Finally
One of the more fascinating political realities that exists in the Republican Party is the strength of evangelical support for Donald Trump. On the one hand this phenomenon is easily explainable. Since the 1980 election the Republican Party has courted evangelical votes openly, and the GOP platform is heavily influenced by the principles of Christian Nationalism. This movement seeks to inculcate supposedly Christian values into society, in its best form under the belief that America will somehow be better (and God-blessed) if it follows these values.
On the other hand, evangelical support for Donald Trump seems to expose a hypocrisy within the evangelical political movement. For at least 20 years, evangelicals made the case that the morality of the President was, at the very least, a very important factor, if not the most important one. This argument was what made President Clinton unfit for the office. George W. Bush’s evangelical conversion was one of the main points of attraction for when he ran in the 2000 election. Then, candidate Obama was forced to distance himself from Rev. Jeremiah Wright, before Wright’s incendiary mode of prophetic Christianity threatened the viability of Obama’s campaign.
To be fair, this is not a new debate. It has occurred in this space before. Russell Moore, then President of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, famously waged what often seemed like a one-man evangelical war against Trump during the 2016 election season. Mark Galli, in one of his last editorials as Editor-in-Chief of Christianity Today, argued that Trump should be removed from office.
In this election, however, there seems to be a more concerted and public effort from a subsection of Evangelicals to make the case that Trump does not fit Christian values and is not worthy of their support. Evangelicals For Harris put out two ads in recent weeks that make its position clear. The first is a stitch of Billy Graham talking about forgiveness, with video of Trump saying that he doesn’t think he’s ever asked God for forgiveness. The second ad implores Evangelicals to “test the spirits” (quoting 1 John 4), and then shows clips of Trump making morally questionable statements. The group is making the same point as Moore and Galli—that Trump is not the type of leader Evangelicals should support, regardless of whatever supposed benefits he may give to Christians.
It seems that the marriage between Trump and Evangelicals is one of mutual convenience, as opposed to real care. Evangelicals need power to accomplish their nationalistic agenda, and Trump wants the power and prestige of being president. While it should be noted that there are issues and concerns with anyone tying religion to any particular candidate, we should also admit that, to log too strenuous a complaint about such concerns is to spend your time yelling at clouds. That ship left the harbor long ago. Given the current circumstance, it is commendable to see an organization of Evangelical Christians seek to both expose and separate themselves from the hypocrisy of Christian moral support for Donald Trump.
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