Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Bakker joined the ranks of prostitutes and adulterers with their disclosed and confessed sins. The Falwell empire, Jerry Junior and his wife Becky, doubled the adultery and Ted Haggard, a pastor and former president of the National Association of Evangelicals, engaged in homosexual behavior. Currently, the nation's largest Evangelical denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, experienced the uncovering of a clergy sexual abuse scandal dating back more than 50 years, and adding to the scandal has been a very reluctant and resistant response, passing off responsibility while accusing victims of being a satanic distraction to the work of the pastors and church leaders who abused them.
And this is just a small sample of the scope of sexual scandal among American Evangelicals.
Hypocrisy in Evangelical Support For Trump Should Not Be Surprising
You'd expect that there would be a few high profile Evangelical "leaders" who would be disturbed enough by the vulgar, horrific scandal involving a totally unrepentant former Republican (party of family values, remember?) President and a pornographic film star having an affair during and immediately following the pregnancy of the former President's wife with their youngest son, to, at the very least, try some kind of pathetic excuse or attempt to excuse the behavior. They can't accuse the media of making this up, because Trump himself has revealed the affair, bragged about it and declared that he doesn't have to ask forgiveness for it because he did nothing wrong.
But there's been nothing. We can hear crickets chirping in the background, when the cheers and accolades for this same former President are not pouring forth from his Evangelical sycophants and followers. They've thrown Jesus under the bus, given their loyalty to a corrupt, adulterous politician and sold their soul for the proverbial bowl of soup, to use a Biblical expression.
Some of the so-called leaders who are still around developed a whole theological system for the purpose of criticizing and condemning former President Clinton for his mis-steps and affairs, claiming that such behavior was characteristic of a kind of dishonesty that disqualified him to serve as President. There was none of the excuse making, no statements like, "We're electing a commander in chief, not a pastor in chief," or "God sometimes uses evil people to accomplish his purpose."
By any standard of measurement, Trump is far more immoral and anti-Christian than Clinton was.
Trump himself has slapped Evangelical supporters in the face by saying "no, thank you" to the core principles and practice of their faith, basically saying, "that's OK for you, but I've made my own god who allows me to live how I want." It's no secret that he's never paid any attention to any Evangelical principle or doctrine before, in any aspect of his life, basing his image on a perception of worldliness that has included flaunting extra-marital affairs, including two high profile ones that led to his divorcing his two previous wives.
So the court drama that is playing out right now, and sucking up a huge amount of media attention, is laying out all of the aspects of Trump's affair with Stormy Daniels, along with his attempt to buy her silence, which, since he waited until he was running for President to do, was a felony. This is a nasty place for Republicans who want to claim the mantle of both family values, and law and order. It's not "law and order" to support bribery that subverts the country's justice system and there's no value at all, especially not Evangelical values, in the adulterous affair that cause the bribery in the first place.
Silence is More Condemning Than the Immorality Itself
It's not judgmental to conclude that the continuing support of Trump, even as a secular politician, by people who claim to believe in the Christian gospel because they accept the Bible as the inerrant, infallible written word of God, is a hypocritical denial of the truth of the Christian gospel. It doesn't matter that his leadership is secular, not spiritual. Supporting Trump is raising up a leader over one's own nation who has openly denied the conviction of the Spirit and has put himself at odds with Jesus and the Christian gospel as a result of it.
And I got that from a well-known Evangelical "leader" who was addressing the possibility of the United States having a Mormon President. Of course, that was long before Mitt Romney became the GOP nominee, and when that happened, they hypocritically abandoned their convictions then, too.
There's a Price Being Paid Among Trump Supporting Evangelicals
When voters go to the polls in November, there will be 7 million fewer individuals who self-identify as Evangelicals in the United States, or at least, who claim membership in a church that identifies as Evangelical. The largest Evangelical denomination in the country, the Southern Baptist Convention, just reported this week on a decline in membership taking them below the 13 million mark for the first time since 1960. More than three million members, and a million and a half in average weekly attendance, have departed Southern Baptist churches in the decade that started with 2015. That's more than 20% of the total in just ten years. Other Evangelical denominations, and the overall category of independent, non-denominational churches, combined for a loss of almost four million, in the same decade.
The name of the game among Evangelicals when it comes to explaining membership losses is denial. Either it's something that their enemies have made up, it's not happening, or it's not accurate, or it just means churches aren't reporting membership figures any more. But some of those who are leaving are coming out because they don't like that their churches have been turned into political action committees and they don't like someone who deliberately sets a personal example of worldliness held up as an idol, which is what has happened with Trump.
They are preaching the wrong gospel. And their credibility, already damaged by their own inability to communicate a Christian gospel based on God's grace, and to realize that their mission cannot be achieved by an alliance with secular politics, is gone.
As an American, the decision about which politicians to support, and to vote for, is a matter of personal conscience, requiring discernment, an understanding of the way a constitutional democracy works and operates, and a realization that religious faith is a matter of personal conscience which cannot be forced upon other people by law. They must also believe it, accept it and then practice it in order to experience the life transformation it claims to provide. Supporting a politician who lives counter to the values of American democracy and Evangelical faith is hypocritical. Stop it.
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