We know Christianity is a big tent. There are super-conservative Christians as well as very progressive ones (who are in many ways more closely aligned with atheists than the Tony Perkins types).

One of the non-obvious differences between the two groups, in my experience, is that progressive Christians are much more comfortable with the idea of the big tent. They know not everyone who’s a Christian will agree with them on every topic… but that’s okay.

And then you have people like Pastor John Hagee, who said in a recent sermon that Christians who were pro-choice or supported LGBT rights were not real Christians at all:

“In God We Trust” is not just a phrase. It better be a fact. Because when we quit trusting in Him, the foundations are gone… When a nation embraces abortion, the death rate is greater than the birth rate, and so the nation is dying, because you’re burying more people than are being born. And when you push Christianity out, that’s what happens. And you people who are running around calling yourselves Christians supporting abortion, you are not!… … Our greatest problem in this nation is counterfeit Christianity… … … Those of you who got on national television and endorsed homosexual lifestyle because the President did so, you are a counterfeit Christian, you are a moral coward, you are a hireling shepherd. Shame on you.

There’s so much wrong in there… just because people have abortions doesn’t mean the death rate outpaces the birth rate. Women who have abortions aren’t “burying” anything. We have a lot of problems in this country; counterfeit Christianity is pretty low on that list. And I promise you no one — not even Christian pastors — began supporting marriage equality just because President Obama voiced his support of it.

That aside, his point is clear: If you don’t agree with me, you must not be a real Christian.

You know, I’ve criticized conservative atheist S.E. Cupp a lot on this site because her views are just ridiculous. I even called her a self-loathing atheist after she said she wished she was a person of faith. But it makes no sense to say “she’s not really an atheist.” If she says she doesn’t believe in God, then she’s an atheist whether we like it or not. End of story.

Not with Hagee, though. There are the people who agree with him… and a bunch of liars who only call themselves Christians.

Pseudo-historian David Barton echoed Hagee’s thoughts, too, saying on his radio show yesterday that Christians who supported cohabitation and abortions and homosexuality are leading to America’s destruction:

Whoa! There is nothing in the Bible — nothing — that aligns with this. How can you be a Christian and be a follower of Jesus Christ when you don’t follow his teachings on these things? So what we have is a real biblical illiteracy…

I’m not the first person to say this, but if you listened to 1,000 different Christians, you’d hear about 1,000 different kinds of Christianity. What Hagee and Barton are doing — and part of me is thrilled they’re doing it — serves to divide an already fractured group of people even more.

One reason more people are claiming to have “No religion” even if they believe in a higher power is because they want nothing to do with an exclusive faith that serves as an audience for people like Hagee and Barton.

Eventually, these guys will just whittle themselves down to the True Believers and have a blast with their congregations of one.



