What happens in the journey of a soul that brings it to such a barren place?
How does a human being reach this kind of moral wasteland?
How do millions of professed followers of Jesus reach a point where they collectively harbor predators, willfully abandon survivors, and so easily redact the truth in order to shield the monsters from the raking light of accountability?
How do Christians align with rapists?
I imagine it begins, as most roads to hell do, one seemingly infinitesimal moral compromise at a time: a justification of a damning video, the scrolling away from an uncomfortable news story, a single justification that seems acceptable in the moment, one solitary vote, a sole willful delusion.
And as with all reprehensible acts that at first sound every alarm within a decent person’s psyche, they get easier over time.
Every tiny concession paves the way for the next, and each capitulation preps the ground.
With each passing moment, shame subsides, guilt slowly evaporates, and the abhorrent begins to feel normal.
As the hours stretch into days and the months become years, eventually the voice of Jesus in their heads is silenced—replaced with Fox News anchors, Republican talking heads, and brimstone-breathing preachers, who give them permission to abandon their better angels.
Their media and their churches and their social circles all become closed communities of confirmation bias, where facts are squeezed out, an alternative truth is curated, and a bastardized religion of American whiteness becomes Gospel.
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And as the apparent wins line up: political victories, Congressional chambers, supermajorities, Supreme Court seats, passed legislation, these things begin to feel righteous: confirmation that God is on their side, even as they link arms and leap into the abyss.
And then one day, (this day), a massive swath of once faithful, compassionate, and good-hearted human beings find themselves passionately shielding pedophiles, concealing predators, and rallying around human traffickers—and feeling righteous in the process.
In the Scriptures, Jesus asks a crowd comprised of his followers and his students, “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” Mark 8:36
The question is rhetorical, of course, as his message was that the “good” of moral compromise, whatever apparent success or power or wealth that accompanies a soul transaction, is ultimately worthless.
Jesus is asking the question of millions of his alleged disciples in America right now:
Is a Supreme Court seat worth your morality?
Are sexual assault survivors the acceptable collateral damage of a theocracy?
Is a presidency or Congressional majority worth partnering with rich rapists?
I’m pretty sure I know what is answers are and it’s not good news for them.
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
This is a good column John, but one reason these MAGA “Christians” can support a predator is because they have been enabling similar pedophiles for decades. How many people have been abused inside churches because their fellow parishioners blame the victim and say “hate the sin, love the sinner?“
One point of view that might throw some additional light on your question it that humans have been shown to highly value the mores, style, and opinions of their peers, holding them above many other things. In other words, they are ‘tribal’ in their loyalties. I imagine that loyalty to leaders of questionable morals and perspectives echoes and amplifies this tendency. A person who aspires to a truly spiritually awake and aware life must dare to stand alone, if necessary, sacrificing the comforts of conformity to those of adhering as best they can to the truth.
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