“How can you defend White evangelicals?” asks Diana Butler Bass (photo, right), a writer and scholar on religion and culture (bio here).
You can’t. Rallying behind a “messiah” who has no morals, is a cheater and liar, a serial adulterer and bankrupt, with the governing instincts of a Klan leader, has destroyed whatever religious credibility they ever had. They’re now left holding a spiritual and moral toxic waste dump.
Oh, the evangelical movement won’t go away, nor will the evangelicals. But a lot of people will stop listening to them.
Butler doesn’t want to answer that question the way I just did. She certainly recognizes that, “These days, it seems to me, it is tempting to reply, ‘I can’t.’ But … that answer denies the power of history — mine, and many others.” Her problem with turning white evangelicals (as opposed to black evangelicals, who didn’t support Trump) into “a new cultural villain, scapegoats responsible for our national ills,” is that she used to be one.
That’s in the past, but in the present, as a scholar she needs to keep lines of communication with these people open to do her job. And that requires that they trust her to not portray them in ways they consider unflattering. But she also has to do it without sucking up to them, or she’ll lose her credibility as an independent social researcher.
It’s a fine line to walk when dealing with a group whose unstinting support for Trump is socially indefensible.
Butler goes on to describe a personal history typical of what has led many into the evangelical movement — a Christian upbringing, childhood abuse, need for “a safe home.” As she sees it, evangelicalism was different then:
“I did not become an evangelical because I wanted to be racist. I certainly didn’t do so thinking that I would turn away from feminism. I didn’t want to deny worldly pleasure, didn’t hope for an apocalypse and didn’t think Democrats were evil or going to hell. The Jesus I encountered in those years saved the lost and set captives free.”
What she didn’t see coming was this:
What is happening right now between Israel and the Palestinians is a lot more important to Evangelicals than Trump. As a Republican Trump went to the interests they find important. There was a peaceful Israel and now there is not.
While Trump’s policies did not bring about the rebuilding of the temple, I suppose if Biden wants their support he could arrange that. They are not going to embrace Biden because he is a Catholic, though if he were to support the Evangelical view on abortion, that the Pope agrees with, that would be something.
The President wants to bring Americans together but has not offered Evangelicals anything. Still the City of God is that which energizes Evangelicals so being on the outside is not going to weaken them, but they are a large voting block. If there were an election tomorrow and Trump was the candidate he would get the majority of their votes. And Trump likely will continue inroads into getting Evangelic black voters votes.
Item #1: Who disturbed the peace? The Palestinians started the violence, but they were provoked by Israelis evicting Palestinians from their homes in East Jerusalem, so you could argue that aggressive actions by Israel against Palestinians disturbed the peace.
Item #2: I don’t think Biden’s Catholicism is a factor in how Evangelicals feel about him, or whether they would vote for him. On the other hand, abortion is a huge issue for them, and they aren’t going to vote for a candidate of a pro-choice party.
Item #3: As for uniting the country, Biden can do only so much. What Evangelicals want is Trump, and given the election results, they can’t have Trump. Biden can’t do anything about that. Appeasing them is something he can’t do, and shouldn’t do even if he could.
Item #4: Which brings me to this: There are other people in this country besides Evangelicals, who are a relatively small minority, and the majority voted for Biden’s agenda, not the Evangelicals’ agenda. Elections decide who gets their way, that’s how things work in a democracy. There are however, things we should all able to agree on, which include: Preserving that democratic system, abiding by election outcomes, and electing leaders of character and morality. If Evangelicals aren’t on board for that, then forget unity on their terms, and they deserve to be sidelined.