Hello from the Dolomites in Northern Italy. My wife and I decided to spend a little time in the mountains in a place known as Sued Tirol. It’s in Italy but it’s a community that is very German. The locals here speak both Italian and German and the architecture is definitely Alpine.
It’s also an area influenced by practices common in Southern Europe on the Mediterranean. I was surprised to learn they have siesta here with most shops closed from noon to 3pm. But hours are 7-12 and 3-5pm, comprising a standard 8 hour work day.
The Myth Europe is “Socialist” or “Communist”
Things like siesta lead many Americans to think Europe is socialist. Don’t buy it! Yes, they have medical for all, government pensions (social security) and education that is affordable. But that doesn’t make them socialists. Think about it. What are the three biggest stress points on US families? Medical insurance/costs, college costs and saving for retirement. Here everybody pays higher taxes and must buy medical insurance but it reduces stress on families as they don’t have to worry about these things.
That doesn’t make life easy. It’s still a big challenge to prepare for retirement and pay health insurance but costs are shared, caps exist on drugs and medical procedures. But despite higher social security taxes, many struggle, having pension checks of only 800-1000 euros. Don’t buy the nonsense Europe is “socialist”.
The Myth Europeans are Lazy
Which brings me to the next “myth” that Europeans are lazy. I hear that a lot. But I’ve certainly not observed it. Germany has more independent businessmen than in the US. There are many people who own and run their own small businesses, often as contractors or skilled labor. It’s amazing how much skilled labor there is here. Everything from electricians, carpenters, stone masons, plumbers, metal workers, you name it.
Owners typically are “meisters” – highly skilled in their fields but also formally trained, not just in their field but also as business owners. There are formal exams, regular training, continuing education with more exams. It doesn’t guarantee a quality job, but from what I’ve seen, the skill-level on average is considerably higher. And as independent business owners/one man businesses, these people hustle to make ends meet.
An Example from the Netherlands
“Pensions” are common alternatives to hotels in Europe. Many people rent out bedrooms in their homes or upper floors to vacationers. We recently stayed in a pension in Netherlands. It was a bedroom and bath on an upper floor of a house owned by a former tennis pro.
Believe it or not, it was a one bedroom pension. There’s no way you can live on the income from renting one room during spring and summer months. But that’s where Europeans are smart! I don’t think she was doing this for just a bit of extra cash. I think it was funding her vacation home in Bonaire!
Europeans will do that. They’ll do the extra work of starting a business, handling bookings and preparing breakfast – as often as necessary to earn a few thousand extra euros, often to supplement their retirement. Americans would never do that – regardless how “conservative” they claim to be.
An Example from Sued Tirol
Similarly, we’re staying in a family run hotel in Barbian with about 25 rooms. Technically it’s a “halb-pension” meaning they serve both breakfast and dinners. It’s a “small” business that in no way is small to run. It has several employees for cooking, housekeeping and the ice cream shop. The owners – a husband and wife team, have two small children to raise (4 and 6), but every day they are serving breakfast at 7:30am and dinner from 6-10:30pm. Every day including Sundays.
It’s not just the long hours they put in. Everything is first rate. The breakfasts are the best I’ve had, better than business hotels. Dinners are totally unique. Always something new and different than we’ve had before. Each dinner is a 5 course meal and each course is presented as a work of art.
Everything is locally sourced and bio, and typically featuring Tirolian specialties. The ice cream is homemade, the jams also. There’s even homemade elderberry juice and raspberry juice at breakfast. Sorry, but that doesn’t classify as lazy. That’s over the top! They don’t have to pit 225lbs of apricots once a year so the jam can be homemade. They choose to do it. Try to find that in America. And if I told you the price we pay, you’d be shocked. Less than the cost of many hotel rooms alone in the US. Don’t buy the myth Europeans are lazy.
The Myth of Christian Conservatism
Which brings me to the point of my post. It’s amazing how often I hear my Christian friends bitterly complaining that Europeans are “liberal”. Don’t buy that myth either. I grew up in a conservative Christian household surrounded by conservative Christian friends. Most of the families in my church were conservative.
That didn’t mean they wouldn’t vote for Democrats. It meant they lived conservatively. They were willing to sacrifice for the betterment of their families and children. That was the conservatism I grew up with. That’s the conservatism I routinely experience in Germany.
But it’s not conservatism in America today. Our ministers have weaponized conservatism to fester political outrage at perceived loss of “white entitlement”. Sorry but that’s what it is. I’m white, long a member of conservative, white churches where I routinely heard complaints of blacks, browns and minorities living off social benefits paid for by the taxes of hard-working Americans – meaning white Americans.
Please don’t misunderstand. I’m not advocating we “return” to a mythical, former conservatism. I’m simply pointing out how conservatism has metastasized into a cancerous idolatry. I oppose the belief by so many Christians and Christian leaders that somehow Christian is synonymous with conservative. It’s not, nor has it ever been. Certainly not synonymous with Christian definitions of conservative. But these beliefs among American conservative Christians have become “our” values. We don’t realize how derisive and ugly these beliefs are nor are we aware of their dark history.
Conservatism has Metastasized into a Stage 4 Cancer
Conservatism is no longer a lifestyle but a political ideology. Look what it’s done. White evangelical Christians elected Donald Trump despite his unchristian lifestyle, claiming he was God’s man.
After countless lies, unending corruption, constant race-baiting, womanizing and two impeachments, every Christian now has to own what was obvious long before the last presidential election: the election was not stolen. Donald Trump committed sedition against the United States and should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
But what have white conservative Christians done? They’ve defiantly stood by him. They love everything Trump and worship the ground he walks on. Now the lies and election conspiracies have metastasized and spread through the entire Republican party. No matter how much evidence or how compelling, Christians hunker down refusing to repent. And now a corrupted Republican party is preparing to steal the 2024 election.
It’s time to call in the priest for the last rites. Democracy in America is dead . . . and it’s because Christians refused to follow God’s Word. The most reckless and dangerous people in America are white evangelicals. The cancer has overcome our nation and can no longer be effectively treated.
Where did this Cancer Start?
This “conservative” cancer has a long history in the church. To see its vileness, consider the Easter 1960 sermon of Bob Jones. Segregation of blacks is rigorously defended. Also segregation of Chinese and Japanese which he does to make it appear his racism isn’t directed solely at blacks. He tries to avoid racist appearance while claiming racial purity is part of God’s order for the nations – excepting of course European nations.
But forbidding African or Southeast Asians from intermarrying while allowing Europeans to intermarry is racist. His arguments are built on one Scripture, grossly misused before making interesting accusations:
All this agitation going on [against segregation] is not headed up by real, Bible-believing, Christian people. Religious Liberals Are the Worst Infidels. These religious liberals are the worst infidels in many ways in the country; and some of them are filling pulpits down South.
All this agitation is a Communistic agitation to overthrow the established order of God in this world.
After playing these two “boogie-man” cards, he claims intermarriage is unscriptural while “forgetting” Bible-figures like Moses racially intermarried (Numbers 12:1). His anti-liberal/anti-communist bias concludes with fear-mongering our nation is in its greatest danger ever because these liberal agitators (communists) are seeking to sweep aside racial segregation!
The darkest day the world has ever known will be when we have one world like they are talking about now. The line will be rubbed out [Segregation], and the Antichrist will take over and sit down on the throne and rule the world for a little while; and there will be judgment and the cataclysmic curses found in the book of Revelation. We are going to face all this. May God help us to see it and to be true and faithful to Him.
Racism and Conservative Christianity have a Long, Sordid History
This post may seem to have followed a convoluted path but connect the dots. Racism runs deep in the American church. Note how subtle it is. Bob Jones was careful to state that no race is superior or inferior to another. But believing his white children couldn’t marry Blacks or Asians betrays his words.
In truth, his derisive comments about liberals shows he thinks conservatives are superior. Liberal Christians are communists and thus inferior. That thinking may not be racist but it’s biased. It’s no different than the biases any of us can inadvertently reveal, like Europeans are lazy liberals, socialists or communists.
It’s a subtle way to infer we are superior. We work harder and so of course we deserve more than them. As conservative Christians, we know what’s best for liberals! Their understanding of Scripture is wrong. Ours is right and that makes us superior.
Fast forward from 1960 to today. What happens when the Black or Hispanic church votes primarily Democrat, aligning with liberal political views and the white church votes primarily Republican, aligning with conservative political views? Does that make the white church racist? The black church racist?
Perhaps not, but doesn’t it segregate these churches? And doesn’t that appear racist to others, especially when our beloved candidate race-baits blacks, Hispanics and foreigners? As white Christians, can we really say we’re not racist when we love a racist leader? Can we really say we’re not racist when we believe our jobs go to foreigners who’ve crossed our borders and our tax dollars go to government programs to support minority needs in our communities? Can we say we’re not racist when we’ve had a history of segregating blacks from our Christian schools?
Coming to Terms with our Racist Elite-ism
Most Christians I know don’t believe they’re racist. Most Christians I know don’t think the church is racist either. But when we think we know better than others, when we depreciate the views of others, we’re showing a bias. When this sentiment is directed against other races, it’s racist.
And what have Republicans been doing? They’ve been weaponizing the lie that the election was stolen to step up barriers to voting for those districts that have a history of voting Democrat. Those districts are predominantly black, brown or minority. It’s an injustice the church cannot allow.
Why historically are we silent? We’d like to believe they are doing God’s work because it’s what we want done. And we’re God’s special people, superior to other Americans simply by our spiritual birth, regardless of how we behave. We can do no wrong in our own eyes. We’re right and their not.
You may not think it racist, but it’s dangerously close. It’s elitist and arrogant. That’s where racism begins. We’ve segregated liberals from conservatives in many of our churches. No one should be surprised. Long ago we segregated black churches from white churches and justified it by demonizing those who tried to unite us, calling them liberals. That’s the dark roots of our conservative Christian movement.
When we’re just as happy to attend a black church as a white church, when we’re just as happy to attend a liberal church as a conservative church, then tell me conservative Christians aren’t racist nor think themselves better than liberals. Better yet, speak up against voting barriers and gerrymandering. And separate yourselves from those who are immoral, corrupt and race-baiters.