Dear Editor:

It's been an open secret that some churches have been skirting around or outright ignoring the law when it comes to political endorsements. But the Trump administration has acted to repeal the Johnson Amendment from the tax code, inviting further politicization of our churches.

To allow a politician to share the altar with God undermines religious life. “You mix religion and politics,” the late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks said, “you get terrible politics and even worse religion.”

Indeed, since the introduction of the so-called prosperity gospel in America much of the traditional teachings of Jesus have been turned on its head. It is a shift from compassion and empathy to the accumulation of wealth and power. Under this doctrine God becomes a Santa Claus where believers seek the earthly and temporal blessings. God bless America.

The dominionist ideologies promote religious supremacy and often do not respect the equality of other faiths. They seek to protect “Western Culture” that, in the end, sounds a lot like replacement theory. They wave the bible and speak of God, but as Paul puts it in I Corinthians 13:1 "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal."

In Matthew 7:15-16 Jesus teaches “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits.” And we see the Trump administration lawlessly and senselessly using violence to address society’s ills and demonizing those who stand up for the rule of law and compassion.

The Christianity that I grew up with is best summarized in Matthew 25:40 “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” The Basic message of Jesus is one of compassion and empathy or as Karen Artmstrong put it, “Compassion is the keystone of religious faith, and invokes an ethic that is the essence of spirituality.”

If we wish to improve our government let’s start with living compassionate lives.

Fred W. Nehring

Boothbay