“Godlessness” is NOT the problem. We actually have too much God in America

Every time there’s a new crisis in America, someone inevitably says: “We need God back in this country.”

But what if the real problem isn’t a lack of God?
What if the real problem is the “god” we’ve been given?

What if the God we were told about is actually not the divine source of love, healing, and radical welcome – the Divine Presence many of us long to know?
What if the Americanized, politicized, weaponized version of God isn’t truly “God” at all?
The God of Christian nationalism.
The God who blesses bullies.
The God who looks nothing like Jesus.

So yes, God. I need to say this plainly: We’re breaking up!
And it’s not me. It’s you.

At a time when we need a spirituality that tenderly partners with our humanity…

We’ve been handed a thin-skinned God obsessed with rules, shame, and punishment.

When our country is aching for compassion, nuance, and justice, we get sermons about sexual purity, voter ID laws, and “the trans agenda.”

We don’t get a healer. We get a hall monitor. (Or a God who checks genders at bathroom doors…)

At a time when we need a Divine Spirit that unites…

We are told that God plays favorites. God blesses America… the white, straight, gun-owning part of America, that is. The part that wears the red hats.
God saves – but only those called “unborn.” The undocumented are out of luck.

We needed the Good Shepherd. Instead, we got the God of gated communities. A God who praises billionaires as “blessed.”

Jesus said, “Easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to inherit the kingdom of heaven.” But this God quotes, “If you don’t work, you don’t eat.”
Jesus flipped tables in the temple.
This God smiles when churches coerce for tithes while turning away the hungry, caring nothing about health care for those truly in need.

Instead, we got a God who says, “Go back to where you came from.”
This God blesses cruelty. And applauds and cheers when ICE agents abuse moms and grandmothers. When due process no longer matters when talking about those of a particular skin color, accent, or language.

At a time when we needed access to a divine, transcendent, heavenly love…

We get an absentee father whose “love” always comes with quotation marks. There’s a reason we say, “no hate like Christian ‘love.'”)

This God “loves the sinner” by harassing the trans kid in their school bathroom.
This God “speaks the truth in love” while holding protest signs outside Planned Parenthood and harassing scared young women.
This God “protects marriage” by trying to erase queer families from existence.

We were given a god who holds a Bible upside down for a photo op. One who believes being cruel makes you a holy warrior.

That god isn’t a divine being.
It’s an idol carved in the shape of empire.
A golden calf gilded with patriotic slogans.
A God who looks like a white man with a gun and a grudge.
A God obsessed with control, conformity, preservation of power and takes autonomy from women.

It is a God who burns books, not bushes.
A God who uses prayer to justify harm, not to prevent it.
A God who wants obedience, not transformation.
A God who would crucify Christ all over again – for being too woke.

So let’s be clear:

America’s problem isn’t godlessness.
It’s that we have mistaken a culturally constructed idol for the Divine.

We’ve replaced mystery with nationalism.
We’ve replaced compassion with culture war.
We’ve replaced Christ with Caesar.

So, what if we said “no mas?”

What if we stopped apologizing for walking away?
What if we stopped fearing eternal damnation for asking holy, sacred questions?

What if we told the truth about the Evangelical god:

That god isn’t real.
That god doesn’t heal.
That god doesn’t love without conditions attached.

There is a real connection between heaven and humanity.

There is a Divinity that still whispers from the margins.
There is a Divine Love that doesn’t need your shame to survive.
There is a Divine Spirit that isn’t impressed with the flags and the slogans and the fear.
There is a Divine Christ who is still with the poor, the queer, the outcast, and the brokenhearted.

That “god” is our connected, eternal human spirits – and it’s still here.
Still calling to one another.
Still waiting to connect.

Still determined to be the paraclete – a Holy Spirit – that walks alongside one another.

So no, America doesn’t need more God.
America needs to tell this version of God:

It’s over.
We’re done.
And it’s not me – it’s you.