The Deepening Crisis in Evangelical Christianity

[TitanTiger 20,469]

 

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The Deepening Crisis in Evangelical Christianity
Support for Trump comes at a high cost for Christian witness.
Peter Wehner  Jul 5, 2019
Contributing editor at The Atlantic and senior fellow at EPPC 

Yuri Gripas / Reuters

Last week, Ralph Reed, the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s founder and chairman, told the group, “There has never been anyone who has defended us and who has fought for us, who we have loved more than Donald J. Trump. No one!”

Reed is partially right; for many evangelical Christians, there is no political figure whom they have loved more than Donald Trump.

I recently exchanged emails with a pro-Trump figure who attended the president’s reelection rally in Orlando, Florida, on June 18. (He spoke to me on the condition of anonymity, so as to avoid personal or professional repercussions.) He had interviewed scores of people, many of them evangelical Christians. “I have never witnessed the kind of excitement and enthusiasm for a political figure in my life,” he told me. “I honestly couldn’t believe the unwavering support they have. And to a person, it was all about ‘the fight.’ There is a very strong sense (I believe justified, you disagree) that he has been wronged. Wronged by Mueller, wronged by the media, wronged by the anti-Trump forces. A passionate belief that he never gets credit for anything.”

The rallygoers, he said, told him that Trump’s era “is spiritually driven.” When I asked whether he meant by this that Trump’s supporters believe God’s hand is on Trump, this moment and at the election—that Donald Trump is God’s man, in effect—he told me, “Yes—a number of people said they believe there is no other way to explain his victories. Starting with the election and continuing with the conclusion of the Mueller report. Many said God has chosen him and is protecting him.”

The data seem to bear this out. Approval for President Trump among white evangelical Protestants is 25 points higher than the national average. And according to a Pew Research Center survey, “White evangelical Protestants who regularly attend church (that is, once a week or more) approve of Trump at rates matching or exceeding those of white evangelicals who attend church less often.” Indeed, during the period from July 2018 to January 2019, 70 percent of white evangelicals who attend church at least once a week approved of Trump, versus 65 percent of those who attend religious services less often.

The enthusiastic, uncritical embrace of President Trump by white evangelicals is among the most mind-blowing developments of the Trump era. How can a group that for decades—and especially during the Bill Clinton presidency—insisted that character counts and that personal integrity is an essential component of presidential leadership not only turn a blind eye to the ethical and moral transgressions of Donald Trump, but also constantly defend him? Why are those who have been on the vanguard of “family values” so eager to give a man with a sordid personal and sexual history a mulligan?

Part of the answer is their belief that they are engaged in an existential struggle against a wicked enemy—not Russia, not North Korea, not Iran, but rather American liberals and the left. If you listen to Trump supporters who are evangelical (and non-evangelicals, like the radio talk-show host Mark Levin), you will hear adjectives applied to those on the left that could easily be used to describe a Stalinist regime. (Ask yourself how many evangelicals have publicly criticized Trump for his lavish praise of Kim Jong Un, the leader of perhaps the most savage regime in the world and the worst persecutor of Christians in the world.)

Many white evangelical Christians, then, are deeply fearful of what a Trump loss would mean for America, American culture, and American Christianity. If a Democrat is elected president, they believe, it might all come crashing down around us. During the 2016 election, for example, the influential evangelical author and radio talk-show host Eric Metaxas said, “In all of our years, we faced all kinds of struggles. The only time we faced an existential struggle like this was in the Civil War and in the Revolution when the nation began … We are on the verge of losing it as we could have lost it in the Civil War.” A friend of mine described that outlook to me this way: “It’s the Flight 93 election. FOREVER.”

Many evangelical Christians are also filled with grievances and resentments because they feel they have been mocked, scorned, and dishonored by the elite culture over the years. (Some of those feelings are understandable and warranted.) For them, Trump is a man who will not only push their agenda on issues such as the courts and abortion; he will be ruthless against those they view as threats to all they know and love. For a growing number of evangelicals, Trump’s dehumanizing tactics and cruelty aren’t a bug; they are a feature. Trump “owns the libs,” and they love it. He’ll bring a Glock to a cultural knife fight, and they relish that.

Jerry Falwell Jr., the president of Liberty University, one of the largest Christian universities in the world, put it this way: “Conservatives & Christians need to stop electing ‘nice guys.’ They might make great Christian leaders but the United States needs street fighters like @realDonaldTrump at every level of government b/c the liberal fascists Dems are playing for keeps & many Repub leaders are a bunch of wimps!”

There’s a very high cost to our politics for celebrating the Trump style, but what is most personally painful to me as a person of the Christian faith is the cost to the Christian witness. Nonchalantly jettisoning the ethic of Jesus in favor of a political leader who embraces the ethic of Thrasymachus and Nietzsche—might makes right, the strong should rule over the weak, justice has no intrinsic worth, moral values are socially constructed and subjective—is troubling enough.

But there is also the undeniable hypocrisy of people who once made moral character, and especially sexual fidelity, central to their political calculus and who are now embracing a man of boundless corruptions. Don’t forget: Trump was essentially named an unindicted co-conspirator (“Individual 1”) in a scheme to make hush-money payments to a porn star who alleged she’d had an affair with him while he was married to his third wife, who had just given birth to their son.

While on the Pacific Coast last week, I had lunch with Karel Coppock, whom I have known for many years and who has played an important role in my Christian pilgrimage. In speaking about the widespread, reflexive evangelical support for the president, Coppock—who is theologically orthodox and generally sympathetic to conservatism—lamented the effect this moral freak show is having, especially on the younger generation. With unusual passion, he told me, “We’re losing an entire generation. They’re just gone. It’s one of the worst things to happen to the Church.”

Coppock mentioned to me the powerful example of St. Ambrose, the bishop of Milan, who was willing to rebuke the Roman Emperor Theodosius for the latter’s role in massacring civilians as punishment for the murder of one of his generals. Ambrose refused to allow the Church to become a political prop, despite concerns that doing so might endanger him. Ambrose spoke truth to power. (Theodosius ended up seeking penance, and Ambrose went on to teach, convert, and baptize St. Augustine.) Proximity to power is fine for Christians, Coppock told me, but only so long as it does not corrupt their moral sense, only so long as they don’t allow their faith to become politically weaponized. Yet that is precisely what’s happening today.

Evangelical Christians need another model for cultural and political engagement, and one of the best I am aware of has been articulated by the artist Makoto Fujimura, who speaks about “culture care” instead of “culture war.”

According to Fujimura, “Culture care is an act of generosity to our neighbors and culture. Culture care is to see our world not as a battle zone in which we’re all vying for limited resources, but to see the world of abundant possibilities and promise.” What Fujimura is talking about is a set of sensibilities and dispositions that are fundamentally different from what we see embodied in many white evangelical leaders who frequently speak out on culture and politics. The sensibilities and dispositions Fujimura is describing are characterized by a commitment to grace, beauty, and creativity, not antipathy, disdain, and pulsating anger. It’s the difference between an open hand and a mailed fist.

Building on this theme, Mark Labberton, a colleague of Fujimura’s and the president of Fuller Theological Seminary, the largest multidenominational seminary in the world, has spoken about a distinct way for Christians to conceive of their calling, from seeing themselves as living in a Promised Land and “demanding it back” to living a “faithful, exilic life.”

Labberton speaks about what it means to live as people in exile, trying to find the capacity to love in unexpected ways; to see the enemy, the foreigner, the stranger, and the alien, and to go toward rather than away from them. He asks what a life of faithfulness looks like while one lives in a world of fear.

He adds, “The Church is in one of its deepest moments of crisis—not because of some election result or not, but because of what has been exposed to be the poverty of the American Church in its capacity to be able to see and love and serve and engage in ways in which we simply fail to do. And that vocation is the vocation that must be recovered and must be made real in tangible action.”

There are countless examples of how such tangible action can be manifest. But as a starting point, evangelical Christians should acknowledge the profound damage that’s being done to their movement by its braided political relationship—its love affair, to bring us back to the words of Ralph Reed—with a president who is an ethical and moral wreck. Until that is undone—until followers of Jesus are once again willing to speak truth to power rather than act like court pastors—the crisis in American Christianity will only deepen, its public testimony only dim, its effort to be a healing agent in a broken world only weaken.

At this point, I can’t help but wonder whether that really matters to many of Donald Trump’s besotted evangelical supporters.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/07/evangelical-christians-face-deepening-crisis/593353/

 

 

I've been around for quite a few elections now.  There's always been an uneasiness for committed Christians with regard to the intersection of their faith with politics.  Obviously our beliefs and worldview shape our political views just like non-Christians.  It's impossible to completely separate the two things nor should someone be expected to.  And this thing where it is almost taken as an article of dogma in some corners of American Christendom that to be Christian is to vote Republican didn't suddenly happen in 2016.  It started somewhere in the 80s and has grown since then.  And to be sure, the Democrats have done little to nothing to stop it.  They all but openly shun orthodox Christians with their chosen policies oftentimes.

I've been pretty ensconced in American evangelical Christian circles for the past 30 years or so.  I know what they say to each other when politics comes up and their attitudes about the culture war issues.  To me, I've never seen it like it is right now.  I was at a bible study not too long ago and there was a pretty good age range of folks there - people in their late 20s all the way to people in their 70s and 80s.  We were talking about the parable of the Good Samaritan at one point and asking "who is your neighbor?" in today's context.  And the generational divide couldn't have been more stark.  The younger folks were talking about how to find that balance between maintaining one's convictions on core matters while letting go of less important peripheral things and pressing into relationships with people who have very different views than us.  The older crowd was asking questions like how to love someone who voted for Obama.    They literally don't see it.  Utterly oblivious to how hyper-partisan stances by Christians looks to the outside world.

 

But mark my words, the fruit of this will come to full bloom in 10-15 years and barring an absolute miracle, it's going to be ugly for the American church.  The younger generation sees this love for Trump as rank hypocrisy and it will be a long time, if ever, before they take any moral concerns expressed by evangelicals seriously again.

[AUDub 11,131]

To piggyback. Just look at the age divide there  

 

[DKW 86 7,410]

2 hours ago, TitanTiger said:

d.But mark my words, the fruit of this will come to full bloom in 10-15 years and barring an absolute miracle, it's going to be ugly for the American church.  The younger generation sees this love for Trump as rank hypocrisy and it will be a long time, if ever, before they take any moral concerns expressed by evangelicals seriously again.

Truth. I left my old church almost 13 years ago for much the same reason. They quit listenng or reading the scriptures. They became a Country Club for Republican Values. I truly believe that a large portion, maybe even a majority have fallen victim of turning politics into religion. Look, they are not following scriptural teachings. They are fallowing Rush and Hannity, etc that come across as preachers of conservativism. Maybe the truth is that they gave up Christianity for Rush-Hannity Conservatism? Sad, but true from my vantage point. 

[Grumps 3,693]

I agree with you two that young people see the hypocrisy of many older white evangelical churches supporting Trump. But there is also a pretty strong movement of young people getting involved in evangelical churches that are much less focused on Trump and politics. The second largest church in the country is in Alabama, and I don't think that its members are concerned about Trump NEARLY as much as most older churches (such as mine).

[Grumps 3,693]

5 hours ago, AUDub said:

To piggyback. Just look at the age divide there  

 

Just a thought...I don't think that the U.S government has a RESPONSIBILITY to accept refugees, but that doesn't mean that we SHOULDN'T accept refugees. In other words, the wording of the question can affect the answer given without revealing whether the person answering the question is WILLING to accept refuges.

[McLoofus 35,182]

14 minutes ago, Grumps said:

Just a thought...I don't think that the U.S government has a RESPONSIBILITY to accept refugees, but that doesn't mean that we SHOULDN'T accept refugees. In other words, the wording of the question can affect the answer given without revealing whether the person answering the question is WILLING to accept refuges.

Perhaps, but that would apply to all respondants, at least somewhat. So it might explain some percentage of the gap- perhaps people more inclined to accept refugees are less inclined to consider governmental boundaries- but certainly not all and probably not most of a gap that wide. 

 

[Mims44 1,864]

10 hours ago, TitanTiger said:

 

 

I've been around for quite a few elections now.  There's always been an uneasiness for committed Christians with regard to the intersection of their faith with politics.  Obviously our beliefs and worldview shape our political views just like non-Christians.  It's impossible to completely separate the two things nor should someone be expected to.  And this thing where it is almost taken as an article of dogma in some corners of American Christendom that to be Christian is to vote Republican didn't suddenly happen in 2016.  It started somewhere in the 80s and has grown since then.  And to be sure, the Democrats have done little to nothing to stop it.  They all but openly shun orthodox Christians with their chosen policies oftentimes.

I've been pretty ensconced in American evangelical Christian circles for the past 30 years or so.  I know what they say to each other when politics comes up and their attitudes about the culture war issues.  To me, I've never seen it like it is right now.  I was at a bible study not too long ago and there was a pretty good age range of folks there - people in their late 20s all the way to people in their 70s and 80s.  We were talking about the parable of the Good Samaritan at one point and asking "who is your neighbor?" in today's context.  And the generational divide couldn't have been more stark.  The younger folks were talking about how to find that balance between maintaining one's convictions on core matters while letting go of less important peripheral things and pressing into relationships with people who have very different views than us.  The older crowd was asking questions like how to love someone who voted for Obama.    They literally don't see it.  Utterly oblivious to how hyper-partisan stances by Christians looks to the outside world.

 

But mark my words, the fruit of this will come to full bloom in 10-15 years and barring an absolute miracle, it's going to be ugly for the American church.  The younger generation sees this love for Trump as rank hypocrisy and it will be a long time, if ever, before they take any moral concerns expressed by evangelicals seriously again.

I've ran into that a few times before too... I take a pretty easy going approach to politics and enjoy talking about it in person just like I enjoy these boards. Some of the Christian = Trump crowd you just can't talk to. Even asking simple seemingly non-judgmental questions can start a fit of rage... it's really crazy juxtaposed to asking pointedly judgmental questions to the same crowd about the teachings of Jesus, and they'll have tons of compassion and patience.  

[NolaAuTiger 3,295]

Anyone else notice the author’s name?

[triangletiger 1,599]

5 hours ago, NolaAuTiger said:

Anyone else notice the author’s name?

Talk about redundancy...

[NolaAuTiger 3,295]

2 hours ago, triangletiger said:

Talk about redundancy...

No harm no foul

[Gowebb11 9,307]

On 7/8/2019 at 8:24 AM, TitanTiger said:

The rallygoers, he said, told him that Trump’s era “is spiritually driven.” When I asked whether he meant by this that Trump’s supporters believe God’s hand is on Trump, this moment and at the election—that Donald Trump is God’s man, in effect—he told me, “Yes—a number of people said they believe there is no other way to explain his victories. Starting with the election and continuing with the conclusion of the Mueller report. Many said God has chosen him and is protecting him.

This quote from the article reflects a huge part of why the Christian church is in trouble. So God is an omnipotent and all-knowing force, yet he is selectively engaging in US Presidential elections. Who knew? Extending this logic, since he is a universal God, he must’ve had a hand in the rise to power of all the worlds dictators and tyrants, too. In recent years, he has also become involved in deciding outcomes of sporting events. At least according to post game interviews of athletes. And of course he has also chose to ‘bless’ some mega church pastors with riches, mansions, and jets and sports cars (Joel Osteen, Paula White, etc...)While other pastors struggle to feed their family. Many (not all) Churches and pastors have turned God into a cartoonish wizard, instead of a spiritual deity.  I love Jesus, but not today’s religion. 

[AUDub 11,131]

9 minutes ago, Gowebb11 said:

This quote from the article reflects a huge part of why the Christian church is in trouble. So God is an omnipotent and all-knowing force, yet he is selectively engaging in US Presidential elections. Who knew? Extending this logic, since he is a universal God, he must’ve had a hand in the rise to power of all the worlds dictators and tyrants, too. In recent years, he has also become involved in deciding outcomes of sporting events. At least according to post game interviews of athletes. And of course he has also chose to ‘bless’ some mega church pastors with riches, mansions, and jets and sports cars (Joel Osteen, Paula White, etc...)While other pastors struggle to feed their family. Many (not all) Churches and pastors have turned God into a cartoonish wizard, instead of a spiritual deity.  I love Jesus, but not today’s religion. 

Excellent

[homersapien 11,352]

46 minutes ago, Gowebb11 said:

This quote from the article reflects a huge part of why the Christian church is in trouble. So God is an omnipotent and all-knowing force, yet he is selectively engaging in US Presidential elections. Who knew? Extending this logic, since he is a universal God, he must’ve had a hand in the rise to power of all the worlds dictators and tyrants, too. In recent years, he has also become involved in deciding outcomes of sporting events. At least according to post game interviews of athletes. And of course he has also chose to ‘bless’ some mega church pastors with riches, mansions, and jets and sports cars (Joel Osteen, Paula White, etc...)While other pastors struggle to feed their family. Many (not all) Churches and pastors have turned God into a cartoonish wizard, instead of a spiritual deity.  I love Jesus, but not today’s religion. 

But you left out all the personal tragedy's that are attributed to "God moving in mysterious ways" or "God's will".

This is very dangerous thinking.  If "God" is responsible for everything, then we are responsible for nothing.

[AURex 1,984]

I am an atheist, and yet I am a better Christian than 99% of the so-called Christians I have ever met or read about or seen on TV or media. The reality is, no conservative/pretend christian today would ever vote for Jesus Christ for political office, or vote for any other person espousing the Word of Jesus Christ, or voice their support for any person or policy or law that recognized basic respect, much less love, for ALL humans in ALL their variations, the way Jesus Christ did. Even an atheist such as myself can respect the morality espoused by Jesus. But apparently, most of those who claim to be his servant refuse his words and actions in their own lives.

My wife always said "Jesus Christ himself could not be elected president of the U.S." And we would sorta chuckle, but we both knew it was true.

 

[DKW 86 7,410]

12 hours ago, AURex said:

I am an atheist, and yet I am a better Christian than 99% of the so-called Christians I have ever met or read about or seen on TV or media. The reality is, no conservative/pretend christian today would ever vote for Jesus Christ for political office, or vote for any other person espousing the Word of Jesus Christ, or voice their support for any person or policy or law that recognized basic respect, much less love, for ALL humans in ALL their variations, the way Jesus Christ did. Even an atheist such as myself can respect the morality espoused by Jesus. But apparently, most of those who claim to be his servant refuse his words and actions in their own lives.

My wife always said "Jesus Christ himself could not be elected president of the U.S." And we would sorta chuckle, but we both knew it was true.

Sadly, this is truth. I think Christ/St John predicted this in the first chapters of Revelation. When Christ is addressing the 7 Churches, it is like he is talking to 21st Century Americans. 

[McLoofus 35,182]

On 7/13/2019 at 10:27 PM, AURex said:

"Jesus Christ himself could not be elected president of the U.S."

That says it all, doesn't it? Craziest part is that he wouldn't even carry the evangelicals. 

[DKW 86 7,410]

1 hour ago, McLoofus said:

That says it all, doesn't it? Craziest part is that he wouldn't even carry the evangelicals. 

He would barely get 10% of their vote. They have now converted to the Religion of RusHannity. 

[Grumps 3,693]

It is interesting that many of you think all of this is a joke. It is fascinating and sometimes amusing to read what people who "feel" like Christians say that being a Christian means. But it is sadly hysterical for people who admit that they don't know Christ to explain what being a Christian means. 

[DKW 86 7,410]

So provide us with your learned definition.

[homersapien 11,352]

16 hours ago, Grumps said:

It is interesting that many of you think all of this is a joke. It is fascinating and sometimes amusing to read what people who "feel" like Christians say that being a Christian means. But it is sadly hysterical for people who admit that they don't know Christ to explain what being a Christian means. 

Yeah, we get the personal benefits - salvation, avoiding hell, feeling self-righteous.

This thread is about living Christ's philosophy as an integral part - the most important part - of being a Christian.  That is why some people think they are more Christian than evangelicals think.  

If you really "knew" Christ - whatever that means - you'd know this.

[ArgoEagle 1,767]

10 hours ago, Grumps said:

It is interesting that many of you think all of this is a joke. It is fascinating and sometimes amusing to read what people who "feel" like Christians say that being a Christian means. But it is sadly hysterical for people who admit that they don't know Christ to explain what being a Christian means. 

Bravo! Well said. Lost people (non Christians), do not have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them to know what living as a Christian means and is. They cannot understand the teachings of the Bible, therefore cannot apply them to their lives nor know how a Christian should apply them to our lives. That would be like me knowing nothing about fixing cars, telling a mechanic how to replace my car engine. The danger in this thread so far is that we are grouping all Christians into this so-called Evangelical sect. Some of us voted for Trump because he is an America comes first man, and is also not a politician who is influenced by wealth and is not worried about being politically correct (in the same way Jesus was not politically correct.) I believe Trump believes in the Lord God Jehovah, but I would not call him an example of what a man of God is. I know God does not approve of all of his actions, but I have heard him reference God many times before and since he became President. His sins and shortcomings will be judged by God, just as mine and everybody else's will in the end. God bless America, and God bless Donald Trump.

[McLoofus 35,182]

14 minutes ago, ArgoEagle said:

is not worried about being politically correct (in the same way Jesus was not politically correct.)

You're running towards the wrong end zone. 

Damn. 

[TitanTiger 20,469]

24 minutes ago, ArgoEagle said:

I believe Trump believes in the Lord God Jehovah, but I would not call him an example of what a man of God is. I know God does not approve of all of his actions, but I have heard him reference God many times before and since he became President. His sins and shortcomings will be judged by God, just as mine and everybody else's will in the end. God bless America, and God bless Donald Trump.

This is a man who explicitly said he's never asked God for forgiveness because he doesn't believe he's done anything he needs forgiveness for:

"I am not sure I have," Trump said when asked if he'd ever asked God for forgiveness. "I just go on and try to do a better job from there. I don't think so," he said. "I think if I do something wrong, I think, I just try and make it right. I don't bring God into that picture. I don't."

It's a man who openly bragged about being able grab women by the p***y. A man who referred to taking Holy Communion as "... I drink the little wine, which is about the only wine I drink, and I eat the little cracker." 

I'm not saying he's an atheist.  I have no idea about that.  He may believe in some sort of higher power, but believing in "the Lord God Jehovah?"  The God of the Bible? No way.

[McLoofus 35,182]

2 minutes ago, TitanTiger said:

He may believe in some sort of higher power

[ArgoEagle 1,767]

21 minutes ago, TitanTiger said:

This is a man who explicitly said he's never asked God for forgiveness because he doesn't believe he's done anything he needs forgiveness for:

"I am not sure I have," Trump said when asked if he'd ever asked God for forgiveness. "I just go on and try to do a better job from there. I don't think so," he said. "I think if I do something wrong, I think, I just try and make it right. I don't bring God into that picture. I don't."

It's a man who openly bragged about being able grab women by the p***y. A man who referred to taking Holy Communion as "... I drink the little wine, which is about the only wine I drink, and I eat the little cracker." 

I'm not saying he's an atheist.  I have no idea about that.  He may believe in some sort of higher power, but believing in "the Lord God Jehovah?"  The God of the Bible? No way.

Only God and Trump know what Trump believes. Everyone else can only speculate.