Trump just plays these people like a fiddle. Drunk on power
and the prospect of it they are incapable of understanding how hypocritical
they look, how foolish they are, indeed how heretical is their understanding of
the Kingdom and its ethics.
While heresy and apostasy were already rampant in the
American Church it has (if possible) gotten worse over the past year and a
half. The Trump effect was of course already bringing about its rotten harvest
during the 2016 campaign.
When one thinks of the tremendous changes brought on by
Evangelicals and Catholics Together, signed and implemented some 23 years
ago... what will be the state of American Political Christianity of
Evangelicalism in another two decades?
The tide is turning, we're entering a new era.
Amazingly I was talking about all of this some twenty years
ago. Pondering where things would be in twenty years. I was no prophet. Things
are in many ways much worse than I imagined they would be. It was clear that
things were rapidly heading in a bad direction but no one could foresee all or
even half of the developments.
I think most Conservative Protestants and Confessionalists
would share in my spirit of lamentation, though I also think many of them would
point to what they would perceive as many positive changes. Despite the fact
that their political project has so far produced very little and the leaders
they elect (Reagan, Bush II and Trump) in the end do very little to help their
causes, they are probably feeling some sense of optimism in the growing numbers
joining their cause. And of course financially speaking, times are pretty good.
God may bring some sort of revival to the American Church but
it will have to be in the form of a sharp break with the legacies of men like
Graham, Falwell, Francis Schaeffer and Charles Colson.
Right now that doesn't seem possible. If anything the 'break'
is coming in the growing numbers of Evangelicals that are simply turning away
from Scripture and historical Protestant doctrines. They're embracing the world
in every way. They're embracing worldly attitudes with regard to philosophy and
ethics, divorce and marital relations. And yet in some way they still resonate
with the worldly aspects of Cold War Evangelicalism. They embrace capitalism,
middle class values, vengeance, nationalism and the gun culture.
But what they don't embrace (and clearly know nothing of) is
Scripture and its Authority.
The effects of the Trump presidency several generations from
now is still up in the air. Will he be a fluke, an interlude or a watershed?
Time will tell.
But the Evangelical embrace of Trump clearly marks a
watershed for American Christianity, and maybe even World Christianity. That is
already all too painfully clear. We're in a new era.
Yet, many conservative confessionalist types who lament Trump would've loved a Cruz, or even settled for a Bush or Rubio. There are many conservative protestants gushing over Ben Sasse. It's hard to say which model is worse: the debauched celebrity (Reagan, Trump), the zealous missionary (Bush II, Palin), or the quasi-stoic moralists (Cruz, Sasse). What's most baffling is that said conservative protestants think their candidate is somehow different or moral. These are the same people who praise Obama's family life as he reigned terror over entire people groups, breaking up families through slaughter. Sacralism makes a perverse joke out of supposed ministers of the gospel.
ReplyDeleteAmen.
ReplyDeleteIt's obvious Sasse is in the process of being tapped. He's already making the rounds, got a book out... he's getting ready.
It continues to amaze me that virtually everyone will agree the system is wholly corrupt and yet they do not seem to believe that therefore anyone who flourishes within it... is also corrupt.
I suppose some dream that there are still 'pure' avenues to the top. They are not just dreaming, they are truly delusional, and I have to wonder what sort of consciences they have.
You gentlemen may be interested on how this has looked to me from the UK.
ReplyDeleteI'd gathered there was quite a lot of evangelical support for him, partly because I'd heard that the leadership of Bethel Church, Redding were very vocal about supporting him. That was quite bizarre to me, because although I knew that church believed in 'social engagament' in some sense (seven mountains, 'praying God's favour in the business world' etc), I didn't expect them to throw themselves behind a particular candidate. It probably put a lot of UK charismatics' noses out of joint, since Bethel songs and books are all but ubiquitous in such churches by now!
Anyway, as for myself, I agree with all you say about Trump. But when I look within myself, I still find a trace of something that's glad he got in rather than Clinton due to the different stances on abortion. Not that I at all believe the church should be seeking to stamp the practice out through state power or that I'd put any time into that. But just because, providentially, if a few lives are saved who go on to hear and believe the gospel, then at least something good will come out this horrible mess. But you may well want to disillusion me on that one.
It's like the Brexit referendum, which I didn't vote in. Although I don't think it's going to do any particular good by this chaotic stage, part of me still feels vaguely in favour of leaving. Perhaps just because the EU is pretty sinister, and there's a hope in me that at least a couple of bestial heads hanging over the UK would be lopped off. But I doubt that would make much difference for the church, considering the totalitarian direction the UK government is heading towards, so maybe it's just mischievous glee that the beast has received a poke in the eye in some way.
And maybe all that's just a remnant of the old Sacralist self still hanging around!
If the Trump movement indeed restricts abortion... thanks be to God.
DeleteThat is not an endorsement or a signal of collaboration. It's simply an acknowledgement of Providence. I would not condemn individual Christians going to a town council meeting or even voting if they're trying to simply combat or curtail bad legislation or something to that effect. I think the goals, motivations and expectations in this need to be understood. It's not for Christian America or Britain and it's not to transform society.
But at the same time I can also be sympathetic toward those who eschew the system in its entirety. I lean toward this position myself but I have vacillated at times.
The abortion issue is pretty clear cut though I think much of the Christian political activity surrounding it is misguided and in some cases dishonest. But once again, as you say if (even for the wrong reasons) some lives are spared... praise God.
I also agree with your statements regarding both Hillary and Brexit. I think Trump is horrid and yet part of me is also glad that Hillary Clinton lost. While I don't despise her in the way that I might have as a right-wing unbeliever during the 1992 election, I nevertheless think in some ways she's worse now than she was then. While I differ with Cal on the degree of Trump's 'rogue-ishness' and outsider status, he nevertheless represents a clear warning to the Establishment. The winds are shifting. They're scared and furious and while I don't want to gloat, it doesn't make me sympathetic toward them either.
I don't know if the shift signals a good thing! But the status quo wasn't good either. The collapse of the American order may actually bring about something worse... maybe, but what exists now is pretty bad for a lot of people around the world. It was the same with Rome and its fall. It was a beast-abomination and its fall was glorious but at the same time it unleashed chaos and horror.
While on the one hand the EU seemed and seems to be a good thing... in light of European history and many pragmatic issues... on the other hand it's destructive and even represents an idolatrous attempt at Babel redivivus. Who will weep for the defeated and cast down bureaucrats in Brussels? Not me. If Juncker goes to the grave a broken and defeated man... let his life be a parable, a by-word. I don't admire the man.
I was in Scotland in 1997 just before the devolution vote and it was kind of the same thing. On the one hand you want to cheer at the prospect of a smaller nation breaking free from the larger dominant power but on the other... practically speaking, it might be better to simply leave things as they are.
It's hard not to get caught up in some of the tides of history and events and yet in the end... we're always a bit distant aren't we?
DeleteNationalism is an ugly thing... but so is trans-nationalist imperialism in whatever guise.
The world is broken and there's no fixing it. I wouldn't mind a curtailing of all the sodomy and sexual filth in our culture right now. It's out of control but at the same time such a curtailment would probably be bad for the Church in that it would lead to a wicked ratification of state violence, power and feelings of revenge and it would lead to the rekindling of Christendom heresies and their idolatrous hopes and expectations. It would seem that all options are bad.
Norsefire (a la V for Vendetta) would shut it all down and yet it would indeed devolve into the kind of corrupt and immoral beast as the story depicts. Built on an anti-Christian foundation its Christianity and ethics would prove false in the end. It has happened with every manifestation of Christendom, from Theodosius to Charlemagne to the Hohenstaufens, Plantagenets, Bourbons, Habsburgs, Hanovers, Romanovs, British and American empires, Franco, Pavelic, Antonescu, and the Bushes. The list could go on almost ad infinitum. The end justifies the means and power is supreme. A few men might have even had noble intentions... a few mind you... but it always devolves into something evil and anti-Christian. Their zeal to make Zion appear always results in Pseudo-Zion which in terms of the Church is the worst and most dangerous enemy of all.
Good thoughts. Embracing a pilgrim mindset has led to a interesting sense of being a tiny speck rolling around in an immense ocean - or, indeed, a seed in masses of earth. But that's probably the appeal of Sacralist-type thinking... it offers some hope that the world could in theory (or in certainty if you're a post-millenialist!) be stabilized, that you could feel at home in it after all.
DeleteMy hope with the state of things in the UK is that others will be completely disillusioned with any sort of political hope and will discover the gospel afresh. But that may require the church to do that first to even present such a hope, something yet to really happen, and I suspect will only happen when severer persecution starts.
Interestingly, the most fruitful times I've shared the gospel this year have happened as a result of discussing the dire state of politics, then the pilgrim mindset, the distinct nature of the kingdom... and then how to enter it through Christ. It really seems to make sense to some of my generation... making salvation spacial and political rather than purely metaphysical, if that makes sense.