Pharisee, not Christian

I’ve been attending church all of my life, so my unchurched friends tend to turn to me to when matters of religion come up in politics.

They asked me, “How can a Christian like Gov. Matt Bevin want to cut off one-sixth of Kentucky’s health benefits by ending the Medicaid expansion? And he’s going to cut Medicaid benefits by taking dental and vision benefits away from so many Kentuckians?”

They also can’t understand why discriminating against gay people is more important than getting homes for children in foster care so that Bevin couldn’t be bothered to find someone with experience in adoption services to direct that reform.

Yes, I know it looks as if Bevin is giving Christians a bad name. And, yes, Bevin’s terrible witness costs the church plenty of souls. But what people need to realize is that Bevin isn’t a Christian; he’s a Pharisee.

As the Bible notes, Pharisees made a big deal about keeping the law, but their allegiance was to comforting the comfortable and afflicting the afflicted — the exact opposite of what Jesus preached. Bevin’s real allegiance is to cutting taxes for his wealthy pals, and everything else is window dressing to disguise that fact.

This story was originally published June 9, 2017 at 8:39 PM with the headline "Pharisee, not Christian."