Trump Idolatry Has Undermined Christianity in America

Christianity was in decline before the rise of Donald Trump and his idolitry by "conservative Christians" and evangelicals.  But Trump idolity has accelerated the process particularly by laying wide for all to see the hypocrisy and moral bankruptcy of Christianity's loudest supposed adherence.  Trump idolitry has shown that raw power and an ability to denigrate and harm those one hates - usually because of skin color and refusal to subscribe to toxic and/or fairy tale beliefs - are indeed the most important aspects of right wing Christianity in the minds of its adherents.  Indeed, as a piece in the New York Times notes "The millennial generation, which includes most adult Americans under 40, is the first one in which Christians are a minority."  Meanwhile, a recent Pew Research Center poll on religion revealed that the "Nones" - those who affiliate with no religious denomination - are now the largest "religious" group in America. Some decry Christianity's decline, particularly scamvangelists who ultimately only seek to enrich themselves and Republican politicians who use hate and bigotry as staples of their campaigns.  Others, myself included, do not see Christianity's decline as necessarily a bad thing given all of the horrors Christianity has wrought over the centuries as Christ's teachings about loving one’s neighbor and turning the other cheek have been utterly ignored.  A column in the Washington Post looks at how Trump worship is harming religion and how those who want to save it the most loudly are destroying it and democracy along with it.  Here are excerpts: 

Much has been written about White evangelicals’ central role in the fraying of democracy. More attention, however, should be paid to the damage the political movement has inflicted on religion itself.

The demographic — which remains in the throes of White grievance and an apocalyptic vision that postulates America (indeed “Western civilization”) is under attack from socialists, foreigners and secularists — forms the core of the MAGA movement. Many have rejected the sanctity of elections, the principle of inclusion and even objective reality.

The consequences have been dire for American politics. The siege mentality has morphed into an ends-justify-the-means style of politics in which lies, brutal discourse and even violence are applauded as necessary to protect “real America.” Essential features of democracy, such as the peaceful transfer of power, compromise with political opponents and defining America as an idea and not a racial or religious identity, have fallen by the wayside.

[T]he degradation of democracy has intensified in the wake of Joe Biden’s victory. The doctrinal elevation of the “big lie," the increase in violent rhetoric and the effort to rig elections all reflect a heightened desperation by the MAGA crowd. This has driven the GOP to new lows . . . .

While lovers of democracy around the world view these developments in horror, we should not lose track of the damage the MAGA movement has wrought to religious values. Peter Wehner, an evangelical Christian and former adviser to President George W. Bush, explains in a column for the Atlantic how a recent speech from Donald Trump Jr. reflects the inversion of religious faith. “The former president’s son,” Wehner writes, “has a message for the tens of millions of evangelicals who form the energized base of the GOP: the scriptures are essentially a manual for suckers. The teachings of Jesus have ‘gotten us nothing.’ ”

Wehner continues: It’s worse than that, really; the ethic of Jesus has gotten in the way of successfully prosecuting the culture wars against the left.

Understanding this phenomenon goes a long way toward explaining the MAGA crowd’s very unreligious cruelty toward immigrants, its selfish refusal to vaccinate to protect the most vulnerable and its veneration of a vulgar, misogynistic cult leader.

Robert P. Jones, who leads the Public Religion Research Institute, writes that “in the upside-down world white evangelicalism has become, the willingness to act in self-sacrificial ways for the sake of vulnerable others — even amid a global pandemic — has become rare, even antithetical, to an aggressive, rights-asserting white Christian culture.” . . . . . Strikingly, the evidence suggests churches and pastors are the heart of the problem. White evangelicals who attend religious services regularly are twice as likely as less frequent attenders to be vaccine refusers (30% vs. 15%). If ever there were clear evidence of a massive abdication of pastoral responsibility and leadership, this is it.

Jones observes, “there is no hint of awareness that their actions are a mockery of the central biblical injunction to care for the orphan, the widow, the stranger, and the vulnerable among us.”

This refusal to act to protect the vulnerable — particularly because of the low personal costs involved — is raw, callous selfishness. Exhibited by people I love, it is heartbreaking. Expressed by people who claim to be followers of Jesus, it is maddening.”

If these trends continue uninterrupted, we will wind up with a country rooted in neither democratic principles nor religious values. 

For many years I have said that "conservative Christians" would be the ones to hasten Christianity's fall in America.  Now, we are witnessing this in real time.