Is Back Trump the Religious Right's Last Gasp?

Trump surrounded by evangelical Christian "leaders"

As regular readers know, I view the erroneously named "Christian Right" - the Christofascists', if you will - to be one of the cancers that is causing huge harm to America.  This group of hate-filled, ignorance embracing individuals claim to uphold "family values" yet stigmatize others who look different, believe differently, or had the provenance of being born outside of America.  Now, these people who claim to want to protect the "sanctity of marriage" are backing a thrice married, serial adulterer, who many would argue epitomizes what one should never want to be.  A piece in the Washington Post looks at how the 2016 presidential election might be the last gasp of a thankfully dying demographic.  Here are highlights:

I don’t need to tell you about the latest revelation of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s views and behavior toward women. I won’t tell you these comments, because they’re not appropriate for any ages.

But I will tell you that the American evangelical movement and Religious Right won’t be the same after the 2016 presidential election.

I asked him [Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention] what percentage of Southern Baptists he thinks will vote for Trump. He answered 80 percent. Yet Moore has become the most vocal evangelical critic of Trump. What gives?

Moore explained that he knows many Southern Baptists older than 50 who oppose Trump — and nearly all of them are women. Among Southern Baptists younger than 40, Moore says, almost all of them he knows are appalled by Trump. That means, then, that most white Southern Baptist men older than 50 back Trump, at least given the alternative of Hillary Clinton from the Democratic Party.

Some older evangelical leaders argue that Trump is a “morally good” choice and that he “lives a life of loving and helping others as Jesus taught in the great commandment.” Closer examination, though, continues to reveal the New York businessman as beholden to the unholy trinity of money, sex and power.

Younger evangelicals and former evangelicals have taken note. An aspiring president of the United States can brag about sexually assaulting women and still claim the backing of many if not most of the older stalwarts in the Religious Right.

Trump can maintain nearly all his evangelical support in the voting booth despite unrepentant lying and cheating. But these same leaders still insist on a traditional, biblical ethic when it comes to views on same-sex marriage in evangelical ministries.

The latest evidence of Trump’s depravity hits at the same time one of the leading evangelical para church ministries, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship,has come under scrutiny for requiring staff to believe that God intends sex to be enjoyed only in the context of marriage between one man and one woman. 

To the older evangelicals planning to vote for Trump: You can try to explain the difference in electing a president and hiring a 23-year-old college graduate to evangelize students. You can say we’re electing a commander in chief and not a Sunday school teacher. You can say that God often raises up pagan leaders to deliver his people from their enemies. But no one is fooled by your arguments.

They can see you will apparently excuse anything in a Republican nominee . . . . And they will conclude that they don’t really need to listen to you when it comes to “traditional, biblical ethics.”

The 2016 presidential election will be remembered as the last spasm of energy from the Religious Right before its overdue death.

I for one hope that the author's prediction proves true.  Religion, especially fundamentalist religion, both Christian and Muslim, is a toxic cancer.  The sooner it dies, the better off America and the world will be.