Behold, the Senate has spoken with one voice—well, almost one voice, requiring the casting vote of the Vice President himself—and declared that beauty consists in transferring wealth from the widow's mite to Caesar's coffers. How the mighty have fallen, and how the self-proclaimed followers of the crucified Galilean have managed to craft legislation that would make Pontius Pilate blush with envy.
The architects of this "Big Beautiful Bill" have performed a miraculous feat: they have made the rich richer while making the poor poorer, all while claiming to follow the One who proclaimed "blessed are the poor." It takes a particular kind of theological gymnastics to read the Sermon on the Mount and conclude that Jesus was actually advocating for $3.8 trillion in tax cuts for the wealthy while stripping healthcare from 8.6 million of the least of these. This represents a textbook case of Practical Atheism—the profound disconnect between claimed Christian belief and actual practice.
The Preferential Option for Mammon
When our Lord spoke of serving two masters, warning that "No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth" (Matthew 6:24), the authors of this legislation apparently heard a challenge rather than a prohibition. For what else can we call a bill that systematically transfers resources from the bottom 10% of households to the top 10%? This is not governance; this is organized theft, sanctified by the false piety of those who invoke the name of Christ while practicing the economics of Pharaoh.
The prophets had a word for rulers who make such legislation. Isaiah declared: "Ah, you who make iniquitous decrees, who write oppressive statutes, to turn aside the needy from justice and to rob the poor of my people of their right, that widows may be your spoil, and that you may make the orphans your prey!" (Isaiah 10:1-2). Amos thundered against those who "trample on the poor and take from them levies of grain" (Amos 5:11). Yet here we have legislation that would make the merchants condemned in Amos 8:4-6 seem like paragons of social justice by comparison.
This systematic advantaging of the wealthy reveals the theological mutation of Prosperity Materialism—the false gospel that equates divine blessing with material success and treats wealth accumulation as a sign of God's favor rather than a responsibility to the vulnerable.
The Great Deportation Machine
But perhaps most revealing of the demonic character of this legislation is its establishment of what can only be described as a paramilitary deportation apparatus. The bill allocates $75 billion to expand ICE into an unaccountable force capable of detaining over 100,000 people daily—more capacity than the entire federal prison system. This is the creation of Caesar's Praetorian Guard, aimed not at external enemies but at the vulnerable within our own borders.
The echoes of history are deafening. When a nation creates specialized forces accountable only to executive power, designed to identify, detain, and expel residents based on the ruler's discretion, we have crossed the Rubicon from republic to authoritarianism. This represents Dominative Christianism in its most brutal form—the use of Christian language and identity to justify systems of domination that contradict everything Jesus taught about welcoming the stranger.
The bill's provision for "family residential centers" where children can be detained indefinitely with their parents represents the institutionalization of what can only be called concentration camps—a term we use not hyperbolically but descriptively. This directly violates the Hebrew Scriptures' repeated command: "You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt" (Deuteronomy 10:19) and the Apostolic Scriptures' reminder: "Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it" (Hebrews 13:2).
This is what Samuel warned would happen when the people demanded a king: "He will take your sons and daughters... he will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his courtiers" (1 Samuel 8:11, 14). But even Samuel's warnings pale before the reality of a system designed to tear families apart and cast out the sojourner whom we are commanded to welcome.
The False Gospel of Scarcity
The supporters of this legislation practice a theology of scarcity that would be foreign to the One who multiplied loaves and fishes. They preach that there is not enough healthcare for all, not enough food assistance for the hungry, not enough compassion for the stranger. Yet somehow, miraculously, there is always enough for tax cuts that benefit those who need them least and enough for weapons of war that never bring peace.
This is the lie of empire: that God's creation is insufficient for God's children, that we must choose between caring for our own and caring for the stranger, between prosperity and justice. But the God revealed in Jesus Christ is the God of abundance, the God who sets a table in the wilderness and invites all to come and eat without money and without price. The Counter-Imperial witness of the gospel stands in direct opposition to this scarcity-based politics that pits the vulnerable against each other while protecting the privileged.
Jesus himself proclaimed his mission in terms that would be anathema to the architects of this legislation: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free" (Luke 4:18). How do we reconcile this mission with legislation that systematically oppresses the poor, captivates the immigrant, blinds us to injustice, and binds the vulnerable in new forms of bondage?
A Closing Word of Truth
To those who call themselves Christians yet support this legislation, hear this word from the prophet Micah: "He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" (Micah 6:8).
The "Big Beautiful Bill" fails every element of this test. It perpetuates injustice by systematically advantaging the wealthy at the expense of the poor. It shows no kindness to the vulnerable, instead criminalizing their very presence. And it demonstrates not humility but the ultimate hubris: the belief that we can build God's kingdom through Caesar's methods.
As followers of the Way, we are called to a different path. We are called to embody what Samuel Wells calls Being With—the practice of presence over productivity, relationship over results. We are called to be the community that leaves the 99 in the wilderness to search for the one who is lost, not the community that builds walls to keep the lost at bay. We are called to be those who embody the preferential option for the poor, not those who make preferential options for the wealthy.
The "Big Beautiful Bill" may be many things, but it is not beautiful, and it is certainly not Christian. It is, in the deepest sense, anti-gospel—a systematic rejection of everything Jesus taught about money, power, and the treatment of the vulnerable. It represents the full flowering of MAGA Christianism, where Christian identity becomes the vehicle for policies that contradict the very heart of Christian teaching.
May God forgive us for what we are about to do, and may God grant us the courage to choose a different way.
Related Concepts
This essay references concepts from the Political Theology Lexicon, accessible to subscribers.
Practical Atheism: The profound disconnect between claimed Christian belief and actual embodied practice, especially evident when Christian identity is maintained while actions contradict core Christian teachings about care for the vulnerable.
Prosperity Materialism: The theological mutation that equates divine blessing with material success and treats wealth accumulation as a sign of God's favor rather than a responsibility to serve the vulnerable.
Dominative Christianism: The use of Christian language and identity to justify systems of domination that contradict Jesus's teachings about power, authority, and treatment of the marginalized.
Counter-Imperial: The gospel witness that stands in direct opposition to imperial systems of power, revealing God's preferential option for the poor and marginalized over the wealthy and powerful.
Being With: Samuel Wells's theological framework emphasizing the practice of presence over productivity, relationship over results, and accompaniment over instrumental action.
MAGA Christianism: The fusion of Christian identity with Make America Great Again political ideology, often using Christian language to justify policies that contradict core Christian teachings about welcoming the stranger and caring for the vulnerable.
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