The Unholy Trinity

The Holy Trinity is a doctrine of tremendous importance to Christians of all persuasions. Unfortunately, some of them also worship the unholy trinity, and especially conservative, evangelical, and fundamentalist Christians.

The unholy trinity is the military, the police, and the Republican Party.

The military is an unholy institution.

But you wouldn’t know that in some churches because of all the military blasphemy and idolatry that takes place on Sundays, and especially on the Sundays before Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, and Veterans Day.

Any Sunday of the year you might see young persons recognized who announce their intention to join the military, prayers for the troops overseas to be kept out of harm’s way, the equating of patriotism with admiration for the military, a special military appreciation day, and the calling soldiers returning from overseas heroes. Sub Source, Carter Pag... Webb, George Buy New $9.99 (as of 05:19 UTC - Details)

On a high holy day—the Sundays before Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, and Veterans Day, and sometimes the Sundays after as well—you might see active duty military and veterans wearing their uniforms to church, the listing of the names of church members in the bulletin who are active duty military or veterans along with their branch of service, recognizing active duty military personnel and veterans—usually to thunderous applause, video tributes to the troops during the church services, military chaplain guest speakers, and the pianist playing the song of each branch of the military during the offering.

The U. S. military is a force for evil in the world. It fights unjust and unnecessary wars. It boldly goes where it has no business going. It fights undeclared wars. It bombs, invades, and occupies countries that pose no threat to the United States. It carries out an interventionist, reckless, and belligerent U.S. foreign policy. It acts as the world’s policeman. It makes widows and orphans. It fights wars of offense instead of defense. It functions as the president’s personal attack force. It destroys foreign industry, infrastructure, and culture. It fights senseless and immoral wars.

Some Christians sacrifice to send their kids to Christian schools, Christian camps, and Christian colleges, but then they turn around and send them to an unholy institution like the U.S. military.

The police is an unholy institution.

Now, although I do acknowledge that the police have taken some undeserved beatings during the past few years—and especially last year with the left-wing “Defund the Police” movement that made every black criminal shot by a white policeman a victim and the policeman a virulent racist—the militarization of the police and the rise of the warrior cop over the past few decades far overshadows any injustices that individual police officers may have suffered.

The Vitamin Cure for E... Smith Ph.D., Robert G. Best Price: $8.38 Buy New $10.39 (as of 11:43 UTC - Details) For years many conservatives have decried federal interference with local police forces and made blanket statements like “Support Your Local Police.” Yet, it is local police who forcibly extract DNA, urine, and blood from suspects; ticket motorists to meet their monthly quotas; shoot people who try to defend themselves from police brutality; conduct “no-knock” raids in the middle of the night; arrest people for victimless crimes like prostitution and gambling; deploy SWAT teams where a search warrant for drugs is being executed; drive around in unmarked vehicles to snare unsuspecting motorists; assert that someone might have a weapon as a pretense to conduct a search without any warrant, probable cause, or reasonable suspicion; conduct strip searches and body cavity searches, sometimes on the side of the road; plant evidence like weapons and drugs; lock people in cages for possessing substances that the government doesn’t approve of; operate above the law and break the laws with impunity while hiding under the Blue Code of Silence; falsifying police reports; act as judge, jury and executioner; handcuff children in elementary school for disciple problems; and conduct sting operations to entice people to commit crimes so that they can entrap them.

Last year in particular, under the guise of fighting the coronavirus “pandemic,” it was local police who ran people off of beaches and out of parks for not social distancing and dragged people into police cars for not wearing face masks. Just recently I saw that the Santa Fe New Mexico Police Department cracking down on businesses that were not enforcing the city’s face covering ordinance. The crackdown was called “Operation for Your Health and Safety.” The agency said in a news release: “The Santa Fe Police Department has consistently enforced the wearing of face coverings within the City. This operation is aimed at cracking down on businesses and areas with repeat violations.” Now, it is true that some county sheriffs and police chiefs around the country have publicly said that they will not devote their department resources to enforcing face mask ordinances (and I am sure that many more have said so privately), but these same sheriffs and chiefs have no problem devoting resources to enforcing seatbelt or helmet laws and waging war against drug possession and other victimless crimes.

And yet, conservative churches love the police. They love the police about as much as they love the military. And just like the more evil the military gets, the more that conservative Christians support it; so the more evil that the police get, the more that conservative Christians double-down on their support for the police. Some churches have “Law Enforcement Appreciation” Sundays to honor local police for keeping them safe from bad guys. Like soldiers, they are all heroes just for doing their jobs.

But they don’t call it a police state for nothing. Just as you can’t have a war without soldiers, so you can’t have a police state without police.

The Republican Party is an unholy institution.

Briful Small Fake Plan... Buy New $18.99 (as of 11:43 UTC - Details) Conservative, evangelical, and fundamentalist Christians are in bed with the Republican Party, and it is an illicit relationship. The Republican Party claims to be both the party of Lincoln and the party of the Constitution. But it can’t be both. As Tom DiLorenzo showed in his recent book The Problem With Lincoln, Lincoln “overturned our original constitutional order, violated the rights of Americans both North and South, massively inflated the federal government, and plunged the nation into a wholly unnecessary war.” Lincoln destroyed the country to save the union. Although Republicans include the Constitution in their meaningless conservative mantra of limited government, fidelity to the Constitution, federalism, individual freedom, private property, free markets, traditional values, and free enterprise, like Democrats, they stand for big government, foreign aid, the welfare state, the nanny state, the warfare state, and the national security state. The Republican idea of limited government is a government limited to control by Republicans.

The Republican Party is the party of the drug war that has ruined more lives than drugs themselves. The Republican Party is the party of a U.S. global empire of troops and bases. The Republican Party is the party of foreign aid, which is nothing more than taking money from American taxpayers and giving it to corrupt foreign regimes, including bribing them with cash and military equipment to get them to obey U.S. dictates. The Republican Party is the party of an aggressive, belligerent, and meddling interventionist foreign policy where the United States polices the world and tells every other country what it should and shouldn’t do. The Republican Party is the party of the warfare state with its bloated defense budget, unnecessary foreign military interventions, and offensive military actions that are falsely said to be for “national defense” and essential for “national security.” The Republican Party is the party of the national security state: They gave us the Department of Homeland Security when we already had a defense department, the Patriot Act to violate our liberties, and the TSA to grope us when we travel. The Republican Party is the party of the welfare state. Republicans have no philosophical objection to the government providing public assistance, having entitlement programs, maintaining a safety net, fighting poverty, and guaranteeing income security. The Republican Party is also the party of massive government spending and debt.

So why do Christians think that that the Republican Party is “good” and the Democratic Party is “bad”? There is really only one issue: abortion. But I thought the Republican Party was pro-life? Then why has it funded Planned Parenthood—the nation’s largest abortion provider—for decades?

Gullible Christians think that the GOP is God’s Own Party. They can be counted on to vote a straight Republican ticket in every election. Republican candidates for office are promoted from church pulpits, voter registration drives are held in which Christians are urged to register as a Republican, Christians are encouraged by church leaders to “vote for biblical values,” “vote right,” “vote for life,” and “vote for godly candidates.” What this means, of course, is that Christians should “vote Republican.” But no matter how many times Republican politicians disappoint them, on election day every year Christians hold their nose and vote Republican hoping that perhaps, maybe, this time, something will be different.

Why do conservative, evangelical, and fundamentalist pastors warn their congregations about unholy activities, unholy people, and unholy institutions but not the unholy trinity?