I’m a Christian who supports Kamala Harris
What happened last week is devastating for women, LGBTQ+ individuals, immigrants, and many other people not only in the USA but also in the whole world.
But there’s nothing we can do about this- the votes have been counted, and Trump has won fair and square. That begs the question: Why did Trump win? Are Americans really… dumb?
I’ll be doing a series of deep dives into a phenomenon known as the Trump Effect- better known as Trumpism. Today, we’ll be talking about the elephant in the room- religion.
What we all know: MAGA is a cult
I’m sure everyone who isn’t part of the cult will agree that MAGA is a cult, so I’m not going to get too deep into this. (Also, this isn’t the main point of this essay. I promise I’ll get to it.) If you’re interested on this though, here’s someg.
According to the Oxford language dictionary, a cult is a “system of religious veneration and devotion directed towards a particular figure or object”.
The principle of MAGA is utter devotion to one man: Donald Trump. People who vote for Trump are not voting for his policies- they’re voting for Trump, the supreme leader of MAGA.
The reason why I say this is because since the start of Trump’s campaign in 2016, he hasn’t made any coherent organised policies. He said he will raise taxes on the rich, then cut their taxes. He planned to start a national healthcare system, then went against it. He makes false promises after false promises after false promises, yet people are oblivious to it. Instead, they continue to buy into all the promises he makes.
Why?
Because they’ve been sucked into his cult. These people worship Trump as a god. They treat Trump as some sort of an omnipotent being. They believe he knows everything and that all he does is for the greater good. A failed policy? We just can’t see the full picture. A contradiction? It’s just beyond our comprehension. Mass suffering? It’s just a test.
And the fact that MAGA is a cult is the reason why America is so divided right now. Not one discussion can be made between the two parties because one of which is a literal cult. America is no longer the Republicans versus the Democrats- it’s the brainwashed versus the logical. If you want to see this in action, just watch a Jubilee video.
Christianity and Modern Conservatism
Most Christians or- shall I say- self-proclaimed Christians are conservative. Conservatism somehow perfectly aligns with Christianity. From removing LGBTQ+ rights to being anti-abortion, Christians and conservatives agree on lots of issues.
And can we see the similarities between the two? Both have been written (or more so translated- more on that later) centuries ago, when ideas were very behind and sexism and discrimination were rampant.
But… the Bible says so!
One argument that these Christians often make to excuse their bigotry is that the Bible condemns LGBTQ+ people.
That is a blatant untruth.
First of all, the Bible isn’t even inherently sexist and anti-LGBTQ+. We have to remember that the Bible was translated centuries and centuries ago, when culture was deeply rooted in bigotry, sexism and discrimination. As a result, translators often left a trail of their own opinions when translating the Bible, twisting the Bible to fit their beliefs. Normal people back then didn’t know that, so they believed in those lies. Nowadays, we have scholars that study the Bible who have pointed out the inaccuracies in the translations of the Bible. You would think Christians today, in the age of infinite access to knowledge, will want to learn the true Bible, right? But no, those who believe in the very religion that emphasises change- turning away from fleshy desires- are those who disregard truth for tradition, time and time again. They, in fact, are those whose hearts are made of stone.
Leviticus 18:22
You shall not lie with a male as with a woman, it is an abomination.
I’m sure everyone has heard of this verse at least once. It’s a condemnation of homosexuality. Homosexuality is an abomination… right?
Wrong.
It has been proven time and time again that this verse is more accurately translated to “you shall not lie with a boy as with a woman”. Instead of condemning homosexuality, it’s condemning child predation- specifically that of the same sex. If you want to learn more about the etymology of this, read .
And besides, even if this verse wasn’t mistranslated, the problem doesn’t lie with homosexuality, but rather the act of same-sex intercourse. More still, it does not mean that Christians should be attacking those who choose to be gay- God has given us free will and we should not stop others from exercising it.
Yet, as I said, “Real Christians” refuse to accept this because they refuse to change the ideologies they’ve believed in for so long.
This verse, the one of the biggest reasons of the division between Christians and atheists, can be boiled down to a grand mistranslation… and the lack of desire to learn.
And the most ironic part about this, I think, is the fact that so many church leaders are child predators. It makes so much sense that the very people God condemns in this verse are those twisting the Bible into an excuse to spread hatred and bigotry. The very verse that attempts to protect children- the vulnerable- is instead used to deny the existence of the marginalised- also the vulnerable. It’s so ironic that I think maybe God knew this was coming all along.
It saddens me that the very Christians who consider themselves “true Christians” demonstrate even more un-Christian-like behaviour than atheists who don’t even believe in God. How are we supposed to grow Christianity, to save as many people as possible, when the loudest voices hatefully turn the curious, the searching, the desiring away from Jesus Christ, the God of Love?
But this isn’t even what the Bible is about
The main message of the Bible is love. Both the Old Testament and the New Testament place great emphasis on the love of God. One of the core beliefs on Christianity is life after death. To get to heaven, you simply have to love God and love your neighbors.
“Real Christians” reduce this great core message into just one cliché sentence- Jesus loves you. They then proceed to put all their focus into the Old Testament, most laws of which they don’t even follow anymore, and find as many verses as they can to attack those different from them. They take niche quotes out of context to support the bigotry so deeply rooted in their heads. And then, they portray those one or two messages that only appear once- 0.00001% of the Bible- as the core of Christianity. Funnily enough, at the same time, they fail to follow the actual core teachings of the Bible.
Will these Christians get to heaven? I suppose only God knows. What I know, though, is that they’re gatekeeping Christianity, turning it into a community that only straight white people can join, and therefore discouraging other people from hearing the good news.
Food for thought
I’ll close this section with what Jesus said in the parable of the sheep and the goat.
“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” — Matthew 25:40
It’s crazy, it really is, that self-proclaimed Christians, those supposed to be part of the religion of love, preach the niche (and mistranslated) laws of the Old Testament while spreading hatred and violence towards the marginalised- the lesser.
Free Palestine
The Israel-Palestinian war is a huge cause of discussion not just in this election, but also in American politics in general.
Trump is famously close friends with Netanyahu, the man behind the atrocities committed in Palestine, so naturally, people in MAGA also support Israel.
Christians include another argument: the Israelites are simply “taking back their holy land”, right?
Wrong.
I’m not even going to discuss whether Christians own the Palestinian area. Let’s just use a sliver of common sense. Thousands of women and children are killed every day in Gaza. Is this what Jesus stood for? Did Jesus stand for violence? The murder of the innocent? Is this our loving God’s grand plan to take back His holy land?
So many people see the Israel-Palestinian war as the battle between the Christians and the Muslims. It’s not. It’s, quite literally, the battle between the oppressors and the oppressed.
Again, I’m not going to go in detail with this-
To keep it simple, Israel has constantly been attacking Palestine in the form of air strikes for the last decade. On 7th October 2023, Hamas retaliated, killing over 1,000 people and taking 251 others under hostage. I won’t excuse Hamas’ actions as it is a terrorist group, and attacking innocent civilians is never right. However, that does not give Israel the excuse to wage a whole war on Palestine, brutally targeting hospitals and universities in the Gaza Strip. This so-called “retaliation” is completely disproportionate and unjust, especially when what Hamas did was a response to Israel’s previous attacks.
What Israel is doing in Gaza now is not retaliation; it’s ridiculous. It is absolutely unacceptable that anyone with a moral compass, especially supposedly peace-loving Christians are supporting Israel’s massacre of innocent men, women and children.
The irony of Christians in MAGA
It’s weird, isn’t it? How self-proclaimed Christians are in MAGA, a cult. If you want to be in multiple religions, at least choose similar ones. Christianity is literally the furthest away you can get from MAGA, and yet we see MAGA Christians everywhere. Which religion are they a part of?
Well, obviously, MAGA Christians aren’t Christians. They’re idiots poorly disguised as Christians.
But can we blame them, though?
Oftentimes, we blame cult followers for falling for absolute nonsense. But usually, it is not that simple. There could be a variety of reasons why someone falls into the lies of a cult. This could include upbringing, ignorance and even the desire for hope in a broken world, among many others. Unfortunately, we are often unable to dictate our own lives.
And it’s difficult, it really is, to open the eyes of not just one person, but millions of people, especially when their hearts are made of stone.
But we have to try our best, we really do. There’s not really much choice, and who knows? Maybe our voices will work. Getting just one person away from this cult is, in fact, a massive step ahead.
There’s nothing we could do- or is there?
I would’ve voted for Kamala Harris if I could’ve- and I’m sure lots of you share the same sentient. It’s not fair that I don’t get a say in choosing a leader that will affect my country.
I’ve seen so many Christians getting attacked by other “Christians” for voting blue, and it’s so frustrating that there’s seemingly nothing we could do about it.
Is hope gone though? Looking at the bright side, the results of those election means that Trump will only be in power for 4 more years. Policies generally take a long time to start affecting the people, so hopefully there wouldn’t be massive changes in our lives.
However, it cannot be guaranteed that there isn’t a successor of Trump in the works- after all, the world is filled with evil beasts. Time and time again, the ants will look up and smile as the beasts stomp on them. History will repeat itself, again and again and again…
For now, I urge you all to use your voices to fight for justice, to fight for the lives of the marginalised. We are the next generation, and if we manage to fight that brainwashing cult, we can give both ourselves and our future generations a chance for better lives. This fight is not only for ourselves, but also for our sons and daughters and grandchildren and great grandchildren that will live here for generations and generations to come.
