When did most evangelicals abandoned absolute principles for situational ethics? When did they cast aside Biblical teachings for political expediency? When did the phrase “Character matters for those in high office” ceased being a battle cry for evangelicals? When did “’Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty” (Zechariah 4:6, NIV) get replaced with “Yes, by might and power”?
As an addictions counselor in an evangelical sponsored alcohol and drug treatment center I sometimes run into “the drug addict’s theology.” Moses took two tablets (Exodus 24:12), Elijah got high (2 Kings 2:11), John the Baptist lost his head at a party (Matthew 14:1-11), Stephen and Paul both got stoned (Acts 7:54-60, Acts 14:19). Obviously, this is a case of drug addicts twisting Biblical verses to justify drug use. In like manner, evangelical Trump supporters twist Biblical verses to justify their support of Donald Trump. Evangelical Trump supporters use the Bible like drunks use lampposts; more for support than illumination. In their intoxication with Trump and Trumpism they find justifications in Scripture for justifying the horrific and the ridiculous. Of course, justifying the horrific and the ridiculous is nothing new for Bible believing Christians. The Bible has been used for centuries to justify slavery, the subjugation of women, child abuse, the Inquisition, and various absurd end times scenarios.
I used to attend a weekly Bible study / prayer meeting for men. Every week I went expecting to be nourished by the Bible, prayer, and fellowship. Every week it was the same old anti-Hilary, anti-gay, anti-Obama, anti-Democrat, anti-Moslem, anti-liberal, anti-welfare, anti-this and anti-that rhetoric. I went to the evangelical men’s fellowship expecting to be fed with the Bread of Life. Instead, each week I was doused with disinfectants. Jesus said, citing the Old Testament, that man cannot live by bread alone (Matthew 4:4, Deuteronomy 8:3). If man cannot live by bread alone, then surely he cannot live on a diet of disinfectants. Ajax, Comet, bleach may have their place in a Christian home, but not as food products.
I was raised in the part of the evangelical community known as the Holiness Movement (no drinking alcohol, no smoking tobacco, no playing cards, no going to movies, no dancing, no wearing makeup, no wedding rings, no swimming on Sunday). No one would accuse my hair-pulled-back-in-a-bun, no wedding ring, no makeup wearing mother of being a liberal. I remember one time Mother said that she believed Jerry Falwell, Sr. had done more than anyone else to promote the acceptance of homosexuality and homosexuals. Reason: When evangelicals beat up people as a stratagem for gaining political power and to raise money, they gain sympathy and support for those they beat up. As Mother said, people resent bullies. When evangelicals support a bully in the White House, they reveal that they are more into might and power than they are into the Spirit of the Lord Almighty. When evangelicals try to bring about the Kingdom of God on earth through political might and power, rather than through the Spirit of the Lord, they come across as vicious and mean-spirited, ignorant and uncaring, prejudiced and bigoted. When evangelicals disobey the clear teachings of the Bible by resorting to political might and power, they lose credibility in the public debate, they strengthen the people they attack, they win friends and allies for people they disparage, they promote causes they are against.
The famed personality theoretician Alfred Adler wrote “The Truth is often a terrible weapon of aggression. It is possible to lie, and even to murder with the Truth.” For many evangelicals the Gospel Truth is a weapon of aggression. The atheistic philosopher Frederick Nietzsche said it would be easier to believe in the Name of the Savior if those who called upon the Name of the Savior acted a little more saved.
The famed psychoanalyst Erick Fromm in his book Escape from Freedom examined how the German people ended up embracing Hitler and Nazism despite their Christian heritage. Fromm wrote, “We know that a person, even if he is subjectively sincere, may frequently be driven unconsciously by a motive that is different from the one he believes himself to be driven by.” Fromm also pointed out that there is the surface religion of the individual and there is the person’s real religion, the real center of the individual’s love and devotion. Trump and Trumpism have revealed that the real center of evangelical love and devotion is might and power, not the Spirit of the Lord Almighty. As Ben Howe in his book The Immoral Majority: Why Evangelicals Chose Political Power Over Christian Values correctly points out “The important choice was never between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton—the important choice was between self-interest and the idolization of ‘winning’ versus loving God and one another.”
The broken, despairing gay author Oscar Wilde read the New Testament in the original Greek as he laid in anguish in his prison cell for “crimes against nature.” Wilde concluded, “There is nothing in the world so wrong but that the spirit of humanity, which is the spirit of love, the Spirit of the Christ, who is not in churches, may make it, if not right, at least possible to be borne without too much bitterness of heart.” Wilde found in reading the Gospels of Jesus what he did not find in the Christian churches at the time: the Spirit of the Christ. From the Spirit of the Christ Wilde discovered he needed to forgive others and to love those who had wronged him. Wilde discovered he had to let go of hatred and resentment, lest his heart be made of stone. Wilde wrote, “How else but through a broken heart May Lord Christ enter in?”
It is my prayer that people in the general society may find in the various evangelical churches the Spirit of the Christ. With most evangelicals embracing Trump and Trumpism I do not see how that is even possible. Yet, in the age of Trump the words of the prophet Zechariah still clearly ring out true and clear: “’Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.”
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The Immoral Majority: Why Evangelicals Chose Political Power Over Christian Values
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Musicman
Incredibly revealing and informative.
Reviewed in Canada on December 10, 2023
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Dr. Eric Bonhoeffer would have approved of this book!!
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Great read! Meticulously well researched!
Reviewed in Canada on December 30, 2019