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Spirituality Column #990

November 4, 2025

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Strange Bedfellows   

By Bob Walters

“Do not be yoked together with unbelievers…” – 2 Corinthians 6:14

What I hope to say is a bit tricky, but first let’s understand that by “yoked” I’m not talking about – nor do I believe here Paul is talking about – marriage or race.

Paul is talking about the yoke of Christian faith: faith in Jesus Christ, faith in the body of Christ, faith in God, the Spirit, heaven, eternity, and God’s truth, love, and goodness. Paul had been a Jew who understood and ferociously lived the Law, but now lived as a vibrant believer in Jesus Christ and an apostle to the gentiles, i.e., the non-Jews, Greeks, and pagans.  Paul knew well the struggles of mixed-faith relationships.

As Christians, our lives make more sense and are more peaceful when we congregate with like-minded believers. I am thrilled, any time, to share faith and “give the reason for the hope that I have” (1 Peter 3:15). But it is nice being around people who share and understand that same faith and hope and not having to argue about it.

That said, let’s throw a different log on the same fire as it regards not just religion but current American politics and culture. For what they are worth, here I hope are some salient observations about why people with very dissimilar belief systems and cultural backgrounds wind up yoked and voting for the same issues, though for differing ends.

Consider the Democrats and their odd-fellow line-up of socialist leftists, Muslims, Jews, LGBTQ, the hyper-rich, the hyper-poor, and minorities generally. The vast majority of academics, public educators, and media dwell in that same dugout.

Catholics tend to trend Democratic, which on the one hand is odd because of the Church’s stance against abortion, but on the other makes sense because of the Catholic stance for charity, a common Democrat value. One could start by saying they all simply agree that Trump is icky and power crazed – “a danger to democracy” – but plenty of thinking folks on the Christian right say the same thing.  Why the coalition?

This past week I heard Victor Davis Hanson say something that sorted through 90 percent of what, for me, are glaring conundrums in these alliances. Such as, why do Jews vote for Democrats who reject Israel? Muslims kill homosexuals in the Middle East but in America vote alongside LGBTQ? Hyper-rich capitalists cozy up with leftists / socialists / communists? Among these dissimilar cohorts, Hanson noticed two things.

1. Marxism (leftism, et al), Muslims, and Jews all deny Christ, and their various ultimate ends depend on destroying the authority of Christ as the Savior, Son of God. And, 2. Only when these groups eradicate the truth of Jesus can they enforce their own control of whatever social, economic, religious, political, or cultural program they desire.

The shared goal in all these groups is power and control, not freedom and faith.

Opposite of the “No Kings” hysteria, what Trump’s supporters see is not an authoritarian endgame; it is the expression and value of human freedom, responsibility, and aspiration; i.e., Americanism. Alas, Trump’s Republican detractors see him only as a disruptive, bombastic pain; I’m not sure there exists a way for them to see otherwise.

God ordained a wonderful government in America two and a half centuries ago, one where the church wasn’t running the show but believers in Christ would comprise, as John Adams admonished, “a moral and religious people” freely operating within it.

I will continue to yoke myself to Jesus Christ and freedom, and hope for the best.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) knows the only sure truth is the truth of Jesus Christ, and that secular America has been working vigorously against God for a hundred years.