"What if evangelicalism's allegiance to Trump has simply been the catalyst that gave us the courage to walk out under the stars?"--Rick Pidcock, freelance writer, graduate of Bob Jones University, Northern Seminary who counts himself as a "never attender."
There is nothing in Christian faith and practice, no supporting scripture references, no tradition or traditional teaching, no part of the gospel of Jesus Christ itself, that reconciles the political support given by conservative, Evangelical Christians to Donald Trump. Support of his candidacy and Presidency by this group, characterized by claimed belief in the inerrancy and infallibility of the Bible, leading to a literal interpretation of its content, is an inconsistency that undermines Christianity altogether, and is explainable only by the cultural influences that occur when extremist right wing politics merges, and overtakes, conservative, Evangelical faith practice.
So, in order to get the kind of support Trump has received from Evangelicals, something in that branch of the church itself had to be out of step with the Christian gospel and the teachings of Jesus Christ in order to cause this merger of politics and faith. Pidcock identifies it as the culture of Evangelical churches themselves, which he says is found in the way Evangelical churches are structured.
They are "structured as an empire led by powerful men who see reality through a lens of supremacy and power. Its [the Evangelical church] worship services stoke passion for entitlement and celebrate violent retribution. And its churches are overrun with scandals or quiet submission," says Pidcock.
That certainly explains the attraction to Trump among many Evangelicals. They are more than willing to accept a flawed leader who exemplifies virtually none of the values or beliefs of the Christian gospel because he is the means to their ends, which is not, by the way, the fulfillment of any vision of Jesus Christ for the world. Christians who are committed to and educated in the doctrine and theology of the Christian gospel, which interprets the whole Bible through the lens of Jesus' recorded words in the four written gospel accounts of his life, see how inconsistent it is to support a leader who not only doesn't exhibit convictions based on their values, but who subverts them and trashes them to get what he wants. So congregations where the leadership is openly supportive of Trump, which would include preaching right wing politics from the pulpit and demanding partisan loyalty to Republicans as a tenet of practice, would become hostile territory to true believers.
That sounds blunt and judgmental. But unfortunately, as Pidcock points out here, it's reality.
Support for Trump, who is openly not Christian, and who is as worldly and antagonistic to the values of the Christian gospel as one can get, has opened the eyes of those in Evangelical churches who have aligned their values with those of the Christian gospel and the teachings and example of Jesus Christ, and have seen how the blending of extremist right wing politics with conservative religion has exposed this heresy within the Evangelical branch of the church. As a result, churches which are led this way are losing members who are committed to the genuine practice of the Christian gospel. It is, statistically, a significant loss.
A Paradigm Shift in Congregational Polity has Occurred Among Evangelicals
The small, Southern Baptist church in which I grew up, a congregation of about 70 people, was operated by "congregational polity," derived from their interpretation of the Bible's description of the church. The only designated member of the church who was ordained as an "elder" was the pastor. A small group of Deacons served the congregation by taking care of its ministries and serving as congregational trustees and caretakers of the property it owned. The deacons were volunteers, the pastor was paid out of the offerings.
Pastors were hired by the congregation, which would choose a committee of members to interview candidates and make a recommendation on which the whole church would vote. Consensus, rather than majority rule, was the standard by which a "call" would be extended to the church. The pastor was responsible for the worship and for the spiritual ministry of the church, preaching and providing spiritual counsel to members. The Deacons managed its business affairs. The church, by conviction, believed it functioned to evangelize, or to lead people to express faith in Christ through conversion, to worship together as believers in Christ, to instruct members in Biblical principles in order to grow and mature in the practice of their faith, to fellowship together, to extend the ministry of the church outwardly to serve the community as an expression of the gospel of Jesus.
That was the way almost all churches identified as "evangelical" operated. The Apostle Jude wrote a very short, but significant, epistle to the first century church warning against "intruders" bringing worldly values and worldly practices into young, newly formed congregations for the purpose of pushing their own agenda. His words are remarkably relevant to what has happened to modern, American Christianity, and particularly Evangelical Christianity, as agenda-driven politics has intruded into the church to use it for political purposes.
The megachurch movement has created a level of church leadership that has corrupted congregational values based on the Christian gospel. Pastors are no longer just leaders of their own churches, and preachers to their own congregation. The business of raising the kind of money necessary to keep a congregation of 15,000 people in adequate facilities and providing for their needs has created an atmosphere in which pastoral leadership becomes autocratic and dictatorial, to protect assets that include their own lucrative conference-speaking business and book and video publishing enterprises.
That kind of leadership has also allowed for the intrusion of heresy, such as white supremacy blended with various forms of Christian nationalism, which are themes used to unite congregations around certain pastors and church leaders, for their benefit, not for that of the church. And they are using the political agenda of the far right, Trumpism, to get people on their side. The result is that churches are bereft with scandal, some high profile scandals have hit the front pages in increasing frequency because churches have departed from the practice of the Christian gospel and its values, and have placed their allegiance and dependence on accomplishment in right wing politics. Evidence for this shift in values is everywhere. The Roys Report is a resource that provides research into specific scandals with the aim of "Reporting the truth, restoring the church."
A New Constituency for the Democratic Party?
The exodus from Evangelicalism is significant. Even those within the church who do this kind of research are pointing to the accelerating loss of millions of people from church attendance and membership. The Southern Baptist Convention, which lays claim to being the largest Evangelical denomination in the United States, has lost 3.4 million members since its peak in 2006, with almost 2 million of those reported as having taken place since 2016. Blaming it on COVID, or on quirks in the manner in which churches record members doesn't change the fact that the increased loss of membership corresponds with the election of Trump.
Republican politics embracing Evangelical political points is nothing new, it goes back to the endorsement of Ronald Reagan's candidacy for President by Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, to counter potential support among their constituents for Jimmy Carter, who was himself an Evangelical in contrast to the secular, worldly former "B list" actor. But, as people leave churches by conviction, because they are "too political," it is not necessarily an automatic transition to also becoming a Democrat. As Pidcock alludes to in his article, the very nature of being a "non-attender," is independent thinking, from both a Christian perspective and a political one.
There are those who see that politics and Christian values don't necessarily have to align completely in order for a Christian to vote for a candidate of any specific political party. I would put myself in that category. I joined the Democratic party by conviction when I first registered to vote at age 18, and the core values of the party, which promote equality, respect diversity and believe the government exists for the benefit of its people have kept me a Democrat. I don't have to agree with a specific position to support someone's right to hold it. In Jefferson's terms, unless it "picks my pocket or breaks my leg," its a matter of someone else's conscience and they have to be accountable for themselves.
But, while support for Trump is abhorrent to those Christians who are taking the exit ramp from church as a result of it, that doesn't necessarily mean the political support will change. Listening to a talk show this morning, a commenter said she wasn't going to vote for Trump, but she couldn't vote for Biden, either. What that tells me is that there's a gap in the message. Nothing Biden has said or done would be contrary to someone's Christian convictions, but sometimes that has been so tightly wound up in politics that there's no separating the two.
It's not easy to argue the point. Much of what people believe about President Biden as a politician is part of the false narrative that they believe about most Democratic party politicians. Can those who have come to the point of making the decision to leave their church over its conflicting values also be convinced to vote for Democratic politicians, based on the fact that they have their own freedom and everyone else ought to have as well?
I think it is worth a try.
Your statement, "Nothing Biden has said or done would be contrary to someone's Christian convictions..." says everything I need to know about your qualifications to judge and or evaluate Christians and Christianity, in that you are totally unqualified and don't have a clue of what Christ represents. Have you every read any of the new covenant? Just askin'... and this is not a rhetorical question.
ReplyDeleteYes, I have read it, studied it, allowed it to provide me with conviction, repentance and salvation, and studied it. If you're a Trump supporter, don't even bother commenting because your credibility to make any kind of judgment on this subject is zero.
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