The Christian Right's Increasing Embrace of Authoritarianism

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/16/opinion/trump-religion-authoritarianism.html

This editorial piece did not reveal anything new but the authoritarian theme afforded the author (Katherine Stewart) a means of making a larger point in connection to current strategies and trends at work within both the GOP and the larger Christian-Right community.

Stewart is not a Christian and is in fact hostile to New Testament Christianity – though she may have never actually encountered it. There is still value in her writings even if we cannot endorse her assumptions or conclusions. A Christian read of the essay enables further points to be considered.

First, she picks up on the fact that there's a growing narrative that connects Trump's defeat with waxing societal godlessness. While such godlessness is self-evident, the Christian-Right's spin on this needs to be challenged.

Was Trump's defeat the result of godlessness? Apparently it never even occurs to them Trump himself is the fruit of the very same godlessness at work within society and exploding within the American Church itself. In fact both Trump and Covid are likely judgments on America. It's a point they won't even entertain and while not able to be proven it's just as plausible (in light of a New Testament doctrine) as any of their contrived self-serving and self-righteous narratives.

Or to hit the question from another angle, we can (standing on even safer ground) argue that the moral compromise of Evangelicalism has resulted in Trumpism and as such, it is yet another form of Divine Judgment – in this case on an increasingly apostate Church.

One Evangelical leader cited in the article speaks of Biden and Harris as being 'anti-Christ' and 'anti-Biblical'. This is true but it's just as true when it comes to Donald Trump. The fact that Trumpite Evangelicals cannot see this is the real story of the hour – and it leads to some startling conclusions.

The first chapter of Romans is often being utilised at the present and for obvious reasons. The DNC endorses sodomy. The resort to Romans 1 is entirely appropriate and provides a commentary on the course of our culture and the general state of the world in this present evil age. But read past the sodomy and take in the greater scope of wickedness. The list of sins just as much applies to the likes of Trump and what he represents. And the condemnation extends to not just the purveyors of this evil – but those who approve it. The Evangelical Trumpite community stands condemned and the system they champion in fact leads to the judgment that is sodomy. Ezekiel 16 is explicit in this regard. There is a connection between the ethics of their economic system and the proud, cruel, and idolatrous individualism they have championed with the resulting decadence and the larger spectrum of cultural sodomy it produces. The compromised apostate-harlot Church is often juxtaposed with evil entities such as Sodom, Samaria, and Egypt.

Trump is anti-Christ and anti-Biblical to his core – just as much as Biden-Harris. His disgusting stunts with Bibles and his pandering to the Evangelical community prove nothing apart from the fact that he's lost and is incapable of understanding anything of actual Christianity apart from how it can bolster his image and strengthen his hand. The bankrupt and increasingly reprobate leadership of Evangelicalism is too blind to see this. In many cases they've given themselves over to an idolatrous messianism with regard to Trump. It has in some cases literally taken on the character of a religious cult – the followers of Evangelical Trumpism reduced to the inane Dufflepuds of Narnia fame.

Over the past couple of years I along with other family members and friends have had conversations with people that I would consider to be lost and largely speaking less-than-moral people – and yet in many cases their assessments of Trump and their moral judgments and condemnations of him put many Christians I know to shame. We've reached a point in time in which lost people with a shattered moral compass are more discerning and in some cases more moral than Evangelicals and their leadership. This is judgment in severe form.

Second, I was also pleased to note Stewart's further acknowledgment of Christian Right's illiberalism – that despite their narratives they've embraced a rejection of pluralism and democracy – they are breaking with the fundamental concepts that undergird the Classical Liberalism the American system is built upon.

This is currently manifested in what can only be described as rank attempts to subvert democracy and overt efforts to suppress the vote.

This reality as well as the functional rejection of the American system as envisioned by the Founders needs to be understood by the rank and file sitting in the pew. If the leadership of the Evangelical movement and the Christian Right can be forced to admit this point, their entire Christian America-narrative collapses – as it ought to do. They can have a revision-rejection of the Founder's vision and values or they can change their entire posture and embrace pluralism – but they can't have it both ways. They can't keep waving the flag and claiming the banner of being the 'True American Patriots'.

Since Francis Schaeffer's time they've been trying to argue that Liberalism is valid but only in the context of a Christian society and social consensus. Beyond that, they are quick to decry the system as evil and anti-Christian. And yet that's neither the universal vision expressed by the Founders nor is it commensurate with the American legal tradition or general sociological consciousness. Few Americans would consider it to be a view compatible with the American system and even fewer would deem it patriotic – something akin to subversive is more like it. And often despite the window dressing the Evangelical posture is little more than a base form of tribalism. While the Founders were racist and mostly pro-slavery, their overall vision is something much broader than mere tribe – something nativist Trumpism feeds on and is empowered by.

Again, the New Testament has little room for any of these views – at least in terms of endorsing them. And yet the New Testament Church can happily function within any of these systems. There is no pressure because Biblical Christianity doesn't attach itself to any of these narratives or systems. It is the Evangelical Right that has tied its own hands on these points.

For their part, they've hung their very being on this flawed narrative and the idolatrous conflation of the Church with America. To put it simply they're heretics. We must be clear on that. And they're bad and often deceitful historians to boot.

Third, to quote the article.

The fact that Mr. Trump was able to hold on to a high percentage of the vote in the face of such overwhelming evidence of malfeasance is proof enough that the religious-nationalist end of the right-wing information bubble has gotten more, not less, resistant over time.

This sad but very true statement reveals the level of judgment that has fallen upon the Church. They have blinded themselves, hardened their hearts, stiffened their necks and in some cases seared their consciences. They've have thrown in with a rapist, thief, and railing fornicator. He exploits people and has used his power to harm and kill. They have a long record of supporting such people but in the era of Trump this has reached a new low – in fact a line has been crossed. He is a racketeer, a gangster, a rank criminal, a sociopath, and one of the most pathological and extreme liars ever placed in a position of authority – at least in the history of the United States. Indeed all presidents and politicians are liars but usually it's a case of half-truths, omissions, accompanied by the occasional blatant lie.

But with Trump the lies are endless and outrageous and the man clearly has not one whit of shame. In fact Trump has done an amazing thing. His lies are so extreme that he has made the largely deceitful and often mendacious profit-driven entertainment-oriented media look serious. He's made them look like truth-tellers. Even the travesty that is CNN will occasionally seem like an honest broker when it comes to the news and that's saying something. FOX has taken its corruption to new levels and yet the ever-shifting Right-ward trajectory of the larger Trumpist movement and the Christian Right are starting to abandon the Murdoch network. It's not biased enough it would seem.

He is a person of extremely low character and his policies – they are self-serving, manipulative, propaganda-oriented (and largely token) gestures. Neither his character nor his actions are rooted in any kind of principle or substance apart from his own self-aggrandizement.

Even fools can see what Trump is – but not his Evangelical base nor the Balaam's that lead them – the men (and women) who proffer lies and call it 'Christian Worldview'. This is judgment and frankly it's frightening to see so many people lose their way in such a striking manner – to see them literally fall off a moral and ethical cliff.

Fourth, these factors all point to Stewart's strongest and most astute point – this is all trending toward a new strategy – the use of judiciary as a tool for minority rule.

With their growing loss of democratic support this is becoming an essential strategy and one that allows them to maintain the facade of continuity with the American system – even as they seek authoritarian rule. It a strategy that allows them (if disingenuously) to maintain the patriotic narrative at the core of their identity-narrative. They can keep waving that flag even if deep down they know it's all lies.

This judicial tactic is all the more essential as the Right has abandoned the post-2012 strategy of 'big tent' inclusivism with regard to immigration and race reconciliation.

Trump smashed that strategy and poured fuel on the already burning social divisions – which some fools still try and pretend don't actually exist. He has produced a new GOP that has few options in terms of the broad electorate. To survive it will (it must) rely on authoritarianism which in the American system (as it has developed), the judiciary is a viable way to exercise this power. It will be rule by both offensive and defensive lawsuit and a reliance upon judges willing to re-define and re-write laws to suit their goals – even as these same judges will claim to be Textualists and Originalists exercising restraint and rejecting the temptation to legislate from the bench. That's the dirty secret about the fiction that is Originalism. It provides a narrative cover for just that – legislating from the bench.

Already ideology has been more or less abandoned. It's simply a raw and increasingly ugly political fight – with victory the only goal. Might is right and the party is supreme. They will score their victories but they will be hollow as they've sold their souls in the process. Evangelicalism has always been a vehicle for worldliness to enter the Church but the gates are now wide open and no one is standing guard.

The Democrats aren't much better in terms of ethics or honest politicking but no one takes their paltry Christian professions seriously. I'm not worried about them. They're lost people – obviously. But I am worried about those who promote evil, claim Christ and hold tremendous sway over the congregations and individuals who still make viable Biblically-credible confessions. They are in danger of not just error but increasingly a kind of functional apostasy.

What will it take to get through to these people? Truly it is in God's hands and as time passes I'm starting to wonder if the level and scope of His present judgment on the American Church is going to be far greater than anyone would have previously imagined.