Trump is staffing his newly created White House Faith Office, which I think is a violation of the establishment clause of the first amendment of the constitution if it is taxpayer funded, or if it receives, rent-free use of office space, since it would then be an "established" endorsement of religion by government, with some interesting individuals. On the surface, it may just look like the face of the extremism among conservative Evangelicals, mostly the "prosperity gospel" preaching and theology that isn't really Christianity by its own biblical definition, to which Trump and his love of money and power is attracted, because it offers him more than the "loving your neighbor", "turning the other cheek," and "repenting from your sin" brand of Christianity that he rejects openly, with vitriol.
But there are some interesting contradictions here that point to the fact there is absolutely no genuine Christian support for anything having to do with Trump's far right wing extremism, and that the combination of far right wing Republicanism with ultra-conservative fundamentalist and Charismatic Evangelicalism is both a political and a religious cult, built on monumental hypocrisy.
The Open Rejection of Women in Pastoral Leadership by Conservative Evangelicals is Something The Consider the Core of Their Orthodoxy
The nation's largest Evangelical denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, recently went on a two-year tear through its congregations, for the purpose of exposing, and then kicking out, churches who had women on their ministerial staff serving in a role that used the title "Pastor." At two of their annual meetings, the delegates from churches, known as "messengers", considered a motion to "disfellowship," the Saddleback Valley Community Church in Mission Viejo, California, from its membership. An action to "disfellowship" means that the denomination cuts all ties to the church, stops receiving its contributions, and basically kicks it out of the denomination.
Saddleback Valley, which is the largest congregation, membership wise- in the denomination, and was one of its single largest contributors, had offended by allowing three women to serve on its staff in the role of "teaching pastor." They were not the senior pastor, they were under the authority of the church elders, all biblical as far as that goes. But the Southern Baptist Convention has decided to hang its doctrinal hat on some obscure, literalist interpretations of the Apostle Paul, without using the filter of the gospel of Jesus, and declared that the "office of pastor" is reserved for men only.
That conclusion is based on one phase, in a list of qualifications for the position of pastor, found in I Timothy 3:2, that is sometimes translated "the husband of one wife." Of course, in the culture of the day in which the Apostle Paul wrote that phrase, marriage was not the same thing it is today, but the phrase is actually a prohibition against polygamists serving as pastors or "bishops" as the Greek word used is translated, not a probibition against women serving in that capacity. Jesus, whom Christians accept as the most authoritative source on doctrine, says nothing to indicate that women are prohibited from any position of leadership in the church.
And so Saddleback Valley was kicked out, because they, as a local and autonomous Baptist congregation, refused to follow a denominational edict that was not based on any biblical or ecclesiastical authority, and determined that its female teaching pastors were an asset to their ministry, and refused to change their title or demote them to a lower position. Along with Saddleback Valley, Fern Creek Baptist Church, a Lousiville, Kentucky congregation with a female serving as its senior pastor, was dismissed. As a result of that, a growing list of churches voluntarily severed their ties with the denomination rather than change the titles of the women on their church staff serving in a pastoral role.
Irony or Blatant Hypocrisy?
Those among the leadership of the denomination who are the most opposed to allowing women to serve in a pastoral role are condescending and critical of churches who engage in this practice. They go so far as to claim that those churches are apostate, and are outside the circle of Christian orthodoxy, and are caustic and condemning in their criticism, in a way that is not reflective of the core values of the Christian faith.
So I wonder how these individuals, among whom there must certainly be a healthy number of Trump supporters, are handling his appointment of a female senior pastor, Paula White Cain, who uses the biblical term "overseer," in Greek "Episkopos", or Bishop to describe her role as pastor of Story Life Church in Florida, a large, Charismatic church that preaches pure prosperity gospel. Of course Trump, with his love of money, is attracted to that kind of gospel, which is more or less the antithesis of the Christian gospel that Jesus preached and taught.
It makes me laugh to myself to think that some of these hard line fundamentalists, like those of the Jerry Falwell ilk, have to swallow this because Trump has done it and they can't utter a peep in opposition. Well, they could, and if their claimed convictions were sincere, and their Christian faith were real, they would speak up. They lose on at least three points here. First, she is a female, senior pastor and executive director of a worldwide mission organization operating in about 150 countries. So she is a female in leadership over ministries that these hardliners are claiming is heresy worthy of being kicked out of the faith.
Second, she is, by their own very clear definition, a preacher of heresy herself, because she preaches the "prosperity gospel." Most Evangelicals claim that gaining wealth and health is promised by God in exchange for obedience to a specific list of commands, which includes helping those serving as pastors and church leaders to become wealthy. For most Evangelicals, this is false doctrine, an abuse of what Jesus and his apostles had to say about wealth and power. But, apparently most of them are willing to compromise on this point, because, well, because their idol has made her his "spiritual advisor."
Third, she is "Charismatic." This is a branch of conservative Christianity that, according to the conservatives, steps away from use of the Bible as the final authority and revelation of God to the church, and depends on spiritual manifestations, like speaking in tongues, or faith healing. White-Cain is also very heavily into "Seven Mountains" dominion theology, a Christian nationalist heresy that incorporates white supremacy and pulls in the use of obscure Old Testament prophecy skewed to fit a different purpose than originally intended. Most conservative Evangelicals reject the manner in which Charismatic Christians claim the Holy Spirit makes God's presence known.
In short, White-Cain is exactly the kind of person you would expect Trump to place in a position of authority and importance. And in any other circumstance, her presence would lead the fundamentalist, conservative Evangelical leadership to declare her a heretic, and condemn Trump for choosing her as a leader. Is this a deliberate face-smack of the smirking, smiling, Evangelical sycophants who bow down to him at every turn, a way of asserting his influence over them by ignoring the things they are on record as considering tests of orthodoxy and appointing someone to be his closest "religious" advisor who embodies absolutely zero of the things they claim to value?
Here is one thing of which I can be 100% certain. There will not be one peep about this from any of Trump's conservative, Evangelical sycophants. Not even an eye blink, or a knowing look will pass their composure. And because of that, we can be 100% certain that any such Christian leader who claims to support Trump is, in fact, a self-serving hypocritical liar.
No, You Really Can't Make This Stuff Up
If Trump were a devil-worshipper, most of his Evangelical sycophants would be playing the Rolling Stones' song, "Sympathy for the Devil" in their church worship services. The selective application of what Evangelicals refer to as "biblical truth" is an inconsistency that undermines their credibility. What makes it possible for the leaders to get away with this is massive ignorance among the members of their congregations. Few pay attention to any of the details of issues such as this.
The ignorance of biblical theology and doctrine among those who sit in the pews of Evangelical congregations when it comes to differences between those who preach and teach extremism, mainly for their own financial gain, is very high. Few Evangelicals are even aware of who Paula White-Cain is, and those who are couldn't explain how her preaching themes are not consistent with the doctrine preached in their own church. For a religious group that claims to value a literalist interpretation of the Bible, and who claim that its contents are infallible, and without human error, it almost seems the level of ignorance is deliberate, maintained to keep the cash flow consistent.
Personally, I don't think there are any boundaries here to prevent Democrats from exploiting this inconsistency and hypocrisy as a political issue. These are church leaders who have chosen to incorporate the right wing extremism of Trump politics with their church's theology and doctrine, to ensure votes for Trump. They shouldn't be able to object, on any religious or moral ground, when the hypocrisy and the heresy is exposed for political purposes.
My background in an Evangelical church occasionally brings back flashes of verses from the Bible I memorized as a child, intended to provide guidance when there were "challenges" to my faith. One of those verses popped up as I was thinking about all of this:
But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruinand destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pieced themselves with many pains.--the Apostle Paul, I Timothy 6:9-10, NRSV
For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion, leading them to believe what is false, so tha tall who have not believed the truth but took pleasure in unrigheousness will be condemned. --the Apostle Paul, 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12, NRSV
No comments:
Post a Comment