Is Political Conservatism Hurting Conservative Christianity

Ross Douthat (click here for a bio) recently wrote an op-ed article for the New York times in an attempt to defend the Religious Right (click here for the article). His way of defending the Religious Right is to propose that we need a new Religious Right that is unlike the Religious Right of today. Because it is the Religious Right that, according to Douthat, made the GOP act compassionately such as reaching out to minorities and attempting to fight AIDS in Africa in the past during the George W. Bush's Administration, the Religious Right is worthy of being restored.

What prompted Douthat's article? It was the result of our current choice for president from the two major parties. Trump's character should disqualify him for the vote or support from any real religious conservative. Unfortunately, the GOP's nomination of Trump for  President has caused some religious conservatives to compromise their standards in order to stand with him--we should also note that there are many religious conservatives who oppose Trump's candidacy. And voting for Hillary is a complete nonstarter because of her support for abortion and Douthat's allegations about the kind of government regulations Christians would have to face under a Hillary presidency.

Thus, Douthat sees the urgent need for the Religious Right to rise from the moral ashes that it has become from supporting Trump. For according to Douthat, Trump is the result of the dechristianization of conservative politics and thus supporting him should contradict what it means to be a conservative Christian. And so political conservatism needs a new Religious Right in order to have its moral standards restored. And it appears that Douthat thinks that our nation, especially its Christian citizens, need that political conservatism to protect them from the certain doom posed by Hillary and her political liberalism.

But there is a question Douthat and others who are loyal to conservative brand of politics have not considered. If Trump is the result of Christianity having left political conservatism, then doesn't that same political conservatism pose a threat to compromise the faith of any religious conservative who would be a member? For how horrible is political conservatism without Christianity if Trump is its poster child? Past and current critics of the Religious Right have been trying to say for a while only those from the Religious Right have not been listening.