I’ll admit that I was a Republican until 2016. Perhaps this is expected given the above chart above and that I was raised Mormon. But I switched when Trump became the candidate and I just assumed that many others would do the same – I was obviously very wrong.

Re-reading the gospels makes it clear that while Jesus was neither a Republican nor a Democrat (those parties didn’t exist in Jesus’s time), He taught liberal views more than conservative ones. For example:

• In the parable of the laborers, all laborers got paid the same for doing differing amounts of work (Matt 20:1 -16).
• He taught that we should love our enemies (Matt 5:44).
• He told a rich man to sell all that he had and to give it to the poor (Luke 18:22)
• He told the religious people that if they aren’t fighting for justice for the poor, they are unclean (Luke 11:42-44).

Most MAGAs would consider the above nothing more than woke nonsense.

In the book The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are divided by Politics and Religion (which I review and summarize here), Jonathan Haidt breaks politics down by 6 moral foundations:

• Care/harm: This is the most important trait for liberals and they tend to care about harm reduction for all. Conservatives also care about this, but not as much as liberals.
• Fairness: Liberals and conservatives both care about this, although liberals tend to care more about equality and conservatives tend to focus on proportionality (basically the opposite of the parable of the laborers).
• Liberty: Liberals and conservatives both care about this, although liberals tend to be more universalists (liberty for all) and conservatives tend to focus on liberty for their own tribe.
• Loyalty: Conservatives care about this much more than liberals.
• Authority/hierarchy: Conservatives care about this very much, while liberals often oppose it.
• Sanctity: Conservatives care about this more than liberals (who tend to be more open to new experiences).

For people who are very conservative, they care the most about authority, sanctity, and loyalty.

As liberals tend to not care as much about loyalty and sanctity, they aren’t as duty bound to attend a church as some conservatives are.

But while Jesus taught that we should treat others as equals and to be radically forgiving and non-judgmental, many modern Christians have used their beliefs to impose hierarchy and authority. They are the best because they are Christians – the true believers! And since we are saved by grace, it’s OK if they don’t do any of the actual things that Jesus told them to do (ignore the sermon on the mount) – they are already saved! And since it’s a hierarchy, it’s not enough that they go to heaven – everybody else has to be punished in hell. And since they love authority, they want the government to impose their religious beliefs onto everybody.

So if Jesus taught a bunch of liberal principles that many conservatives now seem against, how do they rationalize their religious and political views? By changing the subject to things that Jesus never talked about! Many religious conservatives that I know care about two things (almost to the exclusion of everything else): abortion and immigration.

• Abortion: While I suspect that Jesus isn’t outright pro-abortion, I’m guessing that He sees a lot more nuance in each situation. He would rather that women and children are supported rather than singling out women for punishment and withholding support for children after they are born.

• Immigration: The New Testament speaks a lot about immigration (Ephesians 2:19) and Jesus Himself was an immigrant (Matt 2:13), but they tend to focus on the “illegal” aspect of immigration (and they often treat all immigrants as illegal and undeserving). Just look at the hatred directed right now to the Haitian refugees in Ohio.

So why don’t all Christinas see this? As Jonathan Haidt says in his book, our brains did not evolve to seek truth, but rather to seek justification. If you are a member of a tribe and you value loyalty very highly, you will always find a reason to justify your belief in the tribe.