URGENT! How the hell did we get here?

How the hell did we get here? I can tell you exactly. This will take a few moments. I appreciate your patience. As a child, back in the 1950s, I contracted Polio and became very ill. During an extended stay at Kaiser Hospital in Vallejo, California, I prayed as only a terrified child can pray. I prayed and prayed and prayed. Eventually, tests determined that I was free of symptoms and free to go home. From that day forward I’ve been a person of faith.

For over forty years I’ve faithfully attended church services. I served for a time as a deacon. I was a door greeter for twenty years.

One day, following church services, my children questioned whether I was a Christian. I was amazed and horrified and asked what had prompted this question. I was told that their youth minister had informed his class that the phrase “Christian Democrat” was an oxymoron, because one could not be both a Christian and a Democrat.

Many of you will remember Billy Graham. In 1981, Billy Graham was interviewed by parade magazine. I’ll provide a link. Its essential to the survival of our democracy that everyone read it.

Did Billy Graham Warn Against Mixing Religion and Politics? | Snopes.com

 

In the interview, Reverend Graham says the following.  “I want to preserve the purity of the Gospel and the freedom of religion in America. I don't want to see religious bigotry in any form. Liberals organized in the '60s, and conservatives certainly have a right to organize in the '80s, but it would disturb me if there was a wedding between the religious fundamentalists and the political right. The hard right has no interest in religion except to manipulate it.”

 

From that time to this, what Reverend Graham calls the hard right has led a crusade to demonize women’s reproductive rights and any deviation from a strict and Puritanical view of sexuality.  Since that time, many churches have adopted these views and they’ve been preached passionately from the pulpit. As a result, Reverend Graham’s concerns have come to fruition. To a large extent, Democrats and those who support America’s celebrated principles of liberty and justice for all are no longer welcome in fundamentalist churches, and those who consider themselves people of faith (or evangelicals) feel compelled as a matter of faith to vote for conservative Republicans and to demonize and shun those who do not. This has led to discord and polarization rarely previously seen in America, and a portion of our media has exacerbated this for purely financial reasons and is largely responsible for the unrest and antigovernment sentiment.

 

As we speak, a former president is charged with several state and federal crimes. Over the months ahead, The United States of America and its legal/judicial system will determine his guilt or innocence. In the meantime, he has called upon the hard right and his evangelical converts to subvert and overturn our legal system and the previous election. Democracy and our republic itself are threatened by these unprecedented and unconscionable efforts.

 

As we begin the 2024 election process, the marriage of religious fundamentalists and the political right, which Reverend Graham feared and warned us against has swelled to proportions which not only threaten a peaceful election process, but the very survival of our society, our democracy, and our republic.

 

As a person of faith and a proud American, I urge each of you to take a long, hard look at your chosen media. Consider widening your viewing habits to include less partisan and less insurgent content. Encourage your ministers to hold worship services once again rather than GOP rallies. And heed Reverend Graham’s impassioned warning before it’s too late.

 

Let me know if you read this, and please feel free to share. SC