THE PARADOX OF AMERICA'S POLITICAL CUM RELIGIOUS LANDSCAPE

Sometimes I am baffled by how religious people, especially those from my home country, Nigeria, view the American political-religious landscape. I am a conservative Christian. I live here, and my opinions are based on my Christian values, my experience here (I have lived in the U.S. for 14 of the last 15 years), and my knowledge of American history from the beginning up until now. I know what the Bible says about homosexuality, but so much more about loving people, especially the poor. What it says about showing empathy and being just and fair... Matthew 25:40-45... (vs 41.."...Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels"..... 45 " Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, In as much as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.").

Faith and righteousness are personal choices. You cannot legislate people into faith, nor can you force anyone to live by the tenets of your own religion. Returning the Bible to schools does not mean it will be read; Muslims and atheists, too, will ask that their books be made available in schools just as the Bible. People who want to return prayers to schools do not know what floodgates they are about to open. Muslims will ask that Islamic prayers be allowed, and atheists will demand that their wards be excluded... And again, the people advocating that school administration be returned to the state cannot now say they want to legislate or initiate an executive order at the federal level that Christian prayers be made compulsory in all schools... What these people have ignored is that the affairs of schools across the U.S. are not decided at the state level, let alone the federal level. They are decided at the county/community level by school boards.
These people do not love God. They are not churchgoers, let alone Christians. They are politicians seeking the support of religious people and dangling fish before them, knowing that many religious people are trusting and would believe the words of a man in a position of authority. They do not fear God, pray, or read the Bible. If they do, they will not take from the poor to enrich themselves. They will not engage in the Darwinian philosophy - the survival of the fittest - poor people need to be starved to death – let only the smart ones survive… Smart people do not need handouts, they say. They will always find a way out of a difficult situation… This is a doctrine from the pit of hell. It negates the Bible. Many people in Nigeria, especially the so-called conservative Christians, many of whom now excuse their adulterous pastors and protect a lot of evil going on in the church in Nigeria, wrongly conclude that America is a Christian state.... Nono, it is not... The United States is a secular state. It is entrenched in its constitution from the beginning; there is freedom of worship (any religion) and association... Moreover, the founders were not conservative Christians; most were freedom seekers who sought freedom from the strongholds of kings in Europe, especially the monarchs in England. Thomas Jefferson rejected Jesus’ divinity, Benjamin Franklin was a deity, and George Washington was a nominal Christian that avoid use of Christian terms in his speeches. They did not believe in miracles, divinity, or the Trinity. They were Protestants; they supported religious pluralism and freedom of conscience… There is no mention of GOD in the U.S. Constitution: none whatsoever. If they were like the fake religious leaders who dominate one of the parties today, they would have enshrined Christianity as the state religion when writing the Constitution.

I liken the position that many of the religious people in America and in my home country today take to that of Jews during the time of Jesus, who would rather have Barabbas (thief and criminal) released than to spare Jesus. This can also be likened to Esau, who sold his birthright for a pot of porridge. They made a deal with the devil to help them do things they were supposed to do on their knees and through their lifestyle... The unfortunate truth is that the alignment of the church, especially the evangelical church, has damaged the brand that Christ bought with his blood... God is not an author of confusion... the same fountain cannot pour both sweet and bitter water at the same time. Asserting that God can use anyone... is warped, to say the least. When God used people outside of the fold in the Bible, those people changed immediately so that the work God used them for is not destroyed... that is not the case with the assertion a lot of these people are making. The man they align behind is inherently evil and incapable of doing any good that does not benefit him or his family.

I have posited severally that this man is a WHIP for a stiff-necked people... He has come to accomplish something, not in the context of what they project. The evidence we see today points to that... Since this government started implementing its policies, many of those who voted for him have been living in fear – fear of what tomorrow holds. Many have lost their health insurance, clinics that serve their rural communities, and the support that keeps them and their families from going hungry in the remote towns where economic opportunities are scarce. Some have lost their means of livelihood due to callous policies that indiscriminately cut public positions to fund tax cuts for the rich. The impact of many of these policy changes affects people predominantly in the Appalachian Mountains, to the poorest of the poor Americans in the US South... These are the regions that overwhelmingly voted to elect the current government, on the promise that their lives would be better. They were sold a lie... they are poorer, have lost their health insurance, many of their children are dying from preventable diseases because of the deception around vaccines and lack of access to medical care, are skipping meals because SNAP is taken away, have lost their jobs, hopelessness has increased, and many are depressed...It is just 13 months on… they have not seen anything yet.

I have read many posts on social media and in private conversations with some of my peeps in Nigeria who say that if there is anything worse than an APE, it should have been used to describe Obama. They exude support for the current leader. In their book, Obama is a demon who forced same-sex marriage on their brothers and sisters in the U.S., and he threatened to take funding away from schools that do not comply. Some of these people are preachers - religious people. To them, they would rather choose Barabbas than Jesus. They would rather choose a convicted felon, an adulterous man, one sued for raping women, one who was alleged to have had a relationship with prostitutes, a man who takes from the poor and gives to the rich, who is vindictive, who calls women pigs for doing their jobs, and terrorizes every opposition even with death openly and his party members say it is a joke. – WHY this choice? I presume this is because he promised to help them legislate righteousness. Instead of choosing a husband of one wife, who turned an economy losing 800,000 jobs a month to one creating over 400,000 a month, that showed empathy for the poor and treated everyone around with utmost respect. Obama was not a saint. Did Obama make mistakes, plenty – I will write on Obama’s extensive failures one day soon. Obama flip-flopped on the issue of same-sex marriage, a lot of mistakes were forced by his government on the LGBTQ thing, and his policies in Africa disrupted the region, escalating terrorism–ISIS and Boko Haram were empowered by Obama's failed international policies. Many of Obama’s controversial policies did not demonize Americans, nor were they forced on anyone; they were based on the individual decisions of everyday Americans… People definitely did not live in fear ... However, in the book of the sane-minded, you cannot compare light and darkness... I leave you to choose who the light is and who the darkness is...

This is a time of great fear for many people in this country... People (blue or red) are living in perpetual anxiety and uncertainty... Those watching from outside have experienced the same fear that stemmed from some of the current policies, for example, the consequences of tariffs; what those living here are feeling is worse. Especially if you do not have the means or many options...

May we all have clarity so that when it is time to choose again, we will think twice before making our choices. I predict, like many others, the November 2026 election will be a time of reckoning…