This political revolution has an inadvertent outcome. It
tested the ostensible virtues of religious conservatives — and they failed. It
raises the question of whether religiosity and morality really go hand in hand,
as so many religious people like to claim.
Politically religious conservatives fail the morally test because they
ended up doing everything they once condemned as unrighteous, unjust and cruel.
They criticized secular politics for nepotism and corruption, for weaponizing
the judiciary, for sexual misconduct, and for using news media to demonize/intimidate
opponents. Yet, even in their initial years of power, they repeat the same
behavior they condemned, often more blatantly than their predecessors, because
God is with them.
Religious conservatives are as corrupted by power as much as
anyone else, but with an indignant, moral, self-righteousness that borders on contempt for values, not uprightness. Power corrupts more easily when you have neither
principles nor integrity, but are empowered by a selective belief system that
makes one immune to innate Truths other than one's own reality or high-sounding precepts.
Trying to nurture moral virtues is one thing; assuming that
you are already moral and virtuous simply because you identify with a
particular religion is another. Or, to be more precise, sitting in church makes
one a moral christian as much as sitting in the garage makes you a car.
Religious adherents assume themselves to be moral by
default; they never question themselves. It makes them arrogant, not
humble. Their toxic urges turn religion into a hollow vessel of
arrogance, bigotry, hatred and greed, while the world they craft from their flux of human convictions and ideologies (that are nothing like religious principles promoting social good) goes to hell in a handbasket. Amen.
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