I was taught in the Church as a child to treat everyone justly as individuals. Be merciful, I was told, even when people do wrong. It’s a universal (Catholic) Church with great diversity. I learned this from the Creeds weekly but also in sermons and Sunday school. Sure, when someone does wrong, consequences can be appropriate, but restoration and reconciliation is our hope for others (not just ourselves when we sin).
Meanwhile after this election, A President Trump adviser, Laura Loomer, declared on X, “America was always intended to be a majority White country. Not a cesspool for third world minorities. America was founded as a Christian country. Not a Muslim country.” She reposted a video of someone saying, “America didn’t just go blue, it went brown.”
This is not Christ-like in any way. Perfect love casts out fear (1John 4:18), but this kind of politics is fear-based – overt racism and xenophobia – clumping certain people together as “bad.” In 2025, I had someone even write me that God approved slavery in the Bible. What blindness! Where’s the condemnation from the pulpits for such statements?
Not enough is being heard for what is so easily come across online from people claiming faith in Christ. A large segment of the Church in the US sadly looks the other way because of desired political ends. They confess this at times. It’s not my lone judgment. Yet even if we are persecuted in Christ’s name, facing death, Jesus asked us to respond in love. And if we are already victorious because of what Christ did and will do (Romans 8:37), why let fear define our actions.
As a pastor, would I like to have everyone share faith in Jesus Christ? Yes, it changed my life for the good and it still is transforming me. It has brought much joy and many deep friendships. Yet, the idea that we can force others to live by our beliefs or become Christian by obligation or threat as some with access to the White House profess openly is counter to the Way of Christ. Any political thought that castigates humans as sub-human or irredeemable is an enemy of the Gospel. It is not biblical but requires the Church to respond clearly – yes, while hoping for their repentance, not destruction.
Such views are always counter to Christ’s teaching who himself would have historically been of color and ministered to all – Gentile and Jew, representatives of the Empire and those marginalized including the worst of sinners. Jesus came to draw all people to himself (John 12:32), and yet some claiming Christ want nothing to do with those who disagree with them or who look or worship differently.
Martin Luther is said to have argued, “Anyone who is to find Christ must first find the Church. How could anyone know where Christ is and what faith is in him unless he knew where his believers are?” Drawing lines between “us” and “them” is both concretely and potentially eternally hurtful to our neighbors and the Gospel. To deny the humanity of others, people created in God’s image, in word or deed is sin.
To argue and campaign for one’s values is one thing, not evil in and of itself even if one is wrong, but how we do so can be profoundly evil. Fear of others doesn’t wash this sin away, but it usually magnifies it. Certainly fear at times can protect us from dangers, but like any emotion (all gifts from God), it can lead us far astray. We can get stuck without realizing it or be led to accept a false Gospel.
As a Christian, we are asked to turn to Christ in one’s fears or sins, not run away from him like Adam and Eve in the garden. Love all those he died for as best as one can, recognizing the cost (Luke 14:28). And when we struggle with love. Confess it and ask the Spirit for help. We might stumble, but we won’t fall…because Jesus loves us too.
© 2026 The Rev. Louis Florio. All content not held under another’s copyright may not be used without permission of the author unless under terms of fair use and properly attributed. Scripture passages when used are from the NRSVue translation unless otherwise indicated.
