Yesterday, at the NO KINGS rally in my hometown, I ended up talking with some evangelical Christians who frequently show up at public events, to lead people to salvation through Christ.
I’ve talked with them before and I am almost certain that I will do so again, especially if they inappropriately show up at another public event, sporting microphones and a Bluetooth speaker.
I tried reasoning with them; explaining that there are more productive ways of sharing the good news than to blast a message that completely ignores the reason people have assembled and competes for their attention in a setting where competition is both disruptive and unwelcome.
I tried to explain that they have a better chance of reaching someone if they were to share their own experience, one on one, with someone who was open to listening. I explained that blasting people with scripture and judgments then walking away, leaves behind nothing but animosity and contempt; this is, in part, why churches are losing numbers instead of increasing their impact.
My attempts to reach them were futile, as they continually changed the subject to fallacious conclusions about the nature of the gathering. The rally had nothing to do with religion, save for the fact that we currently have a wannabe authoritarian dictator in the White House, who is attempting to turn our country into a fascist theocracy. Yet, they chose to use the name and focus of the NO KINGS rally to make a contrary point that “In fact, we do have a King and his name is Jesus.”
They claimed that the whole world was in ruins because people were allowed too many personal liberties (my translation, not their words). They kept changing the subject to their standard issue talking points: LGBTQIA+, abortion, the infallibility of their particular version of the Bible, the evils of any belief system that doesn’t follow their set of narrowly defined rules and practices, how it was acceptable for the indigenous peoples to be slaughtered and abused by colonizers because “they were already at war with each other before we showed up,” and that BIPOC people don’t deserve any additional considerations because they don’t experience life in the U.S. any differently than a white person and “there have been more white slaves, historically speaking, than black slaves.” (Their unconscionable words, not mine). I tried to explain that black people’s experiences, in certain situations, can be very different from what we experience but, at that point, he just went off the rails with all the standard racist talking points that he thinks will shut down the argument but only serve to highlight his own ignorance and hypocrisy.
It made me wonder how Christianity so completely lost the plot. It made me feel gross to then identify myself as a Christian when commiserating with a young man who had spoken out after having been assaulted by their uninvited and unwanted, blatantly hostile use of what should be a gospel of peace and love but was, instead used as a means of promoting authority, judgement, and shame.
In the end, I took the opportunity of being separated from them (while supporting and encouraging the aforementioned young man) to just walk away and engage with the rest of the protesters in what turned out to be a time to focus on unity, acceptance, and mutual respect, while speaking truth to power, holding our leaders accountable, and declaring that the citizens of this nation will not be silenced when human dignity and rights are on the line.
We spoke out for the marginalized and abused, we carried signs that called out hypocrisy, we spent time together as a community; supporting, listening to, accepting, defending, and lifting each other up, and with our words we flipped more than a few tables.
I think Jesus would be proud.
~ elr
Image: ID 190692009 © Wirestock | Dreamstime.com | NOTE: The image is not indicative of the people referred to in the article. It is a photo of a Christian fundamentalist in an Albany, New York park, from 2020.