During the US presidential campaign Donald Trump
- Verbally abused many (Mexican immigrants, Muslims, the disabled)
- Denied the reality of human activity causing climate change
- Habitually lied
- Made promises that he won’t/can’t keep
- Boasted of sexual assault
Despite all of this 70% of evangelical Christians in the US voted for him.
How could this be?
It seems like these evangelical Christian completely abandoned their supposedly moral principles and voted for him for very worldly reasons.
They may have liked his message of change in government, even though they may rue the kind of change that they have helped to bring about.
Or for the many well off and comfortable Americans who voted for him, they saw in him as one of their own who would take care of their interests.
But no, some will say that these evangelical Christians were indeed voting out of their principles. And what were these principles?
(1) Anti-Abortion: Search the Bible as you will and you will not find any reference to abortion. Nevertheless, evangelical Christians (and the Roman Catholic church) have made of abortion one of the gravest sins. Trump has found this very convenient and has latched on to this cause. I grant that it is difficult to know what Jesus may have thought about this. In the story of the Samaritan woman at the well (John ch.4) Jesus is very sympathetic to a woman’s plight even though she had been married five times. Pope Francis’s statement in forgiving women who have had abortions probably reflects Jesus’ attitude to this.
(2) Anti-LGBT values: The Old testament is pretty harsh on homosexual relations (Lev. 18:22, 20:13 plus some other passages). The New Testament also does not look favourably on homosexual sex (Romans 1:26-27 plus other passages). It seems to me that we can do at least two things with such passages; (1) try and find the deeper call to love which overrides these strictures and/or (2) acknowledge these views as part of a past that we have moved beyond (in the same way that we have evolved from nationalist wars in the name of God, Joshua Chs. 1-10) and then move on. Many would not agree with these interpretations and have not moved on. Donald Trump knew this and hitched his wagon to these beliefs and so drew 70% of the evangelical Christians to vote to him.
It is now clear that Donald Trump was a master manipulator. He knew how to press emotional buttons. Many responded to this – the facts be damned. This phenomenon is so serious that we may be moving to a post-truth era. Facts do not matter – raw emotions rule.
Is the human race going backwards instead of forwards? Where are the moral prophets of old? Not among the evangelical Christians. We may now need to form a new ethic for this troubling era.
- Verbally abused many (Mexican immigrants, Muslims, the disabled)
- Denied the reality of human activity causing climate change
- Habitually lied
- Made promises that he won’t/can’t keep
- Boasted of sexual assault
Despite all of this 70% of evangelical Christians in the US voted for him.
How could this be?
It seems like these evangelical Christian completely abandoned their supposedly moral principles and voted for him for very worldly reasons.
They may have liked his message of change in government, even though they may rue the kind of change that they have helped to bring about.
Or for the many well off and comfortable Americans who voted for him, they saw in him as one of their own who would take care of their interests.
But no, some will say that these evangelical Christians were indeed voting out of their principles. And what were these principles?
(1) Anti-Abortion: Search the Bible as you will and you will not find any reference to abortion. Nevertheless, evangelical Christians (and the Roman Catholic church) have made of abortion one of the gravest sins. Trump has found this very convenient and has latched on to this cause. I grant that it is difficult to know what Jesus may have thought about this. In the story of the Samaritan woman at the well (John ch.4) Jesus is very sympathetic to a woman’s plight even though she had been married five times. Pope Francis’s statement in forgiving women who have had abortions probably reflects Jesus’ attitude to this.
(2) Anti-LGBT values: The Old testament is pretty harsh on homosexual relations (Lev. 18:22, 20:13 plus some other passages). The New Testament also does not look favourably on homosexual sex (Romans 1:26-27 plus other passages). It seems to me that we can do at least two things with such passages; (1) try and find the deeper call to love which overrides these strictures and/or (2) acknowledge these views as part of a past that we have moved beyond (in the same way that we have evolved from nationalist wars in the name of God, Joshua Chs. 1-10) and then move on. Many would not agree with these interpretations and have not moved on. Donald Trump knew this and hitched his wagon to these beliefs and so drew 70% of the evangelical Christians to vote to him.
It is now clear that Donald Trump was a master manipulator. He knew how to press emotional buttons. Many responded to this – the facts be damned. This phenomenon is so serious that we may be moving to a post-truth era. Facts do not matter – raw emotions rule.
Is the human race going backwards instead of forwards? Where are the moral prophets of old? Not among the evangelical Christians. We may now need to form a new ethic for this troubling era.
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