March 19, 2016 8:49 AM

Arrogant, intolerant, self-righteous...and evidently built to stay that way

A North Carolina pastor warmed up the crowd at a Donald Trump rally by urging Sen. Bernie Sanders to become a Christian. Televangelist Mark Burns spoke to Trump supporters at a campaign event in Hickory ahead of Tuesday’s North Carolina primary election, reported the Friendly Atheist blog…. “Bernie Sanders, who doesn’t believe in God, how in the world (are) we going to let Bernie — I mean, really?” Burns said, as the crowd applauded. “Bernie’s got to get saved, Bernie’s got to meet Jesus. He’s got to have a coming to Jesus meeting.”…. Sanders describes himself as a secular Jew who is not “particularly religious,” and his wife was raised Roman Catholic. After mischaracterizing the senator’s religious views, Burns slammed his political identification with democratic socialism…. “We’re a democratic country, we believe in small business and we believe in small government and we believe in big states and local rights,” Burns said. Burns, who is black, encouraged the audience to cheer louder and reminded them to watch his upcoming appearance on CNN, where he planned to promote Trump’s campaign, and tweaked the Black Lives Matter movement by telling the cheering crowd that “all lives matter.”

There’s so much about this that’s thoroughly and utterly detestable. We could start with the fact that Donald Trump’s a committed, practicing Christian in the same way Johnny Manziel’s a straight-edge homebody with a Diet Coke addiction. Then we take up discussing the fact that most of the “Christians” in the crowd wouldn’t know how to lead a Christ-like life if Jesus His Own Self showed up and handed them a roadmap, a Bible, and a Sherpa.

Then there’s Pastor Burns, who seems just a wee bit too full of himself and overly convinced of his how prodigious and self-evident righteousness. I find it interesting that the Jesus Christ Burns claims to be channeling is the same one who preached about love, tolerance, acceptance, and inclusion…the exact opposite of what Burns is selling to the “congregation.”

It’s fascinating that the ones who very often are the most openly “Christian” are the ones congenitally disinclined to lead a Christ-like life. They talk the talk- loudly and grandly- but they’re unable and/or unwilling to walk the walk. If your Jesus preached that belittling the religious beliefs (or lack of same) of others is acceptable, you’re most assuredly doing it wrong. If your Scripture contains justification for holding others to standards you wouldn’t dream of holding yourself to, you’re not even close to getting it right.

I may not believe in God, but the Almighty I was taught about in Sunday School was all about humility, compassion, and selflessness- things neither Burns, Trump, nor most of the people at the rally would recognize if you took them by the hand and led them to the Promised Land down the Yellow Brick Road.

Then again, this episode merely confirms my belief that this sort of authoritarian Christianity has nothing to do with the teachings of Jesus Christ. I doubt that (even if Jesus did exist) the Prince of Peace would care much about small business or small government. He certainly wouldn’t be about elevating yourself above others simply because they’re not “enlightened” enough to share a narrow set of self-interested beliefs.

I suspect Pastor Burns would have made a good Pharisee…and we all know how well things turned out for them, amiright??

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on March 19, 2016 8:49 AM.

(Not) What Christian charity and tolerance look like was the previous entry in this blog.

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away...when the NRA actually cared about people is the next entry in this blog.

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