The Atlantic: How the Evangelical World Turned on Itself
I warn everyone who hears the words of prophecy in this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share of the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book. Revelation 22:18-19
In the original, historical context, this passage applies to the book of Revelation itself. It is frequently taken out of context and meant to support the doctrine of inerrancy and infallibility of scripture, but is also used as a shield against anything to which the user applies it. In the conservative, Evangelical church in which I grew up, it was used, along with Hebrews 11:8, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever," to justify the rejection of any perceived threat to the settled view of the majority of the congregation on theology and doctrine, the dress code, the style of music in worship, and anything else that didn't fit their perspective of "the way things ought to be" in church.
That being a very common practice among Evangelical Christians, especially in smaller churches with pastors and church leaders that tend to have less theological education, it is surprising that a whole new set of principles and practices have taken hold as a result of the Trump influence among Evangelicals. Flattered by his attention, most conservative Christians are inclined to ignore his immoral, unethical, anti-Christian behavior, and either ignore the scripture teaching, claiming it is "not directly applicable" or develop a convoluted, twisting rationale to find ways to piece things together and take them out of context to justify their support.
And even though we are almost a year post-Trump, thank God (and I mean that literally, not flippantly or in vain), it just seems to be getting worse, not better.
When You Walk in Manure, It Sticks to your Shoes
On the social media site "Impeach Trump," there's a meme that reads as follows:
What would you call a guy who cheated on Wife #1 with Wife #2 (who got pregnant while he was married to Wife #1) then cheated on Wife #2 with Wife #3; and cheated on Wife #3 with a porn star. A man who told over 30,000 lies in four years; ran a scam university, had his charity shuttered for "a shocking pattern of illegality; who brags about sexually assaulting women, openly expresses. his desire to date his daughter and cusses like a sailor? Republicans call him "The Chosen One" and "God's Man for the Hour." And they wonder why churches and the GOP are both losing members.
The use of the line from Bob Seeger's "Against the Wind" that says, "I used her and she used me and neither one cared," to describe the relationship between Trump and his Evangelical supporters in one of the Atlantic articles I cited at the top is a perfect description of the way it is. Though they shriek and flap their lips when they perceive the courts "legislating from the bench" on behalf of Democrats, they are perfectly fine with using the courts to thwart the will of the voters when it benefits them.
In exchange for their support, Trump essentially gave them the judges they needed to legislate from the bench for them. What does he care? Most of the same judges are the kind of corporate lackeys he wants. He didn't even have to go through some kind of phony "conversion experience" to become one of them, they were willing to make a "deal with the devil," so to speak. They used each other, Trump came out on top, and his total lack of moral character and immoral lifestyle didn't matter to them as long as they got the political power they wanted.
When Clinton was in office, he was unendingly criticized by Republican Evangelicals for his lack of morals. One of the most frequently cited scripture verses used to justify the criticism was I Corinthians 5:9-11, where the Apostle Paul tells the church not to associate with anyone who claims to be a Christian who is guilty of sexual immorality, greed, idolatry, reviling, getting drunk or swindling.
"With such a one, do not even eat," says Paul. "Purge the evil person from among you."
Perhaps the difference is that while Clinton claimed to be a Christian, and was fairly regular in his church attendance and participation, Trump never made that claim and rarely darkens a church doorway, though frankly, given the way many Evangelicals have embraced him, I think the words of the Apostle are not only very much applicable, but makes those Evangelicals who think Trump is "God's man for the hour" hypocrites. Another big difference is that Clinton sought out spiritual counsel and was repentant after making such a move wasn't to his public benefit anymore. Trump has claimed that he has done nothing for which he needs to ask forgiveness.
Footprints in the Manure
The largest Evangelical denomination in the country, the Southern Baptist convention, is showing all kinds of signs of the influence of Trumpism, from bloggers cranking out fake news and misinformation to attempts by executive leadership to strong-arm investigations ordered by convention delegates. Russell Moore, the former head of the denomination's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, who has been under fire for four years for his open opposition to Trump and who resigned prior to the June convention meeting, is the most visible victim. So is Alabama pastor Ed Litton, who won the SBC presidency in June over Georgia pastor Mike Stone, the former chair of the Executive Committee, who launched investigations into Moore's leadership and tried to strong-arm a third-party investigation into the sex abuse scandal that has rocked the denomination since an expose appeared in the Houston Chronicle in 2019. Litton was falsely accused of plagiarism, and the personal attacks on his character continue among those who are making them. Now Stone is suing Moore, determined that he's going to get even because of Moore's opposition to Trump.
It's a mess with actions more suited to a secular political dispute than a Christian denomination.
Then there's Liberty University and all of the scandals surrounding Jerry Falwell, Jr., one of Trump's closest Evangelical allies. It comes complete with photographs, confessions motivated by revenge and an attitude expressed by Falwell Junior that he's above having to follow all those strict, fundamentalist rules and behavior codes that students are required to follow or be expelled. What's more trumpian than that?
Right-wing social media has become particularly vicious. Many Christian colleges and schools connected to Evangelical churches and denominations have become aware of an overall failure to attract many Latino, African American and Asian students to their campuses. There are several consulting groups within the Evangelical educational community that help schools evaluate their situations and work toward an atmosphere of Christian unity that helps students feel welcome included. That's a legitimate concern that most whites just flat out don't understand. But some well-known Christian universities and school organizations have come under attack for being "woke" or for using "marxist" tactics to appease minorities and make white students feel ashamed of their "whiteness."
The Mission and Purpose of the Church Has Been Hijacked
A church is a group of people that are brought together spiritually, for a common purpose rooted in the teachings and in what is known as the "Great Commission" of Jesus. They are spiritually empowered and there is visible unity in each local expression of the church around its functions of worship, education and discipleship in theology and Christian living or "practice," ministry within the church, its missions to the surrounding community also known as "evangelism", and the "fellowship" or the relationships between people in the church, built on the common bond they have as Christians.
Churches don't function well when their allegiance is distracted, or when they lose their focus on their functions as Christian communities, and are used for purposes that don't have anything to do with their Christian identity and purpose, like secular politics. The Apostle Paul wrote to the Christian church in Corinth in the early first century, "For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ." The context of those words is in a narrative in which he was using his apostolic authority to address conflicts and division in the church which he points out were the result of "jealousy and strife" among the members.
It's been my personal perspective, as one who grew up in Evangelical churches, that right wing secular politics has been the cause of almost all of the strife and jealousy in those churches which have pursued a political agenda, and which attempt to use the influence of political power to accomplish their mission and purpose. In order to do that, the mission and purpose must be changed from Christ's great commission to a secular, political end. And that's what's happening now.
Not all Evangelical Christians have been caught up in the political deception. If you look at the Atlantic article on the church pastored by Andy Stanley, you can see that he has tried to avoid being distracted by politics. And among white Evangelicals there are plenty of other examples. That's not to say that the majority of the membership of those churches isn't right wing Republican, but the church leadership is keeping the church out of the political agenda.
And many Evangelicals are clearly leaving the churches that have been hijacked. The SBC has seen membership decline by more than two million in less than a decade, and the average attendance in the churches is down by more than a million over the same period of time. Across the spectrum of Evangelical Christianity in the United States, the numbers in membership and attendance are down more than 20% in a decade, more than 8% since 2016.
There's Nothing Wrong With Churches or Christians Influencing Government
There's no religious "test" or requirement for participating in government and no exclusion of people from influencing the government because of their religious beliefs, or lack of them. The founders, specifically Jefferson and Madison, listened to the concerns of individual Christians and groups of churches about the negative effects of the state churches of Europe, and so no state church was established by the United States.
The problem here is that a group of churches professing the "Great Commission" of Jesus have engaged in an alliance with a man whose lifestyle includes behaviors which violate every principle of Christian teaching. I don't want to paint with a broad brush, but the attitudes, verbiage, comments and social media posts coming from a wide swath of Evangelical leadership no longer resembles any Christian mission and purpose, it has trump-prints all over it. Christians carrying crosses and Bible verse signs while violently attacking the Capitol on January 6 is an event that illustrates the complete corruption of those who were involved. Doing something like that violates multiple Biblical principles and runs completely counter to the gospel message of Jesus Christ.
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