Our friend Jerry over at Grumpy’s Grumblings has another excellent post detailing the continued capitulation of the white evangelical community toward the disgraced former president. I’ve included a link at the end to continue reading. Thanks Jerry!
In my wildest dreams and worst nightmares, prior to November 2016 I never could have imagined Donald J. Trump being elected as President of the United States. The mere thought of it seemed like an outrageous joke. But it happened.
Then, I was sure that in only a matter of months, the American people—including those who voted for him—would see Donald Trump as the vicious, mean-spirited, self-serving dunce he really is. (Although, I was shocked that any person, much less millions of Americans, couldn’t see that right from the start.) But it didn’t happen.
I felt certain that at some point, most of the evangelicals who voted for the world’s greatest grifter would wake up and see the horrible mistake they’d made and repent. That didn’t happen either.
My Mistaken Assessments
How was I so wrong so many times about Donald J. Trump? The answer is simple: I gave too many people too much credit for being honest, intelligent, and discerning. I assumed the best about most Americans when I should have understood that far too many of our people are intellectually lazy, morally corrupt, and easily duped.
I gave too many people too much credit for being honest, intelligent, and discerning.
Worse still, I’m sad to say, most of those lazy, corrupt, easily duped folks are white evangelical Christians. And, writing as one of those white evangelical Christians—I still haven’t decided if I’m fully ready to reject that label—I’m certain that most white evangelicals would feel gravely offended and viscerally angry at that characterization. Too bad; it’s true.
Making matters even worse, added to their intellectual laziness, dishonesty, and gullibility, far too many white evangelicals also tend to be proud—and I mean that in the sense of hubris, not fulfilled, gratified, or noble. Having crowned Donald Trump as their new messiah—mostly symbolically but in many cases literally—they will never repent. To do so would be to pull the thread that would begin the unraveling of their entire belief system. And the reason for that unraveling would be their unyielding melding of religion and politics.
Forget Character, We Want Power!
As many have already noted, by 2016, most evangelicals had given up on their hope of putting one of their own in the White House. They’d come close in 2000, with the election of George W. Bush, but W didn’t quite fit the mold. His “compassionate conservatism” was too dainty, too much Fred Rogers and not enough John Rambo. White evangelicals wanted someone who would kick asses on their behalf. They wanted someone who would keep the riff raff out and protect their right to worship on Sunday mornings and spend the remainder of the weekends enjoying their expensive toys.
To continue reading, please click here: Grumpy’s Grumblings
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