Fiction can be a reflection of reality, good or bad. But, in reality, what faces do we wear to identify ourselves, morally, and ideologically? Are those faces also fiction?
Men like Donald Trump and Roy Moore identify themselves as Christian. Those who vote for them identify themselves that way, hailing a return to "family values" when their candidates win.
Family values? Really? Accusations of sexual misconduct seem to have little or no effect on the voters. They either deny the allegations or shrug off the significance thereof, citing Biblical passages and examples.
Trump is flawed, but like Mary Magdellan, he can be God's instrument, despite himself.
Roy Moore may have raped a 14-year-old girl, but so what? Mary, Mother of God was of such an age when she married Joseph.
Even self-declared evangelicals have supported Trump, a double divorcee, adulterer and self-proclaimed molester of women.
Clearly, family values are not the true values of the segments of the contemporary population that vote for such men. No, not even of those who claim to value Christianity above all. What then are the defining values of that crowd? What values are clearly manifest in men like Trump and Moore?
Is it their maverick-like rebel status against the established order? Their machismo? Their blatant homophobia and misogyny? Their racism? Their religious bigotry? Moore seems to have gotten a big boost in the polls by virtue of the fact the mainstream Republican establishment has rejected him.
A major defining value then, in so-called Millenarian Christian right-wing conservatives is their rejection of the established order. The so-called "elites." What they seem to want is mob rule. Everyone who looks and prays as they do should be dominant. Tribalism fueled by cynicism and complete alienation is their creed. Morality in any true sense of the word, has nothing to do with it. Unless you define morality exclusively as denying all human rights to homosexuals and robbing women of the right to control their own bodies. Molesting teenaged girls, that's okay. Greed, materialism and lying? Also okay. Nazis and Klansmen? Perfectly okay, as long as they apply for a parade permit.
As with any other ideology, the so-called "Christian" right reveals its true face when it is dominant. And, it 'aint pretty.
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