Mr. Speaker:

Recently I began reading Jimmy Carter: River and Dreams by Jim Barger, Jr. and Dr. Carlton Hicks. It’s a wonderful book, and I’m learning a great deal about fly fishing although I don’t fish at all. I highly recommend this book of remembrances and reflections, considerations of faith and duty.

I thought of you when I read this passage by Dr. Hicks:

[…] I’ve often thought about how religion is used to justify much of the evil and cruelty that plagues our world, even as it serves as a source of great comfort, love, and compassion for many people like the Carters. Most of the people I grew up with practiced some form of Christianity, and I have seen over my lifetime many self-described Christians not only fail to love their neighbors but also choose to treat others with contempt and hatred. As for the Christian ideal of loving one’s enemies? Well, that seems to me to a completely foreign concept to so many who claim to follow the teachings of Jesus. It never ceases to amaze me how the very same religion can prompt some people to act out of fear and hatred and conversely prompt other people, like the Carters, to act out of courage and love. [pp.62-63]

I thought of you, Mr. Speaker, because while you claim you are a Christian, you do not act like one. In fact, your actions often contradict the faith that you claim. For example, on your official Congressional website, under Issues, Human Dignity, a summary statement begins with:

Because all men are created equal and in the image of God, every human life has inestimable dignity and value, and every person should be measured only by the content of their character. 

Firstly, “all people” rather than “all men” would be more appropriate here, as you well know. That you’ve taken actions to deny women’s autonomy, in particular reproductive autonomy, reveals that your choice of the word men is meaningful.

Secondly, your disdain for immigrants, your desire to have families torn apart and deported, and your preference to round up human beings and keep them in cages rather than allow them the dignity to work and contribute to society give the lie to your statement that every human life has inestimable dignity and value.

As well as your claim of Christianity, your hypocrisy is shown by the following statement and your actions that contradict it:

In America, everyone who plays by the rules should get a fair shot.

Mr. Speaker:

• You have shamelessly supported a convicted felon for President of the United States.
• You have shamelessly courted a man who has, just as shamelessly, broken every rule to get what he wants, never mind who gets hurt in the process.
• You have shamelessly embraced a man who has mocked people with disabilities, sexually preyed on women, and suggested that people born with birth defects–even ones in his own family–should just be left to die rather than receive life-sustaining treatment.
• You have shamelessly encouraged the advancement of a man who has referred to U.S. soldiers who were held as Prisoners of War or injured during service losers.

Mr. Speaker, you fool no one. Christians who believe as the Carters believed see right through you. You might feel that you’ve won this round, but the fight for Democracy is not over. It will never be over as long as there are agents like yourself who seek to establish an autocratic theocracy, restricting our inalienable rights until we are no more free than those living under the Taliban.

Those of us who truly believe in Democracy, who truly believe in the dignity and value of all human beings, will never give up.

Sincerely,

Marie A Bailey

cc: Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries