On January 13, 2021, ten Republican members of the House of Representatives voted to impeach former president Trump. Calls to remove them by the GOP were swift and shrill. I am struggling to understand. An amoral president allegedly breaks the law and people of strong ethical principles are punished for taking the moral high ground. Liz Cheney, Jaime Herrera Butler, Dan Newhouse, and others are being ostracized by their party while Marjorie Taylor Green, a woman alleging California wildfires are the result of a Jewish, space laser and the Sandy Hook and Parkland  violence was fabricated, is placed on key committees. her assignments even include an education committee. She earned her credentials and party standing by currying favor of the ex-president, despite spouting one QAnon conspiracy theory and lie after another and endorsing political violence and extremism. 

Her election by a strong majority is a microcosm of what we are witnessing across our nation. It is bad enough the Republicans have lost what moral compass they once may have had, but combined with evangelical fervor, the Church seems to be following along a similar path toward irrelevance. If the GOP continues to fracture, losing ground as they have in Georgia, Green’s state, it will be a boon to Democrat candidates in 2022. Conversely, if her base, which includes die-hard Trump supporters many with guns, increases, the violence we witnessed in the January 6th Capitol insurrection will resurface with intensity. (Ammunition in popular calibers has been scarce for months, largely because of hoarding.) Instead of war, we should be praying peace will break out. And it will if the Church becomes, what it was intended to be, a counter-insurgency for good, if we return to our roots—the teaching of Jesus–the Prince of Peace. He asked, “So why do you keep calling Me ‘Lord, Lord!’ when you don’t do what I say?” Luke 6:46 | NLT We are even witnessing Christians attacking their own; a far cry from the love and unity Jesus preached.

There was an article in “The Atlantic” on January 28, 2021 about another one of the ten that supported impeachment in the House, Adam Kinzinger. In a letter to him, a member of his own family accused Adam of voting as he did because he was demon possessed. Kinzinger, a professed Christian told the reporter, “The devil’s ultimate trick for Christianity … is embarrassing the church. . . And I feel it’s been successful.” The reporter summarized Kinzinger’s concerns like this, “The Lord has been speaking to him about his role as a Christian in politics . . . and how he can reach people who are thinking about their eternal life. He has concluded that his faith and his party have been poisoned by the same conspiracy theories and lies, culminating in the falsehood that the election was stolen.” He went on to tell the reporter, “When you look at ‘the reputation of Christianity today versus five years ago, I feel very comfortable saying it’s a lot worse . . . . Boy, I think we have lost a lot of moral authority.’” That loss of moral authority in the Church should concern anyone who calls him or herself a follower of Jesus. It is the antithesis of God’s kingdom on earth. If you listen closely, you might hear Jesus saying to Kinzinger and to all of us, “What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” Matthew 16:26 | NIV

Trading a consistent kingdom message for political clout has contributed to the loss of moral authority. For anyone except those mainlining cable news, sixty lost court cases and a couple of Dominion lawsuits support Kinzinger’s conclusion that a “stolen election” is a lie. But if it is repeated often enough, especially on television, it becomes believable. Yet, it is a lie that has further split an already divided nation. That lie is the work of the Father of Lies—Satan, repeated by Donald Trump and attested to by many in the GOP. It has fomented conflict in the nation, in its churches and even in our families. Healing cannot begin until all who helped spread it accept responsibility for the damage done to the Nation by acknowledging it for what it is. More importantly those who spread it from the pulpit should consider repenting and return to teaching about the only kingdom that cannot be shaken. So let us be thankful, because we have a kingdom that cannot be shaken. We should worship God in a way that pleases him with respect and fear . . . Hebrews 12:28 | NCV

Sadly, there is no shortage of well-meaning, professed Christian voters who have bought into the conspiracy theories and lies: hook, line and sinker because of their pervasiveness. In many cases, Satan’s work is being done by God’s people. Representative Kinzinger’s experience and conclusion about the damage being caused to the Body of Christ is only the tip of the iceberg. While the attack is being orchestrated by Satan, it is being led by some of America’s most influential pastors. By perhaps unwittingly facilitating the devil’s work, they have done more damage to the contemporary Church’s reputation than the most determined atheists. 

After the votes of Kinzinger and the others, on January 14, 2021, Franklin Graham, son of well-known evangelist Billy Graham tweeted these words, “Shame, shame on the ten Republicans who joined with Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats in impeaching President Trump yesterday. After all that he has done for our country, you would turn your back and betray him so quickly?” He went on to observe, “And these ten, from his own party, joined in the feeding frenzy. It makes you wonder what the 30 pieces of silver were that speaker Pelosi promised for this betrayal.“ The Charlotte Observer, Graham’s hometown newspaper, ran an opinion piece equating Graham’s words to blasphemy by his linking of Donald Trump to Jesus Christ. Too bad Franklin didn’t pay a little more attention to what his dad had to say about politics in a “Parade” interview in 1981. “I don’t want to see religious bigotry in any form. It would disturb me if there was a wedding between the religious fundamentalists and the political right. The hard right has no interest in religion except to manipulate it.“

Graham is not the only apple that fell some distance from the tree. Disgraced Liberty University president, Jerry Falwell, Jr. and his wife, Becky, ironically joined forces with Trump beneath a March 1990 Playboy magazine cover on June 26, 2016 to support his presidential run. Falwell’s father, Jerry Falwell, Sr., consistently denounced Bill Clinton’s sin and fought pornography throughout his ministry. On June 1, 2016, Falwell, Jr. during an Anderson Cooper interview on CNN, justified Trump’s behavior by observing when it comes to politics it is “every man for himself.” Apparently for the younger Falwell, situational and Christian ethics are one and the same. He went on to say, “We’re not electing a pastor-in-chief. We’re electing a commander-in-chief.” In a 2018 interview with the New York Times, he stated unequivocally, “I do not look to the teachings of Jesus for what my political beliefs should be.“ A far cry from the exhortation of the apostle Paul. So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31 | NIV

In The Immoral Majority: Why Evangelicals Chose Political Power Over Christian Values, author Ben Howe quotes Michael Farris, chairman of the Home School Legal Defense Association, “Today, we see politics fully influencing a thousand Christian leaders. This is a day of mourning. . . . In a generation, the movement had changed from trying to be a force for change in politics, to being forcefully changed by politics.”  Again, we would do well to heed the wisdom of the apostle Paul. Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? 2 Corinthians 6:14 | NIV.