Being exceptionally judgmental while claiming others can not judge is hypocrisy, which of course is a Christian value, but also extremely ironic in this case, don’t you think?)

Does anyone remember what major world religion Joseph Biden follows? Oh, yeah. CHRISTIANITY. That’s how fucking stupid US Christians are. Donald Trump never goes to church, can’t remember a single phrase from a book he claims is “his favorite”, and can’t even hold the book right. But set against a man that goes to church every week and prays daily, apparently Trump is the true Christian? Not only is that the dumbest thing ever, it isn’t even really what’s going on.

What’s REALLY going on is that Christianity is the perfect cover for asinine and outlandish hatred. Jews, black people, Democrats, taxes, any sort of regulation at all, thinking, acting like an adult- all the stuff you really hate. If you really want to hate something, just tell everyone you are a Christian and it’s all okay!

You can’t go around just hating black people. That’s racist and bad. But if you hate black people and tell them that they don’t deserve free handouts (while overwhelmingly taking free handouts yourself), then that racism is okay. If you don’t like Democratic policies, but you are too fucking stupid to understand politics, sociology, or the role of government, then you can just hate Democrats for being lizard people that run a child pornography ring. And if you don’t like people that are different from you, and you wish to make your hatred of their differences illegal, you just lean on your Christian credentials to pass laws fucking over anyone that doesn’t think or act just like you.

The chicken or the egg here, it can be hard to tell if Christianity is to blame for the hatred, or if it just became the umbrella organization where hatred goes to feel safe. A bit of both I believe, especially dependent on which issue is being discussed. Gay rights is clearly hatred generated by Christianity. Racism more likely just what it is, but Christianity is uniquely suited to provide cover for it. Either way, the worst possible people in our country are supported by the Christian voting block. If you are an elected official and ARE actually a pedophile, you’re probably supported by the Christian right. If you use the powers of your elected office to give handouts to rich people, but sneer at the needy or disabled, you’re probably supported by the Christian right. If in every policy decision you make, the human cost is disregarded completely from your calculus, but ideology weighs heavily, you are probably supported by the Christian right. If you think knowledge is dangerous, you’re probably supported by the Christian right.

Adam Kinzinger learned that lesson, and I hope his take-away is that the Christian right is stupid and never get involved with them again. But let’s put a punctuation mark on this issue. Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania voted to convict Trump in the Senate trial. For his “sin” of doing the right thing, he has been censured by his own party. Specifically, a GOP official said ““We did not send him there to vote his conscience. We did not send him there to do ‘the right thing’ or whatever he said he was doing. We sent him there to represent us.”

Translation: Senator Toomey didn’t hate the right way.

Dear reader, this is your brain on religion. Don’t do religion. It fries your brain.

The Spartan Atheist