I know your works; you have a name for being alive but you are dead. Wake up and strengthen what remains and is at the point of death , for I have not found your works perfect in the sight of my God. Remember, then what you heard; obey it and repent. If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief and you will not know at what hour I will come to you. Revelation 3:1b-3, NRSV
It would not have been possible, in the small Baptist church in which I grew up, to identify the political party affiliation of any of the members of the church. It was never a topic of discussion that I can ever recall, not in any Sunday school class, never in the worship service or sermon, not in fellowship gatherings in members homes, or the regular "pot luck" dinners. Never.
My own father, baptized into the membership of a Baptist congregation in his hometown when he was seven years old and a deacon in the church we belonged to when I was growing up, was a Democrat. But the subject never came up at church. He was a member and officer in a labor union, cast his first Presidential ballot for Franklin D. Roosevelt, voted for every Democrat in every election since, John Kerry being the last one before he passed away. I think there may have been some members of the church who knew, since one of the other deacons worked at the same place and they had both served as local officers at one time or another, but politics were never part of the discussion.
It's certainly not that way now among most Evangelical Christians. I don't know about my home church, I haven't been there in thirty years, but the marriage between Republicans and Conservative Evangelicals that was officiated by Jerry Falwell during the 1980 Presidential campaign has had a devastating detrimental effect on the doctrine and theology of many who call themselves Evangelical Christians.
It's a marriage that has forced Evangelicals to own positions on issues that are completely inconsistent with their doctrine. What started as single-issue support for overturning Roe v. Wade has become full acceptance of anything Republicans support and anyone they choose as candidates for office. It's put Evangelicals, who claim to be the most doctrinally correct and theologically accurate branch of the Christian church, at odds with the teachings of Jesus and the Apostles on many, many issues including the morality of war, financial and economic policy that favors the rich and victimizes the working class and poor, issues that are classified as "social justice" simply because the right has distorted the meaning of the term, and at odds with considering healing and health care as basic human rights . It has caused them to "make deals with the Devil" as I call it, exchanging their voting support based on promises of worldly power and influence for candidates who have built their reputation around their flagrant immorality and worldly lifestyles.
Going Off the Rails
Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation. When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish. Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God, who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever; who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry. Psalm 146:3-7 ESV
Most Evangelical churches and denominations are characterized by a doctrine which declares the sixty-six books of the Bible, the Old and New Testaments without the apocrypha, to be the written "word of God," and therefore to be without error and infallible in its content. That includes a belief that the very words of the Bible were inspired by God and an interpretation style that almost universally defers to a literal interpretation outside of the historical and cultural context in which it was written. Most of the time, the literal meaning is favored over the meaning discerned from historical context.
But in spite of their claims, while many pastors and church leaders are well educated in theology, most members of an Evangelical church couldn't really tell you much about what they believe beyond some of the basic "essentials". The prevalence and growth of media influence has become the means by which most church members get their doctrine, so those individuals who have the means to get their books published and their preaching and teaching in front of people have become "religious celebrities" and are bigger influences than the pastor of a small, local church. And that's where the link between Evangelical Christians and the Republican party was forged.
The Old Time Gospel Hour and the Moral Majority
Prior to the Carter administration, most conservative Christians, including Evangelicals, the old-line Pentecostal denominations and Fundamentalists, tended to stay away from politics. Many of them teach what they refer to as the spiritual discipline of separation, which is the practice of avoiding influences that are considered "worldly", meaning the opposite of "spiritual". That included things like not going to movies, not going to secular music concerts or plays, not reading popular literature, avoiding stylish clothing, watching television or joining civic organizations or clubs. They avoided politics because they tended to view all politicians as corrupt, worldly and dishonest. They believed that someone who genuinely practiced their brand of Christianity could never be popular enough among those "in the world" to get elected to office.
That started to change with Jerry Falwell. Falwell was a Fundamentalist Baptist pastor with a television ministry called "The Old Time Gospel Hour" that was mainly a broadcast of the worship service at the Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia. Falwell, a staunch separatist Baptist, believed that all of the social and government institutions were corrupt and that worked its way into his sermons, which reached an audience of listeners of like-minded Christians mostly across the South via radio and television. He used the media to raise money, appealing to listeners to help in order to keep the ministry on the air, which he used not only to continue broadcasting, but to support the school and college he had established and to recruit students.
Falwell's initial foray into politics was opposition to the Civil Rights Movement and criticism of the sincerity of Dr. Martin Luther King. He was openly segregationist, invited George Wallace and Lester Maddox to appear on his broadcasts and was a vocal critic of the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision. In the 70's, he helped outside sources raise money to run ads in the South critical of President Jimmy Carter. He used his fame and the popularity of The Old Time Gospel hour to raise millions of dollars for his schools, and for just about any cause he wanted to support, including the political organization he built, "The Moral Majority." White Christian Nationalism is a popular perspective among the Independent Fundamental Baptists of Falwell's religious tribe. It wasn't openly promoted by the Moral Majority but it was a means of motivating contributions.
The pull of Evangelicals into politics is driven by money. Seeing how Falwell was not only able to influence voters, but also raise large amounts of money, it was only a matter of time before others who had the means to access the media decided that while politics may be worldly, they are also profitable. Prayer leads to discerning and following the will of God. Politics leads to the accomplishment of agendas without the pesky requirement of them having to be in accordance with God's will and it's an easy way to raise tax free contributions.
It's All About the "R" After the Name
Though Bill Clinton was baptized and raised in a Southern Baptist church, and was an active and regularly attending member of one of the larger Southern Baptist congregations in Little Rock when he ran for President in 1992, like Carter, he was opposed by the Evangelical establishment, By then, for those in the morphed edition of the Moral Majority, known as the "Religious Right," every issue advocated by Democrats was tainted by their support for abortion "on demand," though Clinton's moderate views were far from those of the left.
The Religious Right tore into Clinton's moral failures. No Evangelical Christian would have ever declared, "I'm not voting for a pastor-in-chief, I'm voting for a commander-in-chief" when Clinton was the Democratic nominee and at any point during his presidency. The character and morality of politicians then ranked higher than the issues. Republicans gave their support to Bush's re-election in 1992 in spite of the fact that, while he gave lip service to the pro-life position to get on the ticket with Reagan, his judicial appointments reflected a decidedly pro-choice position, and he deliberately kept the pro-choice majority on the Supreme Court.
After Clinton's scandal with Monica Lewinsky and the impeachment, noted Southern Baptist pastor Dr. Adrian Rogers, put the entire movement on the record when it came to supporting candidates. Dr. Rogers, in a widely hailed and frequently cited sermon series entitled, "Does Character Count," laid out an incredibly strong argument claiming that moral character was the single most important characteristics in choosing leaders, especially a President. Rogers asserted that moral character directly affects the ability of a President to make decisions and lack of it is a flaw that puts the whole country in danger. He made his case using multiple references from the book of Proverbs. Dr. Roger's arguments render the excuses used by Evangelical leaders for their support of Trump as flat out, blatant, sinful denials of the truth. The fact that it was written in the 1990's and that Dr. Rogers passed away before Trump came on the scene makes it even more damning and condemning of those Evangelical leaders who openly supported Trump's candidacy and his Presidency.
The Widening Gap Between Evangelical Right Wing Politics and Sound Christian Theology and Doctrine
When John the Baptist was imprisoned by Herod the Great, he heard reports about Jesus in prison and sent messengers to ask him if he was the Christ or if they should look for someone else. Jesus replied, "Go tell John what you have heard and seen: The blind can see. The crippled can walk. People with leprosy are healed. The deaf can hear. The dead are brought back to life. And the good news is being told to the poor. Great blessings belong to those who don't have a problem accepting me." Matthew 11:4-6
Your love must be real. Hate what is evil. Do only what is good. Love each other in a way that makes you feel close like brothers and sisters. And give each other more honor than you give yourself. As you serve the Lord, work hard and don't be lazy. Be excited about serving him! Be happy because of the hope that you have. Be patient when you have troubles. Pray all the time. Share with God's people who need help. Look for people who need help and welcome them into your homes.
Wish only good for those who treat you badly. Ask God to bless them not to curse them. When others are happy, you should be happy with them. And when others are sad, you should be sad too. Live together in peace with each other. Don't be proud but be willing to be friends with people who are not important to others. Don't think of yourself as smarter than everyone else.
If someone does you wrong, don't try to pay them back by hurting them. Try to do what everyone thinks is right. Do the best you can to live in peace with everyone. Romans 12:9-18
Both of those passages shed a lot of light on what it looks like to "practice" the Christian faith. Do you see anything in there that resembles Trumpism? I didn't think so. If those words were spoken at a Trump rally without any reference to the scripture from where they came, they would be loudly booed.
None of the candidates nominated by the GOP since the days of the Moral Majority during the Reagan administration have been members of Evangelical Christian churches. That certainly sends a message, doesn't it? The only two actual members of an Evangelical church who ran for the GOP nomination were soundly beaten by the voters in the primaries. Ted Cruz was labelled "Lyin' Ted" by Trump, and as Trump gained in the primaries, it was at Cruz' expense. Mike Huckabee, an ordained Southern Baptist pastor who led a large Arkansas church before becoming governor, was soundly defeated by Mitt Romney, a Mormon. There are a dozen or more books circulating around, written by Evangelical authors, showing how little resemblance Mormonism has to Evangelical Christianity and labelling it as a "cult." So it seems like a clear message has been sent regarding the importance the Christian right places on doctrine and theology when it comes to their political support.
Trump's lifestyle reflects none of the Biblically based values of Evangelical Christianity. I can't find even one thing anywhere among his rally speeches, books, public comments or anywhere in his social media ramblings and rantings. He has stated, on multiple occasions, that he does not need to ask forgiveness for anything and nothing he has done indicates acknowledgement or adherence to any principle of Christian faith. His inspiration motivated some Evangelicals to abandon their belief in the Bible in order to participate in an insurrection against the government. So this is a new low point.
Is it faith if the defense of it abandons it?
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