How The Trump Era Signaled The Death of Political Evangelicism
Although I never agreed with the stated purpose of the religious right and the actions of the Evangelical movement on the political scene, I always understood the motivation and respected the inherent beliefs of those who felt that the moral fiber of this nation was being eroded and that they needed a political outlet to fight for that moral set of beliefs.
That was then but this is now. The belief set that has driven the religious right in all of it's incarnations, whether the Falwell moral majority or the later incarnations of those movements has almost totally disappeared. The religious right and the entire political Evangelical movement has lost it's way and has become pawns in the movement toward Trumpism.
There needs to be a bit of historical perspective given here. The late seventies were a time of political, religious, and sexual turmoil. The nation vacillated between liberal and conservative, the religious mood was changing, with more and more people moving away from organized religion. Young people had grown up in the wake of the sexual revolution and a sense of increasing sexual freedom was part of the national landscape. Roe versus Wade was codified and became a rallying point for a burgeoning, church led, pro-life movement.
It was in this landscape that Jerry Falwell and his associates began the Moral Majority. Other mega-evangelists such as Pat Robertson, James Swaggert and the like quickly got on board. Their message was simple. Bring back "traditional" American values. Ban abortion, ban homosexuality as a biblical evil, keep children from engaging in any sexual activity by just telling them not to, condemn extra-marital sexual behavior, defeat any politician who condones any of these actions.
This was a movement that gained momentum through the 80s and into the 90s and culminated in the election of George Bush. But a realization set in. Politics did not make changes based on who was in office. Though politicians might spout rhetoric that was in lockstep with the Evangelical position, once in office they rarely moved to enact those positions.
In fact, the opposite has proven to be true. LGBT-Q rights have been normalized and marriage equality has been green lighted by the courts. Sex education is being seen as a necessary part of the school curriculum and abstinence programming has been generally discredited. Attempts to eliminate evolution education and replace it with either creationism or intelligent design have failed at every turn. More and more instances of political sexual malfeasance are uncovered every day, forcing some politicians to have to leave office and others to flaunt their activity. Even Roe v.Wade has been law for so long that it is now considered established law and even conservative judges have upheld it's legality.
And then we got the nomination and election of Donald Trump. As a religious-political movement, the man should have raised the ire of every religious person in this nation. Trump has been married three times, and carried on an affair with one wife while still married to another. He has been credibly accused of sexual impropriety by at least 15 women. He has boasted on an Access Hollywood tape that he enjoyed "grabbing women by the ............." and that he could walk into the dressing room of pre-pubescent girls while they were undressed because he was in charge. Now we find out that Mr. Trump's lawyers have paid a former porn star 130,000 to keep an affair that they had private.
Yet, the religious right has decided to give a pass to Mr. Trump. Ralph Reed has decided that the nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court was enough to wash away all of Mr. Trump's sins. With that statement, the religious right is dead! There is no longer a moral authority to the movement. They stand for nothing positive.
At this point the so-called religious right has developed an agenda that accepts child molesters {Roy Moore/ Donald Trump}, wants to criminalize same sex behavior and ban same sex marriage, elect politicians who have molested and harassed women, replace evolution with creationism. They will support any scum as long as they can pack the SCOTUS with radical judges who they hope will overturn Roe.
The religious right is now part of the alt-right. It has nothing to do with religion, but everything to do with radical right politics. Prime Evangelical tenets such as social justice are now figments of the religious right agenda. It would be wise for true Evangelicals and other true believers to disassociate with this movement as quickly as possible. It has morphed and become everything you despise.
There are times that moral change is better instituted from the pulpits of the church. The message of morality is best given by someone who understands what morality is. Donald Trump certainly is not that messenger.
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Though I myself am a heathen, I have nothing but respect for the true believers. The question I would pose to those that would claim to be Christians, is how they can possibly follow Jesus and emulate His ways, yet condone, support and cover the antics of Trump.
Must be a different Jesus they follow rather than the one I remember from my school days.
The religious right will twist themselves into pretzels on a daily basis and prove that they are hypocrites in every possible way in support of Trump and his administration because they believe that he is their best chance to legislate their radical religious agenda. They are proving that they are no different than the Taliban.
Jesus would oppose Trump and the GOP agenda.
The Christians of today, (and not all of them), are nothing like the person Jesus was. If Jesus was alive today, the right would hate him because he most definitely was a liberal....and he had brown skin.
I have been asking that very question since trump was elected. Best I can figure is as long as he supports their agenda, they are fine with a completely amoral president. I mean, he boned Stormy Daniels 4 months after Malaria trump dropped a calf.
What Trump has proven is that the modern evangelical movement is a farce. I'm not a person of faith but I do know that religious beliefs require a person to follow the mandates of their God. No God could tell his/her followers to worship at the foot of a sinner like Trump.
Very well said Doc.