Republicans' misuse of our faith to rally voters for their reactionary agenda is hurting us all!
Channel: Papa Daddy Unscripted
Date: 2022-10-20

Since news broke that Herschel Walker allegedly paid for an abortion, Republicans in Georgia have turned to the gospel of Jesus for damage control. In a new ad that does not deny the allegations, Walker talks about his personal struggle with mental health and claims victory "by the grace of God."

I have no doubt that God's grace is big enough for Herschel Walker on a personal level. But Walker has a bigger problem: He has embraced a policy agenda that has no mercy for the people Jesus talked about the most.

When critics point out that Walker is an anti-abortion candidate who allegedly paid for an abortion, they often describe him with a word that Jesus uses in the Gospels: They call him a hypocrite. What most critics mean, of course, is that there is a basic contradiction in saying you want to outlaw a form of reproductive healthcare that you have used yourself. But Jesus uses the word hypocrite in a more precise way.

"Woe unto you hypocrites,"he says in Matthew's gospel, "for you tithe mint, dill, and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith."

In the tradition of the Hebrew prophets, Jesus focused his condemnation not on people who didn't live up to their own commitments, but on those who misused religion to whitewash evil deeds while missing the point of mercy and justice for all.

I believe that when it comes to complex personal health care decisions, a pregnant woman should be able to choose the health care that's best for her and her family. Of course, not every Christian agrees on this point. But Christians do agree that broken people in a broken world often do not live up to the standards we set for ourselves. It's as true of us as it is of Herschel Walker.

The gospel of Jesus has plenty of mercy for everyone, but that same mercy must shape how we treat our neighbors in public life.