America is not and will never be a Christian nation.
Founding Father John Adams once noted this to the dismay of Conservative Christians, saying, "The Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion."
Congruently, news of the U.S. drop in religiosity notes a decrease in Americans who identify as Christians by nearly "eight percentage points," according to the Washington Post’s report on a survey taken by the Pew Research Center.
But if the well-documented history of America’s founders prioritizing a nation based on secularism isn’t enough, nor the data showing an overwhelming disinterest in organized religion, perhaps the scrutiny of the American right’s ignominious role in the Syrian refugee crisis is the best illustration for how irrelevant Christianity has become.
As the Syrian diaspora seek refuge in all corners of the globe from the theocratic oppression of Islamic State group, the despotic dominion of Bashar Al-Assad, and the bombing by Western and Russian powers, many here in the U.S. have rallied to refuse asylum. A call for the monitoring of certain mosques and labeling of Muslims has also garnered support from some Conservative Christian Americans, Donald Trump leading such a rhetoric in his latest campaign speeches. Just this past weekend, demonstrators in Irving, Texas, took to the grounds of a Mosque armed with high-powered rifles to "Stop the Islamization of America." Unsurprisingly, a campaign poster for Republican contender Ted Cruz, who has been vocal in promising legislation to ban Muslim Syrians from seeking refuge in the States, accompanied the anti-Islam signs.
Notwithstanding the fact that Cruz is the son of a Cuban refugee who fled an oppressive regime to seek asylum in America, the great hypocrisy here is the abandonment of the ethics of Jesus’ teachings that are so highly venerated in name but disregarded in practice.
Now, I’ve never met Jesus, and I don’t pretend to talk to him. But I doubt his position on this matter would be to close the doors on those poor and war-torn populations that are most in need of shelter and an opportunity for a future. That’s not very Jesus-y. It probably wouldn’t entail the scapegoating of moderate American Muslims either.
Sandals, carpentry, acceptance and not judging people: That’s what being Jesus is all about, man.
But more often than not, it is Conservative Christian rhetoric that preaches the teachings of Jesus by doing un-Jesus-y things.
The fight to deny rights to gays and access to Planned Parenthood for millions of women is constantly justified by the application of biblical texts and Jesus’ bearded glory. But Jesus never mentioned abortion or gay marriage at all, let alone as an act of apostasy.
Ah, but there I go again, getting all factual as I’m wont to do.
Those who have comfortably subscribed to America’s latest potent brand of xenophobia argue that amid the swath of Syrians who seek shelter, there are bound to be radicals who will carry out devastating attacks on American soil. These fears have stemmed from the Paris attacks. News of a Syrian passport found at the scene of the Bataclan attack fueled the flames of this prejudice, and even when French and German authorities discovered the passport to be stolen and/or fake, the fear mongering behind the original speculation never lost its potency.
Because, with regards to the religious right, there is no commitment to the facts or to the moral faith of Christianity. There is only a commitment to hypocrisy.
Justin Ford is a Santa Fe journalism junior. His column appears on Tuesdays.
