GOP Lawmaker: American Churches Are “Basically Dead” (But Not Conservative Ones)

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Republican conspiracy theorist and publicity hound who was banned from sitting on any House committees because of her repeated calls for violence against her colleagues, is now mocking churches that aren’t conservative enough.

On Sunday, Greene delivered a speech at the 412 Murrieta Church in Murrieta, California where she praised the conservative church for its activism while condemning all other churches as ineffective and “dead.”

… Here’s what I found out by visiting today: You’re a church that is walking and living and speaking through your faith in Jesus Christ as your savior, but the church all over America is silent. Our church is complacent. Our church is not the living breathing body of Christ. The church is basically dead.

… And this is why we have the America we have. This is why we live in a country that’s murdered over 62 million people in the womb.

Nothing like a Christian extremist citing the death of her own faith because too many other churches take the words of Jesus seriously…

Also, leave it to a “pro-lifer” to cite lost fetuses while denying the reality of COVID, which has killed over 4 million people worldwide.

But some context is helpful here because she’s praising this church for living its faith. What does that look like in action? Oliver Willis of The American Independent gives us some background on this not-dead church:

The church, led by Pastor Tim Thompson, recently hosted sermons on “the sin of homosexuality” and referred to activism against climate change as “the sin of earth worship.”

The church has also attacked vaccination from COVID-19, with the video of the sermon against vaccination now removed from YouTube for violating that site’s community guidelines.

In May of 2020, the church held services at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in violation of state regulations enacted to stop the spread of the virus.

In a video interview with the Sacramento Bee, Thompson stood in front of a banner depicting California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom as Adolph Hitler and compared Newsom’s pandemic policies to Nazi Germany.

This is what passes for good Christianity among conservatives like Greene.

It’s also fitting that Greene is supporting a guy who makes insane Holocaust references just weeks after she issued an apology for doing the exact same thing herself… after which she just went ahead and did it again.

All that said, I wish she were right about churches but anyone who’s been paying attention knows all too well how much power and influence they have — and how many of those churches have used that power to hurt as many people as possible. The pandemic continues hurting people because of pastors treating COVID restrictions as a threat to their “religious freedom.” Sexual abuse cases have never ended because of pastors who slut-shame victims while shielding the culprits. Civil rights legislation is stymied because of pastors who insist discrimination is a part of their faith. (In that same speech, Greene complained about how “transgenders can go into women’s bathrooms”… which isn’t proper grammar or an accurate description of policy.)

So, no, churches aren’t dead. But the sort of churches Greene says are alive do indeed have a lot of sway, for all the wrong reasons. And Greene is an elected official who gets away with her right-wing extremism because virtually no one in the Republican Party has the courage to call out her bullshit.

(Thanks to Richard for the link)