Dazzled by arcane languages: the right that only sees what it wants to see

I am 49 years old and have already lost count of the number of times I have met inconsistent people who claimed to have noble ideals..

Trump's new baseness: he excuses Russia for attacking civilians in Sumy and criticizes Zelensky
Russia has attacked nearly 600 Christian churches in Ukraine: what propagandists are keeping quiet about

“Even if I mastered the arcane languages...”

In the disappointments I've experienced with some of these people, I must admit that I have been largely to blame, because sometimes we only see what we want to see, driven by sectarianism. There's a song that's sung a lot in my parish and that I often think of when I think about these things. It begins like this:

Even if I mastered the arcane languages,
and knew how to express the language of heaven,
I would only be a hollow bell
if I lack love.

Trump's Easter message and his new lie about Ukraine

I was reminded of this song while reading some news and commentary on various events in the last few hours. One of those events is a beautiful message about Holy Week 2025 released by Donald Trump last Sunday. The message includes the following paragraph:

This Holy Week, my Administration renews its promise to defend the Christian faith in our schools, military, workplaces, hospitals, and halls of government. We will never waver in safeguarding the right to religious liberty, upholding the dignity of life, and protecting God in our public square.

I think it's a beautiful message, but it only took 24 hours for it to become a dead letter. As I explained here, yesterday Trump apologized to Russia for killing 34 people in Sumy (calling it a "mistake" but avoiding criticizing Putin for this atrocity) and attacked the president of Ukraine, blaming him for starting this war, a blatant lie that has caused a scandal on social media, since this war was started by Russia with its invasion of Ukraine, first in 2014 with the illegal annexation of Crimea and then with the full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022.

A display of hypocrisy that some are captivated by

Curiously, I have found that some right-wing media and relevant people who praised Trump's Christian message on Sunday, contributing with their praise to build an image of the current US president as a sincere Christian, 24 hours later have decided to say nothing about Trump's big lie blaming Zelensky for the war, a lie that, like others that Trump has been uttering (remember that two months ago he had already blamed Ukraine for the invasion and had called Zelenski "dictator", without using that same word at any time to refer to Putin), leaves Trump's Christian message about Holy Week as an exhibition of hypocrisy.

As a Catholic, and as I have been pointing out for years, I am glad that there are politicians who defend Christian values, but this defense cannot be limited to mere words. In this sense, it must be remembered that Trump is not the only inconsistent politician.

The case of the Popular Party in Spain

In Spain, for example, the Popular Party states in its statutes that it is committed "to a clear European vocation inspired by the values ​​of freedom, democracy, tolerance and Christian humanism of Western tradition". It is the same PP that openly supports abortion. But this last point doesn't matter to many Christians who continue to vote and be members of that party, because for them the important thing is that its statutes mention Christian humanism, even if its actions contradict that mention.

It must be said that the Spanish Episcopal Conference plays a regrettable role in this case, since its media outlets (COPE and 13TV) have been contributing for years to strengthening that false image of the PP as the party that Spanish Christians should vote for, even if it is as a mere lesser evil. A lesser evil that has grown to become a large part of Spain's problem.

Vladimir Putin, a criminal presented as a Christian role model

An extreme example of this fondness for hollow bells is those who admire Putin and present him as a defender of Christian values, people who consider Moscow to be the Third Rome and that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is justified because Ukrainians are, according to them, evil people. The Kremlin has been promoting this false image of Putin as a Christian leader with messages like the one the Russian dictator issued on April 24, 2022, entitled "To Orthodox Christians and all citizens of Russia who celebrate the bright Resurrection of Christ." The message stated:

This great holiday unites Orthodox Christians, all citizens of Russia who celebrate the Resurrection of Christ, around high ideals and moral values, awakens in people the brightest feelings, faith in the triumph of life, goodness and justice.

Putin launched this message just two months after launching his large-scale aggression against Ukraine, a very clear example of an unjust war from a Christian perspective and in which Russia has been committing all kinds of atrocities, including massacres of unarmed civilians (including children) like the one in Bucha, attacks against civilians like the one last Sunday that killed 34 people (including two children) were attacked during the Christian holiday of Palm Sunday, and attacks against almost 600 Christian churches, most of them Orthodox.

By now, we have abundant evidence that Russia is committing purely diabolical crimes in Ukraine, crimes that should be roundly rejected by all Christians and that demonstrate the absolute vileness of the Kremlin. But some only see what they want to see and continue to support Putin, no matter how brutal his crimes are. They don't care about all the atrocities the Russians are committing in Ukraine and continue to applaud Putin as if he were a great defender of the faith.

The need to be critical of what the right does

This level of fanaticism is something to be expected from the far left, which has always abhorred moral values, considering them a sign of decadence in bourgeois society and an opium for the people, as Karl Marx stated in 1844. The surprise is that right-wing people who claim to defend Christian values ​​do this. Although once again, I think the blame lies with the rest of us for forgetting a fact: that being Christian or right-wing does not always imply having a minimum sense of criticism towards what your own people do, nor does it prevent someone from being willing to justify anything that a politician who claims to be both Christian and conservative does. Therefore, although some may find it hard to understand, if we are right-wing, we must be critical of what the right does, and not simply excuse everything.