Knowing that when one calls themselves a Christian, everything one does and says and sometimes what one refrains from doing and saying becomes associated with the Gospel. And that fact should scare every one of us Christian senseless because we are so vulnerable to sin and failure. None of us can afford to look down on other people without risking separating ourselves from Christ and the Gospel. To understand why I wrote that, one only needs to read the parable of the two men praying from Luke 18:9-14 (click here for a link to the parable).
Unfortunately, that concern about what we associate with the Gospel seems to have disappeared for many fellow religiously conservative Christians in America when it comes to supporting Donald Trump. But Peter Wehner is one of the few conservatives who has lamentingly written on the loyalty of many religiously conservative Christians to Donald Trump in the publication The Atlantic (click here for the article).
Why does conservative Christian support for Donald Trump sadden Wehner? One of the reasons is the hypocrisy that is all too evident from when many of these same Christians so willingly persecute President Clinton for immorality. But even though Donald Trump has a such a sexually moral troubled history, many religiously conservative Christians have not only overlooked his transgressions, they have coronated him as their political messiah--which is similar to what Wehner says in the article.
It isn't just Trump's past that bothers Wehner, it also his current approach to getting things done. According to Wehner, Trump's methods are both 'dehumanizing and cruel.'
Why do religiously conservative Christians continue to support Trump? According to Wehner it is because they think that Trump is the only one who brings the necessary weapons in the fight against liberalism. Wehner says the following:
Many white evangelical Christians, then, are deeply fearful of what a Trump loss would mean for America, American culture, and American Christianity. If a Democrat is elected president, they believe, it might all come crashing down around usHe then quotes Christian Evangelical and Trump supporter Eric Metaxes who said:
In all of our years, we faced all kinds of struggles. The only time we faced an existential struggle like this was in the Civil War and in the Revolution when the nation began … We are on the verge of losing it as we could have lost it in the Civil War
And finally Wehner describes the religiously Christian feeling about Trump that:
Wehner's take here is that the situation is tragic but true. And his article is well worth reading. But as a conservative, Wehner might have missed some other reasons for why so many religiously conservative Christians unconditionally back Trump. One such reason has to do with the basic psyche of conservatism outside of the existence of Donald Trump.
He’ll bring a Glock to a cultural knife fight
Part of the basic psyche of conservatism, whether it is political and/or religious, is its penchant for authoritarianism. Conservatism, especially religiously conservative Christianity, has a soft spot for authoritarianism. That is because respect for authority and submission to a small plethora of authority structures is part and parcel to conservatism. But the conservative respect for authority sometimes fails to distinguish respect for authority and authoritarianism. To bring up the subject of authoritarianism to many religiously conservative Christians is to confuse them because they often equate respect for authority and authoritarianism.
We should be aware of another confusion regarding Christians and authoritarianism. Many religiously conservative Christians have employed authoritarianism as the main part of their own spirituality. Thus they react to challenges to their religious traditions and favorite teachers in ways that authoritarians react to such challenges. They react with hostility because of fear. They are afraid of what happens if their favorite traditions and teachers would lose control over some culture or subculture. In addition, authoritarians look to power for their salvation from an evil world. Thus, without mentioning authoritarianism, Wehner has put his finger on at least part of the problem in how he described the fear of evangelical Christians regarding who is control of the country. He just needed to complete the puzzle.
We should note that the social science study of authoritarianism was prompted by an interest in why the German people remained so loyal to Hitler despite what was happening in and to their nation. Eric Fromm wrote about that (click here for an article by him on the subject).
Traits of authoritarianism are listed in various sources. One of the best condensed sources I've seen is in an article posted in Psychologist World (click here for the article). Some of the traits mentioned in that article can easily be observed in Trump and his supporters
- Blind allegiance to conventional beliefs about right and wrong
- Respect for submission to acknowledged authority
- Belief in aggression toward those who do not subscribe to conventional thinking, or who are different
- A need for strong leadership which displays uncompromising power
- Resistance to creative, dangerous ideas. A black and white worldview
- A tendency to project one's own feelings of inadequacy, rage and fear onto a scapegoated group
Unfortunately, the study of authoritarianism was initially skewed against conservatives and conservatism. Later on, it was acknowledged that non-conservatives could fall prey to authoritarianism as well. As a leftist, I deeply grieve not just over my fellow Christians falling prey to authoritarianism, but over how many fellow leftists have fallen prey to authoritarianism as well. And I see a similar trend happening with political liberals.
No doubt that Trump is an authoritarian type ruler. And when one combines the strong tendency for religiously conservative Christians to look for authoritarian rulers with the perception that a given ruler shares enough of their interests and concerns, you have a match though perhaps while very compatible but not made in heaven. Describing authoritarianism is all Wehner needed to complete what is a very good article on why many evangelicals are so loyal to Trump.
Why shouldn't we look down on the religiously conservative Christians for their authoritarianism. There are several reasons some of which have already been mentioned. One reason that was alluded to is that the current religiously conservative Christian embrace of authoritarianism is out of fear. Perhaps instead of looking down on them, we need to remember that we all have fears that have caused us to do wrong things. And thus instead of looking down on them, we need to work to alleviate their fears.
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