It has been over a month since the Capitol attack by supporters of former President Donald Trump. Still, I cannot wrap my head around Trump’s effect on his loyalists, many of whom claim to be people of faith and defenders of “Christian values.”

Trump’s loyalists are so all-in for Trump to the point that they called for the head of former Vice President Mike Pence. This is the man who helped deliver the conservative Christian vote for Trump in 2016. All in the name of religion.

The rioters held the cross up high and prayed for God’s help and then attacked the nation’s Capitol, threatening the lives of members of Congress and Capitol employees and damaging American values, all under the name of Jesus Christ for Trump and his white Christian values. They did it with total confidence of their ignorance of how far off they are from the Christian values.

Suddenly it hits me — what would happen if Jesus Christ himself were in the Capitol on that day?

Let’s see what we know about Jesus: he was born in Bethlehem, now in West Bank, Palestine, grew up in Nazareth, now in northeast Israel, and died in his thirties in Jerusalem. So we are speaking about a Middle Eastern-looking man, and if he spoke English, it would be with a Middle Eastern accent. 

We also know that he often spoke up against the abuse of religious power of priests, teachers of the law and Pharisees. So if he were in the Capitol that day, he would probably tell Trump loyalists to stop mixing religion and politics and to separate church from state, like he said in Mark 12:17, “give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God.”

Or if Jesus saw the Proud Boys praying in front of the Capitol with a gun in one hand and a cross in the other, I imagine he would say something like he said in Matthew 26:52, “Put your sword back in its place. For all those who draw the sword will die by the sword.”

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Saying that with a Middle Eastern accent to the Trump mob would result in them punching him in the face or kicking him in the ass, calling him names and telling him to go back to his country. 

 In 2019, 57.6% of hate crime victims were targeted bias against race/ethnicity/ancestry and 20.1% were victimized because of bias against religion, according to FBI 2019 Hate Crime Statistics.

If Jesus would probably reply by telling the rioters to stop the hypocrisy and to be righteous not just appear as righteous. If they care about Christian values so much, they should practice what they preach. So, I imagine Jesus saying something like what he said in Matthew 23:27-28,  “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.” 

Here you can imagine what the rioters would do to the poor Middle Eastern man! From crushing his head with the cross or the door or a fire extinguisher to even shooting him. 

So when Trump loyalists say they do all of that in Jesus’ name, don’t believe a word, because they are far from any resemblance of Christian values. If you are one of them and still believe they did so for Christ, you are not much different than a guy who bombs a church in his god’s name to meet the 70 Virgins.

I refuse to believe that all the 74 million people who voted Republican are Trump’s loyalists. I choose to believe that most of them don’t agree with the hate we saw in the Capitol attack. I chose to believe that the majority of them still care about American values, democracy and free society and refuse the use of religion for political gain. 

For them, I would say: stand up, speak up and reclaim your party before they destroy it and destroy the republic itself.