The Deepening Crisis in Evangelical Christianity - UPDATED

Support for Trump comes at a high cost for Christian witness.

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.”

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? Read More

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David Virtue in his most recent newsletter drew to my attention to the article. "The Deepening Crisis in Evangelical Christianity." While it may not have been his intention, he also drew my attention to the dramatic shift in the editorial position of The Christian Post toward President Trump. These three articles, Donald Trump Is a Scam. Evangelical Voters Should Back Away (CP Editorial), Donald Trump Supporters: You're Being Duped!, and Donald Trump's Oblivious Followers, show how The Christian Post shifted from "never Trump" in February 2016 to "Team Trump" in December 2019, as evidenced in its recent editorial, Christianity Today and the Problem with 'Christian Elitism'

Why? Napp Nazworth, a former editor of The Christian Post, who resigned in protest of the editorial suggested that it was a "good business decision." The Christian Post did not want to loose its substantial evangelical readership by taking a position that was unpopular with these readers. What this development reveals is that politics has come to occupy such an important place in the evangelical community in the United States that it at times and on certain issues overshadows that community' commitment to the teaching of the Bible. This trend is one that should concern us. Evangelicals have historically given high priority to the teaching of the Bible. It is one of the marks of being an evangelical.

Pete Buttigieg was wrong in claiming that Jesus was born a refugee. But he was not far from the truth. Jesus did become a refugee when his family was forced to flee to Egypt for his protection. Jesus himself taught:

Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’(Matthew 25:34-36)

"The stranger" to whom he was referring was "the stranger" of Levicitus 19:34:

You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.

Buttigieg is in any event not likely to garner many votes from evangelicals due to his gay life style, which falls short of the Biblical standard of morality. In his case evangelicals are not willing to overlook his moral failings as they are President Trump's.

President Trump himself has been giving mixed messages on the issue of LGBTQ rights. On one hand he appears to want to court the vote of the LBGBTQ community; on the other hand he appears not to want to alienate the evangelical voters in his base.

During their stays in Palm Beach President Trump and his wife have been attending the liberal Episcopal church where they were married. They send their son Barron to an Episcopal school in Washington D.C. This Christmas Eve, however, the Trumps attended a more conservative Baptist church. The sudden switch in churches, the Guardian notes, caused both surprise and mild disapproval. It was apparently prompted by the fear of losing evangelical support.