A memo to Roy Moore

I don’t much trust evangelical Christians, for any number of reasons: first of all, the “evangelical” part of their religion makes them pushy bullies. I suppose it’s because they feel they have a “mission” to spread the word. Well, lots of people don’t believe in their religion, including me, and we object to them trying to mess with our Constitution.

Secondly, the Bible is so clearly a made-up fairy tale that I have to doubt the intellectual capacity of anyone who takes it literally–which evangelicals supposedly do. These are the same people who believe the world is 5,778 years old (by the Hebrew reckoning), that Noah’s Flood created the Grand Canyon, that evolution is a hoax, and that Adam and Eve played with dinosaurs in the Garden of Eden.

Evangelicals clearly don’t believe in the Constitutional separation of church and state. Why else would they always be trying to shape the laws of the U.S. according to their prejudices? Their war on woman (no abortion, no contraception), their war on the LGBTQ community (no gay marriage, no gay adoption, etc.) and their war on science (global warming is fake) all come from an anti-intellectualism that is deeply troubling–something I’d expect from the Taliban. The worst, most destructive social movement in America, IMHO, is evangelical Christianity and its associated trinity of male dominance, homophobia and white supremacy.

And now, we have this delightful little man, Roy Moore, down in Alabama, who wants to be the next Republican Senator. He’s an evangelical, and one of the worst of the genre. Evangelical Christians are famous for the way they preach “family values” and then, when they’re on the down-low, they frequent prostitutes and men’s rooms, where they practice their perversions under the cloak of anonymity. In fact, after all the scandals of the last thirty years, you can almost bet that the loudest, most moralizing evangelicals are doing something nasty in the dark. We now know that Roy Moore is following in the footsteps of Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggert, Ted Haggard, Larry Craig, Mark Sanford and the rest of the adulterers, pedophiles and molesters in the Republican Party.

That Moore is guilty as charged is obvious even to the likes of Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan and Sean Hannity, Republicans all. It’s not that they care if and when one of their own is a sexual predator–if they did, they’d turn on the current president. But they do care when the scandal is so disgusting, and the evidence so compelling, that they can’t explain it away. Roy Moore is clearly guilty and hypocritical. Even his fellow tea party conservatives are denouncing him.

So where does a disgraced, lying predator, who happens to be evangelical, turn to for help? To his fellow evangelicals, of course. That’s exactly what Moore did, when he spoke at a Baptist church and once again lied about his past sexual battery. Not only that, but he borrowed from the Trump playbook by making statements that were so outrageously untrue and stupid, they make you shake your head in amazement. “I’m the only one that can unite Democrats and Republicans,” he told his cheering fans–an assertion that leaves Democrats wondering what alternative universe Moore lives in.

What these deranged Christians always do is invoke the word “God” to justify their aberrant behavior, and to appeal to the infantile emotionalism of their supporters. America needs to “go back to the recognition of God,” Moore claimed, thereby putting God on notice that worshipping Her and being a Republican are the same thing. And, judging by the latest polls, Moore’s Christian allies may be buying what he’s peddling. In some, he’s up over his Democratic opponent, proving that, for Alabama evangelical Republicans, no behavior, no matter how illegal or repugnant, matters, as long as political power can be seized, and their Christian agenda furthered.

It may not be entirely fair for me, a Jew whose religious outlook is decidedly New Agey, to criticize evangelicals. So be it: I criticize them anyway. These people are fools. They are dangerous. They wouldn’t leave Roy Moore, or Trump for that matter, alone with their daughters. They have sold away their God-given intelligence, preferring instead to believe in superstitious nonsense. They are stubborn as mules; somewhere deep down inside, they know how insidious Moore and his ilk are. They know that, if Moore were a Democrat, they’d demand his lynching. They know that, if Trump were a Democrat, they’d be screaming for his impeachment, trial and imprisonment. They know that their rural communities, whose Christian neighborliness they always brag about, are riven with adultery, drug addiction, furtive homosexuality, sexual molestation, child abuse and wife- beating. They know that some of their preachers do terrible things to children, and they know that the pillars of the Republican establishment, the McConnells, Ryans and Trumps, are about as Christian as Pontius Pilate. They know these things, but they don’t care. Users and cheaters like Roy Moore know they can do anything, say anything, tell any lie, and they will still have that rock-solid base of support.

So, Mister Roy Moore, you opened the door to what’s happening to you when you claimed to be a virtuous man, knowing that your past has been dirty and cruel. And now, it’s caught up to you. I hope you’re enjoying it, Sir, because it’s only going to get worse, until you go away and disappear back into the sordidness you came from.