The fruit of the poisonous tree isn’t getting any safer to eat

I’ve written before about how I now see conservative Christian theology as the fruit of a poisonous tree: misogyny taints it root and branch and no good fruit can grow from something so toxic. The same is true of white evangelical racism which has been around a long time.

Baptist pastor John MacArthur, for instance, recently declared Martin Luther King was not a Christian. Not coincidentally MacArthur believes in the curse of Ham, that black people are doomed to inferior status and slavery by God. I’m sure he insists that his view is totally Biblical but all I can hear is a racist interpreting the Bible to suit his views. His treatment of women abused by their spouses isn’t what I’d call moral, either. But it’s not atypical. It’s the same belief that men should dominate women that fuels their claims embryos are people. Or that rape is the women’s fault — Pastor Bobby Leonard says if he were on a rape jury and the victim wore shorts, he’d vote to acquit because boys will be boys. He later said he was wrong — points for that though I don’t believe his apology is sincere. Oh, Marjorie Taylor Greene’s quite judgy about women’s clothes too.

It’s also tainted by the belief Vaclav Havel wrote about in Power of the Powerless, that when a government claims it wields power by right, because it has truth on its side, it cannot tolerate dissent. Havel was speaking of communism but it’s also true of theocracy. I’m not surprised Justice Tom Parker, who delivered the Frozen Embryos Are People believes Christians should run everything. Nor that he claims this is what God wants, even though many religious people disagree.

And of course, some people’s theology is shitty because the tree is poisoned by the shitty things they do. If Southern Baptist leader Johnny Hunt, as alleged, raped a woman, it’s hardly surprising the SBC was so happy covering up for pastoral predators. Fish rots from the head. A rapist or child molester in power is bad but covering it up warps everyone around them (and denies the victims justice, and allows for more predation). Unsurprisingly Hunt claims even if he did it (he’s dismissed it as “awkward fondling”) it’s nobody’s business.

There’s plenty of misogyny and racism in the secular world too but I think there’s something more toxic when you claim punching down at women and POC (and gays, trans people etc.) is what God wants. And when the people who claim to be moral leaders are guilty of what they preach against, they deserve to be shamed.