Ignorance, Hypocrisy and...
Ever ready to apologize for the worst of the right wing, the Washington Post has this incisive analysis:
Nope. Green Eagle (along with every other sane person on earth) is going with the ignorance and hypocrisy thing. And after hearing the result of the Post's "conversations with actual evangelical Christians," I will add that they are unashamed liars too.
"Evangelical Christians voted for Donald Trump in overwhelming numbers. Evangelical support for the president remains relatively firm; indeed, even as others criticized the president’s remarks in the wake of Charlottesville, evangelical leaders rose to the president’s defense. All of this gets under the skin of President Trump’s critics, who cannot believe that men and women who think of themselves as godly can possibly stomach Trump’s behavior. For such critics, the only possible explanation for evangelicals’ continuing faith in Trump is some combination of ignorance and hypocrisy.
Conversations with actual evangelical Christians at a recent gathering here — the Hillsboro Family Camp, where families have met annually since 1972 for four days of praise and worship — suggest a different picture. These voters — and almost all of them voted — see Trump’s flaws but perceive him as a fellow sinner willing to fight the forces of the establishment on their behalf."
Nope. Green Eagle (along with every other sane person on earth) is going with the ignorance and hypocrisy thing. And after hearing the result of the Post's "conversations with actual evangelical Christians," I will add that they are unashamed liars too.
Comments
And the vicious, authoritarian, and vile scumbag thing. And the anti-science thing.
And especially the anti-woman thing.
You have expressed an intellectual curiosity. I think this explanation should win the prize in just about any contest. Here is an author who is actually sick enough to attempt to explain the cognitive dissonance. Something to do with how bloody the Bible is. Justice! What a word to use in this context. I always thought that Evangelical support had something to do with the unholy examples of Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart. The simple answer is that their political beliefs trump their religious convictions, if they have any.
The one guy was a transparent con-man who was not ashamed of making money by swindling his congregation. The other guy was crawling around with one hand while the other hand was spanking his monkey with prostitutes. No one could preach on the dangers of pornography like Jimmy. Dammit! Jimmy Swaggart could cry on camera like no one else in history. But they both said that they believed in God. No one ever questioned their faith.
Boy was I wrong. At least if you believe this clown.
Why God and We Evangelicals Backed Trump
I get a lot of push back (here and on my blog) against my claim that God chose Trump to be our president. Most declare "no way" and then inform me why I am wrong. Never am I asked why did you Evangelicals put Trump in and why are you are so excited that God backed a man like Trump?
The answer was because we believed we were facing disaster.
First, it seems obvious that God loves this country. The founders told us they had Divine guidance in laying our foundations. Long have most of this country felt that we have received His favor and His protection.
But look where we were before Trump.
We had a leader who said he tingled at the call to worship of one of God’s rivals. We had a leader from the anti-colonial world, read, anti-white, anti-Christian. The moral codes we had been taught would keep us in God's favor were being turned upside down.
We serious Christians know that although God is total love, He is also total justice. We felt we were being moved out from under His love and placed under His justice. From our study of his Word we know that God’s justice is manifested in two ways. He either removes nations from under His protection, leaving them naked before angry gods, or He administers divine justice directly Himself.
Neither is a pretty picture.
So God put in a man who has incredible common sense, which makes him capable of doing the right thing. God also chose a man who could not be bought--was not an ideologue--would never be accused of forming a theocracy. We feel that man is pulling us back from the brink. But, we also believe we have only few years to get it right.
Long story short. Getting rid of any semblance of social justice is of paramount importance. You really can't make that kind of stuff up. It comes from a deeply held belief system.
By the way, thanks for taking the time to write a long comment like this. It makes me feel like I am accomplishing something, when someone takes this much effort to respond to it.
Black evangelicals, not so much.
Here's an article about how the desire to defend slavery shaped white evangelicalism in the United States. Racism was part of the theology from the beginning.