Preachers go woefully wrong when they emphasize the power of the flag more than the power of the cross. This is a huge mistake that has caused untold damage among America's churches...The Gospel, not the ballot box, is the power of God unto salvation. Therefore, our socio-political engagement should NEVER be the point of any gospel sermon. --Mike Edmonson, Pastor, New City Fellowship Orthodox Presbyterian Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan in Preaching Today.
The Blend of Conservative Evangelicalism with Right Wing Extremist Trumpism Has Produced a Cult
To be honest, I'm not really surprised or shocked that, over the past nine years or so, the merger of right wing extremism in politics with the conservative, right wing Evangelical branch of Christianity has solidified itself, turning the bigger part of the churches and denominations which follow that line of theology, doctrine and politics, into what can only be described as a cult, by definition. Among those conservative Evangelicals who support Trump, complete abandonment of most of the core principles of the Christian gospel was a necessity to achieve the acquisition of political power. They are in a "deal with the devil," aligning with a politician who not only doesn't share their values, but lives and acts in a way that indicated he abhors and defiantly disrespects them. They campaign for him, raise money for him and help him get elected, he, allegedly, helps them achieve their ends.
They've given up on claiming what they call the "power of God" to lead them to their goals, which includes turning the United States into a Christian nationalist theocracy. What they are claiming is that God's power, and will, in bringing this about, is Trump. It's not possible, in any context of the Christian gospel, for this to be the case. There's no principle of the Christian gospel that supports this contention.
I won't go deep into the analogy they are using, comparing Trump's moral bankruptcy to the sins of King David in the Old Testament, and claiming this did not qualify him from leadership. However, the narrative of David's experience, recorded in 2 Samuel 12, would not in any way support the idea that there is a valid comparison between ancient King David's sins, and their consequences, and the morally bankrupt Trump as President of the United States. In fact, the Old Testament narrative actually points to the exact opposite conclusion.
In the Old Testament narrative, David commits adultery with a woman he sees bathing on a rooftop, and then, after learning that she is pregnant, has her husband murdered by using his authority as king to have him placed in the most dangerous spot of a battle line. A prophet, Nathan, approaches David, telling him a story about how a rich man, with multiple lambs, stole a lamb, the only one owned by a poor man, because he didn't want to give up one of his own to provide a feast for a guest. David's anger burned, and he told the prophet the man who stole the lamb should die, and the lamb should be restored four-fold, from his flock. The prophet opens David's eyes to the truth by stating, "You are the man!"
Instead of stating flatly that he had done nothing requiring God's forgiveness, as Trump has flatly repeated when questioned about this, David did exactly the opposite, humbling himself, and admitting his guilt in pronouncing this death penalty upon himself. His repentance resulted in God's forgiveness, but his actions carried far reaching consequences within his family, along with permanent distrust of his leaderhip until his death.
For this comparison to be legitimate, Trump would also need to repent, and demonstrate an attitude of humility by backing completely away from his vengeful attitude. If the intention of those in the conservative, Evangelical branch of the church who supports him is to make the United States a Christian nation, it's pretty clear that the sexual abusers and deviants, and the deceptively corrupt, money-loving group that he is choosing now would not fit in at all with those values, unless, of course, the "Christian" part isn't something they take seriously. Their unqualified, unconditional support of Trump indicates that they don't.
A Betrayal of Conscience
The pulpit of a church is a place where preaching the Christian gospel is central. Stepping into one, a preacher takes the responsibility for discerning his message and making sure it is true to the very clearly stated principles of the Christian gospel. This kind of abberation, using Biblical texts and examples to claim God's approval on a political agenda that is contrary to the Christian gospel, and on a candidate whose lifestyle demonstrates anti-Christian worldliness and corruption, is a betrayal of the conscience of any true believer, regardless of their denomination or the branch of Christianity to which they belong.
The man is morally bankrupt. He is not, in any way, submitted to a God he can't believe in because he thinks he is god. He is an enemy of the Divine, an antichrist, as described in I John 4. His own words on this subject, on multiple occasions, starting with his rejection of the basic principle of redemption, identify him as such.
So if Trump's conservative, Evangelical supporters have been deceitful, and they've distorted the Christian gospel and the scripture text to do something like this, how is it that we can trust anything preached from the pulpit of someone who is a Trump supporter? The answer is simple. It is not possible to trust any preacher who believes in and supports Trump, whether openly or secretly. They are, like him, liars and deceivers.
It is possible for church leadership to be deceived by imposters. It's happened throughout the 2000 year history of the church. Even as the New Testament was being written, around 50-55 A.D., there were prophetic warnings about deceivers and intruders whose intention was to deceive for the benefit of their own cause.
One of Jesus' disciples, the Apostle Jude, addressed this issue in his epistle to the church. This short book, found just before Revelation in the Protestant canon, gives the warning:
For certain intruders have stolen in among you. People who, long ago, were designated for this condemnation as ungodly, who pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Lord and Master, Jesus Christ. Jude, v. 4 NRSV
Trump is an intruder who has stolen in among the conservative, Evangelical branch of American Christianity and is perverting its message, creating a different gospel, for his own purposes. They think he's going to lead them to a Christian nationalist country, but his lifestyle of licentiousness would not be consistent with what they claim are their values. So it seems that they are more concerned with the power and wealth that comes with it than they are about the Christian values which they are only using to deceive blind and ignorant conservative Christians to follow Trump.
And many of the people who sit in those congregations Sunday after Sunday are blind and ignorant to the truth. When it comes to politics, they are boiling with rage and hatred when it comes to people who aren't like them. They don't recognize the values of the Christian gospel, because they are not preached from the pulpits of their churches. When confronted with the words of Jesus himself, without notation of who spoke them, they identify them as "woke liberalism."
That kind of ignorance among members of conservative churches is nothing new, though it has made them easy targets for manipulation and deception I've seen it all my life. There's nothing more boring than a pastor's moralizing and politicizing from the pulpit, calling it "good preaching." I learned more about the Bible and about historical Christianity in the three Biblical studies courses I was required to take at the denominationally affiliated University I attended than I ever did growing up in a Southern Baptist church. The combination of folk religion, superstition and mysticism with a strong dose of post-Civil War Southern arrogance and backward provincialism made it impossible for people to know the true core values of the Christian gospel. I rarely saw them practiced, especially loving one's neighbor as they love themselves.
So it is rare to find people in the churches who reflect the values of the faith taught by Christ, starting with loving one's neighbor as the most important value of all. And it is easy to see how an arrogant, worldly, corrupt, morally bankrupt business fraud, rapist, adulterer and pathological liar would appeal to the hatred and resentment built up among people who have been taught that their Caucasian racial heritage makes them the second chosen people.
How Do We Respond?
Don't expect information, education, or even a strong Biblically sound argument to penetrate the cult. What is happening, however, as this ideology sorts itself out, is that people are leaving. That's really the best way to deal with this.
When I parted ways with the last Southern Baptist church where I was a member, it was the result of statements worked into a sermon by the pastor. This was during the first Bush administration. I gave him the benefit of the doubt, and made an appointment to see him, and discuss what he'd said. He was relatively well educated, had a Master's degree in Divinity, which is the standard pastors seminary education, in addition to having majored in Biblical studies in college. He didn't really disagree with me, even conceding that the political point he made wasn't really consistent with the biblical principle.
But he said he'd been under pressure to make some of those political connections by some of the members of the congregation who wanted to see the church be more public and take stands against abortion rights and on right wing social issues. And if that meant taking political sides in sermons, then that's what they wanted.
"It's my job to serve this congregation," he said. "That's what they're paying me for."
I thanked him for his time, told him that my giving to the church was a gift without expectations, that I made my own political decisions, and that I prefered not to have my conscience violated like that from the pulpit. We shook hands, I said, "I'll see you Sunday," and left. and that was exactly how long the benefit of the doubt I gave him lasted. He went right back to the same political theme the following week, so my wife and I got up in the middle of the sermon and walked out the back door of the church. I remember stopping, turning around and seeing him catch my glance out of the corner of his eye.
It became obvious that loving one's neighbor was not a highly regarded value in that congregation. As Sundays went by, without us in attendance, no one called, or came by, or inquired about our whereabouts. We discovered, in our search for a new church, that there are congregations who take those "woke" words of Jesus seriously, are invested in all kinds of ministry aimed at improving lives and demonstrating love for neighbors, and show, by action more than words, what they really believe about the sanctity of human life. After careful research, we landed in a congregation that had severed its ties to the Southern Baptist convention in the 80's, and was one of the first to welcome black and Latino members, ordain women and let them serve anywhere they believed they were needed in the church.
Over time, this congregation grew, mainly by accepting those who were increasingly leaving conservative, Evangelical churches as the political polarization increased. Though we've moved on geographically, the Trump era has been quite prosperous for this, and other similar congregations, as educated people holding to their Christian values find their way out of the cult.
My old denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Evangelical denomination in the United States, has seen close to a 25% decline in its overall membership since Trump was first elected in 2016, and close to a 40% decline in attendance over the same period of time. Membership has fallen from a peak of 16.2 million in 2006, to its current reported 13.3 million in 2024, while attendance dropped from 6.2 million to 3.8 million in 2024, the latter figure showing a small uptick following the COVID pandemic, but well below the peak. That's still a loss of 2.4 million in the attendance, which is a 38% decline, most of that in the last decade.
Other denominations of conservative Evangelicals report similar numbers. And the losses among independent, non-denominational churches have been equally noticed and felt. Though church leaders are loathe to admit it has been due to the intrusion of Trumpism, no other reasonable or verifiable cause has been found and the research that has been done includes ex-members who identify this as the reason they've left. Southern Baptists have had to make some serious financial cuts in the denominational infrastructure in order to stay afloat, including selling off the property their publishing house owned in downtown Nashville, selling two conference centers, one in North Carolina and one in New Mexico, and selling the very valuable property where one of their seminaries was located, in Mill Valley, California, and relocating it to leased facilities in the Los Angeles area. Some of the big para-church ministries, like Franklin Graham's Samaritan's Purse, are also downsizing and cutting budgets.
And while white conservative Evangelical support for Trump continues to be measured at somewhere around 80%, give or take a few points, the total number of self-identified Evangelicals showing up to vote in 2024, according to exit polls, is 13% less than it was in 2016.
We seem to have been conditioned in this country to think that truth always wins out in the end. That's a good movie ending, but it's not a guarantee in life, nor is it a guarantee of any religious faith we may follow, including Christianity. God doesn't manipulate human history, especially not exclusively for the benefit of his followers. That's no more a part of Christian theology than using the church for political gain, or in creating a theocratic Christian nation. Every time that's been tried, it has failed, and turned the church into a dead, lifeless institution.
And that's where it is now.
Thank you!
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