James Talarico

But to focus on those two things instead of feeding the hungry and healing the sick and welcoming the stranger, three things we're told to do ad nauseum in Scripture, to me is just mind-blowing.

You're preaching to the choir.

Absolutely.

Concern for the poor, concern for the oppressed is everywhere.

I mean, economic justice is mentioned 3,000 times in our scriptures, both the New Testament and the Hebrew scriptures.

So this is such a core part of our tradition, and it's nowhere to be seen in Christian nationalism or on the religious right.

And the Bible is all over the place when it comes to marriage.

Paul tells us not to get married.

Certainly many different kinds of marriages throughout Scripture.

And the same with gender.

Paul says that in Christ there is neither male nor female.

which is pretty woke for the first century, you know?

So yeah, again, it's because religion is being used to control people and accumulate power and wealth for those at the top.

This is a tale as old as time, and it is not unique to Christianity.

Powerful people will always see religion as a tool to make more money and be able to keep people in line.

You can define it a lot of different ways.

I define it as the worship of power in the name of Christ.

I define it that way because I want us to see it as part of a very long tradition.

How do they define it?

They being the people who would self-identify with it.