Build Back Better Evangelicalism?
June 30, 2024 Leave a comment
Does Evangelicalism need image consultants for damage control? Evangelicals on the Trump train – are they on the wrong track?
I ask because there are certain Christians who think that the image of Evangelicalism has been damaged by an “unholy” association with Trump and his supporters. Certain Christians are worried about what people think about Evangelicalism with its brand of Jesus and the gospel.
The Build Back Better campaign to restore the image of Evangelicalism is concerned about two things: Evangelicals promoting a man of Trump’s character and (using the language of the Left) the “extremist” and “fascist” character of so-called Christian nationalism.
No doubt, Trump has an earthy communication style. He’s from New York. He speaks like a New Yorker and not like Evangelicals and Evangelical elites. On the record is a September 2005 conversation when he spoke in graphic, vulgar language about trying to commit adultery and forcing himself on women.
Eleven years later (October 7, 2016) and one month before the United States presidential election, the Washington Post published a video and article about the conversation between then-presidential candidate Donald Trump and television host Billy Bush. Trump immediately issued an apology on Facebook, posted Friday, October 7, 2016:
“Here is my statement. I’ve never said I’m a perfect person, nor pretended to be someone that I’m not. I’ve said and done things I regret, and the words released today on this more than a decade-old video are one of them. Anyone who knows me, know these words don’t reflect who I am. I said it, it was wrong, and I apologize. I’ve travelled the country talking about change for America. But my travels have also changed me. I’ve spent time with grieving mothers who’ve lost their children, laid off workers whose jobs have gone to other countries, and people from all walks of life who just want a better future. I have gotten to know the great people of our country, and I’ve been humbled by the faith they’ve placed in me. I pledge to be a better man tomorrow, and will never, ever let you down. Let’s be honest. We’re living in the real world. This is nothing more than a distraction from the important issues we are facing today. We are losing our jobs, we are less safe than we were 8 years ago and Washington is broken. Hillary Clinton, and her kind, have run our country into the ground. I’ve said some foolish things, but there is a big difference between words and actions. Bill Clinton has actually abused women and Hillary has bullied, attacked, shamed and intimidated his victims. We will discuss this more in the coming days. See you at the debate on Sunday.”
After hearing about the conversation, Trump’s wife Melania put out her own statement:
“The words my husband used are unacceptable and offensive to me. This does not represent the man that I know. He has the heart and mind of a leader. I hope people will accept his apology, as I have, and focus on the important issues facing our nation and the world.”
And Trump’s former campaigner, Corey Lewandowski, said on CNN, “Is this defensible? I don’t think so.”
“But we’re not choosing a Sunday school teacher here.”
I wonder. Should all Christian Never Trumpers have their past conversations exposed, as was done to Trump? I think it should be done. Never-Trumpers, as they are wont to tell us, are very concerned about the character of those they surround themselves with and support. For example:
Christians Against Trumpism & Political Extremism, was founded by friends and partners John Kingston and Joel Searby. It is at root a spiritual endeavor, because John and Joel believe in the potential for renewal in our church and the nation.
The wife of the staunch Never Trumper David French, Nancy French, is a supporter of this organization as are other of our Christian “betters” who are very worried about “the darkness of Trumpism and other political extremism.”
But the following recent report is sullying for all in support of this “informal yet organized group of Christian leaders, thinkers, influencers, and everyday believers who publicly stand against the personal behavior, degrading policy proposals, and poisonous rhetoric modeled by President Trump and extremist groups from the far left and right.”
The “Christians Against Trumpism” co-founder [Joel Searby] is facing charges for lewd/lascivious conduct, two counts of obscene communications related to luring a minor to meet for sex, and using a two-way communications device to facilitate a felony.
And, here’s Never-Trumper David French in “extremist” mode:
And, again, David French in “extremist” mode:
NYT Columnist Says Trump Support Less Excusable Than Slavery. (thenationalpulse.com)
~~~
Can Anything Good Come Out of Trump Tower?
Would God use a person of “questionable character” to lead the country?
In the previous post I wrote . . .
Like all of us, Jacob is a work in progress. He is of questionable character and not someone we would have thought of to be the namesake (Israel) of a nation of people who are to represent God’s character to the world. But God, in His wisdom and mercy, works with Jacob – his faults, his dysfunction, his deceitful ways, and his sins – and seeks to redeem him for his purposes. God is slow to anger and plenteous in mercy (cf. Psalm 103: 6-18) (unlike many judgmental types today who are loathe to work with God to redeem relationships with those they do not consider worthy of redemption.)
No doubt, if today’s Evangelical image consultants lived back then they would have worked vigorously to keep the scoundrel Jacob out of that role. They sure wouldn’t associate with Jacob. “He’s not one of us,” they would say.
“Teacher,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.”
“Do not stop him,” Jesus said. “For no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us. Truly I tell you, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to the Messiah will certainly not lose their reward.
-The gospel of Mark 9:38-41
Over and over in the gospels I find Jesus being counter-cultural. He isn’t constrained by demands of the image consultants – the Pharisees and legal experts, the religious types.
There are certain Christians who are very ‘concerned’ about Trump being associated with Evangelicalism because he is “not one of us.” (Trump’s not the squeaky-clean sweet old Sunday School teacher type– someone who looks Evangelical and talks Evangelical-ese – that we had in mind for the position.)
But haven’t Never-Trumpers and all Americans received a cup of water in the form of humanitarian goodness – peace and prosperity – under the scoundrel Trump’s first term? Was Trump working against Christians or for us? Wasn’t the Unprecedented Economic Boom under Trump something of a miracle?
The arm chair holier-than-MAGA disparagers no doubt benefitted from Trump’s presidency.
Trump Administration Accomplishments – The White House (archives.gov)
A summary:
Unprecedented Economic Boom (3-1/2 years before the Chinese-Fauci virus), including:
Jobless claims hitting a nearly 50-year low
The number of people claiming unemployment insurance as a share of the population hit its lowest on record
Incomes rose in every single metro area in the United States for the first time in nearly 3 decades.
Income inequality fell for two straight years, and by the largest amount in over a decade.
The bottom 50 percent of American households saw a 40 percent increase in net worth.
Wages rose fastest for low-income and blue-collar workers – a 16 percent pay increase.
Tax Relief for the Middle Class
Massive Deregulation
Fair and Reciprocal Trade
American Energy Independence
Investing in America’s Workers and Families
Life-Saving Response to the China Virus – Restricted travel to the United States from infected regions of the world.
Remaking the Federal Judiciary
Achieving a Secure Border
Restoring American Leadership Abroad
Serving and Protecting Our Veterans
Making Communities Safer
Cherishing Life and Religious Liberty, and more.
During Trump’s first term there were NO wars. There was a Middle East peace deal – the Abrahamic accords. Constitutionalist SCOTUS justices were installed, securing Democracy. (Abortion decisions are to be made at state level.) And, . . .
Supreme Court overturns Chevron deference, striking MASSIVE blow to the administrative state…
Under Trump there was no invasion of our southern border.
There were no flood of illegals murdering our daughters.
Illegal Alien From Turkey Accused of Raping 15-Year-Old Girl in Albany, NY (legalinsurrection.com)
Open Borders Subject Women and Girls in the US to Rapes and Wanton Violence | Frontpage Mag
Under Trump there was no deluge of fentanyl killing people.
There was no surge of terrorists, gangs and drug cartels.
Inflation was around 2%. People had money to support themselves, buy a home, and to give to charitable causes like The Roy’s Report and The Trinity Forum, (where Never-Trumpers hawk their Never-Trumper wares.)
Americans weren’t ghosted by Trump. Trump was ghosted by Never-Trumpers who supported the mess we have today.
Under Bidenomics – “You will own nothing and be happy.”
This Is Fine: Average Salary Required to Own a Home Increased 80.5% Under Biden – Twitchy
During Trump’s four years in the White House, Never-Trumpers sat around and whined and nitpicked about all things Trump. They had the time and the means to write books about terrible Trump and Evangelical MAGA “extremists” who will destroy “Democracy!!”
~~~~
“White Raging” Rubes and MAGA Christians
Keep in mind two of Saul Alinsky’s 13 Rules for Radicals that are at work in Never-Trumper’s campaigns:
– “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.” There is no defense. It’s irrational. It’s infuriating. It also works as a key pressure point to force the enemy into concessions.”
– “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions.
The sneering class has deemed people of MAGA persuasion “deplorables” “bitter clingers” “extremists” “conspiracy theorists” “xenophobes”, “authoritarians”, and “fascists.” And MAGA Christians are deemed not just “a threat to Evangelicalism!” but to “DEMOCRACY!”
This while, (Our Statement – Christians Against Trumpism) . . .
“Political extremism, whether from the “left” or the “right,” uses violence, chaos, and degrading language as tools for social change.”
See above for who uses degrading language. But who uses violence and chaos as tools for social change? The “extremist” Left, for example;
Portland’s grim reality: 100 days of protests, many violent | AP News
47 arrested, 59 officers injured in Seattle protests that turned violent – KIRO 7 News Seattle
Masked Activists Violently Attack Jews at North Carolina Public Library – Algemeiner.com
We are told on MSM that us hobbits are white raging rubes who don’t know any better and are in a cult of personality and that the Christians in this sad group are making Christianity look bad. With the election season upon us, there’s a growing list of shaming screeds promoted on MSNBC.
These Never-Trumper books are meant to make readers feel morally superior if they make the ‘right’ choice: to not support and vote for Trump. Three of these authors want to move you in the direction of being an ‘acceptable’ Christian and politically ‘acceptable’ in their eyes:
Tim Alberta and The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism, published December 5, 2023
Jim Wallis: The False White Gospel: Rejecting Christian Nationalism, Reclaiming True Faith, and Refounding Democracy, published April 2, 2024
The After Party: Toward Better Christian Politics, Nancy French and Curtis Chang, based on project by David French, Russell Moore & Curtis Chang, published April 23, 2024
Please don’t tell me that these authors are writing and talking about these things to protect Jesus from the rabble. “Put down your sword, Peter.” Jesus – very God and the One who cast out demons and calmed the storm – is not beholden to anyone for protection. Their version of Christianity is what they are protecting.
Tom Schaller and Paul Waldman of White Rural Rage: The Threat to American Democracy went on MSNBC to push their polemic rant of a poorly researched book. They posit “fourfold threats” coming from the “White rural” rube demographic:
- Rural “Whites” are racist and xenophobic, adverse to DEI and are an impedance to a pluralist society
- Rural “Whites” embrace conspiracy-mongering because of their proclivity to anger
- Rural “Whites” rubes form authoritarian rebellious groups with “right-wing” money
- Rural “Whites” harass, intimidate, and are violent
Victor Davis Hanson reviewed On White Rural Rage by Tom Schaller & Paul Waldman: All the rage | The New Criterion. He handily refutes the book’s “often-incoherent polemic.” Here’s his response to number 3 of the “fourfold threats” posed by raging “Whites”:
“In their psychodramatic formulation, the authors allege that
“U.S. democracy is in peril. Ballot blockers, wannabe authoritarians, White Christian nationalists, and constitutional sheriffs each pose existential and often overlapping threats to American constitutional government. Unfortunately, rural Whites form the tip of the spear for each of these movements.
“No data is supplied to support such an “existential” threat, much less one originating in rural white America—other than polls that suggest about half the nation feels that America is a Christian nation.”
Hanson’s impression of the book . . .
“White Rural Rage is for the most part a compilation of misleading polls, left-wing news accounts, interviews with state and local Democratic politicos, and sloppy, cherry-picked references to and quotes from kindred academics that reinforce the authors’ preexisting belief in a vast rural white cabal of violent racists and conspiracists. . .
“In the end, White Rural Rage is not so much a warning about a national, seething, rural white danger to democracy as it is a projection of the fears of elite white authors, conspiracy-minded as they often are themselves.”
Tim Alberta, journalist and staff writer for The Atlantic and author of The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism, was also showcased on MSNBC to promote his own psychodramatic formulation about MAGA Christians. He also podcasted on The Trinity Forum where he talked about his book and on The Roy’s Report where he talked about The Corrupting of American Evangelicalism. Julie Roys interviewed Tim Alberta and shares his concerns about Evangelicalism.
Listening to the Trinity Forum podcast, I understood Tim Alberta to say that Christians should understand that as Christians they live “under siege” and basically that they should cool their jets (don’t get out of hand) and get used to abuse and persecution because that’s the way it is for Christians. I get the sense from Tim that Christians should be more like white suburban women, like Julie Roys.
Alternatively, on The Roy’s Report website – “reporting the truth and restoring the church” – Julie Roys posts articles and podcasts exposing abuse within the church. Victims of abuse (typically women) submit to the abuser (typically male) for a while and then they react and take action. You hear their stories on the website’s podcasts.
Per Alberta, shouldn’t church abuse victims just be quiet and take it like good little Christians?
Are we to believe that reacting to church abuse is more Christian than reacting to political abuse?
Isn’t it good to work to forestall persecution in society? Should Christians clamor to be martyrs?
Is it OK to expose and denounce abusive leaders in church but not leaders in politics? Never-Trumpers criticize Trump all day long. If MAGA criticizes what is being forced on them by the Left they are labeled
“extremists” and “a threat to democracy.”
What about “reporting the truth and restoring America” – is that out of Evangelical bounds?
Aberta labels “Trumpism as a kind of sub-cult in the evangelical world,” Wow. To use his own term, that is “extremist” language.
Is it Ok for Never-Trumper Christians to vilify MAGA Christians?
~~~~
“Unholy mix”
The Roys Report promo for Corrupting of American Evangelicalism podcast:
“On this edition of The Roys Report, bestselling author and journalist Tim Alberta joins host Julie Roys to explore a disturbing phenomenon in American evangelicalism. Though once evangelicals understood that the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of men are separate, now the two are being combined into an unholy mix. And sadly, for millions of conservative Christians, America is their kingdom—and proper adherence to their political ideology is their litmus test for Christian orthodoxy!
“. . .major players and institutions within the evangelical movement that have succumbed to political idolatry.
“. . . mixing political advocacy with the gospel is misleading and wrong.”
Huh?!? You wouldn’t advocate for someone willing to abolish slavery and drug and sex trafficking? You wouldn’t advocate for someone willing to bring peace and prosperity and uphold the rule of law? Are these good things outside the bounds of The Roys Report gospel?
“Though once evangelicals understood that the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of man were separate, now the two are being combined into an unholy mix.” Huh?!?
When Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the good news of God and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news” the kingdom of God and the kingdom of man came together in an “unholy mix” and Christians have been trying to sort out what that means.
And when Jesus sat at dinner in Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were also sitting with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. Now there’s an “unholy mix” according to the scribes of the Pharisees – guardians of their religion’s image.
Jesus taught his disciples to pray May your kingdom come, may your will be done, as in heaven so on earth? Sounds political, especially when the elements of this world fight against that happening and work to divide Christians with books, documentaries, media campaigns, etc.
Calling Jesus “Lord” is political. Living under his lordship is political.
(I don’t understand Jesus of the gospels as docile, demure and worried about image. He did take offense when the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons.” They were implying unholy things about the Holy Spirit.)
(Note: In the podcast, Tim Alberta and Julie Roys set their disapproving sights on Liberty University, Jerry Falwell Sr., Jerry Falwell, Jr., Robert Jeffress, and Ralph Reed. They don’t talk about Francis Schaeffer, Focus on the Family or other Christians who were engaged early on in the culture and politics.)
The Roys Report put out another NeverTrump article, one written by Jim McDermott promoting a documentary:
‘Bad Faith’ Sounds The Alarm On The Past & Future of Christian Nationalism (julieroys.com)
(BAD FAITH is a feature-length documentary that explores the dangerous rise of Christian Nationalism in the United States. Part archival chronicle, part exposé, the film reveals the secretive political machinery that has relentlessly sought to weaken and destroy American democracy in order to promote its authoritarian vision. Bad Faith – Movie Reviews | Rotten Tomatoes)
Jim McDermott writes:
“In Bad Faith: Christian Nationalism’s Unholy War on Democracy, filmmakers Stephen Ujlaki and Chris Jones trace the origins of Christian nationalism from the Ku Klux Klan in the 19th century through the creation of the Moral Majority, the sudden rise of the tea party and the election of Donald Trump. What they uncover is an essential aspect of our current political situation, one that puts evangelical Christianity in new light.”
(Note: The records of Congress reveal that not one Democrat either in the House or the Senate voted for the 14th Amendment. Three years after the Civil War, and the Democrats from the North as well as the South were still refusing to recognize any rights of citizenship for black Americans.”)
One of its filmmakers, Stephen Ujlaki, spoke in an interview by phone in Los Angeles, about the making of “Bad Faith”. Here are excerpts from that interview:
“When Trump got elected, I was shocked. Nobody thought he had a chance. He was obviously a joke. It was never going to happen. When he got elected, I realized I didn’t really know anything about what was going on. I was in a bubble.
“More than anything, . . . the film was just to find out: How did [Trump} do it, how did he win, and who were the Christian evangelicals (who supported him)? But then I discovered all of this plotting, all of these deals, and the fact that those behind them were anti-democratic from the beginning.”
“Would it be fair to say Christian nationalism’s goal is fascism? Yes. It’s pure fascism. It’s pure power.”
“Bad Faith” . . . tells of how a large swath of religious voters came to believe that President Joe Biden is in league with the devil while Trump is essential to the spiritual salvation of America.”
(Not: Joe Biden is in league with a lot of bad actors as we find out more and more about his dealings. Trump during his first term did “save’ the nation from decline and left Democracy still standing.)
Ujlaki wants us to know that Christian nationalism “has nothing to do with theology, nothing to do with religion, nothing to do with God or with Jesus. I don’t even consider Christian nationalism as a religion. What is its ethos? What is its morality? It’s actually amoral, which is why it uses the church. The church lends it that moral, ethical authority that it doesn’t have otherwise.”
“If you look around you at the divisiveness and the distrust of institutions that exist today in this country, you will realize how incredibly successful they have been in executing their plan. It’s been like a slow-motion revolution in a way, happening bit by bit all over the place.”
The creators of Bad Faith have shown their own Bad Faith by knowingly misrepresenting, with a broad brush, Christians who want to restore America and Chrisitan values when having to deal with Progressivism’s in-your-face values. It appears the documentary, like the books above, was created in time to impact the 2024 election – to scare voters away from anything Chrisitan and Trump.
Never-Trumper David French has continuously railed against Trump. He thinks Trump supporters have “unrighteous rage.” In this self-promoting mea culpa, French uses the divisive language of the Left: “rage.”:
“French, who has now spent the best part of a decade bemoaning the 45th President, now acknowledges the “bond” between Donald Trump and most Republican voters and concludes:
“I don’t regret my arguments against Trump. I’d make them again, and I will continue making them. I do ask myself how I missed the sheer extent of Republican anger. And I’m deeply, deeply grieved by the thought that I did anything in my life before Trump to contribute to that unrighteous rage.”
Do white suburban women and their epicene men find railing against Trump both titillating and necessary to emote their tribal scorn of Trump?
BTW: Democratic strategist James Carville is very concerned that ‘preachy females are to blame for Biden’s polling numbers:
“A suspicion of mine is that there are too many preachy females. Don’t drink beer. Don’t watch football. Don’t eat hamburgers. This is not good for you – the message is too feminine,” Carville said. “If you listen to Democratic elites — NPR is my go-to place for that — the whole talk is about how women, and women of color, are going to decide this election. I’m like: ‘Well, 48 percent of the people that vote are males. Do you mind if they have some consideration?”
~~~
“unrighteous rage”?
According to people like French there were no catalysts for MAGA anger. There was no hellish COVID handling with church closings, social distancing, masking and vaccine mandates. There has been no “fundamental transformation” of America. Our children were never indoctrinated with CRT and Queer Theory. There has been no “trans” mutilation of children, no drug trafficking and fentanyl deaths. There has been no FBI monitoring of Catholics who want Latin masses. There has been no massive illegal migration. No highest rate of inflation. There has been no janky lawfare to hamstring Trump and no political persecution. Yeah right.
This Is Fine: Average Salary Required to Own a Home Increased 80.5% Under Biden – Twitchy
The Left, along with the enabling Never-Trumpers, have created the existential crisis they claim Christians on the Right have created. The Left, along with the Never-Trumpers, have created a Constitutional crisis just like what happened before the Civil war. Our country has been exposed to great evil, incompetence, and risk under Joe Biden and the Democrats with the help of the Never-Trumpers who put them in power.
We are told that Christian Nationalism poses “a threat to democracy!” This is projection and a lie. It is the Democrats who are putting political opponents in jail. It is the Democrats who wanted to take Trump off the ballot. It is the Democrats who stole the 2020 election and are working to steal the 2024 election.
15 Secretaries Ignore Subpoenas While Refusal Lands Bannon In Jail (thefederalist.com)
Tell me, is it the Christians who are in control of things or is it the Progressives who taken over every aspect of society with their long march through the institutions? Progressive Christians write against Christians who oppose them calling them an “extremist threat.” But Christians working against Progressivism’s lies and authoritarian ways are not “a threat to democracy!”
Given that it’s an election year, Democrats and Never-Trumpers will unleash every tactic under the sun to disrupt the 2024 election. See the above for a sample. They are franticly trying to keep Trump out of the White House. Trump will take apart the administrative state that rules every inch of our lives, that so enjoys having rule over every inch of our lives.
Who will the Never-Trumpers vote for this November? Will they vote or stay home? Will they vote for the continued destruction of America and more of the Biden regime. Will they vote for neo-con Nikki Haley and more wars? If they vote solely on the basis of character, as they say they do, then who will they vote for? Is there someone who looks and talks Evangelical like the stiff Mike Pence? Ron DeSantis?
It seems that elite Christians, of either political stripe, spend their days with their tribe and in their bubble. And it seems they believe themselves to be the voice of reason, pluralist, inclusive, and magnanimous to a fault. Next to the Trump they portray they come across as good little Christians. And that is why they are loved by the Left and paraded thru MSNBC, CNN, WaPo, NYT, etc. They are controlled opposition.
The image consultants of Build Back Better Evangelicalism have no clue about us Hobbits. They view people from top down – not as one of them. Middle America has been ghosted by them.
God works in mysterious ways, but the elites – the scribes and Pharisees of Christianity – proscribe ways, fundamentalist ways, that God must not work. How sad! My Lord doesn’t need image management. And I don’t need their sanctimonious scolding.
~~~~~
Are people now afraid to put the American flag in front of their home out of fear people will think them patriotic and Christian and nationalist? Fear is the psyop produced by the Left to get people to back off love of their country. Progressives along with Globalist-dominionists have plans for you. Totalitarians include, as I have written about, the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Democratic party.
“If you grew up in the 21st century, all you know is our current hangdog, ashamed, self-conscious country, embarrassed by its own shadow, tail between its legs, stooping and supplicating, begging everyone’s forgiveness for its sins.
“But if you were fortunate to have experienced any of the last few decades of the 20th, then you know: it was not always thus! The national vibe (until quite recently!) was cool confidence bordering on arrogance.”
American Swagger – Peachy Keenan’s Extremely Domestic
Independence Day is Thursday. Put your flag out.
Patriotic picture of the day
“After a windstorm last July, the flag in front of our home got flipped up and stuck on the flagpole. My boyfriend, an Air Force veteran, went outside to untangle it. About 15 minutes later, I realized he was still there, admiring the flag and watching the cars go by. I grabbed my camera and took this photo from our kitchen window. My boyfriend had no idea until he came inside, but now he thinks it’s just as idyllic as I do.” —Michele Garrant, Mooers Forks, New York
~~~~~
Evangelicals, after all, have made heroes of those who have smuggled Bibles behind the Iron Curtain, who have sought to evangelize tribes that met them with arrows, and who have engaged in bait-and-switch campaigns closer to home, such as “study skills seminars” offered on college campuses or “neighborhood clubs” hosted in summertime backyards that conclude with an unadvertised gospel call.
The ultimate end of winning souls justifies a sometimes-startling variety of means. One might wonder to what extent this tradition of pragmatic ethical bargaining has enabled evangelicals to support Donald Trump.
Evangelical support for Trump continues to be wildly inconsistent with some basic Christian values. It is also, however, consistent with a combination of fear and exceptionalism—along with a flexible pragmatism—that has been part of the story of American evangelicalism going back to its seventeenth-century roots.
~~~~~
The Left Doesn’t Want You to See What You See
Remember Build Back Better and the Inflation Reduction Act?
The Biden Economy Image Consultants want us to believe Trump will be a disaster for the economy.
But, The Nobel Laureates Strike Out | City Journal (city-journal.org)
Modern Monetary Theory employed by the Biden Regime has created the massive debt and inflation that we and our children and grandchildren must live with.
“Most Americans believe it is unhinged to deliberately destroy the border and allow 10 million illegal aliens to enter the country without background audits, means of support, any claims to legal residency, and definable skills. And worse still, why would federal authorities be ordered to release repeat violent felons who have gone on to commit horrendous crimes against American citizens?
“Equally perplexing to most Americans is borrowing $1 trillion every 90 days and paying 5-5.5% interest on the near $36 trillion in ballooning national debt. Serving that debt at current interest exceeds the size of the annual defense budget and may soon top $1 trillion in interest costs, or more than 13% of the budget. . .
“The Biden years did the country great damage and rendered Biden himself one of the most unpopular incumbent presidents in American history. But his agendas may have fundamentally changed the country for decades, if not longer—and will require tough remedies that may be almost as unpopular as the wreckage they wrought.” – Victor Davis Hanson
The Logic in All the Madness – Victor Davis Hanson
~~~~~
The Character of The Lincoln Project:
Inside the Lincoln Project: Claims of harassment, sexism, ‘toxic’ workplace (usatoday.com)
Lincoln Project founders knew of alleged harassment months before they claimed (usatoday.com)
Anti-Trump ‘Lincoln Project’ Paid $35,000 to Hackers. (thenationalpulse.com)
The Lincoln Project: Leadership
Regarding Steve Bannon going to prison:
~~~~~
Water, Rural Rage, and Popular Classes
June 13, 2024
Victor Davis Hanson and cohost Jack Fowler talk about the California water madness, the Gaza pier bust, white rural rage hoax, and why the international leftists hate the popular classes.
Water, Rural Rage, and Popular Classes – Victor Davis Hanson (victorhanson.com)
Home – VDH’s Blade of Perseus (victorhanson.com)
Biography – VDH’s Blade of Perseus (victorhanson.com)
Read this instead:
The Unprotected Class – Chronicles (chroniclesmagazine.org)
No wonder, then, that we should expect some sort of similar hoax to arise before the 2024 election. Do not be surprised when told of a “secret” Trump plan uncovered to round up critics in 2025 and send them to “camps,” or lurid revelations about “evidence” that Trump is in worse physical and mental shape than is a debilitated Biden, or some fantastic MAGA plot to implement “voter suppression,” or allegations that the Trump campaign’s “dark money” involves “collusion,” “disinformation,” and “sinister foreign actors.”
How Left-wing Conspiracies Work – Victor Davis Hanson (victorhanson.com)
~~~~~
I said this would happen:
Outrage as Surgeon General Vivek Murthy Declares Gun Violence a Public Health Crisis
Cindy Wity 
The 2024 Project
August 19, 2024 Leave a comment
“They start from a desire for unity, and they are taught a contrived notion of right and wrong through criticism and struggle so that we can arrive at a new, contrived unity on a new, contrived basis. Everyone outside of the desire for unity is an enemy of the people.” ~Maoism.
There’s a project afoot pre-election 2024. Maoist in nature, it’s formula – unity, criticism, unity – is being used to transform the faithful into having “correct” political opinions.
Gurus have come out of their ashram bubbles to tells us how to be good little political Christians because . . . “You people are so extreme. We must address divisive forces and soften your stance on everything. You must rid yourself of old customs, old culture, old habits, and old ideas that get in the way of fundamental transformation. We will free you from wrongthink. We have books, podcasts, MSNBC media spots, and church seminars to stretch you beyond what you know. The goal is to expose you to voices you need to be following so you can learn to love each other better.” So goes the hectoring.
(Submit to our purpose-driven struggle session and over your personal spiritual journey with us you too will soon agree with us on critical race theory, liberation theology, queer theory, climate change, open-borders, gun control, same-sex marriage, abortion, hating Trump, and saving “Democracy!” by any means necessary. We want you to love God and the State!)
I don’t know the motive of these moralizing gurus other than they want to “reclaim Christianity from right-wing extremism” or some such thing such thing. (David French, who has an extreme case of Trump Derangement Syndrome, says he wants to pry away the conservative movement from a deranged man [Trump]. That’s why he’s all in on the radical Leftist Kamala-Walz duo – to save conservatism from itself.)
Is there mal-intent by these evangelists of the Left, these missionaries of Progressivism – for Progressivism is a political religion? Maybe not. They likely have turned their eyes and ears away from reality to follow Wide Way myths – contrived notions of right and wrong. Some have become paid influencers who find ways of being in the spotlights of media’s Great White Way. In any case, they have become disciples of Mao and the Left.
And the Left, like Mao in support of his Cultural Revolution, has shown that it will do what it wants by any means necessary including rig elections, creating hoaxes, spreading lies, censorship, purging of political opponents, and unjust lawfare in the name of “Democracy!” to bring about its own Cultural Revolution.
In order to satisfy their craving for ideological purity, the wolves of Left have no problem gobbling up pastors and Chrisitan leadership in order to steal the flock. (See Megan Basham’s book Shepherds for Sale: How Evangelical Leaders Traded the Truth for a Leftist Agenda and video below.)
The Left’s spiritual guides employ the Maoist formula of unity, criticism, unity. They’ll start by talking about wanting to unite Christians in a better way of love and then they’ll criticize in Saul Alinsky-like fashion. You’ve heard the ad hominems: “deplorables” “bitter clingers” “extremists” “conspiracy theorists” “homophobes” “xenophobes”, “authoritarians”, “fascists”, “threats to Evangelicalism” AND “DEMOCRACY!” and the latest put-down: “they’re weird.”
(They finally got something right: “You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you odd.” Flannery O’Connor)
They ridicule “Christian Nationalists” as being backward reactionaries and project a threat to Democracy on to them. And it’s no wonder: would-be dictators, Marxists, fascists, autocrats, and MSNBC use the word “Democracy” the most. It’s used by them in a bait and switch scheme.
These “purveyors of Democracy” offer to sell “Democracy”, which they do not actually intend to sell. This is “the bait.” They switch customers from buying the advertised “Democracy” that the seller initially offered into buying a different product or service that is usually at a higher price (loss of freedom including free speech – vox populi – and therefore Democracy!) and has advantageous effect to the advertiser (dictatorship). This is the “switch.”
From a Marxist perspective, the Left wants to subvert the nation-state and nationalism. Marxists think that the Proletarians who embrace nationalism do so out of false consciousness. The working class should therefore abandon their parochial worldview and understand that their struggles against the bourgeoisie, the means of production and capitalism, transcend national boundaries. Nationality would disappear as people come to identify by class instead. So goes Bolshevik theory. The working class has no homeland!
Added 8-20-2024: Victor Davis Hanson and The Myriad Projections of the 2024 Campaign:
. . .the political projectionist knows best his own hazardous or off-putting conduct and policies. And so, he can most skillfully attribute just these liabilities to those who have had no experience with them.
Shaming people till they break down and pledge Progressive values or to at least get them so muddled in their thinking that they back off and become controlled opposition is their means to their unity.
Below are some of the long-form journalistic revisionist (and unsubstantiated) works (ala The 1619 Project) that takes a critical view of backwater Evangelicals living in flyover country (“the ragged edge of the universe”- Nick in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby).
You see, sneering elites and the literati decided that anyone not like them was not worth knowing–an attitude reflected in such quotes as this one from H.L. Mencken, who said of Willa Cather, “I don’t care how well she writes, I don’t give a damn what happens in Nebraska.”
To wit:
Tim Alberta and The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism, published December 5, 2023
Tom Schaller and Paul Waldman with White Rural Rage: The Threat to American Democracy published on February 27, 2024
Jim Wallis: The False White Gospel: Rejecting Christian Nationalism, Reclaiming True Faith, and Refounding Democracy, published April 2, 2024
The After Party: Toward Better Christian Politics, Nancy French and Curtis Chang, based on project by David French, Russell Moore & Curtis Chang, published April 23, 2024
And before the 2020 election:
Kaitlyn Schiess: The Liturgy of Politics: Spiritual Formation for the Sake of Our Neighbor, published September 8, 2020
I wonder. Did these spiritual guides come to their conclusions about people they don’t agree with and are irritated by through Leftist media sources?
Certainly, if one were a disciple of MSNBC, CNN, the NYT, WaPo, The Atlantic, Christianity Today, Trinity Forum, and other Progressive Left sources, one could easily conclude that Christians who are not like them are “enemies of the people.” For, media disciples are an enlightened bunch but everyone else – they don’t know any better, and worse. They are racist rubes, are in a cult of personality and are involved in political idolatry. Christians in this sad group, so they tell us, are making Christianity look bad. But THEY have the answer – be discipled by the Left!
One has to wonder how it is that groups such as Evangelicals for Harris (more below) are OK with the disastrous record of destructive monetary and fiscal policies under Biden-Harris. Are they OK with the modern monetary theory of spending and dollar printing that has created high inflation and massive debt for future generations? To pay off the huge debt, the government will come after retirement funds and checking and saving accounts.
Are they OK with people unable to pay their bills and not able to buy a house or maintain their business? How does this show love for your neighbor? Are Evangelicals for Harris OK with soviet-style price controls as proposed by Kamala Harris? David Brooks actually gets something right.
One has to wonder how it is that groups such as Evangelicals for Harris are OK with the current inversion of justice: criminals without bonds are released to do harm again, great grandmothers are sentenced for praying, political opponents are brought to trial on spurious charges. Many of the political prisoners of J6 are still awaiting trial. This is equity in Harris world. How does this show love for your neighbor?
One has to wonder how it is that groups such as Evangelicals for Harris are OK with a stolen election and a stolen candidacy and stolen valor. How does this show love for your neighbor?
One has to wonder how it is that groups such as Evangelicals for Harris are OK with the current geo-political nightmare of wars and potential wars on several fronts that have come about under Biden-Harris. How does this show love for your neighbor?
One has to wonder – are they OK with the Afghanistan debacle? Joe and Kamala (of the party of gun control) had the U.S. flee Afghanistan, leaving behind $80+ BN in weapons and equipment and “a security vacuum into which all the Islamic terrorist organizations on the planet flooded. The results will be catastrophic for the entire world. Joe and Kamala never speak of it and do nothing to stave off what is at this point the inevitable.” The Terror Factory Joe And Kamala Built – Afghanistan (substack.com) How does this show love for your neighbor?
One has to wonder how it is that groups such as Evangelicals for Harris are OK aligning themselves with those who want to destroy Western civilization? They might not view themselves as pro-Hamas protestors, but the party they are joining is showing its hatred toward Israel, that in truth, is also hatred of Western civilization and America. How does this show love for your neighbor?
Cornell Law Professor William Jacobson:
Foreign Policy cites what it calls Harris’ “mantra” of favoring “what can be, unburdened by what has been.” In practice, this “mantra” and her public statements show a pronounced indulgence toward Iran and a hostility to Israeli efforts to ensure its own survival. . .
A Harris foreign policy promises genuine departure— “what can be, unburdened by what has been”—acknowledging a multipolar world by retreating from its friends in the face of its enemies.
Kamala Harris Would Be Disastrous for the Middle East | The National Interest
Communist China is a threat to Western civilization. Tim Walz, who has made many trips to China, praises the communist system there.
One has to wonder how it is that groups such as Evangelicals for Harris (more below) are OK hitching their wagon to the party of anger and grievance? To identity politics, victimhood and the need to constantly produce guilt? To condemnation and holding a grudge? To a party that reconciles itself to all manner of evil and refuses to be reconciled to people not like them? How does personal animus toward Trump and MAGA folks show love for your neighbor?
One has to wonder how it is that groups such as Evangelicals for Harris are OK with scientism, with masks and mandates, with lockdowns, with the closing of schools, churches and businesses, with snitching on your neighbor, and the ill treatment of the elderly that happened during COVID? Are they Karens? Do they want vaccine passports and everyone to be monitored 24/7 by some government entity? How does this show love for your neighbor?
One has to wonder how it is that groups such as Evangelicals for Harris are OK with censorship, when Jesus said, “You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free.” How does censorship show love for your neighbor?
One has to wonder how it is that groups such as Evangelicals for Harris are OK with abortion used as Satanic ritual? Are they OK with the guy who identifies as a Christian and was the former head of NIH, Francis Collins, doing Mengele-like experiments with aborted baby parts. And what about fetal tissue trafficking? How does this show love for your neighbor?
Evangelicals for Harris and the party of death and depopulation: DNC Attendees Will Have Opportunities For Free Vasectomies, Abortions | The Daily Caller
One has to wonder how it is that groups such as Evangelicals for Harris are OK with arresting pro-life activists? In true Maoist fashion, A Kamala Harris Presidency Could Be a Nightmare, Putting More Pro-Life Americans in Prison:
Recently released videos from a citizen journalist who went undercover to expose Planned Parenthood’s involvement in fetal tissue trafficking — and was subsequently investigated by then-California Attorney General Harris — reignited criticism of her role in his prosecution. As prosecutions of pro-life activists have increased under the Biden administration, Harris’ past actions amplify concerns that her administration would take an even more aggressive stance, using the Department of Justice (DOJ) to selectively target political opponents.
One has to wonder how it is that groups such as Evangelicals for Harris are OK with open borders that allows in deadly fentanyl and murderers and all kinds of terrorists and disease. Gang leader wanted for 23 murders was released into US: ICE (youtube.com) Do they pretend that Scripture makes it all OK? How does this show love for your neighbor?
Did Evangelicals for Harris join up out of feelings for and a myopic obsession with DEI, CRT, and climate crisis myths coming out their “higher-education” ashrams?
Do they identify with identity politics? Are they Marxist and socialists?
Did Evangelicals for Harris join up to show their hatred of all things Trump like good little foot soldiers of MSNBC? To show their disdain of Trump’s now-distant past remarks and behavior while aligning themselves with characters of all kinds of unscrupulous and perverse behavior? To show their contempt for patriotism and America just like the Left? How does this show love for your neighbor?
Added 8-24-2024:
It seems to me that all such groups like Evangelicals for Harris see themselves as freed up thinkers and Rousseauian in the sense that they feel good about themselves and what they do for they think they are morally good apart from any outside reference except for their tribe. And more so.
They believe that the “politically correct” views they hold would create a perfectly unified democracy. And so, they ply Evangelicals to transfer allegiance from what they hold to be true to what they say is true. As such, they reveal themselves to be the prophets of “totalitarian democracy” – the majority living under the tyranny (“unity”) of a one absolute and perfect political truth.
By any measure – facts, science, Scripture, common sense, and the common good – groups such as Evangelicals for Harris are at war with reality. And, it’s no wonder. They are the products and facilitators of the struggle session known as The 2024 Project.
In Paul’s last letter (II Timothy) he tells his young protégé Timothy what to look out for:
For the time will come when men will not tolerate sound doctrine, but with itching ears they will gather around themselves teachers to suit their own desires. So they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. II Timothy 4:3-4
New Whistleblower Book, ‘Shepherds for Sale,’ Sends Regime Christians into ‘Attack’ Mode – The Stream
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Evangelicals for Harris, formerly Evangelicals for Biden, is a project of Faith Voters, a 501(c)4 organization. It is a group claiming to represent evangelicals who are voting and advocating for Harris-Walz.
Apparently, they are running interference for Harris-Walz while seeking to downplay their radical agenda on issues like the economy, race, climate change, open borders, abortion entrenchment and expansion, LGBTQ promotion, destroying the nuclear family, and trans-ing the children – all in the name of Evangelicalism.
Even Billy Graham’s granddaughter has joined Evangelicals for Harris: ‘Voting Kamala, for me, is so much greater than policies.’ Apparently, wisdom need not be applied to issues beyond her wrinkled nose. The country can go to hell so long as Trump is not elected. A Faustian bargain, indeed.
A recent Evangelicals for Harris Zoom event was hosted by an activist who has a long history of bashing “Whiteness” and calling for the destruction of police departments.
Ekemini Uwan hosted the Zoom call, one of many identity-based online Zoom meetings in support of the new Democratic Party nominee that have sparked controversy.
Uwan describes herself on her website as a “reparations activist whose work spans the globe, as she has advocated for global reparations on behalf of Africans and African Descendants on the floor of the United Nations three times.”
Uwan spoke at Sparrow Conference 2019 where she gave “a historical, sociological, political, theological and gospel-saturated clinic on racial identity.” At that conference, she said we have to talk about what whiteness is:
“The reality is whiteness is rooted in plunder. theft. In slavery – enslavement of Africans. Genocide of native Americans. We’re sitting on stolen land. Everywhere in America we’re sitting on stolen land. This is the reality of land that was stolen from native Americans. We’re Americans we have to recognize and acknowledge that. It’s a power structure, that’s what whiteness is . . .”
Elizabeth Eziashi comments on what Uwan says:
“WHITENESS IS WICKED”… at a Christian Conference ? | Sparrow 2019 Breakdown PART 2 | Ekemini Uwan (youtube.com)
I wonder. Did the whites on that Wednesday Zoom call, including Wheaton College prof. Amy Peeler, divest from their whiteness?
Just more greed, envy, racism, and class warfare but now encapsuled in the virtue-signaling ‘respectability’ of anti-racism rhetoric. This Christian-coated pill gives groups like Evangelicals for Harris a way to swallow Marxist Progressivism.
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Get to know the Evangelicals for Harris Mind Games at work to woo voters away to their liberal agenda.
For many Christians, “Evangelicals for Harris” sounds like an oxymoron but there is a simple political strategy behind it.
The strategy is this: Harris doesn’t have to appeal to a lot of Republican-leaning churchgoers. She just needs to win over a few, David Brody, chief political analyst for the Christian Broadcast Network, said on American Family Radio Wednesday.
(The following Harris campaign Mind Games clip is meant to shame Trump and those who vote for him.)
Harris wooing Sunday School class while Trump woos Gen Z (afn.net)
The Shift Leftward:
Exposing Corruption in the Evangelical Church: The infiltration of a Leftist agenda, w/ Megan Basham (youtube.com)
Megan Basham: Abuse and accountability | WORLD (wng.org)
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The credentialed elites look down on “muscular jobs” workers.
“Dirty Jobs” Mike Rowe talks with Victor Davis Hanson about his article America’s Lab Rats? – Victor Davis Hanson (victorhanson.com)
Victor Davis Hanson, a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Distinguished Fellow at Hillsdale College, Pepperdine professor, syndicated columnist, bestselling author, and fifth-generation California farmer, argues in his July 29, 2024 article that American society is treating its citizens like lab rats, resulting in harmful outcomes. Read the article here: https://victorhanson.com/americas-lab…
Mike Rowe Takes Up CLASS WARFARE with Victor Davis Hanson | The Way I Heard It. (youtube.com)
Half the country thinks something has gone drastically wrong in America, to the point that it is rapidly becoming unrecognizable. Millions feel they are virtual lab rats in some grand research project conducted by entitled elites who could care less when the experiment blows up.
America’s Lab Rats? – Victor Davis Hanson (victorhanson.com)
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Mao Zedong wanted to thought-reform, that is, brainwash, the whole Chinese population, and he had a formula (https://www.marxists.org/reference/ar…) for doing it: “Unity – Criticism – Unity.” That is, he sought to induce in people a “desire for unity” so they would join his socialistic cult, and then once that desire was strong enough, criticism and struggle sessions (https://newdiscourses.com/2022/12/sur…) would begin to cement adherence. Finally, through criticism, struggle, and study, unity with the socialist cult would be achieved.
Under Mao Zedong’s drive to “ideological purity” and “unity” millions were murdered.
Man who says he accompanied Walz on trip to China calls VP candidate ‘Maoist to the core’ (alphanews.org)
Mao, Criticism, and Unity (youtube.com)
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Victor Davis Hanson: Why would Kamala Harris brag about this? (youtube.com)
DATA: Most Voters Unaware of Harris’s Radical Views. (thenationalpulse.com)
A “study, conducted by McLaughlin & Associates on behalf of The Media Research Center, found that on ten aspects of Harris’s political record, between 71 percent and 86 percent of respondents were either unaware or unsure of her positions.
“The issues surveyed include her support for the Green New Deal, abolishing ICE, and eliminating private health insurance. Additionally, the data reveals that many voters obtain their political news primarily from broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) and cable channels (CNN, MSNBC). The lack of voter knowledge of Harris‘s record suggests these outlets have not provided adequate coverage of the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee.”
Explained here:
Expert warns Kamala Harris’ tax agenda could be more ‘radical, devastating’ than Biden’s (youtube.com)
Who determines “the same place”?
Harris Unveils COVID Vax Mandate for All Campaign Employees, Raising Eyebrows (resistthemainstream.com)
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Filed under 2024 Current Events, 2024 Election, Christianity, Communism, cultural Marxism, Evangelicalism, Political Commentary, Politics, totalitarianism Tagged with David French, democrats, Evangelicalism, Evangelicals for Harris, Kamala harris, Mike Rowe, politics, progressivism, Tim Walz, Victor Davis Hanson