Allah says this, Allah says that. And who better to interpret what Allah means in the Koran than his prophets, imams, ayatollahs and muftis who decide what is good and what is evil, and thus occasionally drive credulous people to suicidal and criminal madness.
God says this, God says that. Who better to inerpret what God meant in his Scriptures than his preachers, reverends, ministers, priests, bishops and elders who decide what is good and what is evil, and thus occasionally drive credulous people to suicidal and criminal madness.
Yahweh said this, Yahweh says that. Who better to inerpret what Yahweh meant in his "Torah" than his rabbis, prophets, talmudists, etc. who decide what is good and what is evil, and thus occasionally drive credulous people to suicidal and criminal madness.
Beyond their belief in the so-called "one god" - which is the processed product derived from multitudes of gods that were blended and seasoned into one simpler garbage dish, like butchers process sausages from the disgusting meat scraps that no one normally eats - the three monotheistic cults share the practice of deadly violence in their dissemination of the faith.
Morality is very relative and doesn't exist in the absolute. There is no agreed upon distinction between good and evil. It's all economics. Humans do whatever suits their immediate needs, then make a principle out of it IF it meets their economic needs. For instance, humans who call themselves "faithful" take religion like a restaurant menu, a la carte. I've met very devout Muslims who can't stand the idea of polygamy, when they should accept it in principle because they claim to adhere to the whole Islam bit. I've met Jewish people who don't believe literally in any of the garbage stories of the Torah or the insulting Talmudic teachings, but use that very same garbage to make an identity for themselves and wage genocidal wars against innocent people. I've met Christians who claim to have "the faith" but reject many of their Church's teachings: When cornered, they reply that the fundamentals of their religion are the ideas of Jesus, not the Church that is manned by men who err. In short, they blame their own religious leaders for the failings of their religion, but not the religion itself.
Bottom line: There is always an "explanation" to the mayhem these global religious political parties have inflicted on the human species. And that "explanation" can only be found in so-called "Holy Texts" that Bronze Age nomads wrote in the desert. Alternatively, when the Holy Text fails to explain, the holy men of the cult provide their interpretation - like Supreme Court judges who provide interpretations of ambiguous texts in the constitution.
But more often than not, human interpretations of holy texts do not comply with the literal narrative of the text, and in most cases they depart significantly from them. As such, the monotheistic cults, especially the Christian one, are aspirational. They set the standards and the claims so high that no ordinary human being can abide by.
For example, have you ever seen "peace" from any of the Muslim invasions and genocides perpetrated as far as India to the east and as far as Spain to the west, with the Turkish mongrels pushing up the Balkans into the heart of Europe? All one has to do is witness the horrifying actions of the ultra-faithful - labeled as outliers by the moderate majority - to understand the foundational violence of these cults in their exclusive monopoly over the "word of God". Taliban, Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Wahhabis, etc... so many of them, yet they are claimed as not representatives of their religion.
Have you ever since a Christian love his/her enemy? Turn the other cheek? Live for the day and not care for the morrow? Christian expansion began with violence and continued in violence for centuries (forced and bloody conversions of pagans into Christianity when Rome adopted the religion as its official religion; the genocide of native indigenous inhabitants across the Americas, Africa and Asia under the guise of civilizing them and bringing them "Good Tidings" and the Word of God, the Inquisition, the Crusades, the Protestant vs Catholic warfare, etc...). Luckily, the wedge of reason has managed to peel off reasonable, rational people away from the cult.
The Torah is a testament to the violent, racist proposition that one nomadic Arabian tribe has been chosen by God (Yahweh) as his favorite, or that the faithful of the Jewish religion descend from Abraham's legitimate son Isaac while those of the Muslim religion descend from Abraham's bastard son born from his fornication with the maid, or that Yahweh ordered the Israelites to attack and genocide the Canaanites and take their land. Some people in our 21st century still believe that it is in their right to invade the land of modern-day Canaanite Palestinians, kill millions of them, displace a few other millions and steal more of their land. Very convenient stories when you are writing them about yourself.
One of the most obscene "interpretations" of the Christian religion is that of the Christian Evangelical Americans: Getting filthy rich is very good. Nationalism (hating all other tribes except my own) is better than patriotism (loving one's country). Capitalism is a pillar of the Christian religion. Hating everyone who is not an Evangelical is a virtue: They're all sinners until they join the Evangelical cult. Serving as a platform for modern American colonial economic and cultural imperialism.
Here is sample from the horse's mouth: Trump has no reason to be good other than to please God, which is how most children are first taught morality. Not compassion, not solidarity, not love (as Jesus says). Instead, it's fear of punishment by a higher power like God.
Donald Trump commented yesterday that there’s actually “no reason to be good” except to prove to God that you can “go to that next step.” (i.e. heaven) Speaking about his presidential prayer initiative for the nation’s 250th anniversary next year, the notoriously not-so-pious Trump claimed he’s long believed that “if a country doesn’t have religion, doesn’t have faith, doesn’t have God, it’s gonna be very hard to be a good country.”“You know, there’s no reason to be good,” he told a reporter. “I wanna be good because you wanna prove to God you’re good so you go to that next step, right? So, that’s very important to me. I think it’s really, very important.”
In August, Trump said, “I want to try and get to heaven if possible. I’m hearing I’m not doing well. I hear I’m really at the bottom of the totem pole.” That same month, he questioned why anyone without faith would bother being good and suggested there’s “some kind of a report card up there someplace.”
Everything MAGA is doing is unchristian. Why?
===================================================
‘Vertical Morality’ Might Describe Why MAGA Christians Seem So Unchristian
Caroline Bologna
Updated Mon, October 6, 2025
For many Americans, the gap between Christian teachings and MAGA politics is baffling. How can people profess faith in Jesus ― who preached love, mercy and care for the oppressed ― while supporting policies that punish immigrants, demonize LGBTQ people and glorify cruelty?
The key to understanding this apparent contradiction might lie in something called “vertical morality.”
This ethical framework measures righteousness not by goodness to others, but by something more simplistic. Below, Christian advocates and former fundamentalists break down what vertical morality means and how it explains our political landscape today.
What Is Vertical Morality?
“Vertical morality teaches that authority, power and a moral code of right and wrong, or acceptable and unacceptable, come from ‘above’ ― an external superior who designates rules, systems and tenets that must be obeyed by those beneath,” said Tia Levings, a former Christian fundamentalist and author of “A Well-Trained Wife: My Escape from Christian Patriarchy.”
In the context of religion, the superior is God. In politics, it might be an authoritarian dictator. In a cult, it would be the controlling leader. Whatever the circumstances, the idea is that behaviors are only right or wrong based on what the figure in power says.
“Vertical morality in Christianity is the idea that our ethics and behaviors have a duty to please God alone. We get our morals from God and we must obey him, furthering the will of God no matter the cost,” said April Ajoy, author of “Star-Spangled Jesus: Leaving Christian Nationalism and Finding A True Faith.”
The term has become popular in the social media sphere in recent years, thanks to viral videos from content creator and activist Rachel Klinger Cain. She told HuffPost she started using this terminology in her content a few years ago.
“Vertical morality is just how I describe what’s called ‘divine command theory’ in metaethics,” she said. “I’m a teacher, so I’m always looking for ways to make complicated concepts a little more simple. It’s basically the idea that morality comes from authority above, which is what I was taught when I was raised within conservative Christianity.”
Vertical morality stands in contrast to the concept of horizontal morality, another term Klinger Cain has broken down in her videos.
“Horizontal morality prioritizes the well-being of our neighbors, communities and personal relationships,” Ajoy explained. “We act in ways that cause the least amount of harm to those around us, regardless of beliefs. Someone with vertical morality may help someone in need because they believe that’s what God wants them to do, versus someone with horizontal morality may help that same person for the benefit of the person that needs help.”
[Iznogood: Morality pre-exists all known religions. Without the social cooperation that humans discovered long time ago, we would not have become a very successful species. And cooperation - with its foundational concept of the Golden Rule - has existed ever since the human species evolved millions of years ago. Religions, especially the three monotheistic cults, did not invent morality as they claim and were never the custodians of morality. To the contrary, their actions over the millennia expose the fallacy of their monopoly over morality].
Rather than unquestioning obedience and superficial optics, this approach focuses on genuine empathy, compassion and love toward others, recognizing the actual effects our actions have on people.
“I think both are important in the Christian faith, but a lot of people today get hung up on the vertical as a priority and forget about the horizontal altogether,” said Malynda Hale, an advocate and executive director of The New Evangelicals, a nonprofit focused on promoting inclusivity, justice and compassion in Christianity.
Similarly, Ajoy believes that the most Christ-like approach is to hold a position of horizontal authority, because doing so also subscribes to vertical morality.
“In Matthew 25, Jesus describes people who fed and clothed those in need, who welcomed the stranger, who took care of the sick and visited those in prison,” she noted. “He then says, ‘What you did for the least of these, you did for me.’ He equates loving our neighbors (horizontal morality) with loving Christ (vertical morality).”
How Vertical Morality Shapes Politics And Justice Today
The distinction isn’t just theological nitpicking. Experts say it sheds considerable light on contemporary politics.
“Evangelicals are taught that all morality comes from God and therefore true goodness can only be spread by obeying God, even if it harms people around us,” Ajoy said. “This isn’t necessarily a bad thing if pleasing God manifests by following the teachings of Jesus ― loving our neighbors, loving our enemies, promoting peace and taking care of the poor, the widow, the immigrant and standing up for the marginalized. It becomes dangerous when Christians weaponize this vertical morality for power, which is exactly what we’re seeing with the Christian nationalism in the Trump administration.”
In the current era, conservative Christian nationalists see anyone on their political team as good and on God’s side, while those who oppose them as evil and satanic.
“What’s interesting is that Jesus taught a compassionate, flexible, grace-filled view of what it means to live a life loving God,” Levings noted. “But today’s conservative Christianity is less influenced by Jesus and more by the Old Testament and Paul.”
She pointed to theonomy, the belief that Old Testament laws should be applied to modern society, as an influence on Christian nationalist politics.
Vertical morality has led to the demonization of empathy and desensitization toward the suffering of othe CHARLY TRIBALLEAU via Getty Images
“It predates Jesus, and it’s disinterested in evidence, science, progress, research, experience or the inclusion of other worldviews,” Levings said. “Theonomy is part of the Reformed theology that’s been growing in the evangelical movement for the past 30 years.”
Summarizing the role of vertical morality in the Old Testament, Klinger Cain highlighted the story of Abraham, who was commended for his willingness to obey God’s command to sacrifice his son Isaac, despite the act’s inherent immorality.
“What should happen if you have a horizontal moral system is, you should go, ‘I’m not murdering someone, even if an authority figure has told me to do that,’” she said. “But under vertical morality, that would be a sin because you’re disobeying God.”
Drawing from the most violent and extreme chapters of Biblical history, this approach frames unquestioning obedience as the highest virtue, even when it demands actions that defy compassion or common sense. And what might’ve once been a religious debate has now become a broader cultural conflict thanks to the role of conservative Christians in writing Project 2025 and otherwise shaping public policy.
“The problem with MAGA Christians is that they promote policies that often go against the teachings of Jesus,” Ajoy said. “They justify it by promoting a view of God that is vengeful. They demonize all immigrants as criminals, all queer people as predators, all leftists as violent and all Democrats as satanic ― with no evidence to back these claims. And because they believe in a literal hell and a God-ordained calling to make the nation Christian, they justify cruelty in the name of ‘tough love.’”
Under a vertical moral system, the worst thing you can do is disobey God’s laws, and this perspective has bled into politics as well. Klinger Cain offered the example of the rather callous response to “Alligator Alcatraz” and the extremely punitive treatment of immigrant detainees from MAGA Christians.
“On one side, we’re looking at people who are undocumented, so yes, they’ve broken a rule. But for the most part, there are no victims ― so why is our government being so harsh?” she said. “But the other side, with this fundamental Christian worldview, sees every broken rule as deserving a super harsh punishment. You don’t have to be a murderer or a rapist to go to hell. Every broken rule leads to hell ― even just taking a bite of an apple cursed all of humanity.”
This religious viewpoint desensitizes people, so inhumane immigrant detention feels fine and deserved. Klinger Cain added that, for people with this perspective, the only way to escape the fate of hell is not through good actions but simply by being on the right God-ordained MAGA team.
“Vertical morality has caused white conservative, MAGA-aligned Christianity to completely abandon the core of Christ’s teachings because their focus is on self-interest and perceived moral purity,” Hale said. “To them, they are Christians and haven’t abandoned the faith at all, but their framework measures righteousness in a way that can excuse behaviors that the general public knows and sees aren’t Christlike at all.”
This system also demonizes empathy. Some conservative authors have even written books describing empathy as sinful or “toxic.”
“If Abraham had empathized too much with his son and chosen not to kill him, then that empathy would have been a sin,” Klinger Cain said. “We’ve seen this concept play out in Christianity with pastors telling parents not to allow their children to be gay, even if it hurts them. The idea is don’t allow your empathy to support sin in this way.”
Personal piety can become performative if it isn’t rooted in love for others. (Malynda Hale, an advocate and executive director of The New Evangelicals).
Why Vertical Morality Appeals To People — And Why It Can Be Dangerous
This ease of this straightforward absolutism helps explain why vertical morality appeals to so many people.
“It’s comforting to always know what the answer is and where to find it,” Klinger Cain said. “It’s probably nice for your nervous system to not worry about whether you’re doing something right or not.”
In times of cultural change, many people are drawn to simple authoritarian structures due to fear and uncertainty, she added.
“And once you’re primed for authoritarianism in religion, it’s easy to accept it in politics,” Klinger Cain said.
She believes this is why conservative Christians have had a lot of success galvanizing their political base to get on board quickly with things that might seem morally questionable. On the other side of the aisle, she sees more infighting as people try to use logic and empathy to find solutions and come to differing conclusions.
“Vertical morality feels safe in chaotic times, when ‘figuring things out’ or ‘learning from past mistakes’ feels daunting,” Levings said. “It’s also easier to comply with when the bottom-dwelling citizens feel like they have little power or agency to resist an authoritarian system. Sometimes, compliance is a matter of survival, and agreeing with it is a necessary means of getting along and staying safe.”
Hale agreed that vertical morality feels easier and less complicated than actually confronting systemic issues and the complexities of social justice.
“It’s easy to measure your faith by private devotion or rules that you think are in the bible, rather than by how you show up in the world,” she said. “The unfortunate part is that it can blind people to injustice and sometimes cause them to justify harmful behavior. When your focus is on individual righteousness rather than collective responsibility, you don’t learn how to show up for others ― you only care about your own journey.”
As a result, Hale added, you risk fostering a society where people aren’t held accountable for harmful actions and can be cruel and exclusionary, as long as they are “good Christians.” Rather than social responsibility, it’s all about personal salvation.
“There’s a quote I heard often growing up in this world that says, ‘Some Christians are so heavenly-minded that they’re no earthly good.’ And I think that perfectly sums up the risks of holding solely to a vertical morality,” Ajoy said. “Our history is full of instances of Christians causing human suffering because they believed they were obeying God. And God’s will can be manipulated and weaponized for all sorts of harm.”
She pointed to the role of Christianity as justification for slavery and Ku Klux Klan activity, for example.
“We’re seeing vertical morality weaponized today in the Trump administration,” Ajoy said. “If they can convince people that they are ‘of God,’ then it doesn’t matter who they hurt in the process. They say Christian things. They quote scripture. But they are wreaking havoc on the very people Jesus calls us to love and care for. It reminds me of another verse in Matthew 15 that says, ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.’”
Levings emphasized broader risks of vertical morality, noting that it depends on the benevolence of the power on top and is based on an ancient code that cannot be challenged or questioned. Those who try are shamed and cut off from the group.
“Vertical morality can’t take into consideration modern advancements or needs, evidence of failures, new research and information and human progress in civilization,” she explained. “Those with a vertical structure aren’t inclusive or accepting of other worldviews. Diversity can’t exist because it threatens the high contrast right-wrong rigidity found in fundamentalist authoritarianism.”
But that doesn’t mean there’s no place for any sort of regard for a divine moral authority.
“I think that vertical morality can bring genuine spiritual depth and discipline, but it has to work in tandem with horizontal ethics,” Hale said. “We always say faith without works is dead. Faith without action is incomplete. Personal piety can become performative if it isn’t rooted in love for others.”
No comments:
Post a Comment