Rodriguez: Love Your Neighbor As Yourself
Democrats and others tend to align more with the values in the Gospels than conservatives.
Many in the U.S. have been led by churches, parties, and other organizations not in their best interests. Take the growth of White Christian Nationalism. First such a group is a contradiction in terms. Christianity, like all religions, belongs to no one nation or so-called race. And submitting to borders created for home markets by mercantilists and big corporations, and their cronies in politics, in another period and time makes no sense.
God is borderless. So is truth. So is healing. And every spiritual path that people expressed beneath their own cultural garment, for their own time and place, are valid to them.
Although I grew up Catholic and had forays into evangelical Christianity, these institutions were imposed on this land over 500 years ago. I engage in Indigenous spiritual practices honoring my roots among First Peoples of Mexico. My choice, my freedom.
Just the same, I’ve read the Gospels and Jesus never spoke out against reproductive rights or LGBTQ people or the undocumented. In the latter, these Christians attack mostly other Christians. Signs of “Mass Deportations Now” show up at Republican rallies. August marked five years since the El Paso mass shooting that targeted “Mexicans,” killing twenty-three people, including U.S. citizens.
Christians fighting Christians. Americans vs. Americans. That’s where we’re at today, and it’s only getting worse.
White Christian Nationalism is a mutation of Christ’s teachings. Yet many churches push this aberration, including among Mexican and Central American communities. The Gospels are clear. Jesus summarized all commandments into two: Love God above all else and love your neighbor as yourself. He had much to say about the rich and greedy. His acts were healing not hating, even against “sinners” or “enemies.”
Today White Christian Nationalists support Trump, a non-church going billionaire conman who married three times, had extramarital affairs, five children from different women, and felony convictions.
I’m not judging him, but I don’t have to. Some Christians, who would judge me for less, continue to back him although he was the “liar-in-chief”—more than 30,000 documented lies during his presidential term. And having gold statues of Trump or selling Bibles with U.S. founding documents to profit a campaign are un-Christian. He’s consistently broken Jesus’s commandments, but somehow, he’s the modern “savior”?
I’m not saying Democrats are saints. I’m not keen on either party, but many Democrats and others tend to align more with the values in the Gospels. This is not against Christianity. But at least follow Christ’s way—not make stuff up.
I work with Christians who agree with me. If there are to be revolutionary transformations in this country, Christians must be at the heart of it. Of course, so should Muslims, Buddhists, Jews, Indigenous spiritual practitioners, and even atheists. Our values should align with a just, encompassing, and loving country that benefits all, not just the most powerful and wealthy against the most impacted by their policies and actions.
There’s a recent documentary film called “Bad Faith.” You can find it on streaming TV. It’s worth a watch to understand the recent incarnations of White Christian Nationalism (that now include Black and brown persons). They say “God is on their side” because they can’t justify their hypocrisy except to bring in the ultimate authority.
All fabrication. All misrepresentation. Like Trump.
Luis J. Rodriguez, also known as Mixcoatl Itztlacuiloh, has 17 books in all genres. He’s cofounder of Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore and founding editor of Tia Chucha Press. From 2014-2016, he served as Los Angeles Poet Laureate.