While speaking with one of my mentoring clients recently it occurred to me that most evangelical Christians are incredibly tolerant.
Of God, I mean.
Indeed, the tolerance exhibited by the faithful toward God is virtually limitless. Can he lay waste to entire civilizations? Sure! Can he sanction rape and slavery? Why not? Can he orchestrate the brutal deaths of dozens of children because they made fun of his bald prophet? You bet!
You see, episodes such as these (and there are plenty more where these came from) are accepted — and in some cases reveled in — by believers, despite how maniacally diabolical they make God appear to be. The reason for this acquiescence and revelry is subtle but important:
God can be forgiven for any atrocity, as long as he never looks weak.
Think about it: What kind of God would he be if his people committed war crimes without his knowledge or consent? What deity worthy of the “Omnipotent” label simply would sit idly by while his followers straight-up genocided a bunch of heathen nations without his seal of approval?
How limp-wristed, passive, and un-American.
That’s right, I went there. Is it any surprise that this country’s evangelicals have chosen a president created in the image of the God they have also created? Is it any wonder that, like the flag-waving cage-fighter Jesus that Bible Belt- and Confederacy-dwelling Christian Nationalists worship, they have also given us a Commander in Chief who can be as much of an unhinged asshole as he wants as long as he’s not a weakling?
Turn away the refugees that our foreign policy created? OK! Sell off our healthcare to Goldman Sachs? No problem! Grab ‘em by the pussy? Yee-haw!
Just don’t look weak while doing it.
For my part, cage fights are base and brutal, and omnipotence is overrated. But until America’s faithful learn to tolerate the folly of weakness and forgive the absurdity of nonviolence (especially as exhibited at, oh I don’t know, the Cross), we will be stuck with leaders as bloodthirsty as the God they supposedly represent.
