What's Christian About the Christian Right?

They rail on about Darwinism. They argue for Creationism rather than evolution. They claim to be devout adherents to the Bible, particularly the New Testament, and worship Jesus.

Why, then, is the fundamentalist Christian Right so goddamned fond of Darwinism when it's social Darwinism?

Here's the thing. Real Christians are economic progressives. The teachings of Jesus are incredibly progressive. But these cheap hustlers and fixers and scam artists who pass themselves off as Born Again turn their backs on that Jesus stuff, rationalize it away and dive, head first, into the Old Testament at every opportunity especially when it comes to the killing arts - war and death - and, of course, money.

Yet, on the other side of the pond, British Christians are a lot different than their North American brethren. As David Sirota writes, the Brits like their Christianity with a lot more Christ and a lot less hypocrisy.

"...a new report from the British think tank Demos, ...found that in England 1) "religious people are more active citizens (who) volunteer more, donate more to charity and are more likely to campaign on political issues" and 2) "religious people are more likely to be politically progressive (people who) put a greater value on equality than the non-religious, are more likely to be welcoming of immigrants as neighbours (and) more likely to put themselves on the left of the political spectrum."

"Here in the United States, those who self-identify as religious tend to be exactly the opposite of their British counterparts when it comes to politics. As the Pew Research Center recently discovered, "Most people who agree with the religious right also support the Tea Party" and its ultra-conservative economic agenda. Summing up the situation, scholar Gregory Paul wrote in the Washington Post that many religious Christians in America simply ignore the Word and "proudly proclaim that the creator of the universe favors free wheeling, deregulated union busting, minimal taxes, especially for wealthy investors, and plutocrat-boosting capitalism as the ideal earthly scheme for his human creations."

"...Of course, many Americans who cite Christianity to justify their economic conservatism may not have actually read the Bible. In that sense, religion has become more of a superficial brand rather than a distinct catechism, and brands can be easily manipulated by self-serving partisans and demagogues. To know that is to read the Sermon on the Mount and then marvel at how anyone still justifies right-wing beliefs by invoking Jesus."

So that explains it.   We're led by a gang of unbelievers, apostates, heretics, the Damned.   They've perverted their proclaimed religion and what could be a more logical next step than to pervert our democracy and our political institutions?