For years I’ve struggled with how to say this…and to my many conservative friends and family, please know this is difficult. I love you and don’t want to lose you. But I feel this is important to say.
As someone who had all the “disobedience” spanked out of me many times daily by the age of 3, who was educated in church and the Christian school system from kindergarten through college, and became a Christian school teacher in a suburb of Houston, TX in my early twenties, I have perpetuated this harm.
I appeal to you, my friends, today as someone who has come to realize the harm of this system of theology, white supremacy, and patriarchy.
The idea that our neighbor, whom Jesus commanded us to love, as our top priority, does not include the immigrant, as depicted in the parable about “who is my neighbor” is paramount to the teachings of Jesus. When asked what the most important commandment was, Jesus replied “Love the Lord your God with all your heart…and love your neighbor as yourself.”
“Who is my neighbor?” the dude asked. And Jesus told the parable of this guy from a different culture who got robbed and beaten, lying helpless on the side of the road. The person whom they agreed was a good neighbor, cleaned him up, carried him to safety, and paid for his medical care. “Go and do likewise” Jesus said.
But our fellow patriots seem to think that buying a Donald Trump Bible, printed for $3 in China and sold to our Oklahoma school system for $60 each is more along the lines of what Christians should do.
The term “Christian” began as a derogatory term which means “little Christ”, namely, those who follow Jesus’ teachings.
I grew up in the American Christian church. I have a minor in Biblical Studies from Biola University. The idea that our government should enforce the teachings of any religion, such as the White Christian Nationalist teachings, Seven Mountain Mandates. and the policies put forth in Project 2025, are in complete opposition to the teachings of Jesus Christ as taught in the Bible.
Jesus taught us to love our neighbor, including those different from us.
He would never have lied to bolster a story harming immigrants in order to bring attention to a group disdained by those who fear becoming a minority. Think “immigrants eating the pets.”
What does it matter if white people become a minority in the U.S. in a few years? It matters because we know how awful we treat minorities. Please think about that for a moment. Why does it matter that some people feel the need to say “Black Lives Matter”? It matters because we have shown, in so many ways, that they don’t, such as the lynching picnics that took place after church in the south, and the way they are still treated by law enforcement and others routinely today.
This is disgusting. And it’s the “Maga” slogan, the return to something so toxic again. Was America great when it was lynching our citizens? Under Jim Crow? When women couldn’t vote or get a credit card or divorce a man who beat her up nightly? America has yet to become greater. We have a lot of demons to contend with. I’m contending with my own, having been beat to shit as a baby and trying to find my own agency and voice again amidst this toxic soup. Thanks James Dobson and your “Strong Willed Child” fuckery.
In 2016, when 81% of Evangelical Christians voted for a known sexual predator and misogynist, I left the Republican party and became an independent. We all heard him say “you can grab em by the p**sy”. It’s difficult for me to wrap my mind around the fact that 8 years later, even more Evangelical Christians support a man who has since been convicted of 34 felony counts and required to pay millions in reparations for the rape and defamation of one woman in addition to dozens of other women coming forward to say he also sexually assaulted them. The man is a known serial philanderer. He has displayed no knowledge or attempt at following the teachings of Jesus. Yet he sells this book for his own gain, which marries church and state. This is something that was foundational to our founding fathers to separate. 
Wake up, America! If we elect this guy, it’s the end of our democracy. He already tried to overthrow the will of the people in the last election. What will happen in the next? Please vote, my friends. But think about where Jesus would land on these issues. Think about where love would land you on these issues.