To those who hold the power,
You love to invoke the name of Jesus when it suits you. You clutch your pearls and cite scripture, declaring yourselves protectors of faith, morality, and family values. But let’s not pretend. We both know that when the cameras turn off, and the donors come calling, the Jesus you worship is a golden idol, forged in the image of wealth and power, not the carpenter who flipped tables in the temple.
You swore oaths on Bibles—oaths to uphold the Constitution, to protect this nation and its people. Yet when the insurrectionist king demanded fealty, you bent the knee. When a mob came wielding crosses and Confederate flags, ready to kill in his name, you hedged and cowered. Some of you cheered. You gave aid and comfort to the enemies of democracy, all while pretending to love it.
But the rot isn’t confined to one side of the aisle. Republicans are building a throne for fascism, but Democrats, with their smug moral superiority, are the ones holding the door open. You’re so committed to playing by the rules that you’ve forgotten the game isn’t fair. You’ve heard the cries of your constituents—people drowning in medical debt, losing their homes, struggling to feed their families—and instead of helping them, you gave us platitudes. You congratulated yourselves on incremental change while the other side stacked the deck and lit the rulebook on fire.
Neither of you governs for the people anymore. You govern for the billionaires who bankroll your campaigns, for the corporations that pad your accounts. Jesus didn’t come to protect the status quo. He came to serve the poor, to lift up the oppressed, to love the unlovable. You? You serve the status quo. You serve capital.
Fascism, when you strip away the slogans, is capitalism in decline. When the wealth of the many is siphoned into the pockets of the few, when the people cry out for justice and are ignored, revolution stops being a theory. It becomes inevitable.
I urge you to remember the words of a man far wiser than me: “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” You are running out of time to choose which you will allow.
Look beyond your next election cycle. Look past the donor checks and the polling numbers. Look at the people you claim to serve. They’re not asking for much—just what Jesus himself promised: kindness, justice, dignity, hope. Give them that. For once, do your jobs.
If you don’t, the future will be shaped without you, and it won’t be kind.
Sincerely,
R.L. Lawrence