Right wing Evangelicals political devotees are Pharisees of our modern times

  The core values of Christianity, central to the faith, from the golden rule to the sermon on the mount, "forgive us of our sins as we forgive those who sin against us" (Lord's Prayer) are what is under attack. That is what identifies those who profess to be Christians, but those who claim those values are politically subversive are no longer following the teachings of Jesus. They are the Pharisees of our era. in Jesus's time, the Pharisees were His antagonists because he spoke against them All of the other "controversies" and contradictions in those who claim to follow the Gospels are secondary but still do not rise to the same fundamental importance as these core values that Jesus advocated..   https://www.newsweek.com/evangelicals-rejecting-jesus-teachings-liberal-talking-points-pastor-1818706?fbclid=IwAR04cEhw4mDJEj2HPaBakmZdIPsSgq-YyPwS2OxRS_hx8p3vzCMNHrwMEiM

Update: 9/9/2023

The observation is not limited to Protestant Evangelicals, either, as Pope Francis calls out US Catholic leaders:Pope says some 'backward' conservatives in US Catholic Church have replaced faith with ideology | AP News

Just as those who feared Jesus's methods and popularity harnassed the Roman governor to go along with the Pharisees who resented the reformist message, the money changers, were what resulted in the Crucifixion. Turning religion into a political weapon is the history of most nations and most successful in nations where they are the overwhelming majority of the population are believers in the same brand of Christianity.. The US is far too diverse as even the views of religion differed from colony to colony to establish a federal state religion. The founders of our country were mostly not Christian clergy but were influenced by the age of reason and found a way to decouple religion from the rulers in the First Amendment, explicitly forbidding the establishment of a state religion which has become the foundation of the separation of church and state. what the founders of our country tried hard to institutionalize in the Constitution.

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jesus/Scribes-and-Pharisees

https://www.skyhinews.com/opinion/opinion-muftic-thank-the-pilgrims-who-began-americas-quest-for-religious-freedom/

Hypocrisy is not new in politics; , it has just gotten worse

Rep. Devin Nunes, Donald Trump's GOP House member errand boy, was at it again. After having to recuse himself from the Russian investigation because of flagrant partisanship,  in a prior stunt. Devin Nunes, chair of the House Intelligence Committee,  wants to release his "memo" on alleged misdeeds by the FBI.  The Trump administration's own Justice Department says it contains classified information and  release would be "extraordinarily  reckless ", harmful to US security.  Nunes is on a thinly disguised  campaign to try to obstruct the Mueller investigation by damaging the FBI's reputation and to give a reason to fire Deputy  AG Rod Rosenstein who is  supervising the Mueller probe. The reason the Justice Department gave : the Nunes memo includes  information into FBI secret methods to gather information. No wonder Russian bots are cheerleading for the release of this memo. Russia could  learn much helpful to their own attempts to subvert US democracy and learning more about sources and methods used by US security services.  The FBI believes also it is misleading. and inaccurate.  https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/01/31/fbi-grave-concerns-expected-release-nunes-memo/1083218001/

Of course, after exhaustive investigations led by a GOP Congress into Hillary Clinton's e mails that allegedly contained classified information, those investigations  went nowhere because her intent to include them was not proven. Now  Nunes intentionally wants to release classified information harmful to the US.     Is it  OK if the GOP intentionally does release information that hurts US security  but it is  not OK if Clinton unintentionally did it  and with no damage to US security?

It is just boys being boys and locker room talk if the GOP 's flag bearer, the President of the US.  admits to sexual assault on starlets and pays off porn stars for his encounters, but it is impeachment worthy when Bill Clinton "did not have sex with that women".  Give Trump a "mulligan", White  Evangelical religious leader  's exhort while some of  their believers believe Trump   "was sent by God".  Give me a break.  How many of the GOP would like their kids to grow up and be like Donald Trump?

I yearn for those simpler  days when President Jimmy Carter admitted he had "lust in in heart".  But of course, he, a devout Christian,  came in for ridicule by his political critics  as a hypocrite.   How far  down  the toilet has the country gone?

https://www.vox.com/identities/2018/1/23/16924546/evangelical-tony-perkins-trump-stormy-daniels-affair-mulligan

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/01/27/millions-of-americans-believe-god-made-trump-president-216537

http://www.businessinsider.com/release-the-memo-campaign-russia-linked-twitter-accounts-2018-1

https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2017-04-06/house-intel-chairman-devin-nunes-recuses-self-from-russia-investigation

https://www.thedailybeast.com/doj-warns-that-releasethememo-would-be-extraordinarily-reckless