[E]ven the Republican Party itself is divided. Statements in the party platform such as, “Pornography, with its harmful effects, especially on children, has become a public health crisis that is destroying the life of millions” don’t exactly square with the lifestyle of a thrice-married billionaire who’s appeared on the cover of Playboy and struggles with Biblical references.
The above quote is actually from a piece by a woman who spent the Republican National Convention stripping, but it nonetheless makes an excellent point. Many Republicans are heavily invested in volubly moralizing…except it very often seems to be of the “thee, not for me” variety.
The idea that a “thrice-married billionaire who’s appeared on the cover of Playboy and struggles with Biblical references” is the darling of Evangelical Christians would be humorous…if it wasn’t true. Evangelicals have thrown their lot in with someone who not only doesn’t live their values, he doesn’t share most of them. The evidently love the “strongman” aura Trump presents…and have chosen to ignore that Trump is as much a Christian as Timothy McVeigh was a model of nonviolent conflict resolution.
Republicans can be, and often are, as messed up, conflicted, and prone to inappropriate behavior as anyone else. Evangelicals are among the most enthusiastic consumers of pornography…even as they rail against it as “a public health crisis that is destroying the life of millions.” In their typical “rules are for thee, not me” hypocrisy, these shining paragons of public morality have no problem holding others to standards of conduct they’d never dreamed of subjecting themselves to.
It’s never about the teachings of Jesus Christ. Never has been, never will be. It’s all and only ever been about political power and the beliefs of Evangelical Republicans that they’ve been divinely chosen by God to wield it over others.
And people wonder why I’m good without God….
