In his famous Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is accredited with the following among his beatitudes (Matthew 5:5):

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth”

Meek, in this case, anavah (עֲנָוָה), quoted from Psalm 37:11, meaning humility, meekness, or gentleness. Choosing patience over strength, and trusting in God.

Which is basically Jesus exhorting us to exercise patience, humility, and gentleness. Not to take up arms nor enforce our will over others.

So why do so many Christians forget or ignore this exhortation? (And most of the beatitudes while they’re at it.)

Well, many Christians (especially the conservative, dominionist, fundamentalist, evangelical, and/or Christian Nationalist types, in that order of awful, which I’ll call the Christian Right for brevity) reinterpret the beatitudes to justify their cruel, oppressive, authoritarian, social-dominance-oriented identity politics.

Culturally, Christianity is built on the concept of being the downtrodden underdog, and those who would wield the cross like a sword (ie the Christian Right) haven’t gotten the memo that we haven’t been the underdog since Christianity became the official religion of Rome and we thus became empire. Such Christians pretend they themselves are the meek and oppressed, and the marginalized people they trample on are their oppressors in some way, and they are their obstacle to gaining some mythic supremacy.

Look at how the Christian Right treats, say, Black people, or gay people, or trans people (especially popular targets of their hatred these days). Whole minority groups of people who have some measurable inherent difference with their preferred in-group, and so they’re ripe for persecution and hate.

This is why it’s called Christofascism: it thrives on propaganda, scapegoats a marginalized Other for the problems it causes, and advocates oppressing and/or destroying all perceived enemies, casting out allies, and fighting in an ever shrinking circle of the acceptable in-group, until the whole world lies in ruin.

A far better, truer, and less existentially-destructive form of Christianity embraces Jesus’s teachings, rather than reinterpreting them to serve the opposite goal. And it’s not like you have to be a Christian to know the value of patience, gentleness, and humility. That’s how humans get along best–when we can work together, treat each other with kindness, and lean on others to help us with what we don’t know or can’t do ourselves.

Go forth and treat your fellow humans better.

Best.