Yet More of a Lapsed Catholic’s Bible Study
[NB: check the byline, thanks. /~Rayne]
I mentioned in comments beneath my first Lapsed Catholic’s Bible Study post that I had other biblical material I was chewing on.
Funny enough, the chapter and verses I was referring to are absolutely appropriate to the Trump administration’s ethical and moral failures as well as that of the GOP’s congressional caucus.
It’s one of the most popular portions of the Bible. It may be familiar to you even if you’re not a church-going Christian as you may have heard as a reading at Christian weddings. It’s frequently used as an exhortation to the newlyweds and their future lives together.
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant
5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,
10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Nice, huh? You can imagine the newlyweds before the altar, glowing with happiness, feeling all the wonderful attributes of love described in these verses.
Except that’s not what appears in every Bible published. In the King James version, this is 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 —
13 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
8 Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
I don’t ever recall this selection being read at Christian weddings, do you?
But even this version in which the word charity is used to describe the greatest of three virtues still doesn’t fully convey the intended meaning.
The English words love and charity are rough approximations of a Greek word ἀγάπη, agape — the love of humanity. Agape is both love and charity; it is the emotion of love combined with action of charity, felt for and offered to fellow humans who are God’s creations.
Trump and his minions, particularly Russell Vought, wanted to reshape the U.S. by way of Project 2025:
An influential think tank close to Donald Trump is developing plans to infuse Christian nationalist ideas in his administration should the former president return to power, according to documents obtained by POLITICO.
…
Christian nationalists in America believe that the country was founded as a Christian nation and that Christian values should be prioritized throughout government and public life. As the country has become less religious and more diverse, Vought has embraced the idea that Christians are under assault and has spoken of policies he might pursue in response.
One document drafted by CRA staff and fellows includes a list of top priorities for CRA in a second Trump term. “Christian nationalism” is one of the bullet points. Others include invoking the Insurrection Act on Day One to quash protests and refusing to spend authorized congressional funds on unwanted projects, a practice banned by lawmakers in the Nixon era.
Emphasis mine. Source: Trump allies prepare to infuse ‘Christian nationalism’ in second administration, Politico, Feb 20, 2024.
By actively choosing to starve or bankrupt Americans by refusing to extend healthcare subsidies and fully fund SNAP, thereby endangering human lives, Trump and his administration are doing the furthest thing from establishing a Christian nation. They are not acting with charity, and in this sense the demonstration of agape. They are treating persons who are marginalized by circumstances with more than disrespect but malignant disregard.
It is yet another mortal sin, on top of other mortal sins committed by knowingly seeking individuals to murder in the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean, by turning over individuals for abuse and torture abroad as part of deportations, by encouraging cruel and unusual punishments in painful forms of execution of inviduals on death row. I’m sure there are more examples in this profile of Chicago under occupation by Trump’s ICE.
Being the lapsed Catholic that I am, I don’t ordinarily ask this kind of question, however I feel I need to ask as Trump and his Christian nationalist purveyors clearly haven’t asked either. What would Jesus do if confronted with this level of hate for fellow humans? What would Christ say about consciously choosing to deny food and healthcare to those most in need, including persons who are needy because they serve now or have served in the military? This level of hate for fellow humans is creating a national security threat; we can’t expect strong defense of our nation from people who haven’t eaten, or who are worried about feeding their family.
Ed Walker examined Trumpist Moral Choice in his most recent post as part of his excellent series on Simone de Beauvoir’s The Ethics of Ambiguity. I’m beyond the eeny-meeny-miney-moe of moral choice; our fellow Americans’ urgent needs call for more than mental exercise by the Trumpists who appear unable to consider consequences in advance of decisions.
Nor are platitudes enough; they don’t pay healthcare premiums and medical bills, make the rent, or put food on the table.
We need deeds not words. Genuine, immediate demonstrations of agape, the greatest of Christian virtues.
Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
— 1 John 3:18
This.
So Christian. -__-
Goes with those “Christian” charities that only serve the “deserving” in their own congregations (meaning people who give money). Or that demand you say their prayers before being fed or housed.
Jesus would call the a nest of vipers and a den of thieves.
The basic Pharisee / Sadducee approach where form is more important than substance and power is necessary to enforce the form. The true Word is enough to build a church, let it work through your actions.
Spot on, Rayne. The clarity of your ‘Lapsed Catholic Bible Study’ posts is powerful, augmenting observations posed to everyone within my reach. Thank you.
I’m sure you know this and I’m guessing it’s a reason you’re using Biblical quotes. There’s something for everyone in the Bible. I use the Beatitudes. Others use the Old Testament quotes designed to scare the hell into people. I’m at a point where life-taking is the dividing line. Whether it’s capital punishment or Second Amendment collateral damage I’m not for it. The slippery slope is at the freefall point.
The Beatitudes *are* Biblical quotes. They are from Christ’s Sermon on the Mount in the Book of Matthew in the New Testament, and in the Sermon on the Plain in the Book of Luke, also in the New Testament.
See Matthew 5:3–10 —
As compared to Luke 6:20–23 —
Luke’s version, while shorter than Matthew’s, also included Four Woes:
I referred to both Old and New Testament in my previous post, while in this one I referred only to the New Testament — specifically, one of St. Paul’s letters to the Corithians.
Life taking — willful, knowing murder — is a mortal sin. The slope began much earlier; Trump is already over the cliff. Those who encourage this behavior are engaged in what the Catholic Church calls a “grave matter,” one of the conditions distinguishing a mortal sin. This is the critical failing for those who believe Trump is a tool of God in spite of Trump’s sin. If Trump’s a tool, he is flushing out those who are morally and spiritually weak and at great risk manifest in their support of his mortal sins.
Ugh. I feel just sick even thinking about this.
It’s even worse when you use “justice” instead of “righteousness”, as the early texts did. It exposes how much of that has been used to keep people down.
Some news page I saw earlier today had Ramaswamy calling for making the American Dream affordable. I think he is missing the point: the American Dream is perfectly affordable for Trump and his cohort. Who cares about the losers? They are only of use in service and no need to be concerned about any dreams of the Untouchables. I have been thinking for a number of years that the vast majority of mankind is of no value to the wealthy, save as exploitable labor where necessary. If the AI gurus get their dream then the rest of us will be no longer of value, simply wasting the oxygen, etc., of the privileged who are obviously God’s chosen.
Great post, and not just for lapsed Catholics, but also for those not familiar with the New Testament, like me.
I would like to repost the succinct message from the Mastodon post on social media. Is it your creation or should I credit someone else? Thanks from this retired librarian and author who was taught to quote her sources!
The entire Mastodon post is linked in my comment but I’ll share the link again:
https://mstdn.social/@[email protected]/115516974803864823
Thanks. Much easier way for me to pass it on. I only very occasionally post on FB or Bluesky and these 13 words need spreading!
No one’s metioned the apocryphal Upton Sinclair quote yet?
“When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a Bible”.
He apparantly never said or wrote it, but he and many others in the 30’s came close enough.
Upton Sinclair — ‘Fascism is capitalism plus murder.’
I believe that quote is from Sinclair Lewis.
Fine post, Rayne.
One of the biggest things I think could make a big difference with mainline churches — that is, the non-Christian Nationalists — is for ordinary pew-sitting, churchgoers to go to their pastor and say “Pastor, we need to *DO* — maybe we will be the answer to someone’s prayers. We need to be out there, protesting, protecting, feeding, supporting, helping any way we can. And we need you to lead. Oh, and one more thing: if you get some pushback about playing politics, I’ve got your back.”
Most pastors hate the notion of getting too far in front of their flock, and even more the idea that someone will criticize them for anything that might possibly be seen as political. If you tell your pastor you’ve got their back, that will stiffen their spine to do what needs to be done.
If one person does it, they might say you’re crazy.
If two people do it, they might think you’re both crazy.
If three people do it, they might think you’re an organization.
But if fifty people do it . . . Imagine, fifty people go up to their pastor and tell them they’ve got their back . . .
Friends, they’ll think it’s a movement.
And it is.
And it starts with you talking to the pastor, rather than waiting for the pastor to bring it up.
Whew. A family member told me that a Catholic priest in Florida used Charlie Kirk as a model during his sermon, saying in effect Kirk was shot recently for speaking the truth, equating Kirk to Christ being sacrificed for speaking the truth.
They were angry with the sermon and I am still spinning about it. I want to write a letter to the priest and his bishop for this horrific hot mess. Kirk’s hate speech against immigrants is antithetical to Christian teaching; in no way should he be a model for Christians let alone Catholics.
ADDER: I just asked my family member if the priest asked for parishioners to make a donation to food bank, or if they took a special collection for a food bank. Nope. Instead they had donuts and coffee after mass and then a dinner at the church. No parishioner stood up and called the priest on this, either. I’m disgusted. I hope this isn’t representative of the Catholic Church across the U.S.
Rayne,
On your last sentence in the adder …
I can’t speak about the Catholic Church across the U.S., or even about the United Methodist Church across the U.S., but I strongly suspect that individual parishes reflect their congregants and surrounding neighborhoods. I saw reports out of LA that Catholic priests were saying “stop ICE raiding near our church, because we’re having to tell congregants not to attend worship in person”, and that’s probably more obvious to priests who HAVE such congregants.
I’m thinking specifically about articles like this one.
https://www.ncronline.org/news/california-bishops-scramble-tend-catholics-feeling-hunted-ice-agents
(My muttered imprecations about “Christian Nationalists think freedom to practice religion in America doesn’t apply to everyone” are omitted)
Heather Cox Richardson frequently says America is too big for mass strikes to work well. It might be too big for mass awareness of injustice to work well, either.
Not that the Trump “administration” isn’t doing its best to confront us all with injustice to be aware of …
“I strongly suspect that individual parishes reflect their congregants and surrounding neighborhoods.”
I suspect it has more to do with the congregants and neighborhoods not protesting — in this particular case, a Catholic church serving a large number of Hispanic parishioners who may be conditioned not to question the Church.
Like patients who suffer from “white coat syndrome,” never questioning their doctor.
Well articulated. I loved that you focused on ‘agape’, the unconditional love exemplified by the grace of God and brought to us in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. While you admit to being a ‘lapsed’ Catholic, you certainly haven’t forgotten the Catholic tenets of Christ-centred hope, faith and charity that are at the foundation of Catholic social justice. I am a practising New Zealand Catholic, and I am certain any Catholic parish near you would be happy to have you back in the fold!
Thanks. If I ever get a chance to drop into New Zealand I will definitely attend mass there. Alert the media! LOL
But after what my family member told me today about mass in a Florida church (see elsewhere in this thread), I don’t think the US Catholic Church wants me or my table-flipping kind.
I completely understand. It is a mystery to see the US church so divided. We have the tyranny of distance to contend with, being cached in the bottom of the South Pacific, but sometimes, it is an advantage to be in another hemisphere. Jesus was a table flipper, so you are on the right side!
All this talk about genuine Christians smacks of the “No True Scotsman” fallacy. Without a belief system, there would have been no cause for the Inquisition.
Humanities worst invention were the Abrahamic Religions.
Humanity’s worst invention was the expedient over-exaggeration.
Oh, repression happens without a belief system, except perhaps the belief in one’s own power and that no one has enough power to challenge it.
Don’t confuse the Inquisition’s political and venal crap with religion, just as you shouldn’t confuse Project 2025 with the creation of a Christian theocracy. Catholic dogma has been a convenient excuse for a multitude of abuses of power exerted by monarchies just as Christian virtues are an excuse for the Trump administration to harm marginalized persons.
“No True Scotsman” my ass. You’re missing the point that contemporary Nazis are using Christianity as a bullshit reason for their slow-moving genocide.
It is not an exaggeration that one, and many have, could dismantle the creation of the bible to include the use of Saul as one who knew and understood the “truth” of christianity. If you want to spend time parsing the books of the bible, then I am all for it, as my premise is that anything Saul/Paul wrote is of lesser value than what James, the half-brother of Jesus, had to say.
I would posit that most of the people reading this will absolutely know that most of those doing the work at Auschwitz considered themselves to be christians. History rhymes and using the bible for evil against the other was baked in from the beginning as the only creator is this earth. It’s America and you can believe what you want, but shucking off the lie of bible has made me a far better human than those that are wasting their time praising a non-existent being every damn week.
God’s first request of man in Genesis was for him to ensure that “all species” get a shot to be “fruitful and multiply”, not just man. Let me know when christians start working on that one before we get to the rest of the goat herders guide to the galaxy.
You don’t seem to understand the point of these posts. Not every post here will be for you.
What I’d say about the Bibble, and I’m no scholar – heck I’m not even a Christian – is that you can see two voices in that book. One voice is loud, angry, and demanding with a tendency to curse and rage. The other voice is loving and joyful.
Follow the loving and joyful voice. The raging voice is only for REAL emergencies, and you’ll probably never encounter that kind of emergency even once in your life.
Rayne,
Thank you for this post. Ethics is a subject for discussion now more than ever. I apologize for anecdotal evidence of rampant governmental ethical lapse promoted by Trump. My sister is retired and on medicare and battling cancer. Due to her high cost of medications and proposed diagnostic imaging. Her medicare supplemental insurance has dropped her coverage. She has been unable to obtain new medicare supplemental medicare insurance. Her continued battle to survive is now unaffordable. ACA asked all insurers to not drop patients due to preexisting conditions. Trump and his minions lack of religious ethical commitment has opened the flood gates for profit driven insurers to drop patients with conditions requiring expensive treatments.
As an agnostic or Gnostic?, raised in several different Christian churches, this post just brought tears to my eyes and reenforced my feelings of disorientation? Surrealism? I don’t know who these ‘Christian’s’ are. From Catholic Mass, Lutheran School, Pentecostal Sundays, First Church of Christ… I don’t see or know their Jesus, or their Bible.
When upset as a child, I would sing ‘Jesus loves the little children’ to myself as a comfort. ‘Wether yellow, black, or white, they are precious in his sight..’ Through all the churches, the concept of charity and forgiveness was always taught (if not always practiced). “Faith without works” was emphasized.
Though I have trouble with the supernatural aspects of faith/ religion, and many churches, I have always assumed the basic Christian morals of forgiveness, charity, love thy neighbor as thyself, etc, as just being the decent way to be in society with other humans and our earth.
Over and over, I see religious ‘leaders’ and ‘Christian’s’ and I think Mathew 6:5:
“And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.”
And I wonder at those who follow leaders with no regard for the basic, repeated, scripture against greed, corruption, hypocrisy… ‘for I was a stranger..’.
This whole time of Trump has been very challenging to my world view and how I see my fellow humans.
“And in the end
The love you take
Is equal to the love you make”
Thank you, Rayne, for your posts on the religious aspects of the current political situation. They, along with Ed Walker’s, have been thought provoking.
I’m in the middle of listening to a series of lectures about Ukrainian history by Timothy Snyder (free at Yale courses on youtube). One of his points in discussing the turn from paganism to monotheism is that members of a monotheist religion share a promise not to enslave each other. They have no misgivings about enslaving people of other religions, however. I wonder if this is fundamental (I grew up with evangelical parents and Catholic grandparents on both sides) to the way trumpist christians, the in-group, otherize and de-humanize the heathens of the out-group. It is the heathens who are not following the rules, they are criminals stealing food with our tax money, etc. In the church I grew up in it was normal for people to despise “the gays” who were, according to the devout, living in sin, a stain on the sanctity of humanity. To my parents, sinners have been given every chance to come to the light, thus, it is their fault, their choice, to suffer outside God’s mercy.
Snyder’s point on one of the basic promises inherent in the political spread of monotheism brings up, to me at least, a question about how this idea evolved as slaves (in the US or the Americas under the Spanish, for example) converted to Christianity but still remained slaves.
It seems to me that not much has changed since the 18th century, that Power always trumps proclaimed values, especially when white supremacy is at stake.
I have a response to “Christians” who believe it’s okay to treat outgroups as other, marginalizing and dehumanizing them.
The churches would be growing if that were their primary tenet. sigh.
Hence my lapsed status.
If Christians actually paid attention to Christ’s words I might be one.
Trumpers would really freak out if they knew Jesus hung out with tax collectors (Matthew) and women of ill repute (Mary of Magdala) or that the story that Jesus was from the “House of David” was nonsense or that Jesus had several biological brothers and sisters, making Mary’s “perpetual virginity” a Bronze Age canard. The section of first Corinthians you cite is often referred to as the “Eulogy of the Virtues” and the Anglicized version is very lovely to listen to. I take Christ’s simple teaching of love your neighbor as yourself as the most important lesson of the New Testament and leave all of the theological and liturgical nonsense by the wayside.
Catholic bishops of Texas say ‘we are with you’ as DACA recipients
face another legal blow to their status https://www.tpr.org/news/2025-11-07/catholic-bishops-of-texas-say-we-are-with-you-as-daca-recipients-face-another-legal-blow-to-their-status
Texas Public Radio November 7, 2025 at 11:47 AM CST
Rayne, as usual on the mark: “I have a response to “Christians” who believe it’s okay to treat outgroups as other, marginalizing and dehumanizing them.”
especially when they and their warped colleagues are carrying water for the creepiest people we have seen in our lifetimes.
But I feel a rant coming on, which violates everything here at the invaluable site, unless it is an OT:
The outrage headlines re ICE and snatching of humans keep other items off the news cycle and away from our attention.
(Yes, protecting human beings from kidnapping and outright murder on the high seas is unquestionably Christian too. Protesting Gaza genocide is unquestionably Christian. Standing up for healthcare and feeding the hungry is basic Christian agape.)
However, I see much, if not all this, is functioning to keep the corruption and illegitimacy of our donald out of the news cycle.
Despite the news-worthy reports from various investigative reporters (apart from EW) there is basically “radio silence,” while the Gestapo-student-wannabes dominate the narrative.
Epstein Files contain far more than sexual peccadilloes. I suspect they contain the info that exposes trump’s Totality of Fake Everything. He is terrified of exposure.
He and his nazis are every bit as creepy as the originals, and their grip on this country is — well —
words fail me.
Demand the Epstein Files be opened, unrestrictedly.
Thank you, Rayne. My Sunday school loves these kinds of etymology puzzles. This one is really interesting.