Stop Gaslighting Jesus

Where did the name Gaslighting Jesus come from?

I was hanging out with some friends who also grew up in evangelical Christian circles, discussing current political issues. I don't remember the exact topic we were discussing but the statement of some commonly held "Christian" stance led me to say "It feels like they are gaslighting Jesus". And so the title of this blog was born.

In case you aren't aware of the term, gaslighting is manipulating someone into questioning their own knowledge and experiences. The idea here being that Christians are so emphatic about the biblical basis of their ideologies that they might make Jesus question if he actually said what he thought he did.

Christians gaslight Jesus when: They consistently claim a stance to be "Christian" or "Biblical" when in reality that stance does not align with the teachings of Jesus.

The purpose of this post is just to give an overview of what topics will be covered in this section of the blog and why. Many Evangelical Christians in the name of their Christian beliefs support many of the following ideologies:

• Capitalism and the hoarding of wealth

• Lack of due process and inhumane treatment of immigrants

• "All Lives Matter"

• Diminishing the validity of messages regarding systemic racism in police, prisons, school funding, etc.

• Total (or near total) abortion bans

• Extreme Patriotism/Nationalism/"Put America First"

• Mega Churches

• Preventing open practice of other religions

• Opposition to the right to Gay Marriage

• Patriarchy

• Removing Transgender access to healthcare

• Opposing Universal Healthcare

• Being a Christian = Being a Republican

• Voting for Donald Trump

• Corporal Punishment

• Theocracy (Or theocratic ideologies)

• Opposing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

• Opposing teaching accurate history in schools

• And many others

I think it will be easy for Christians to look at this list and say "no, we don't support that" or "you are taking it out of context" but for each, there are examples of the behaviors and policy stances of evangelical Christians that support these. My goal in these blog posts is to demonstrate how unbiblical, unchrist-like, and hypocritical many of the stances are.