The other day, Russell Moore gave a brief, texting interview with the online news startup, Semafor. Moore is former president of the Southern Baptist Convention and currently editor-in-chief of Christianity Today. He was promoting his new book that deals with the difficult struggles he and evangelical leaders have had over Donald Trump and his sexual abuse scandals. Moore describes Trump as a "a unique threat, both to American institutions and to the church's witness."
I admire knowing that a loyal acolyte of Trump is now cutting ties with him, What I'm not exactly sure about is where the struggles exist for him. After all, to me, once you consider someone to be a "unique threat" to both America and the church, that should pretty much eliminate any struggling. Make it close to a no-brainer. But that's me. Anyway, Moore talks about the weariness that evangelicals appear to be having comes from trying to reconcile what the Bible teaches with its support for Trump. A gap made all the wider, one would assume given Trump being found liable for sexual assault - which the judge has written meets the standard public meaning of rape - along with his two indictments, one for espionage, and two more indictments likely coming, for trying to overthrow democracy and the U.S. government. So, with a gap that wide, it would indeed seem very difficult to reconcile - assuming, of course, that for some reason you would want to reconcile it. "I wrote the book," Moore says, "because I'm hearing every day from evangelical Christians who are exhausted and almost in despair over the state of American Christianity. They know something has gone terribly wrong but they are losing hope that anything could be different. At the same time, I get asked by non-Christians, as a man said to me as recently as yesterday- "What the hell is wrong with you people." I believe at this point, the proper reaction is - the heart bleeds While I'm glad the find out that everyday evangelical Christians are finally seeing that maybe Trump isn't someone to put all their devotion into, I would suggest that if they are exhausted and almost in despair over the stage of American Christianity, it is their own blind, fervent support (emotionally, religiously and at the ballot box) of Donald Trump - a man who it has been abundantly clear has less interest in the tenets of Christianity than the dust of a crushed boulder - that has helped bring American Christianity to its current state so wearying to them. When Trump was running for president and asked his favorite Bible passage, and he couldn't even name it - his favorite! - hiding behind, "There are so many of them," it was near-impossible to miss that he was as empty as a vacuum tube when it came to religion. And yet the idolizing Christian evangelicals with stars blocking their eyes and minds devoutly threw themselves at Trump's bidding - in large part because he promised them far-right, religious judges who would help strip rights from the needy and because he spoke out so vociferously with hate in his heart against those who were different, All of which seems to be against the teachings of the Bible, not in support of it. But then, I'm not an evangelical Christian, so it's likely they have a different view on such things than I do. Moore also adds that "An evangelical America in crisis isn't good for anybody." No, that's wrong. An evangelical America in crisis isn't good for evangelicals. That's a very different concept from what he thinks. Perhaps conflating the two is one of the reasons evangelical Christians are so wearied, trying to reconcile adoration of Trump with the teachings of Jesus. Moore also notes that he remains even more committed to the gospel and to the Bible than he's ever been. "'Evangelical' as a word," he says "conjures up all kinds of politicized hackery and moral scandal. But I think it's too good a word to abandon it to authoritarians and demagogues." To be fair, the word "evangelical" was not abandoned to authoritarians and demagogues. The reason the world conjures up all kinds of politicized hackery and moral scandal is because evangelicals themselves have long been drawn to such people. Letting their fervent sense of personal religion cloud their view of the wider world around them. Moore himself, while finally, at last, seeing Trump - after years of adoration -- as a "unique threat" to America and religion, still struggles with the gap. That's on him. Not on political hacks and moral scandals. Again, as I said, I'm very glad when a Russell Moore - or anyone - who worshiped Trump with an adoration can now see him as a "unique threat" and speak out against him. However long it took. But even putting aside the appropriate question, "What took you so long from seeing the blatantly obvious?," when you're still struggling with how to deal with that, then you really aren't seeing the threat for what it is, because it seems there's a big part of you that likes the message Trump brought, just not the messenger.
2 Comments
John
7/26/2023 02:45:10 pm
Robert — As a”forgiven Christian” who is non-denominational and attends a church that only teaches what’s in the Bible, I continue to be baffled by these “Repuglicans(sp) christians” who have and continue to support trump and his belief system.
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Robert Elisberg
7/26/2023 06:06:45 pm
John, thanks for your long, detailed comments. It was eloquent, and I have nothing to add. Just to reiterate what I wrote in the article that so many evangelical Christians seem happy to close their eyes to the reality of who the messenger was, because so much of his message apparently fit their version of what they wanted the Bible to say, despite it being hate-filled.
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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