Two Christians Have A Faith Fight Over Virginia’s 5th District Seat In Congress
Two Christians Competing For A Seat In Congress
In the Fifth District of Virginia, voters are facing a choice between two candidates who conspicuously talk about their Christianity as if it is a qualification for public office. The incumbent member of Congress there is Republican Bob Good, who is being challenged by Democrat Josh Throneburg.
Bob Good brags about his education in a Christian seminary. Josh Throneburg is the pastor of a Christian church. The strange thing is that these two Christian candidates for Congress can’t agree about what the Christian god wants the same thing at all.
Bob Good is a fervent supporter of radical Christian nationalism. He says that his job in Congress is to support “Judeo-Christian values” (though of course, he works to promote Christianity, and not Judaism). He has participated in efforts to create government establishment of religious rituals celebrating the Christian bible. He works to promote gun ownership and prevent regulation of guns. In the name of Christianity, Bob Good seeks to reduce the legal rights of LGBTQ Americans.
Josh Throneburg, on the other hand, urges respect for LGBTQ rights, advocates action on climate change, and supports women’s right to choose abortion. Throneburg supports the regulation of guns.
The fact that these two politicians both claim to be acting o behalf of Christian values, but seek to take the country in opposite directions, reveals something important about the nature of Christianity. It shows that there is not a single true Christianity that Christians agree upon. Christianity is different things to different people.
Some Christians are politically progressive. Other Christians support an agenda that’s in accord with Nazi ideology.
What’s fascinating is that both groups claim to know what their god wants, even as the things they say their god wants are in conflict with each other. How is this possible?
This conflict within Christianity arises from its archaic nature. There are Christian Nationalists who claim to be getting brand new prophecies from their god, but most Christians believe that the core revelation of their religion stopped being updated well over one thousand years ago. That means that in order to try to figure out what their god wants them to do in the present, Christians have to interpret ancient texts that were created to deal with cultural issues in a context that’s almost completely foreign.
Some Christians accept that there’s ambiguity in their religion. Christian Nationalists, however, insist upon the pretense that ancient religious texts can still work like a handbook to every single aspect of life.
This is the position taken by Congressman Bob Good, who declared in a speech on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives:
“The bible is the source of all truth containing god’s complete revelation of all that he wanted us to know everything pertaining to this life and next.”
Is this true, that the only things we need to know are what’s written in the Christian bible?
This is what Congressman Bob Good tells everyone, but he doesn’t act as if he really believes it.
The Bible Doesn’t Instruct Congressmen To Deny Protection To Elderly Married Couples
The most recent action Bob Good took as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives was to vote against a motion to provide for reconciliation pursuant to title II of S. Con. Res. 14.
The Christian bible doesn’t say anything about title II of S. Con. Res. 14.
As it turns out, this motion, and the resolution to which it referred, had to do with a budgetary bill which includes the Protecting Married Seniors from Impoverishment Act of 2021.
The Christian bible doesn’t say anything about the Protecting Married Seniors from Impoverishment Act of 2021. The Christian bible certainly doesn’t contain instructions to act against the Protecting Married Seniors from Impoverishment Act of 2021.
The Protecting Married Seniors from Impoverishment Act of 2021 extends legal protection to elderly Americans with spouses who have to go into residential care because they have become unwell. It’s difficult to say why Congressman Bob Good voted against protecting elderly married couples who are dealing with difficult long-term illnesses.
Certainly, the Christian bible doesn’t contain any instructions that tell members of the United States Congress to vote against protecting elderly married couples.
Still, Congressman Bob Good says that the Christian bible tells him everything that he needs to know.
So, how did Bob Good make that vote to deny protection to elderly married couples? Did Bob Good actually get some kind of knowledge from outside his religion to justify his vote, or did he just make the vote out of ignorance, refusing to learn anything other than what the Christian bible teaches him?
The thing is, we can see that Congressman Bob Good actually makes use of all kinds of knowledge that don’t come from the Christian bible.
When he goes to work in Congress, Bob Good wears a suit and tie made by industrial machines that work with synthetic fibers. The people who wrote the Christian bible were completely ignorant of business suits, industrial machines, and synthetic fibers.
Congressman Bob Good says that everything the Christian god wants people to know is contained in the Christian bible. Yet, Bob Good drives a car to work, or is driven by a chauffeur. I would think that it’s pretty clear that either Bob Good or his chauffeur needs to know how to drive a car. The Christian bible, though, doesn’t contain any helpful tips about how to drive a car. The people who wrote the Christian bible had no idea that cars were going to be invented.
Bob Good used the internet to communicate with his constituents about his speech in Congress about the Christian bible. How did he do that, if he used nothing more than the knowledge that’s contained in the Christian bible? The Christian bible has absolutely zero information about the internet.
We can see from Bob Good’s behavior that he doesn’t actually believe that there’s enough knowledge in the Christian bible to enable a person to get through life.
The Right To Own Guns Is Not In The Bible
Another example is the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, which states, “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”
Christian Nationalists like Bob Good love the Second Amendment. They say that it gives Americans the unlimited legal right to own and carry around guns.
That may be true, from a secular perspective, but Bob Good claims that he’s not in favor of a secular government. He says that he wants the government to follow the Christian bible, which he says contains all the knowledge that we need.
Here’s a plain fact: There is no statement in the Christian bible about the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America. Furthermore, there is not one single line in the Christian bible that states that the Christian god grants people the right to own guns.
Nonetheless, Bob Good wrote and introduced H.R. 2469, a bill that would make it legal for people to buy and use silencers on their guns. The purpose of a silencer on a gun is to make it easier to kill people without being caught by the police.
There’s nothing in the Christian bible indicating that people ought to have the right to use silencers on guns to conceal their violent crimes. There isn’t a single bible verse that mentions the issue at all.
So, why does Bob Good pretend to believe that “The bible is the source of all truth containing god's complete revelation of all that he wanted us to know everything pertaining to this life and next”? He certainly doesn’t act as if this is true.
We all know the answer, of course. Congressman Bob Good uses Christian religion as a political prop. He says that he’s just following the Christian bible, when really, he’s following a Christian Nationalist agenda of violence and hate because that’s what his personal values are.
There is no Second Amendment in the Christian bible. There's no mention of guns. Mary Fairchild, a Christian apologist writer, says this about the Bible and the right to bear arms: “Obviously, the bible does not specifically address the issue of gun control, since firearms like we use today were not manufactured in ancient times.”
That pretty much tells you everything that you need to know about the bible and guns. If you truly believe that the bible contains everything that you need to know, then you must believe that there’s no need for you to know anything about guns.
Permission to own guns is not in the Christian bible, so if you believe that the bible tells you how to live, you have to get rid of your guns.
Certainly, there are times when the Christian bible urges its followers to pick up swords and use them to attack other people. So, if you’re a bible-based Christian, you can own a sword. You can own a knife. However, if you are a biblical literalist who thinks that the Bible tells you everything you need to know, it’s clear that the bible doesn’t give you the right to own and use guns.
So, Christian Nationalists have to make a choice. They need to decide whether they love their guns more than they love their bibles. For most Christian Nationalists, the choice is easy. They ditch their bibles in favor of their guns.
Why Do Christian Nationalists Register To Vote?
There’s another thing that’s not in the Christian bible: Instructions about how to register to vote.
Congressman Bob Good says that the Christian bible contains everything that his god wants him to know, but the bible doesn’t have anything to say about registering to vote.
The path of logic is clear in this case:
A) If the Christian bible contains everything people need to know, and B) the Christian bible does not contain any information about registering to vote, then C) people who believe in following the Christian bible should never, ever register to vote.
In defiance of this, Congressman Bob Good not only has registered to vote, but has encouraged other people to register to vote.
It looks as if Bob Good isn’t following his own Christian Nationalist code.
There is a simple but ugly explanation for this. It could be that Christian Nationalists like Bob Good never have had any intention of actually following the Christian bible. It could be that they simply pretend to believe in the literal truth of the bible, and use it as a talking point whenever doing so provides them with an excuse to be sexist, racist bigots and behave badly toward other people.
It could be that the Christianity of Christian Nationalists operates as nothing more than a license to be cruel.
If that’s the attitude you want representing you in the United States Congress, then Bob Good is your kind of candidate.