I grew up in a very religious household. My mother wore black when Clinton was elected “Because America is dead.” I worked on the Bush campaigns in my hometown before I could even vote. My parents instilled the idea that conservative values were synonymous with Christian values. That’s an agenda that the GOP has pushed for ages, appealing to groups like Focus on the Family, and evangelical leaders like Billy Graham and Jerry Falwell, while pandering to pro-life and family values political action groups.

But can a good Christian be a good conservative? Christian conservatives believe firmly in God, country and family. They believe that morality should be legislated. Self-sufficiency and rugged individualism are desirable qualities; and that people should pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. Becoming rich and achieving the American Dream is the goal and almost universally admired. Taxes are seen as a curse and should be cut. Social programs for the poor are a waste of tax-payers' money, and the sort of people on those programs are lazy and given to crime. As for criminals, they should feel the full force of the law. Defense spending should be a priority and military service should be praised. And most recently, illegal immigration has become a priority, because why would we want foreigners who don’t want to buy into our way of life?

But are these really the principles of the Christ they claim to follow?

If you took a look at what Jesus said about any number of issues, you’d see that his views diverge significantly from the modern day GOP. On immigration, and nationalism in general, Jesus commanded his disciples to go to the “lost sheep of Israel” and to “love your neighbor as yourself.” On social programs, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven,” and “"But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” He also famously said “Give on to Caesar that which is Caesars, and God that which is God’s”, on the subject of taxation. And of course, on individual prosperity, “It will be hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven." "You cannot serve both God and Money."

You see, Jesus was a liberal. Like it or not, the early church practiced a commune style community, sharing their meager possessions among each other, and giving the rest to the less fortunate. He advocated the idea that his followers must put the well-being of the poor above their own. His parable of the Good Samaritan pointed out that in his eyes even an immigrant with a good heart had more worth then the proudest of citizens.

So why has the modern church embraced the GOP party values hook, line, and sinker? Well simply, because they want to impose their religion upon the citizens of the United States. A nation born under Judeo-Christian values, but with freedoms for all to worship as they saw fit. Those freedoms have allowed the religious right to push their agenda of morality into public law, restricting the rights of women to health care, denying rights to certain people to marry, and sharply criticizing social programs for the less fortunate, or blocking them all together.

Would the Jesus of the Bible even recognize the “Moral Majority” of today, or condone the agenda pushed in his name? I argue that he would not. Now, I know that the issues of abortion and LGBT rights will come up, because these issues would seem to be in line with Republican Party values. But, out of all the topics that Christ spoke about, abortion and LGBT rights didn't seem to be on his agenda. And although you may argue that religion speaks against these topics, you fail recognize the scores of social issues that He did address, because of your focus on legislating morality. I seem to remember something about removing a beam from your own eye, before the speck out of someone else’s…but I digress.

In conclusion, it would seem that conservative Christians have missed the point of their religion entirely. Instead of spreading their message of love to the world, they are attempting to restrict the freedoms of others, based off words that their Christ never said, while ignoring the commands that he did. You see, if Jesus came back today, I doubt he’d be a beer drinking, flag waving, AR-15 toting, NASCAR watching Republican (To be fair, I identify with all those). No, I think he’d be that guy in a tie-dye who’d sit quietly next to a homeless man and listen, who’d show up at his gay friend’s wedding and bring some great wine, or even sell his flat screen to buy food for a poor African American family from the inner city.

It is this blatant hypocrisy that signals the slow death of both organized religion, and the GOP. It’s not something I want, but maybe, just maybe, it needs to happen.