Last week I saw some folks sharing an article on Twitter by Richard Cizik,
writing for Colorado Newsline. The article, headline “The un-Christian
ways of Lauren Boebert,” was picked up and republished by the website Raw Story. In it,
Cizik takes Boebert, a Republican member of Congress representing Colorado’s third district,
to task for a number of “un-Christian” things she’s said and done lately, including suggesting
that Jesus may not have been crucified if only he’d had an AR-15, and telling an audience at a
Christian camp meeting that her prayer for President Biden is “May his days be few.”
Cizik goes on to say that politicians like Boebert,
with their support for far-right policies, spreading of lies about the 2020 election,
and embrace of Christian nationalism, are a threat not only to democracy but to their own churches.
I can’t say I disagree with Cizik on any of this — not that I give a shit what happens
to their churches, though I am rather invested in the survival of democracy, I must confess.
My only disagreement with him about any of this is the characterization of
Boebert and her ilk as un-Christian. Because the truth, sadly, is that, historically
and theologically speaking, the things Lauren Boebert says and does and wants to see done are
entirely consistent with Christianity.
Boebert is one of the most visible figures in the Republican Party,
representative of the particularly aggressive and corrosive strain of conservatism that shoved its
way to the forefront of the right-wing of American politics following the election of Donald Trump
to the presidency in 2016. Boebert, like her fellow members of Congress Marjorie Taylor Greene
and Matt Gaetz, among others, is a believer in the QAnon conspiracy theory,
an unapologetic gun nut, a racist and anti-Semite, opposed to abortion rights,
opposed to single-payer health care, viciously anti-gay and anti-trans, and generally a deeply
prejudiced and proudly ignorant embodiment of America at its absolute fucking worst.
I detest her version of Christianity. I am not a Christian myself — I’m an atheist — but,
since I live in a society where Christianity, in all its various forms, is the most dominant and
influential religion, I much prefer Christianity as practiced by, for instance, Raphael Warnock,
U.S. Senator from Georgia and senior pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.
Where Boebert seems to view her faith as a license to denigrate and persecute marginalized people and
use the power of government to impose her religious values on others, Warnock and those
who practice a similar brand of Christianity take from their faith a call to be humble, tolerant and
charitable, to help the less fortunate and work toward a better, more just and peaceful world.
The difficult truth, however, for Christians like Senator Warnock and, presumably, Richard Cizik,
and for non-Christians like me who would like to see a society with less inequality,
poverty and institutionalized bigotry, regardless of the prevailing religious
character of that society, is that Lauren Boebert is no less authentically Christian
than the most loving, accepting, enlightened and progressive Christian you could name.
There is an understandable and, when viewed from a certain perspective, even
admirable impulse to distance ourselves from the worst of us,
to exclude the most repugnant members of the community from the in-group. But,
when we do that, we often end up flattering ourselves, whether we mean to or not.
And we can end up with a much more positive picture of the state of our community than
is warranted, which leads us to ignore problems, or treat them as someone else’s responsibility.
Lauren Boebert is a conspiracy theorist. Many conspiracy theorists are devout, practicing
Christians. Many of the most prevalent conspiracy theories in the world today have a decidedly
Christian character, frame world events in terms of good vs. evil, Christ vs. Satan. Throughout the
centuries, many Christian churches have helped to spread conspiracy theories, particularly
anti-Semitic ones. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, one of the most infamously anti-Semitic
texts ever printed, originated as a series of articles in a Russian newspaper owned by a member
of the Black Hundred, a group of monarchists that was explicitly Orthodox Christian in nature.
Lauren Boebert is an anti-gay and anti-trans bigot. The opposition to equality and fair
treatment for LGBTQ+ people throughout the history of western civilization has been almost
entirely religious, and predominantly Christian,
in nature. This is certainly true of the current movement to strip trans people,
including trans children, of their rights, including the right to seek medical care,
and one of the most basic rights of all, the right to be called and recognized by your right name.
Lauren Boebert states publicly that she prays for the death of the lawfully elected
President of the United States, and is among the staunchest supporters of the efforts by the
previous president to overturn the election result and illegally retain power. This, too,
is fully consistent with the religious beliefs of thousands, perhaps millions of Christians
in this country, who feel it is their god-given right to hold the reins of government and use the
power of government to impose their will and their values on everyone who does not share their faith.
In his article, Richard Cizik quotes from the Bible to support his position that
Boebert and those who share her particular beliefs are
un-Christian and a danger to Christianity. He uses the words of Jesus from John 8:32,
“If you remain in my word you are truly my disciples and you shall know the truth,
and the truth will set you free,” to argue that Boebert’s support of Trump’s big lie
is contrary to the teachings of Christ. Elsewhere, he cites the Epistle to the Colossians when he
suggests that Boebert has been “held captive by . . . worldly philosophy, and empty deceit.”
All well and good, but Boebert and those who believe as she does can quote scripture to justify
their hateful agendas just as well, and frequently do. The problem with basing your belief system
on an interpretation of an anonymous text, much of which can be neither falsified nor verified,
is that there’s no way to definitively determine which of the many,
many interpretations of that text are the correct one.
Christians consider the Bible to be God’s message to humanity. Let’s assume for the sake of argument
that’s true. Some Christians believe part of that message is telling them to persecute minority
groups and establish an explicitly Christian authoritarian government. Other Christians believe
part of that message is telling them to accept and embrace everyone equally and live in peace,
harmony and equality with those of differing faiths in a pluralistic society. Who’s right?
If we turn to theology to answer that question, it’s a toss-up, because
there are ways of interpreting the Bible that lead to both conclusions, as well as a thousand others.
If we turn to history, we find that throughout the centuries there have been many tolerant,
ecumenical Christians who crusaded against bigotry and injustice, and many other Christians who have
crusaded according to the original definition of the term — though, I can’t help but notice
that violent subjugation of outsiders, nonbelievers and minority groups, and
vehement rejection of democracy, secularism, science, and social progress have been far
more common in Christianity over the years than the more enlightened attributes.
So, as despicable as I find the Lauren Boeberts of the world, I can’t get behind the argument
that anything she’s said or done has been un-Christian. A lot of Christianity,
historically and in the present day, has been ignorant, and ugly, and bloody.
It’s not helpful and it’s not honest to just define all the bad stuff done by
churches and in the name of churches as being un-Christian, although as I said, I do get it.
The larger problem is that this impulse to reframe the actions of the worst members of the group
so that they don’t count doesn’t just occur within religions — it’s an impulse we have
to fight in all facets of our lives. Think of how we whitewash — literally — so much of
American history. Conservatives are the most insistent about it, but a lot of us do it.
It’s pleasing to us to think of the United States as a good country — sure, we’ve made mistakes,
but we’ve also corrected them and we’re still fighting to correct some of them,
so we’re not perfect but we’re always in the process of perfection.
That’s a nice way to think about American history. It allows us to think well of the country,
to be proud to be an American. We take all that unpleasant stuff — centuries of slavery
and genocide and war and colonialism and systemic discrimination — and we compartmentalize it. Well,
yeah, that happened, that stuff. It’s part of our history. But, that’s not really who
we are. We don’t define ourselves by that. We define ourselves by the good stuff.
That’s vanity. That’s us, giving ourselves permission not to care about atrocities committed
by people just like us. It’s the sort of thing someone like — well, someone like Lauren Boebert
would do. If we really don’t want her actions to reflect poorly on us, then we need to stop
pretending that she and the millions of people who share her vile and dangerous beliefs don’t
represent Christianity or the United States, because they do. That’s the problem. They do.