Trump Supporting Christian, Where The Hell Is Your Rage?

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(Cover Photo: Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

I really want to know.

You say you love Jesus, trust the Bible, and faith is the most important thing in your life.

You want me to believe that you are in divine harmony with the heart of God and aspire nothing less than to reflect Him throughout every area of your living.

You tenaciously use the Bible and its verses to give justification and foundation for your every move, belief, and desire.

The bumper stickers, coffee table books, memes on Facebook, and the pictures covering your walls, all seem to point to one who is most certainly, “sold out” for Jesus.

Surely, you are familiar with the clear communication of the Bible as to God’s special love and value of children.

Surely, you are equally in tune with the many verses that demand our unconditional hospitality and sacrificial service to foreigners, immigrants, and the like.

Surely, you are not ignorant of the resounding biblical denouncement of leadership characterized by greed, lust, dishonesty, bullying, and self-centeredness.

Surely, you are more than familiar with the nonviolent example of Jesus and His willingness to confront religious oppression and stand in solidarity with the least of these, especially those who are deemed, “sinners.”

So, with all due respect, as surely as all of this is at the forefront of your faith, I surely want to know…

Where the hell is your rage?

You’re not blind, you’re not ignorant, and you’re not incapable of discernment. No, in fact, you are fully accountable and fully responsible. Every week, you see President Trump display clear and blatant traits that are not only grossly unbecoming of basic moral leadership, but nothing even close to that of a Christian—much the opposite.

Where is your rage?

You certainly aren’t afraid to name the names of those you believe to be errant and sinning against your Creator. Sermon after sermon, article after article, interview after interview, all point specifically to those you believe to be living counter to the ways of God with stern warnings against admiring or supporting them. Yet, when has President Trump ever been a subject on that list?

I ask you, where is your rage?

You have eyes to see innocent children being tear-gassed at our borders through the calculated permission of President Trump and his administration. You hear the broad labeling of human beings seeking asylum as “gangsters,” “rapists,” “criminals,” and “animals.”

With your clothes still freshly smelling with the scent of the church pew from which you raised your hands in praise of the immigrant Jesus, how could this ever become justifiable for you? How many “last straws” does it take to finally draw out any humaneness that might somehow still remain in your faith?

For Christ’s sake, where is your rage?

Why aren’t you frantically loading up your church vans, setting up youth bake sales, and leveraging every “mission” dollar you can commandeer to get your “sold out” self to that border and defend the most vulnerable? I mean, you don’t seem to have any problem sending them shoeboxes at Christmas when they’re miles away and no real threat to your privilege or the cleanliness of your sanctuary carpeting. But all of a sudden, when they show up at your Inn, spraying them with toxic chemicals becomes your best idea?

Why aren’t you demanding that Trump and his administration stop condemning and marginalizing those whom Christ demands we give special aid, service, and sanctuary?

No, don’t even take one step towards trying to convince me that you don’t like it nor support it, all while you refuse to engage your voice with shouts in fierce defiance. I’m not buying it one bit.

In fact, I’m going to ask you again, where the hell is your rage?

Show me.

You say you want America to be filled with Jesus, but seem to have no problem with policies that keep the poor at arms length. You say you want America to be filled with Jesus, but seem to have no problem with a president who desperately wants to keep minorities and immigrants from threatening white power and privilege. You say you want America to be filled with Jesus, but support a president who wants to erase those you deem to be deplorable, just because, in your mind, they sin differently than you.

Do you not see the duplicity into which you have been deceived?

For heaven’s sake, where is your rage?

You see the very people Jesus died for, being crucified. You see the very children Jesus drew up into his arms and sat upon his lap, being denied, denounced, deported, and demonized. You see the very people Jesus bent over backwards to feed, being starved and left to hunger. You see the very people Jesus baptized in Grace, being soaked with chemicals. You see the very people Jesus wrote with divine penmanship into the fabric of all creation, being condemned, marginalized, abused, and erased. You see the ways of Jesus being nothing less than stomped upon, twisted, and raped by the people who claim to know Him best.

And yet, at most, your lips can only muster a whisper, but largely, remain oh so eerily silent.

And so, I ask you.

Holy crap, where the hell is your rage?   

Sadly, I think I know.  

It’s buried deep underneath your white, male, heterosexual, conservative Christian privilege—the true god of your worship.

That’s why he’s president. That’s why you support. That’s why you fashion the hat. That’s why you rationalize. That’s why you entertain darkness as Light. That’s why you’re numb and refuse to engage. That’s why there is no rage.

And, that’s why Jesus weeps and vomits out your tepid faith.  

For hear me and countless others, and hear us well.

Until we see your rage, we only see your evil idolatry of self.

As we all wonder, along with Jesus, perhaps, that’s all there is.

 

Grace is brave. Be brave

 

Check out Chris Kratzer’s new book getting rave reviews, Leatherbound Terrorism…

There is no greater evil being wielded upon the planet than Conservative Evangelicalism, and Chris Kratzer’s life and ministry journey are undeniable proof. In Leatherbound Terrorism, Chris tells of his 21 years as a conservative Evangelical pastor and the radical change of heart and mind that led him to walk away from it all. With a new sense of faith centered on Jesus and His pure Gospel of Grace, in Leatherbound Terrorism, Chris chases the evils of conservative Evangelicalism out of the shadows and gives powerful voice to the cries of the religiously oppressed. Confronting issues like racism, sexism, homophobia, religious greed, hypocrisy, nationalism, white supremacy, privilege, and the weaponizing of the Bible, Leatherbound Terrorism pulls no punches. Endorsed by best selling authors Steve McVey and Baxter Kruger, Leatherbound Terrorism will challenge you, inspire you, and most certainly cause you to rethink your faith and life.

27 Comments

  1. Bobbie Jo Justice

    They don’t care.

    WWJD in gop neocon means: who would jesus destroy.

    Republicans imagine a jesus who is the white supremacist, bigoted, racist, armed to the teeth, nazi-loving jesus.

    • ckratzer

      Bobbie Jo, sadly, true story.

  2. Christopher Adams

    Thank you Chris for saying what needs to be said and pushing me to be a better follower of Christ.

    • ckratzer

      Thanks Chris, likewise!

  3. GeoX

    Righteous.

  4. Marian

    My rage is for the parents who drug their children in the march as human shields. My rage is for the rock throwing participants in this march attacking our border officers. My rage is for the criminals participating in this march. My rage is for those who invade our country illegally. My rage is for those who are unwilling to ask for legal asylum. My rage is for people like Kratzer who thinks Christians only care for other Christians. My rage is for those who think the obligation of the US is to take care of these people before we take care of the victims of the California fires, the victims of hurricanes on our shores, the flooding of farmers who produce our food and most of all my rage is for the failure to care for US veterans needs first.

    • ckratzer

      Marian, I have no words but to actually thank you for reminding me as to why I write and showing me what evil truly looks like when put into words.

    • Bobbie Jo Justice

      Marian,

      MY rage is seeing taxpayer money being wasted so an orange billionaire can use air force one as the world’s most expensive golf cart.

      Since you pretend to be “so concerned” about veterans, then I will say: VETERANS BEFORE GOLF-PLAYING BILLIONAIRES.

      MY rage is watching trump stomping all over LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL.

      MY rage is seeing the republican christian version of isis going out of their way to harass, bully, marginalize, and murder minorities.

      You talk about people invading this country illegally. Well, I have a newsflash for people like you in this country: UNLESS you are 100% native American, YOUR ancestors were “ILLEGAL, UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS” who brought death and disease to the native people.

    • Scott

      Excellently said. People who use Jesus as reason to break laws… I have no words.

    • Nancy

      Wow. There are so many disturbing and disheartening things in your post, I wouldn’t know where to begin. So I’ll just comment on your last point. Caring for those in need, those who are suffering, those who are in crisis/danger, is not an “either-or.” It’s a “both and.” Stop with the simplistic thinking and the false positioning of different groups in need as being opposed to each other.

    • Donna VanHoy

      Mine too! I see this as “child abuse” on the Mother’s Part (if indeed these are her children).

      • R Andrus

        Seriously? Child abuse? Since when is removing your child from an extremely dangerous situation considered to be child abuse? Do you know a single thing about the conditions people have to live under in those countries? These folks are fleeing literally the most dangerous countries in the world.

    • Jeannie

      Amen, my rage exactly.

  5. Mike

    Please tell me how much your church is frantically loading up your church vans, setting up youth bake sales, and leveraging every “mission” dollar you can commandeer to get your “sold out” self to that border and defend the most vulnerable?

    Where was your outrage when Obama used tear gas almost every week? “In a statement sent to Newsweek on Tuesday, the CBP said its personnel have been using tear gas, or 2-chlorobenzylidene malononitrile (CS), since 2010, deploying the substance a total of 126 times since fiscal year 2012. ”

    Your self-righteousness is showing and it does not bode well for you.

  6. Scott

    What I dont understand is how our founding fathers fought and died in order to provide us with a nation of laws and a government that works in the best interest of its citizens… a society founded on Godly principles and biblical mandates, but never forced or coerced…

    And yet here we are defending those would seek to undermine the very foundation and fabric of our nation…

    … spitting in the faces of those who have come here legally…

    … putting their own children in harms way – basically human shields or human pawns …

    … seeking to rape (yes – RAPE) the benefits of America…

    Jesus was very clear – HE IS THE WAY THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE AND NO ONE COMES TO THE FATHER BUT THROUGH HIM.

    But I guess, if we just want to hop the wall into heaven – God should understand, right?

    • R Andrus

      Wow. “A nation of laws”…. does that include obeying laws that made it illegal to shield runaway slaves from those seeking to find them and return them to their owners (with I’m sure torture as the punishment for running away; would that include Germans families who illegally sheltered Jews from the Nazis; would that include Rosa Park defying the law rather than giving up her seat to a white person?
      Clearly, some laws are unjust and disregard the dignity of the human person.

      And those desperate to come in perhaps don’t have the luxury of waiting in a 15 year line as many brown immigrants do to enter legally.

      And those children were in extreme harms way in their home countries. I’ve seen stories, and also accounts from a priest who goes to El Salvador years, that kids as young as 10 are murdered for refusing to join gangs. Life in those countries is relentless danger. A lengthy trek with minimal resources is, sadly, a huge improvement from how they were living.

      “Rape the benefits of American”? What the heck does that even mean?

  7. Nancy

    So perfectly and beautifully stated, and reflecting a clear grasp of what Jesus expects of us.

    • ckratzer

      Thanks Nancy, sure do appreciate you reading and taking the time to comment!

  8. Sally

    The evangelical churches have claimed the GOP as their own – as, essentially, “God’s” party. And they are the ones still endorsing Trump. That’s the whole point of this article. The GOP and evangelicals never endorsed Obama, so the “yeah but what about OBAMA?!” argument makes no sense at all.

    • ckratzer

      Well said, Sally!

  9. Paul Olson

    I was with you all the way until you answered what I thought were your own honest questions. With rage that has morphed into hate. Hating me. Someone you don’t even know.
    You see, I am white, male, heterosexual and profess to be a followers of Christ… still working out that last part since I was raised pentecostal and evangelical… two labels that no longer apply to my faith walk.
    I fully acknowledge I was born into white male privilege. However, I have never taken that for granted. Traveled 17 different countries… never found one i’d rather live in yet… in spite of being embarrassed by our political “leaders”.
    Here is what you don’t know about me… because you look at my skin and gender and already presume to know how I think. My values. My great sins. That is the nature of prejudice. Here is what I would like you to know about me before you blame me for children getting gassed at out borders.
    I fully acknowledge I was born into white male privilege. But I did not ask for that privilege. If you bothered to get to know me you would know I would never have participated in setting up such an unjust system precisely because I am a follower of Jesus. I could go into detail about how I opted to lived on a reduced income because I chose to gift thousands of dollars worth of professional services. I denied my children the purchase of brand name clothing but provided funds for food, clothing, education every month for children south of our borders. If I could wave a wand and eliminate all white male privilege I would do so instantly. Some would call this guilt. I call it leveraging my privilege to benefit those without it.
    In short, it does hurt to be blamed and hated for something I neither asked for nor agree with. But more than that I am concerned that you rightly see the injustice and bigotry and crassness of others and then in calling them out fall into the very things you are raging about… You judge me by my skin color, my gender and my sexual orientation. Reducing me to your stereotype, falling for simplistic racist answers to egregious and complex issues is makes me and many others the brunt of your bigotry.
    Come on, Brother. We need your voice but you can do better.
    I mean, did Jesus really say, “By this will everyone know you are my authentic followers… your RAGE!” ?

    • ckratzer

      Paul, thanks for the comment and taking the time to write it. I honestly am having a hard time making sense of the points of your comment, it’s almost as if you didn’t read the article and have projected your own voice into it in order to have something to argue.

  10. R Andrus

    Seriously? Child abuse? Since when is removing your child from an extremely dangerous situation considered to be child abuse? Do you know a single thing about the conditions people have to live under in those countries? These folks are fleeing literally the most dangerous countries in the world.

  11. Patti D Haney

    So perfectly stated. I say something very similar to the Conservative Fundamentalists in my community. Bravo!

    Patti

  12. Rob

    I’m so glad I visited your site before buying your book.

    By the way, tear gas was used at the border during the Obama administration. It was also during those years that children were put in cages. While I am one who has suffered greatly in my life due to harsh fundamentalism and the accompanying guilt, I’m not ready to take on racial guilt (I’m too poor to afford it) as a substitute.

    You’ve traded one condemning faith for another.

  13. Erick Blare

    Yes, by all means let’s open up our borders for all to come in. It will allow God’s ultimate plan to unfold just like he has planned from before the foundation of the world. Allowing millions upon millions of people from all over the world, to come into the United States of America, and burden the Government in an uncontrollable manner is an idea of astronomical purportion. Indeed it will bring chaotic conditions, unbelievable increase in diseases and health conditions, rapid increase in unemployment, alarming increase in all minor and major crime, and so many other unbelievable atrocities that would topple our government, economy, and everything believable and inconceivable to a sane and normal mind. In other words…, Apocalypse eminent! Maranatha!

    • Jeanne

      So True, there has to be some order to live in a country, besides why flee, why not fight for the rights you should have in your own country? As the devil works in our world we have an obligation to keep our country in an order of Gods Rules and Love, but to do no harm to those already living here, like your comments.

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