The GOP’s Paradox: Christian Values or the Worship of Wealth and Power?
The GOP claims to be a bastion of Christian values, defending morality in an uncertain world. Yet, beneath this reverent veneer lies an allegiance less to Christ and more to the ancient gods of wealth and sacrifice. In their fervor for freedom and self-reliance, the Republican Party’s true faith emerges: not in the teachings of Jesus, but in the creeds of Mammon and Baal.
The Republican Party insists it is founded on Christian principles, yet its policies reveal a different story—one grounded in Ayn Rand’s Objectivism, Social Darwinism, and an allegiance to ideals that mirror the ancient worship of Mammon, the god of greed, and Baal, the god of sacrificial power.
Since 2021, the party’s policies have continued to prioritize the financial elite and corporate interests, sacrificing collective welfare and empathy in the name of freedom. This paradox lies at the heart of a party whose proclamations of virtue diverge sharply from the societal impact of its actions.
Objectivism and the Modern Mammon: Tax Cuts for the Wealthy Over Social Welfare
One of the clearest examples of the GOP’s devotion to Mammon over Jesus is the ongoing impact of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which has disproportionately benefited America’s wealthiest individuals and corporations. This legislation slashed the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%, offering significant gains to the top 1% while middle- and low-income households saw only marginal relief. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, these cuts perpetuate widening income inequality, embodying the Objectivist belief in wealth as an end in itself.
Speaker Mike Johnson has been vocal in his support for policies that prioritize wealth accumulation, including efforts to dismantle social safety nets. He has consistently backed attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), a move the Congressional Budget Office estimates could leave nearly 20 million people without health coverage. What happens to the sick, the elderly, the vulnerable, left to face life-threatening conditions alone? In a creed of self-reliance, mercy may have little place.
Social Darwinism and the Denial of Aid to the Vulnerable
The GOP’s approach to welfare reflects a Social Darwinist mindset, applying “survival of the fittest” to human society, where only those deemed “deserving” receive aid. In 2023, Arkansas introduced work requirements on Medicaid, a move expected to reduce healthcare access for thousands. For those unable to meet stringent eligibility requirements, the implicit message is clear: aid is conditional, compassion transactional.
Similar restrictions on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits reinforce the idea that government support should be reserved for the “worthy.” This view contrasts sharply with the Christian ethic of loving one’s neighbor and caring for the least among us, replacing a call for mercy with the ethos of the strong prevailing over the weak.
Selective Government Control: Freedom for Business, Restrictions for Individuals
While Republicans often tout their advocacy for limited government, this principle is selectively applied. Since 2021, the GOP has promoted deregulation for business and gun ownership, while pursuing extensive control over personal freedoms. Following the 2022 reversal of Roe v. Wade, GOP-led states enacted strict abortion laws, with near-total bans in Alabama and Texas. For all the rhetoric on freedom, whose freedom is protected when the right to personal choice is curtailed?
The GOP’s selective approach reveals an ideological flexibility: freedom when it serves business, control when it enforces moral norms. Here, too, is an echo of Baal’s ancient principle—sacrifice, not of self, but of another’s freedom, another’s choice.
Mammon and Baal in GOP Policy: The Worship of Wealth and Sacrificial Tolerance of Harm
The worship of Mammon and Baal is apparent in the GOP’s stance on wealth and gun control. Mammon, symbolizing greed, is reflected in tax policies that prioritize the wealthy over collective welfare. Recent budget cuts have reduced IRS audits on high-income earners, shifting scrutiny onto lower-income Americans—a reversal that guards the wealth of the elite while placing the cost on the poor.
Baal finds his modern parallel in the GOP’s stance on gun control, where minimal regulation prevails despite a high cost. In 2023, the Gun Violence Archive reported over 600 mass shootings, yet Republicans have consistently blocked legislation for universal background checks. Is this the cost of freedom? In the words of ancient faith, a sacrifice of lives, so that liberty may remain unbound by law.
The True Ideological Allegiances of the GOP
The Republican Party’s commitment to Objectivism, Social Darwinism, and the symbolic worship of Mammon and Baal reveals an ideology that reveres wealth and sacrifice above compassion. These principles contradict the teachings of Christianity, which champion care for the vulnerable and reverence for life. As the GOP continues to prioritize wealth over welfare, individual power over collective responsibility, its claim to Christian values grows increasingly hollow.
If wealth is worshipped, what becomes of mercy?
