I'm not a believer as such, coming from a multi-faith family. But I have always thought that as a teacher, Jesus of Nazareth had great things to say about love and doing good works to honor His Father. And every statement had to do with helping those less fortunate.
1 John 3:17-18 ESV
But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.Luke 18:22 ESV
When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”Matthew 25:31-46 ESV
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, ...Matthew 6:24 ESV
“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.Mark 10:21 ESV
And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”Luke 14:13 ESV
But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind,
I could go on and on. There is no shortage of Scripture exhorting believers to love and care for their brother, the less fortunate, the needy. If all fundamentalists would actually do that, I'd probably find them tolerable.
Instead, they support Donald J. Trump, a man who exemplifies pretty much every one of the seven deadly sins. Or at least the white conservative ones do.
Why?
There are several answers. Some clearly see Trump as a means to an end. Some are so vested in the tribalism of partisan politics that they forgive anything, as long as it's someone on their "side."
As Frank Schaeffer, the son of the conservative evangelist Francis Schaeffer and a former member of the religious right, says, evangelicals have become absolutists.
"The mentality is we follow Trump, not just into the gutter with his porn star presidency and the filth of his own past life and mob connections and the rest of it. We even now find these leaders following him into the intolerance, where it is okay in their view to mock a teen who stands against violence. That's where we are this Easter morning. So when saying 'Happy Easter', it's not a happy Easter. We're in a moment of betrayal of the teaching of Jesus that was the watershed. I speak of this as a Christian, the watershed in the ethical development of human consciousness, that you put your neighbor first and lifted humility up as something to be admired.
We have an arrogant president, and those who follow him are imitating this vile behavior in Holy Week and Easter, no less. That's where America is this Easter morning."
