May You Feel The Love Of Jesus Christ Wash Over You

Hopefully it won't smash your windshield in the process

(Note: I originally wrote this in 2022 but came across it recently. It seemed appropriate, so I updated it, but parts of it may be a wee bit out of date.)

One of my brothers, who’s a fundamentalist Christian (and takes the “fun” out of “fundamentalist”), has difficulty understanding why I haven’t accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. So, when he attempts to broach the subject, I usually fire off a smart-ass retort and leave it at that. There are two things I won’t discuss with him in any shape, manner, or form—religion and politics—because if he were any further to the Right, he’d fall off the edge.

What it comes down to for me is something Mahatma Gandhi once said. When asked about Christianity, he said (and I’m paraphrasing), “I don’t hate Christianity; it’s just that so many of your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” That pronouncement is more true than ever today.

I’m not scared of Christianity, but some Christians scare the Hell out of me. For one, you can’t follow Donald Trump and Jesus Christ; the two are philosophically incompatible. If you follow Trump, you believe in a self-serving, race-baiting narcissist without a shred of integrity. If you follow Jesus Christ, you believe in a body of teaching based on love, kindness, acceptance, tolerance, and understanding.

You can have one, but you can’t have both. That sort of hypocrity just doesn’t work.

And then there are people like Mark Burns, who’s to Christianity what Jeffrey Dahmer was to a plant-based diet.

Mark Burns, an unabashed Christian nationalist Trump-loving pastor who is running for Congress in South Carolina, urged conservatives to start smashing the car windows of anti-fascist activists.

Burns spoke at the ReAwaken America rally in Keizer, Oregon, last weekend, where event organizers claimed that “antifa” protestors outside the event were placing sharp objects under the wheels of attendee’s cars in an effort to pop their tires. While at the event, Burns sat down for an interview on “The Black Conservative Preacher” show, where he insisted that Christians should not turn the other cheek, as Jesus commanded, but rather strike back twice as hard.

“You see an antifa flag, knock out their window,” Burns advocated.

First of all, “Antifa” may be a movement, but it’s not an organized one in the way Burns seems to believe it is. There’s no website, no command and control structure, and (usually) no flag. He’s fighting a ghost. Ah, but Burns needs a “bogeyman” to inflame his audience and (most importantly) to separate them from their money.

Fear is the great motivator for those who have no platform of their own and are only interested in power for power’s sake.

Then again, Burns is a man of God in the same way I’m a Green Bay Packers fan.

“Forgive me, Jesus,” he then added, facetiously. “Lord, forgive me. I’m asking for forgiveness right now.”

Sure, and I’m betting on the Packers to win the Super Bowl next February.

Not.

“The Bible says that ‘the Kingdom suffers violence and the violent take it by force,'” Burns declared, quoting Matthew 11. “The problem is we’re being too cowardly and too weak and we think that man has authority over us when we serve a big God who has given us power and authority to tread over every demonic spirit. So, if they’re gonna knock out a window, you go knock out two of theirs.”

“Jesus said, ‘Go buy two swords,'” replied host Quincy Franklin, paraphrasing a passage from Luke 22.

“Y’all better go buy some swords in the name of Jesus,” Burns proclaimed. “Go start knocking out some windows!”

Realizing that he may have gone too far, Burns then attempted to backtrack, insisting that he was not advocating violence but was simply promoting “self-defense.”

That’s not what that piece of Scripture means. Not even close (And this is a BIG reason I’m an atheist). Jesus didn’t advocate for violence; he was a pacificist—you know, “turn the other cheek?” That has been interpreted by most theologians to mean that a Christian should not strike the first blow.

The problem here is that Burns uses Christianity to advocate for using violence to create a White-majority country, not unlike Gilead from Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. It would be a world in which the Bible is used as a law book, and violence becomes the coin of the realm when enforcing the law.

Burns is advocating for violence in the service of his flavor of God, who’s an angry, spiteful, mean-spirited son of a bitch—despite his denial and assertion to the contrary. “Go start knocking out some windows!” is a pretty unambiguous exhortation to employ violence to assert dominance. “Antifa” is merely the bogeyman Burns is using to whip up “righteous” anger and direct against those he can define as the “enemy.”

As if to demonstrate his commitment to sharing the love of Jesus Christ, he promises that should “Antifa” attack him, “I will Will Smith them in a heartbeat…I’ll put one of them to sleep.”

Right. Precisely what Jesus would do, yeah?

Mark Burns claims he’s only advocating for “self-defense,” but he never clarifies who’s attacking him and/or his followers. As far as I can tell, his need for “self-defense” is a figment of his overcooked imagination. The fear he’s hoping to generate is intended to increase his fund-raising potential.

‘Cuz beating up “Antifa” for Jesus don’t come cheap, knowhutimean? Truncheons, clubs, and brass knuckles cost money.

And this, kids, is yet another reason I don’t believe in God. I reject any religion where so many so-called “Christians” are abject hypocrites who wouldn’t recognize Jesus Christ if He showed up in a $1500 suit and $700 Italian leather shoes.

The flip side, of course, is that I’m all for any faith tradition that’s all about making the world a better, kinder, more peaceful, and more compassionate place. Who wouldn’t want that?

REAL Christians don’t commit acts of violence against those who don’t share their beliefs. They don’t consider non-believers to be “less than” and reject the poor and the down-and-out as lazy and unmotivated.

Of course, I recognize that there are good and honest Christians among us. I know a few. The world would be a better place if all Christians followed their example and practiced love, acceptance, tolerance, understanding, and kindness toward their fellow humans.

Some Christians might say that the fact that I write about their religion so much is proof that I’m frightened of it, or at least curious about what it might mean for me on some level. All I’d say to that is that I think I’m right to be frightened of any movement who believes their faith gives them the “right” to rule America.

Yes, I’m frightened of Christian Nationalists who believe they have the right to dissolve the wall separating Church from State and install themselves as dictators. We should be terrified of the corruption that would come with such a system.

We should all be able to get along, secure in the knowledge that each of us has the inalienable right to believe and live as we choose and that none of us will be allowed to hold our faith tradition (or lack of one) over anyone else. Because America is a secular nation that allows citizens to follow what faith traditions they will. That more than 75% self-identify as Christian is apropos of nothing.

Unfortunately, there are too many “Christians” who would wield their faith like a club with which they bludgeon those not “enlightened” enough to share their “faith.” I despise the hypocrisy Mark Burns stands for, and I want no part of it.

I don’t know what he is…but he’s not a Christian.

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