You may have noticed more Christians speaking up about what many feel is a creeping hypocrisy amongst our faith. To be blunt, the hypocrisy is so blatant that its almost impossible to miss.
We’re also hearing more people use the term “false Christian” — in essence, a false Christian is someone who may attend Church and they can often quote scripture, but their hearts and mouths are filled with hatred. A false Christian is someone who has little understanding of what it means to be a true Christian…to live by the very things Jesus teaches us.
There is no easy way to say this, other than directly: people who cheer on cruelty and who speak piously while acting selfishly and coldly, are not true Christians. Why? Because Jesus Christ is the Son of God and He is God’s very Will in the flesh — when Jesus commands that we are to love one another and to be kind, compassionate, tolerant, fair and generous, that is in every way, the Will of God. It is to be Christian.
This piece by the Reverend Benjamin Cremer is very insightful:
“Saving Souls” While Destroying Lives.
There is a persistent and deeply harmful theological contradiction in the way many Christians in the United States claim to follow Jesus. With loud conviction, they proclaim a passion for “saving souls,” for securing eternal destinations, and yet display callous disregard and even outright hostility toward the real, present suffering of the people Jesus called us to love. This is not only a theological failure; it is a moral crisis that reveals how far many have drifted from the incarnate compassion of Christ.
To care only about someone’s soul while neglecting their body, mind, and circumstances is to betray the very nature of the gospel. Jesus didn’t come only preaching about heaven; he came healing bodies, feeding crowds, comforting the grieving, welcoming the outcast, and confronting systems that exploited the vulnerable. His ministry was whole-person restoration. To reduce his message to “just get saved” while only referring to a spiritual sense while ignoring everything else is to ignore the whole of the gospel.
One current and glaring example of this hypocrisy is the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” that some Christian lawmakers and Christian leaders have praised. A piece of legislation that severely restricts immigration, expands border enforcement, and increases detention of vulnerable people, including asylum seekers and children. Supporters call it a moral victory, claiming it defends American values and law and order. But behind its political spin lies a devastating human toll.
This bill does not just regulate policy, it punishes the poor, criminalizes the desperate, abandons the hungry, the sick, and the elderly, and increases suffering for people made in God’s image. It denies medical care, mental health support, and basic human rights to many citizens and people fleeing violence and poverty. It separates families. It subjects children to long periods of detention. And somehow, many who praise it still want to call themselves “pro-life.”
Where is Jesus in this? Is he at the border with ICE, turning away the hungry and tired? Or is he weeping with the refugee mother cradling her child in a detention cell? Is he with the insurance company demanding higher premiums or with the sick, desperate to survive? Is he with the wealthy who are in need of nothing who will receive even more wealth from such a bill or the hungry children who have their food assistance cut?
To claim allegiance to Christ while supporting or ignoring such cruelty is not just inconsistent, it’s anti-Christ. Jesus explicitly identifies himself with “the least of these” (Matthew 25). He says that to reject the poor, the sick, the immigrant, the prisoner, is to reject him. No doctrinal statement or evangelism campaign can undo that reality.
Too often, the church practices spiritual bypassing. using religious language to avoid responsibility. When faced with societal injustice, some Christians retreat into clichés: “This world is not our home” or “People just need Jesus.” But Jesus didn’t float above pain. He entered it. He touched lepers. He overturned tables. He fed the hungry before he preached the sermon.
To be Christian is to embrace incarnational responsibility: that souls matter because bodies matter too. That includes advocating for mental health care, just wages, housing, food security, and the humane treatment of immigrants and refugees. These are not “extras” or distractions from the gospel; they are central to it. Any theology that separates soul-saving from embodied love is not Christianity. It is a convenient lie that serves power and wealth, not people.
Jesus did not call us to be soul collectors. He called us to be cross-bearers. A people who lay down privilege and comfort to love others with sacrificial integrity. When Christians cheer legislation that inflicts harm, when they ignore the cries of the sick or justify policies that dehumanize, they are not defending the faith. They are betraying it.
We must repent of a gospel that seeks to save souls while abandons bodies. We must resist laws that exalt cruelty while hiding behind morality. And we must remember that to follow Jesus means to walk where he walked: among the poor, the migrant, the broken, the fearful. Not to pity them. But to join them.
Anything less is not the gospel. It is a mask for power. And Jesus has always been in the business of tearing off masks and speaking truth to power.
We must not be known for talking about heaven while actively creating hell on earth for others.
“If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?” -James 2:16
“If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?” -1 John 3:17
– The Reverend Benjamin Cremer
So how do we act and live like true Christians? Simply put, there is no secret, because Jesus Himself showed us how: Be kind, help others, don’t judge and condemn, as we are all sinners and thus, unworthy, so only through Christ can we have redemption. We must be generous, forgiving, tolerant and fair-minded. We must put God above all else and that includes any politician. We should be peaceful and eager to support and help our fellow man.
Be very wary of false Christians because sadly, they are on the wrong path, particularly those who taint the true tenets of Christianity with politics — we must be vigilant not to let them lead us astray.
“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful.” – 1 Corinthians 13:4-5
“Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.” – 1 Peter 3:8
