Wednesday, October 19, 2016

The Death of the "Moral" Majority and the "Christian" Right

There are many articles being written about the hypocrisy among American Christians supporting and excusing, even defending, Donald Trump this year.  This post will be a space continually being updated with links to pertinent pieces.  

May I say this: the death of the enmeshment in politics, that is the state of American evangelicalism, is not necessarily a bad thing.  In fact, it gives me hope that those who really love God will shine brighter than ever.  But on the personal grief side, what a way to go.  

The twisted Scriptures and the spiritually abusive bashing of believers as Pharisees, when they stand against abuse, is nothing new, but what a tragedy.  What blatant wickedness.  

I follow Christ, who set me free from the legalism of such things as "having to vote" according to the consciences of esteemed religious leaders, as well as who instructs me to be holy, not to share in the sins of others.  

I will never excuse nor defend those who call themselves Christians and use or un-repentantly abused their faith to promote Donald Trump.  What they are or are not is known to God, but they are not people who have any right to speak into my life with spiritual advice, that I can tell you.





Thinking Through American Politics and Christian Ethics:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdviqEygJzjNREuKMvv74jWYecC3u8zqI

"Neither Trump nor Clinton are coming out clean from this one if this is the logic and metric we use. Even so, only one candidate has been the darling of so-called Evangelical leaders who allegedly take the Bible and its measures seriously."

"“When your leaders come out and make excuses and use biblical analogies to defend and promote Donald Trump,” she added, “that to me crosses a line I’m not comfortable with.”"



"After decades of hearing the Christian Right bleat about the importance of “moral character” and lamenting the “coarsening of our culture,” they’ve been finally exposed as amoral charlatans who give less of a f*ck about actual morality than the supposed heathens they hate."

"I refuse to be a Christian who believes that God blesses America more than God so loves the world."

"Trump is what happens when you wear your Christian conservative values like a cardigan to conveniently slip off when the heat rises."

"Realistically, there is no room at all for Christianity in Trump’s ego-driven narcissistic world."

Abusive immorality is what "The Moral Majority" are willing to overlook in Trump rather than stand against as Christians.

"He would reject Jesus, who threw money changers out of the Temple and who is coming back with a sword in hand to mete out justice, for a man who thinks it is okay to grab women by their genitals. "
  
"Evangelical leaders are going to lose an entire generation of Christians in the wake of our current political and social climate. "

"The misery is compounded when longtime friends and allies dismiss my experiences and the experiences of my colleagues as nothing more than the normal cost of public advocacy. It’s not. 

"The Religious Right’s jaundiced presidential endorsement can’t but reveal the movement for what it is: an unscrupulous political machine that has nothing to do with genuine Christianity and everything to do with lust for power."

"Surely it is not the calling of the devout to put aside glaring assaults and affronts to morality in favor of winning a political race, one whose outcome could determine how Christians themselves are treated,” Ben Howe wrote last week in Red State, a conservative blog.

"The “religious right,” which I’ve defended my whole life, abandoned the posture of “family values” when they had the chance to gain a seat at the table."

"You have subverted and perverted the Word to justify and excuse the behavior of a man who finds it acceptable to degrade others and revel in sexual sin."



"How can we trust a man who says one thing but does another? Apparently, Trump’s evangelical supporters are asking us to do exactly that. This sort of ethical suicide is what gives evangelicals a bad name."


"Donald Trump is the apotheosis of the sexual revolution’s worst male impulses. He has spent his entire life creating the culture that encourages abortions."

"His Bonhoeffer was a born-again Christian who espoused traditional family values.
This is complete nonsense. ...honest engagement of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s life and thought moves us a long way from the harrowing worldview of Donald J. Trump. It moves us to behold the world anew in the light of the Cross and Resurrection."


“Moral precepts are real; they are not like warm candle wax, easily shaped to fit the ends of this or that president, or this or that cause.”


"Christianity, with fundamentalism leading its charge, has just become SO shallow in this country. It literally diminishes its adherents, yet we think that we have some kind of national patent on Jesus Christ. No wonder we haven't noticed the rest of the world leaving us in the dust."


"Jesus never once sat on a throne here. The closest He got was the back of a donkey. God did not blaze a trail with the gospel galloping on a horse through the halls of government."


"People were being ushered into a deeply religious experience...and it made me completely uncomfortable." 

 "For today’s evangelical leadership, though, “Now go, and sin no more” seems to have become inconvenient to the church’s newest idol and most precious mission: Republicanism."

"Fundamentalists–including the vast majority of white Evangelicals in the US–are inherently authoritarian."

“Move along Jesus, we don’t give a damn about you.”

"After Trump’s victory, Edwards ferociously attacked the president-elect’s critics, Bible in hand."

"the authoritarian tactics of deflection, false equivalence, and whataboutism. "

"The American evangelical church is showing its heart online by how it shuts down dissent and bullies its own to fall in line.  It is sick."

"People who defend Trump must behave as functional relativists, relegating all of his statements and actions to a place of fluid meaning and interpretation. His gross language about women is just “locker room talk,” so it can’t be held against him. His horrifying language about immigrants and Muslims is just a healthy zeal for the law. His covert dealings with Russia . . . well, maybe Russia’s not so bad after all. All presidents lie, you know. We’re not electing a “pastor-in-chief,” after all."


"To speak only in the language of pragmatism is to bring nothing distinctive to the table; to speak only a private language of revelation and self-proclaimed authority is to leave the table altogether."

"The Divinity of Donald Trump"

"At what point have Christians crossed over into dangerous wishful thinking that inhibits their ability to have eyes to see and ears to hear?"

I see the culture of Trump as undermining any net positive legislation from Trump. Who he is, how he leads through his leadership, undermines any net positive laws he might make possible.



 “Donald Trump is the only candidate who has dealt almost exclusively in the politics of personal insult,” DeMoss said. “The bullying tactics of personal insult have no defence — and certainly not for anyone who claims to be a follower of Christ. That’s what’s disturbing to so many people. It’s not [the] Christ-like behaviour that Liberty has spent 40 years promoting with its students.”


"As a survivor of oppressive Christianity, I feel erased by claims that the Christianity I grew up with was not “real.”"

"Trump is a man who violates women, steals other peoples money, praises foreign enemies of the United States, persecutes human beings in 140 characters on social media, torments, harangues, doesn’t give alms for the poor, nor attends church, (he golfs). He doesn’t pray unless there’s an audience, or the cameras are rolling, and bears false witness to the American People on a daily basis. The Toronto Star’s Daniel Dale keeps a running list of every lie. The Lord our God sees every good, and every sin human beings commit on earth. How we act in public, and in secret. Words used like brickbats, carry consequences unforseen. For politicians, lobbyists, corporations, and moneychangers, they are deemed hypocrites in Scripture. Reverend Falwell and Liberty U believe Trump’s violations of moral law circumscribe Christian values. The Book of Matthew alone is the antithesis of Trumpism."

"In months of discussions with evangelical Christians, none of the president’s self-inflicted wounds seem to register. Trump is one of their own now— his grievance is their grievance..."


Psalm 101

A psalm of David.

I will sing of your love and justice, Lord.
    I will praise you with songs.
I will be careful to live a blameless life—
    when will you come to help me?
I will lead a life of integrity
    in my own home.
I will refuse to look at
    anything vile and vulgar.
I hate all who deal crookedly;
    I will have nothing to do with them.
I will reject perverse ideas
    and stay away from every evil.
I will not tolerate people who slander their neighbors.
    I will not endure conceit and pride.
I will search for faithful people
    to be my companions.
Only those who are above reproach
    will be allowed to serve me.
I will not allow deceivers to serve in my house,
    and liars will not stay in my presence.
My daily task will be to ferret out the wicked
    and free the city of the Lord from their grip.
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.



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