Faux-Christianity: A Fight to Redefine being Christian

As Christmas stands just three days away, families are soon to gather to celebrate a holiday commonly associated with the Christian faith. Of course this is one of several holidays the Catholic Church rebranded from its true Pagan origins to reinforce the tale concerning its savior's birth. In Christmas's case, this was taken from the Pagan holiday, Yule. During this time, we emphasize the embrace of ideals of worldly peace and joyful tidings, but is this true of all those who practice the Christian faith? For some Christians in America especially, this holy night is their opportunity to claim brownie points for a religion which stresses values rarely practiced in their daily lives. There stands perhaps no other nation in the Christian world that altars a religion so fervently as a means to fit their own, intolerant views. This is an explanation of a personal term I label as ''Faux-Christianity,'' and how it found itself to be the predominant front of Christian faith in the US.

Before I elaborate, a disclaimer: I fully acknowledge that this will not apply to all christians residing in America. I myself have befriended Christians who hold values such as tolerance and acceptance near and dear to their hearts. It is, unfortunately, from my observation that these Christians seem only to make up for 1/3 of those in the US who claim to follow this ancient faith.

First stands the elephant in the room: how American Christians warp the tenants of Christianity in order to support their own bigoted and prejudice views. One way or another, we've all seen the elk of this malicious hijacking of the Christian faith. Whether that be the symbol of the cross hang from the necks of proclaimed neo-nazis, spouting their beliefs of white supremacy, the devout reinforcing their hatred of those stricken by poverty or born of a different sexuality, or those who'll pray for children around the world come Christmas dinner as children are entrapped in cages and torn from the arms of their mothers. The second example most notably stressing the hypocrisy in American followers, and how so many willingly put into power an administration with a historic prerogative to condemn those born without a preferred skin color or sexual orientation.

Second, for so many Faux-Christians their faith is blindly intertwined with their political affiliation. Mind you in instances such as conservative christians, this is convenient as their front of religion seamlessly aligns with their political ideals. This of course is flawed in the fact that like elements such as intellectualism, it acknowledges no race, sex or political ideology. Though this is simply not the case for Faux-Christians. The weaponizing of the Christian faith is one of the most common found ingredients in those who identify with the radical right. You see these communities bolster the right's hold on electorates in the South and in communities where red-voting individuals maintain a strong presence. This marriage between warped Christianity and right-identifing voters has in modern times become a reliable identifier. Of course not all conservatives within the US enter into this union, although sadly they seldom speak out against those who elect to do so.

Third, a skill Faux-Christians have progressively mastered as time passed is developing a blind eye to tenants that inhibit their embrace of prejudice. Despite identifying as Atheist, the fact all religions have an abundance of admirable values they advocate for has not gone unnoticed by myself. This is something, however, for the sake of existence of their malicious beliefs, must be ignored in its entirety. The book of Saint Peter as many know contains a great deal of passages advocating for acceptance and embrace among all people, regardless of their backgrounds. Given these passages rejection of the bigoted traits so many hold close, Faux-Christians actively ''white-out'' these verses, so that their own personalized version of Christianity may remain undisturbed. And so with their much slimmer version of the Holy Book, they carry on with their self-perceptions of what it means to be a Christian living in America.

Fourth, and one of the most sickening traits of Faux-Christians, is their false campaign of using children to justify their intolerant and bigoted beliefs. The most recent instance of this occurred not a couple week's ago, when Conservative Right Christian group ''One Million Moms'', identified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, attacked Hallmark for airing a commercial featuring a kiss between two brides. Their grievances were based on them having to explain to their children why two women would be sharing a kiss, as well as companies dictating family values. To the obvious eye of course, this objection was rooted in their inability to explain to little Bobby and Lucie that mommy's a bigot. To avoid having this understandably uncomfortable family discussion, their base masks their incapacity to raise tolerant children by using them as shields to protect them from viewing a reality outside their own preference. These cases of prejudice rise to the threshold of involuntarily indoctrination at its lowest, and to mental abuse of children's mentality at its peak. God forbid the children of these parents discover themselves to be LGBT, as it will mark a lifelong journey of identity complications and issues of self-worth.

So after all this elaborating on the pandemic of Faux-Christianity in America and how it has taken a stronghold in our culture, I have one question above all others. Where are those 1 out of 3 true Christians I mentioned earlier? Why do you step aside, allowing these pretenders to darken the light of your faith? I know it's there. I've seen it in the faces of those I befriended and hold close. I've heard its assurance in the voices of friends who welcome those different from themselves with open arms. Help us. Rise up and make your presence known and your voices heard. Let those who are targeted by your prejudiced counterparts know that they are not the representatives of the faith you love. Don't let them distort the image of your beliefs and steal the spotlight. So please, whenever you can, wherever you are, don't let Faux-Christianity become this era's defining lens in our culture. We need you more than you know.