Election Defeat of 2012: Where the Christian Right Went Wrong

After the reelection victory of President Obama, some of the Right Wing Christians were taken by surprise. There was a lot of weeping, wailing, and the gnashing of teeth. How could this have happened? They were shocked and surprised because they did not know God’s hand was working against hypocrisy, selfishness, deception, and greed.

One of the things that bothered me so much as a Christian was how the Christian extreme Right got this all wrong. Jesus asked us to care for those that are suffering. That was the cornerstone of President Obama’s public policies. He was fulfilling the very thing Jesus asked us to do to avoid the suffering of others. We have enough in this country where nobody has to suffer. Jesus did not ask us to make everything equal, but he preached against greed. Even John the Baptist preached about offering your second coat to a naked man. Everything President Obama has done to help the working class and the poor people were deemed evil in the eyes of the Right Wing Extremists. This group could careless about the suffering of others. Who is then serving the purpose of Christ, is it President Obama caring for those that are suffering, or the Right Wing Extremists who want the poor people to suffer and die? President Obama deserve a giant applause for standing up for those that are voiceless, disenchanted, and thrown under the truck by some Christian leaders. And they want you to put some money in collection plates on Sundays.

The Right Wing Extremists appear to be more interested in playing people like a game of chess instead of governing the people. Anytime they do not like any of the President’s proposals, instead of sitting down and working to negotiate and compromise, they go straight to the media. They play as if the media is another branch of government. They will first go to the media to shoot their mouths than go and attend the briefing over the same issue they are complaining to the media. There are five major areas where the Christian Right Wing Extremists went wrong including; adhering to substance-less symbolisms, in defiance of the gospel message of Christ, stirring the pot of discontent by propaganda journalism, their support for predatory capitalism, and the deception that money is wealth.

Adhering to Substance-less Symbolisms

For many years Christians have been made to believe that we are the moral majority. We are the party that caters to the Judeo-Christians values. We support and defend life while carrying the banner of Jesus Christ as we march to the abortion clinic to shame a pregnant woman and publicly humiliate the doctor. We love the display of the Ten Commandments in the public places even though nobody is stopping to read them, let alone influence their behavior. The cross has to be displayed on top of all the schools so people can see us as true Christians. We line behind politicians who profess to care about such values, but in reality deceiving many Christians.

We tend to forget one thing. Symbolism alone is a waste of time without true repentance from the heart. Consequently, the political conservatives love to wave the flags of abortion and family values before gullible Christians who tend to vote for them. The same politicians are committing abortions for their wives, and mistresses while conducting extra-marital affairs, and the Christian Right voted for them. The issue is not about the adherence to Judeo-Christian values. The primary issues we embrace as Christians merely echo meaningless symbolism. This type of symbolism works as a form of deception with the older voters who do not know any better. The older people are easily fooled and brainwashed by deceptive political rhetoric packed with hyper-emotionalism. The younger generations are unimpressed by the brainwashing of the Right Wing to gain political votes. The social media help many of the younger voters to differentiate from those politicians telling the truth versus those telling lies. The young people are not as stupid as the older ones think. The older voters will vote against their own interest once their passion come under deceptive rhetoric. The younger ones are able to see through the deception of the Right Wing Christians. They know how to find facts compared to the older ones who are still allowing the newspaper and the main media to brainwash them. Consequently, the young voters turned deaf ears to propaganda journalism of the Right Wing, messages from the pulpit, and meaningless rhetoric from the political Right. They ended up voting for President Obama who stated his agenda and followed through on it despite the persecutions from the Christian Right Wing Extremists.

Based on interviewing the younger generations, they are not interested in rhetoric. They are interested in a person telling them the truth and backing it up with actions. President Obama did just that. They saw him in action many times. He is real! They learned from the past that the Christian Right promised a lot of things to get in office. After they are placed in office, they tend to do the desires of their minds which in many cases have hurt those that voted for them. If Christians are going to start shaping the minds of the young ones, we need to stop all the empty rhetoric and tell the young ones the truth. These younger generations turned deaf ears to the political propaganda of the Christian Right the same way they turned deaf ears to messages from the pulpit. This is the more reason why preachers need to go back to the pulpit and start preaching Jesus like the first group of apostles did instead of preaching politics. I cannot imply that the victory for President Obama was a blow to Christians because about 25 million Evangelical Christians who are not brainwashed by the extreme Right Wing voted for President Obama. However, the election defeat was a giant blow to the leadership of the extreme Right Wing Christians as their propaganda machine exploded.

Defiance of the Social Programs of Christ

"Therefore whosoever hear my word and does them, he will be like a wise man, which builds his house upon a rock" (St. Matthew 7:24).

"For I was hungry, and you gave me no food; I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink; I was a stranger and you took me not in; naked and ye clothed me not, sick and in prison, and you did not minister on to me" (St. Matthew 25:42-43).

Those two verses just quoted from the Book of St. Matthew are the cornerstone of Christianity and the doctrine of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The Christian Right Wing Extremists remain in defiance of this doctrine while President Obama was the one adhering to the doctrine by practice. As long as we Christians are in defiance of Christ’s doctrine because of political gains, we have lost the people. The entire operation of the Christian Right Extremists is in defiance of the social programs by Jesus. They have never cared for the poor people. At times they operate as if those poor people never existed. People have to force them to see the suffering of the people. Why are we surprised when the younger voters walk away from the lack of integrity of our Christian doctrine?

Instead of adhering to the gospel messages of Christ, we Christian leaders claim people should know where we stand. Do you think Jesus cared about where we stand especially the public policies polluted with deception and hypocrisy? If Jesus stressed he did not come to represent himself, why do we Christians think our false doctrine is more important than the messages of God through Christ? If Christians cannot stand for the adherence to the messages of Christ, we stand for nothing! We cannot impress the present generation with lies and expect them to be as easily goaded by the older ones whose passions are corroded with false information. Jesus came to preach the messages of his Father in Heaven. He did not come to represent himself! Why are Christian leaders not true to the integrity of the gospel message of Christ? Instead, they created their own social programs in defiance of Christ. They benefit the rich at the expense of the poor because this is exactly the same thing some Christian leaders are doing in their own respective churches by milking the poor. The preacher is flying a private jet and the flocks are on welfare line. Heavens! The Day of Judgment is going to be very interesting for some Christian leaders!

Propaganda Journalism of the Extreme Right Wing

I believe the worst thing Christians can do is to continue to lie to the people because of personal political discontent. Sadly, I have heard so many lies being told about President Obama. I almost started to weep sometimes for Christian leaders playing into the hands of the devil. Later, I realized that those false images being propagated by the Christian Right Wing were falling on deaf ears of the younger voters. The older ones were deceived however. They tend to listen to the false information given to them by traditional media. The younger voters and others more sensible people have other ways to check facts. So, the older ones are easily brainwashed by deception and hyper-emotionalized propaganda. The more educated ones are less likely goaded by false information. The older voters because victims of deceptive advertisements.

"Why did you receive a cup of coffee from a liberal? Don’t you know she’s a liberal?" I heard these statements a couple of years ago, on one of the so-called conservative national radio programs with disgust! Part of the propaganda tool of the Right Wing Extremists is to name and shame people, and ostracize them who do not believe as they believe. They are very good in brainwashing people, and fools will respond to such brainwashing.

The lies of the propaganda machine of the Right Wing destroyed their political integrity. For example, we hear that President Obama threw the nation of Israel under the bus. People hearing this would think President Obama was anti-Israel. The truth came out when the President and the foreign Minster of Israel were interviewed by the CNN News. Both of them said the best cooperation by the U.S. government with the nation of Israel came from President Obama’s administration. The media gave us the impression that because he did not get along well with the present prime minister of Israel, that meant he hated Israel. That was a wrong assertion folks! Even when they found out the truth, they still keep spreading their propaganda information. Another contrary evidence emerged during the election victory of President Obama when close to 70 percent of the American Jews voted for him!

In another example, the Right Wing Christian Extremists have been painting President Obama as a Muslim. I interviewed one of the press representatives of President Obama from the White House in 2011. I was told categorically that President Obama is a Christian. In the past, I have pointed out to some Christian conservatives about the sermons President Obama gave during the annual breakfast prayer meetings at the White House. Yet, for political reasons, the Christians conservatives continue to distance themselves from President Obama due to false information. When will the Christian leaders stop spreading propaganda about President Obama? In one of the meeting I attended, one of the vocal pastors said, "I didn’t like President Obama not because he is black, but because he supports abortion, and I do not." Personally, I will like to ask this pastor a simple question. How many buses loaded with pregnant women has President Obama ever driven to the abortion clinic? I do not agree with some of his policies, but I will not accuse him of something he has never done. He is an anointed man called for God’s purpose. You may not agree with him. But, you cannot stop the moving hand of God.

If anybody wants to know why Christian doctrine is no longer shaping the minds of those inside the church and especially the younger ones, we need to look into the mirror. We cannot continue to lie to people while preaching politics instead of preaching Jesus and still want people to pay us attention. We are directly responsible for the crisis in Christianity at this time because we have misrepresented Jesus to society for political gains. A few days prior to Election Day, I was hearing some Christian leaders advocating for people to "Vote your values!" We sure love to kid ourselves, don’t we? Do you think Jesus really cared about our values laced with lies, propaganda, deceit, greed, hate, jealousy, prejudice and many woes of this world? We should be advocating that people "Vote Jesus values" with special attention to Jesus social agenda for the poor. I know, anything that has to do with helping the poor is considered a liberal idea. Jesus must be the most liberal rabbi in history! Robbing investors, looting of people’s bank accounts, and stealing people’s homes through real estate scams by predatory capitalists remain conservative ideas. There is no doubt in my mind that many so-called advocates for the suffering of the poor people will face a very painful sentence on the Day of Judgment. Jesus will say, "Depart from me, ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels" (St. Matthew 25:41).

It is a very bad thing for a person to lie to others. It is even more horrible for a person to lie to himself.

We Christian leaders need to get out of politics and start preparing people for more painful days ahead. Instead of stirring the pot of political discontent or worrying about the New World Order, we need to start getting our communities ready for emergency response when things really get bad. The church is supposed to be a refuge for those suffering. Each time another national disaster strikes, the church is always caught off guard unprepared. When are we going to stop all these foolishness and do what Jesus assigned us to do? If the anti-Christ will appear tomorrow, do you think our weeping over his sudden appearance will change anything? Instead of weeping in the airways about Christians losing our rights like we often do, we need to start preparing both Christians and non-Christians for how to survive in very difficult times ahead. We do people no good when we continue to use fear to goad people to donate money because the End Time is fast approaching. "Listen to my instructions! You better send your donation now, or you may miss the rapture free ride to Heaven!" Goodness Jesus! May God have mercy on the lying tongues of hypocrisy.

Right Wing Support Predatory Capitalism

Jesus supported capitalism and hated predatory capitalism. Regular capitalism allows money to circulate. Predatory capitalism milks the working class and caused money to stop circulating leading to economic crisis. This was exactly what caused the Wall Street to crash because of greed. The rich people claim they are not rich enough. They have to milk the working class. Today, many legitimate businesses have built "Bogus Red Flags" into their operation to milk the customers. Your alarm company will tell you something is wrong with your system when the system is working fine. They want you to ask for a service call so they can charge you hundreds of dollars over bogus alarm. Your plumber can fix one thing and damage another like the shady car repair man so they can come back and rip you off some more. If you ask a company to take automatic deduction out of your bank account for certain insurance payments, do not be surprised when they remove ten times as much from your account. There are so many ways legitimate businesses are secretly stealing money from their customers, and they have no shame. I believe one day, God is going to strike with fire from Heaven on these thieves!

Sadly, the Right Wing Extremists have condoned all these shady businesses for the sake of making more profit. If they are against such practices, they should have prosecuted the Wall Street looters, Real Estate scam artists, Credit Card predators, and the list continues. Instead of protecting the consumers, they allowed an open floodgate for innocent people to be robbed by scam artists. It was the reason for their outcry for more deregulations! Wonderful Christian values!

There is no doubt in my mind that many Christian leaders who refuse to repent from this wickedness will one day fall under the crushing blows of God’s judgment. I said this for a special reason I will explain in the last section of this article. I used to be one of you – the ultra conservative Christian riding on the high horse of morality. One day, I fell off the horse!

Greatest Deception About Money

The so-called Right Wing political conservatives have lost their legs based on the election results of 2012. God reveals the truth. Money is not wealth, and wealth is not greatness. The critical deception many were made to believe failed. People, especially Christians will no longer believe this lie because God allows people to see the truth. The greatest lie that was perpetuated by the Right Wing Extremists was the false notion that "Money is Wealth and Wealth is Greatness." Many people believed that lie. For such reason, a millionaire is never satisfied with what he has. We never teach people to live a life of contentment, but a life of excess. The rich man needs more and more money. While his neighbor is struggling to pay his mortgage and feed his children, the rich man is gambling his money away in casinos and with wayward women for entertainment.

There was a conversation in my Bible class in December 2012 initiated by a businessman against taxing the richer people. I had to control my emotions because I was livid. I tried not to offend God. Where did the so-called rich people get their money? That was the first question in my heart. Some of them worked hard and many were involved in the greatest robbery in the Wall Street, and others involved in shady business of ripping people off. They made away with the people’s money and left them weeping. They asked for billions of dollars for bailout money funded by the people. Yet, they are unwilling to pay their share of taxes because they are the rich elite. So, we have to go back to the same people who have been robbed, the same people who bailed out the big businesses, the same people who are losing their homes; we want them to pay more taxes while reducing their benefits because God’s conscience has departed from the heart of many. I placed a question before one of the Christians who raised the argument against the rich paying their fair share of taxes. I said, "If you need money, will you go to a person who owes you money and struggling to make ends meet, or you will go to your other friend who is a millionaire?

It appears as though we have lost our compassion for those that are suffering because we think having a lot of money is what defines greatness. We tend to forget what Jesus said about the deceitfulness of riches. There was a rich man who died in his mansion a couple of years ago. He had a housekeeper who took a month’s off on vacation. The rich man distanced himself from family members because he was too afraid somebody was going to take his money. He trusted no family members. When he died, he stayed in his mansion for weeks, till his domestic help came to find him. This rich man had a bank account of $20 million. He was found with most of his body parts eaten by the dogs and cats in the house because the animals were hungry. Despite his money, his body because feast for the beasts. At his funeral, none of his family members showed up. Fight broke out when these family members found out after the funeral that the rich man died with millions of dollars in his bank account. Many rich people have died with drug abuse needles in their arms. We still want to fool ourselves that having money defines greatness!

Some people who committed suicide after their loss from the Wall Street believed in the false notion that money is wealth, and wealth is greatness. When God injured the dollar after the Wall Street crashed, people started looking for other ways to invest their money. Some were running after gold, others were looking at some precious metals because the Wall Street gamblers failed the people. True Christians know the truth and the secret about wealth based on the Word of God.

"But thou shall remember the Lord thy God for it is he that gives thee power to get wealth" (Deuteronomy 8:18).

If God is the one that gives power to get wealth through his anointing, the Wall Street failure has nothing to do with the buried wealth in a believer. Therefore Wall Street cannot destroy the wealth that is buried in a person. After all the Satan did to Job, did he recover from the deceptions of the devil? If wealth is money, or the material possessions we have, Job would have been unable to recover after the devil finished doing his damage on him. God stretched out his hand and ignited the anointing buried in Job. He recovered from his loss, and was far better than he started. The secret of God’s wealth is buried inside each person through God’s anointing. If you trust in the Lord, no matter what the devil takes from you, total recovery is God’s assurance for you.

I Used to be a Slave to Ideology – The Christian Ultra Conservative

I grew up in a very strict Christian home. I went to many Christian training camps from the time I was in high school and throughout my teenage years. I tried to live by basic principles and adherence to Christian values even though I saw some people who I believed fell by the way sides of such virtues. I was like a Christian police officer who was judging and condemning my teenage friends about smoking and drinking and other social activities I believed were contrary to the standard of a good Christian life. I was so strict by my adherence to such principles; I ended injuring my own soul.

The first test of my resilience came when I encountered a relationship problem in college. The first person in my life I ever loved beside my parents disappointed me. Her cheating was not as painful as the experience unraveled my entire concept of my "holier than thou" attitude. I saw myself emotionally crushed and vulnerable. I used to be the one that pointed accusing fingers at others who were doing wrong under the banner of Christ’s virtues. My strongest virtue of a good Christian had been challenged while I was in college. I fell off the bandwagon of my Christian values. I wept for so many days because sin had destroyed my sacred object of love. How could God have allowed this to happen to me? As if this was not enough, the only son that came out of the relationship also died. I started to search for answers. I felt that my garden of love once decorated with red roses were flooded with sewer. The beauty was gone! I was in emotional pain buried secretly in me for many years while in college. My search would take me five years into the jungle of human motivations, emotions, and desires carrying my Bible with me. I had to learn and understand why human determination failed at the peak of flaming and intense unfulfilled sexual desire while ignoring the painful consequences.

In the process of searching for answers, I quickly learned that I was very naïve about the realities of life. My strict standard as a good Christian was not the issue, but the reality of living strictly by them created another problem. I saw the failure and the consequences in a lover. I could not live a righteous life without being totally dependent on Christ. I started to question what life was all about because the pain of romantic betrayal was very injurious to my soul. My heart bled for so many years as I wept silently in pain. My strict Christian conservative ideology did not help me, but dragged me closer to the edge of death due to shame and despair. Why me Lord? I asked God that question many times. I received an answer. God said, "If not you, who else, so my glory can be revealed through you?" When I received such answer in the 1970s in the midst of my personal crisis, I thought I had lost my mind. But, God was right. I learn that we can never live a righteous life by ourselves without our dependence on the Lord Jesus Christ. The Christian values I set for myself cannot be sustained in my power. The failure of a lover to adhere, or keep those principles is a reflection of the weakness of humanity displayed vividly before me.

I stopped persecuting other people and learned to have a better understanding of their failures, and many of mine would follow. As a Christian, I stopped condemning others. I could no longer raise the flag of my "holier than thou" any longer, because that same flag became a painful reminder about the weakness of human nature. The painful experience revealed to me the truth about the realities of life. And I have to accept the truth if my life’s journey has to continue. That reality helped me to understand that life is not about white or black, right or wrong. There are different shades in between. I never walked away from the church. I was never on drugs, or do any crazy things some people do today in the street. I was just a choirboy in the midst of the storms of life. The storms were the needed ingredients that shaped my life for the journey God placed before me to serve other people in humility. I learn to be less critical and judgmental of others because through them I can see the frailty of my own human nature in the failures of others. I learned through this painful journey that we tend to hear the voice of God the loudest in the midst of our storms, especially when the ego is bruised and our personal ambitions shattered.

One of the greatest blessings God gave me following this painful experience was the gift of another younger lady who became my wife. She replanted my garden of decay, and replaced it with the vineyard of roses. Through the grace of God and his mercy, I learned to trust and love again - - that’s a true story of God’s forgiveness and mercy.

Finally, I learned the reason why human desire is the source of most sins. This is the greatest lesson I learned from the spiritual point of view. God created free man and woman in the Garden of Eden even though they were still growing in spirit and understanding. The devil came to the garden through deception and stole their freedom. Satan invaded the human soul and contaminated it at the level of his desires. The devil altered the human DNA and introduced the DNA of the demon. Consequently, all human desires of the flesh from that day on were subjected not only to excesses, but perversion and depravity. This unholy invasion of the human soul left man as a slave of his desires chained to the desires of the devil. The devil not only took dominion from man. He introduced illicit desires because he needed worship. As long as we embrace the devil’s desires, we become worshippers at his demonic shrine of satanic desires. Through man the devil fulfills daily his illicit desires because he has no physical body. This is how the devil uses us to get back at God! Because of the problem created by the devil, God sent his Son to take back man’s dominion from the devil and give back to man in a process of reconciling man back to God. That was why Jesus said, "I did not come to condemn the world, but through me the world can be saved" (St. John 3:17). Jesus knew the tricks the devil played on both Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Adam blamed it on God. Eve blamed it on the serpent. In reality neither Adam nor Eve took responsibility for the original sin. Because of this accusation against God, he decided to take the punishment for the original sin through his Son. He is a just God! That was why Jesus said, "If I did not come to preach to them, they would have no sin" (St. John 15:22). Jesus came on a rescue mission to set us free from the bondage imposed by the enemy of God. If we understand that illicit sexual adventures keep man in bondage and a slave to Satan, why do we choose to celebrate such a lifestyle? The devil already contaminated human desires. Why do we need to embrace such abomination when it violates the basic principles of human existence and his sacred relationship with God? Jesus came to set us free from the shackles imposed by the devil. Are you willing to be free?

The worse life a person can live is to become a slave to his own selfish desires and ideology. I have learned over the years that living a life of personal fulfillment is a recipe for sadness, depression, and lack of fulfillment. It tends to leave you empty. You will eventually crash into depression. However, letting Jesus live his life through you becomes the most fulfilling adventures of life for God’s purpose.

To my fellow conservative Christians, the purpose of the Great Commission is not to build walls, but to go and preach the gospel message to all people. Jesus did not ask us to go on a journey of finger pointing sinners, or building walls against them as we have been doing. Look into the mirror. You are no better than the sinners on the street. "Your righteousness is like filthy rags before God" (Isaiah 64:6). Isn’t it so interesting that we can easily see the physical filthy rags of the homeless, but unable to see the sewer of spiritual rags enshrouding our souls? Jesus asked us to preach the Good News of eternal salvation despite the soul invasion of the devil inside human soul. The Holy Spirit keeps the demonic desires under control in a true believer. Until the day we leave this world, the struggle with sins continues. But, we can still live a life of virtue for Christ in spite. There is no reason to make mockery of other people because of their failures. Our compassion for others regardless to their sins is one of the greatest virtues Jesus taught us as Christians. That was why he went to the cross. Nobody can live a righteous life alone except through the Holy Spirit and the grace of God. If you seek and embrace the peace of God in your heart, you will learn to love others, even sinners like you.

I realized later the tenet of political conservatism even within Christianity is a façade. When I faced painful challenges of life, the emotional pain beat me into submission. I learned that life is not just about the ideology or the philosophy I cooked up in my head. The outcome of my rigid position based on my own conservative ideology almost cost me my life in the midst of life challenges. I learned to have more respect for those who disagree with me because such disagreements taught me how to negotiate. I tend to learn more from such people than those who agree with me. If I learned more from people who disagree with me, why then do I need to distance myself from them? The false notion about political conservatism is that life is about my own rigid personal ideologies because my position is superior to that of others. Such ideology echoes the arrogance of pride, selfishness, and ignorance. Subsequently, such position left me with no opportunity to negotiate with others, because I was fooling myself that I was better than others. The Lord led me through shocking realization that I was not.

Notwithstanding, I refused to diminish the value of my Christian teachings on the altar of political gains. The political doctrine of conservatism is a false notion, leaving no room for negotiation. If continuously protecting the rich to rip off the rest of the population is a conservative idea, we play into the hands of the devil! Such position left me morally empty in fairness to my conscience. In life, we learn to live and let live, while we negotiate with others, even those with different political ideologies. Refusing to see the merits of other people’s position is the illusion that the façade of conservatism is real. But it is a trumped up illusion. The ideology of political conservatives is based on greed, selfishness, deception, and the arrogance of power. Their greater good is for the few, while the larger population is left in tears. The disciples of Jesus did not die for the false notion about God preached by Jesus. They preached and died for the truth. That was why Jesus said, "I am the truth!" They did not die for a fictitious image a group of people created to look good in the public while the truth is buried in the backyard of their political hypocrisy.

Jesus’ visit to the sinful woman at the well broke all kinds of political and social boundaries so he could offer the woman and her people, the gift of eternal salvation. If Jesus went this far to rescue sinners and even lost his life in the process, why do we think distancing ourselves from sinners has any God virtue?

By Yinka Vidal, author, Closer Walk With Jesus