In order to push back, in both religion and in politics, we have to get over our addiction to the “easy fix.” It’s not only a lie, but in the case of November 5th’s election, it’s straightforward escapism — evading the real issues at hand in order to avoid any personal responsibility.
Bluntly speaking, American Christianity has jumped the shark.* It has been co-opted, hijacked, and derailed.
There are exceptions, but for the most part, the way of following Jesus in the U.S. has become reduced to an overly personalized, private state of mind that involves individuals giving intellectual assent to certain truth claims – believing X, Y, and Z about Jesus and God – instead of a state of mind and a collective way of being that is about becoming less anxious, more serene, more mindful, and more composed and intentional in our actions and way of being. This American form of Christianity still involves living in fear instead of living in faith.