Michael Gerson: Trump Should Fill Christians with Rage. How Come He Doesn't?
The very first time Donald Trump generated publicity with an attempt to run for President, or at least, floated his name out there to see if he could catch some momentum, my conclusion was that he would not be able to get very far among Republicans, because an immoral, unethical multi-millionaire who openly proclaims worldly values and lives a lifestyle that is diametrically the opposite of any Christian values or virtues wouldn't be able to get enough support from the religious right to win the nomination.
Initially, in his early attempts to get his name out as a candidate, that was the case. But over time, with the help of what I see as a fundamental lack of conviction and knowledge of the core beliefs and principles of the Christian gospel by conservative American Christians, the religious right has become a group of Trump's most ardent supporters, far more, in fact, than the less Christian, more academic branch of the GOP. And the more traditional wing of the party has either been forced to stay silent and go along with it, or quietly fade into the background, facing derision and criticism as they are labelled "Rinos" and traitors to a party whose values have been turned upside down.
Just because the religious right has turned to Trump doesn't make him any more Christian than he was when they didn't really pay much attention to him. I'm saying, as one raised in the conservative, Evangelical tradition of American Christianity, that the values, virtues and principles of the Christian faith, from the recorded words of Jesus the Christ, and the church's Apostles who wrote most of the New Testament, must be abandoned or ignored in order to give political support to Donald J. Trump.
A Non-Christian Cult has Formed on the Religious Right
Gerson says that right-wing Christian voters are attracted to Trump, not because he is some kind of virtuous example of their values, but because he's a right wing hard liner who bullies his way through the law to get what he wants and in order to get their votes, which he needs, he promises to fight their culture war for them. They don't care if most of his agenda will be to their economic disadvantage, he's agreed to appoint the judges to the federal bench that they name for him. As long as he gives them what they want, they're willing to ignore his immorality and dishonesty. And that, as far as I am concerned, says an awful lot about their faith. Being willing to throw Jesus under the bus to get a few political favors is anti-christian.
Christianity is a systematic faith, but the Americanized versions of Bible interpretation are a departure from systematic theology. It's become a faith based on fragmented ideas produced when single verses are used as prooftexts, quoted as authoritative edicts and taken out of their historical context. Most of the Evangelical leaders who were known for their scholarship and theological expertise have either left the denomination or church group with which they were associated and joined a church less inclined to pressure their livelihood with forced political agreement.
I feel sorry for those Christians who go to church services and find the content hijacked by Trumpism and right wing politics. When I go to church, I expect the service to lead me to focus on the worship of God, not on telling me how to vote or how I should interpret politics. I have stood up in the middle of a church service and walked out when a pastor hijacked the preaching with his political editorializing or candidate endorsement. Looking at attendance and membership in Evangelical denominations and churches prior to the COVID pandemic, a relatively steep decline in both had already set in, and I attribute most of that to a more intense intrusion of politics into the church, and the increasing craziness and stupidity of the conspiracy theories, like white replacement theory, that are preached from pulpits as facts.
Christianity, especially the American version of it, is susceptible to the development of cults which replace Christian values and virtues based on the Bible with distorted realities that occur in the pursuit of wealth or political influence. Evangelicals are particularly hostile toward those, such as Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses, who distort what they claim is the Biblical gospel. But they are just as bad with their politics and its influences on the Christian gospel. Right wing political stances are taken as articles of faith equal to the Bible by many Evangelical Christians, whose personal loyalty goes to Trump rather than Jesus. It's heresy.
There quite a bit of evidence at just how far out of bounds many Christians have gone. Take a look at this: Eric Trump: No One Has Done More for Christianity than Donald Trump
Christians Are Called on to Reject the Kind of Politics Represented by Trumpism
"In the present day, the frightening fervor of our politics makes it resemble, and sometimes supplant, the role of religion. And a good portion of Americans have a fatal attraction to the oddest of political messiahs--one whose deception, brutality, lawlessness and bullying were rewarded with the presidency. But so it is, to some extent, with all political messiahs who make their gains by imposing losses on others and measure their influence in increments of domination," says Gerson.
"Jesus consciously and constantly rejected this view of power. While accepting the title "Messiah," he sought to transform its meaning. He gathered no army. He skillfully avoided a political confrontation with Rome. He said little about history's inevitably decomposing dynasties. He declared instead a struggle of the human heart--and a populist uprising, not in the sense of modern politics, but against established religious authorities," he concludes.
That's very well established and embedded in the gospel narratives. Jesus spent a good portion of the three year period of his public ministry changing what had become the accepted concept of the promised Messiah, from political leader who would overthrow Roman rule, to spiritual leader whose followers would change the world with the values and virtues he preached.
The continued existence of a Christian presence in the United States is wholly dependent on the freedom we have under the umbrella of democracy. And the only way that umbrella will continue to exist is under the leadership of the Democratic party. Democrats will protect religious freedom as vigorously as they will defend the civil rights of all Americans. Freedom of conscience, which would be required to practice true Christian faith as opposed to the pseudo-Christian cult of Trumpism, would not exist under a white, Christian nationalist regime.
ALL elections matter, people. Get out and vote!
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