A spell has been cast over the white evangelical world. What will it take to break the spell?
Consistently, white evangelicals are a reliable voting bloc for the Republican Party. No matter how weird the Republicans behave or how extreme they have become, more than 80% of white evangelicals vote reliably for the GOP. It’s been this way since Reagan.
What accounts for the wholesale identification of white evangelicals with what has become an extremist, even fascist, political party? What accounts for their betrayal and abandonment of their professed morals?
By their rhetoric, white evangelicals assume they are upholding traditional values.
By their reverence for a past “golden age” when America used to be “great,” they suppose they are being “conservative.”
By their anti-abortion activism, they think they are “pro-life.”
By denying climate science and pandemic science, they presume that “believers” will not be affected by these crises.
By decrying “an invasion” from the southern border, they imagine they’ve found a scapegoat for our nation’s problems.
By complaining about “urban decay” and “urban violence,” they project their racism while convincing themselves they are not racists.
By their no-holds-barred support of Israel and Armageddon-like warfare against Muslims and the Palestinians, they believe they are “hastening the day” of the Second Coming of Christ. They are positively giddy about living to see the fulfillment of the disasters in the Book of Revelation.
At a deeper level, they fear that diversity and inclusion are a devilish plot to loosen our moorings from our Judeo-Christian heritage. They believe that by supporting healthcare and equal justice for all, and by accepting equal rights for LGBTQ+ people, the “woke” culture is plunging us headlong into a horrific judgment of God.
Meanwhile, white evangelicals tend to lap up Republican propaganda that those who disagree with them are evil, vermin and enemies who are “out to destroy America.”
They say their beliefs are based upon the Bible, and they think that this is the only biblical way to think. But what will it take to convince them otherwise?
Apparently, Trump’s steady stream of lies and defamation, his history of sexual assaults and boasting about them, his fraudulent and failing businesses, his felony convictions, his incoherent speeches, his inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, his attacks on voting itself, his palling around with neo-Nazis and his raw, uninhibited racism are not enough. So what will it take?
Will it take a precious child or friend “coming out” as LGBTQ+?
Will it take the death or serious injury of a pregnant girl because draconian Republican laws prevent her from getting healthcare?
Will it take the outlawing of in vitro fertilization?
Will it take the threatened ending of the Affordable Care Act, Medicare and Social Security?
Will it take denial of WIC (Women, Infants and Children Nutrition Program) benefits and malnutrition of children who come from poor families?
Will it take gutting of environmental protections for clean air and water?
Will it take privatization of our national parks and public lands so that only the wealthy can visit them, giving the super-rich “owners” another income stream?
Will it take ever-increasing climate disasters?
Will it take trillions more in tax breaks for the super-rich while the middle class and working poor are crushed?
Will it take dozens more mass murders with no effective legislation on background checks or assault rifles?
Will it take voter suppression—the dismantling of voting rights of Democratic-leaning demographic groups on a massive scale—to illegitimately skew elections in favor of Republicans?
Will it take more felony convictions for Trump and his partners in crime?
Will it take more forced and depraved breaking up of asylum-seeking families at the southern border?
Will it take arresting, detaining, and shuffling unhoused people into “internment camps” for the homeless?
Will it take classroom censorship, book bans and military-style crackdowns on peaceful protesters, criminalizing free speech and honest dissent?
Unfortunately, by their support of Trump and MAGA, the great majority of white evangelicals are throwing out the best of their own tradition: that Creation itself is a marvelous gift from God, that the Earth is our home; that the Earth and its biological systems must be valued not just for ourselves and future generations, but for their own sakes; that each individual—and each ethnic group—has unique value and worth and deserves our respect; that caring “for the least of these” is a Christian obligation; that oppression by the rich and powerful is horrible; that integrity and good character count; and that truth-telling matters.
Democracy derives from values like these.
Disturbingly, many white evangelicals are not only throwing out the best of their own tradition but also rejecting pluralism and democracy itself. They say democracy is oversold anyway, that what we need is something other than the messiness of checks and balances. What we really need, they say, is a strongman, like Vladimir Putin or Victor Orban—a leader who is above the law.
Trump pandered to this bias recently at The Believers’ Summit, hosted by Turning Point Action, in West Palm Beach, Fla. He said he was a Christian, that he loved Christians and that if Christians came out and voted for him, he would win and in four years he would fix things so they wouldn’t have to vote any more.
Make no excuse for this language. Make no mistake. This was not a “joke.” This was Trump stating his desire to do away with our form of government, to become a “unitary” president and to stay in power indefinitely.
White evangelicals who vote for Trump are voting to destroy their own “biblical tradition” as well as our democratic republic. They have lost all moral credibility. White evangelicals desperately need to escape their thralldom to the MAGA movement. What will dislodge them?
Maybe it will be the positivity and joy coming out of the Harris-Walz campaign—in contrast to the negativity, divisiveness, grade-school insults and incoherence of Trump’s campaign. Maybe it will be a recovery or rediscovery of some old-fashioned values such as humility, patience, self-knowledge, self-criticism, personal responsibility, truth telling, a healthy dose of “love thy neighbor” and “the Golden Rule,” and willingness to change one’s opinion by considering new information. It’s not going against the teachings of Jesus to affirm these attitudes.
So here is a message to white evangelicals: This November, get out there and vote in massive numbers for hope, joy and decency—and against the grievance, cruelty and chaos of Trump and the MAGA agenda. In this way, maybe you can regain some integrity and redeem yourselves in the eyes of your fellow citizens and generations of youth coming up after you.
And to those who are not white evangelicals: This November get out there and vote in massive numbers for hope, joy and decency—and against the grievance, cruelty and chaos of Trump and the MAGA agenda.
