The Liars the Witch Hunt and the War Mongers: Trump and the Radical Right

I’ve been curious since 2016 about the reasoning, if you can call it that, used by (to be generous) sincere members of the Christian community to justify their support of our current president. In other words, for what will they sell their souls? Here’s the most succinct receipt I have found. In the words of a prominent member of that coterie:

"Maybe the magazine [Christianity Today] would prefer a president who is

•          passionately pro-abortion,
•          anti-family,
•          hostile to the military,
•          dispassionate toward Israel,
•          supports a socialist form of government,
•          promotes confiscatory taxation,
•          opposes school choice,
•          favors men in women’s sports and boys in girl’s locker rooms,
•          promotes the entire LGBTQ agenda,
•          opposes parental rights,
•          and distrusts evangelicals and anyone who is not politically correct."

Of course I’ve added the bullets for easy reference. This impressive list showcases the level of hysteria that the Evangelicals who support Trump have had to achieve and maintain in the light of his

•          Pussy grabbing
•          Draft dodging
•          Tax dodging
•          Philandering
•          Adulterating
•          Pathological lying
•          Climate destroying
•          Dictator loving
•          Ego boosting
•          Thin skinned
•          Racist
•          Sexist
•         Hateful
•        Whining.

Since they are willing to pay such a high price for such a low human being, one who in fact shares none of their values (though he may promote some of their interests to gain their support), we should look at teach item on the bill. Everyone who is not Trump, who might replace Trump, is, apparently,

·         passionately pro-abortion,

o    Well, no. It’s been well shown that making abortion illegal does almost nothing to change the abortion rate. It merely makes abortions harder to get and far more dangerous for those of scant means, those for whom Jesus defended. Most women who want to get abortions will get them. More will die from them if they are illegal. A Christian may in fact be anti-abortion and still, in good conscience, believe that abortion should be safe and legal. And the Democratic candidates are cannot universally be said to be “passionately pro-abortion.”  

·         anti-family,

o    What could this possibly mean other than “tolerant of/accepting of gay people?” I suppose this euphemism might extend to tolerant those couples who choose to live together without the blessing of a traditional marriage. But whatever this euphemism is supposed to mean, whatever vague reflex it’s supposed to trip, what it doesn’t mean is “anti-family.” The Right never will, can, or should transform the United States into a Christian nation. The country is founded on the Enlightenment ideal of secular democracy. That means that whose who life in it who choose to be Christians are free to be so. And those who do not choose to be Christians are equally free. And Jesus never advocated forcing those who do not believe to live as though they did. And doing so now could have no better effect than to create resentment, an anti-Christian backlash that cannot help the gospel.

·         hostile to the military,

o    Think of that. The draft dodger is preferred to, among others, the veteran, Episcopalian mayor of South Bend Indiana. Better a pussy grabber than a married, gay Christian. Better a draft dodger than a veteran. On what Christian grounds can one make the case that building up the military is better than helping the poor?  

·         dispassionate toward Israel,

o    Trump has no “passion” for Israel. His pro-Israel policies are transparently transactional. He’s willing to tow the Evangelical line for the Evangelical vote. That said, the very notion that an American president should be “passionately” pro-Israel is nonsense. No politician and certainly no Christian of any stripe is admonished to be “passionately” pro-Israel. There is neither man nor woman in Christ. There is no government a Christian is to support to be in the good graces of God. A Christian supports the poor. The example of Christ teaches us nothing if it does not teach us that human institutions are not what we are put her to love, and supporting them is not something we are put here to do.

·         supports a socialist form of government,

o    The notion that capitalism in all things is superior to socialism in all things is literally too stupid to require comment. Moreover, the socialism of first-century Christianity is well attested. God did not institute capitalism. Capitalism has nothing to do with gospel and deserves no part of this conversation.

·         promotes confiscatory taxation,

o    More euphemism. Why should the church not support the idea that the superrich should pay their fair share of taxes for, among other things, the care of the poor? A church that is on the side of the rich in all things is a bought church. It has strayed from the gospel.

·         opposes school choice,

o    Yes, there is a push on to get the federal government to (socialistically) support private religious schools. This gets at the heart of the evangelical argument: We can get more out of this man than we could out of a Democrat or a traditional Republican or anyone who is guided by the Constitution.

·         favors men in women’s sports and boys in girl’s locker rooms,

o    We’re digging at the bottom now. The issues implicit here certainly need to be discussed, debated, occasionally legislated on the grounds of safety and fairness not of faith. What is behind this? More homophobia? More fear of human bodies and human desires. Given all the evil promoted by Donald Trump, the divisiveness, the violence, the racism, the hatred, and given the black eye the church gives itself by selfishly promoting this evil man, it’s astonishing to believe that THIS has any part of what drives it. The church is selling magic beans for a broken cow.

·         promotes the entire LGBTQ agenda,

o    The right has imagined a unified, satanic LGBTQ “agenda.” Everyone wants respect. Everyone wants human rights. Everyone wants dignity. Everyone wants an opportunity to receive and be transformed by the love of God. Everyone two fits under this umbrella term is first of all a child of God. The church is no place for the promotion of fear and hatred.

·         opposes parental rights,

o    This can only get us back to abortion. We’ve dealt with abortion above. We are again concerned with the fundamental contradiction of promoting “America” while failing to understand what America is, confusing, in a way foreign to Christ, the individual and the state.

·         and distrusts evangelicals and anyone who is not politically correct."

o   Given all this, any good American distrusts evangelicals. If evangelicals stand for hatred and prejudice and hypocrisy, then distrust is on that branch of the church not on those who harbor it. And “politically correct,” is an unhelpful euphemism for too many things to detail here, some of which may, arguably, be on track, many of which are clearly just a euphemism for “permission to hate those whom Jesus loved, whom Jesus died for.

And one final thing needs to be said here. If Donald Trump were removed from office, as he so richly deserves to be, the effect would assuredly NOT be to install in the White House someone who answers this hysterical description. It would be the installation of Make Pence—who, unlike Trump, is exactly the kind of person the evangelical right wants. He’s one of them. He’s more them than they are—with all his hysteria, hypocrisy, and hatred. How the evangelicals who will by no means by persuaded by my poor power when they cannot be persuaded by Christ or the Gospel, how can they not want one who is true of their own in place of one who everyday embarrases them and the truth they pretend to proclaim?