Civil Commotion

The flagship evangelical magazine won’t retract criticism of Trump

As everybody who pays attention to these things knows, Christianity Today has been the target of controversy and presidential vituperation ever since it published an editorial calling for the impeachment and removal from office of Donald Trump. It has been the usual and predictable cascade of slurs, from “far left” to personal attacks on the character and belief of the editors.

I’m not an expert but, judging from the nastiness directed at the magazine, and the generally stouthearted support of Donald Trump by evangelicals, I’ve come to believe that it takes a godawful amount of stored-up malice to be a good Christian.

Even so, the magazine isn’t backing down.

Galli’s editorial focused on the impeachment, but it was clear the issues are deeper and broader. Reasonable people can differ when it comes to the flagrantly partisan impeachment process. But this is not merely about impeachment, or even merely about President Trump. He is not the sickness. He is a symptom of a sickness that began before him, which is the hyper-politicization of the American church. This is a danger for all of us, wherever we fall on the political spectrum. Jesus said we should give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s. With profound love and respect, we ask our brothers and sisters in Christ to consider whether they have given to Caesar what belongs only to God: their unconditional loyalty.

[ … ]

We nevertheless believe the evangelical alliance with this presidency has done damage to our witness here and abroad. The cost has been too high. American evangelicalism is not a Republican PAC.

Well said — and good for them.

And where, by the way, have you read similar thoughts before?

Third, 81% of white evangelicals voted for Trump, and that will eventually sink into public consciousness, as in, Wait a minute! What are you saying? The church people gave us that piece of sh*t p***y-grabber?! Yep, they did — and that will be the tale of how the Evangelical Right and ‘movement so-called conservatism’ committed political suicide. They might make some noise, occasionally score a small victory … but they are done. The Trump administration, with its inevitable serial indecencies and corruptions, is their achievement, and they will never live it down.

My satisfaction at having called it correctly is tempered by my awareness of the accompanying anguish caused people who are well-intended but just not very clear-headed.

Conservative evangelicals are going to be a destructive presence in our national life for a long time to come; after all, they are raising their children, who will then raise their own children, to be magical-thinking idiots. Figure 2-3 generations before their number has dwindled to a freakish sideshow. As H.L. Mencken — I think — once said, it takes 3-generations to make a genuine-article atheist.

Until their numbers decline to insignificance, they will simply have to be defeated and pushed to the side.

We should not be Pollyanna-ish about the danger they pose. After all, it doesn’t need a mind tuned for nuance to grasp that they are free to despise gays (for instance), but public policy may not. They ‘get’ that, but are determined to make public policy comport with their religious views nonetheless; in that sense they do, indeed, exhibit theocratic ambitions that are deeply un-American and dangerous. The Evangelical Right is a threat to American ideals and the country writ large.

I think the best antidote is to say so frankly and laugh at such as James Dobson, Franklin Graham, Jerry Falwell, Jr, at. al. Politely deferring to their nonsense only empowers them by granting them an unearned dignity.

It’s the most wonderful tedious time of the year
Apologies to Andy Williams

Am I the only person who is happy, and relieved to return to ordinary life, when Christmas and New Year’s are gone and life goes back to normal?

When the Christmas tree is down and the furniture is back where it belongs? When the carpeting no longer glitters with wayward strands of tinsel, pieces of wrapping, and tape? When the trash collectors have emptied the overfull trash barrel? When the refrigerator has been emptied of huge platters? When there aren’t drop-in interruptions from people? When store shelves are stocked again, store lines are reasonable, and there are parking spots out in the lot?

When — it’s enough to make a guy willing to thank you-know-who — there isn’t a relentless background hum of Christmas carols?

I don’t know whether I’m a Grinch or unusually honest, but I’m always happiest and looking forward to the future when the “Holiday” season is over.

As just about everybody must know by now, a major fissure emerged on the Evangelical Right yesterday when Christianity Today, founded by the late Billy Graham, endorsed Donald Trump’s impeachment and removal from office.

The First Felon, y’all will not be surprised to learn, isn’t taking this lying down.

Sadly, because evangelicals appear to have merely substituted the Trump cult for the Christian cult, without ever acknowledging the shift, I doubt this will cause many Trumpists to reconsider their support. In fact …

Franklin Graham wasted no time assuring the Faithful that his daddy would disapprove of the editorial.

Well … who knows? It’s well-established that daddy was just fine with Richard Nixon’s coverup of the Watergate burglary, and was an anti-semite as well, so junior could be right: Ol’ Billy, who never once in his life got on the wrong side of power, may indeed have been just fine with Trump’s behavior.

Now, the more thoughtful evangelicals — Granted, a rarity — generally explain their support for Trump in transactional terms. “Sure Trump is sewage,” they’ll say, “but he’s our sewage and giving us the judges we want and letting us sidestep regulations that apply to everybody else.”

Well, OK, I guess that’s politics, and there is no reason why the Devout shouldn’t be as corrupt and hypocritical as everybody else. But I would love for some evangelical to tell me where the Inerrant Bible authorizes His people to make a deal with the devil.

What we learned Wednesday, however, was that those who define America by its ideals, not the dominance of a particular ethnic group, won’t give up easily. The bad news is that our bad people are as bad as everyone else’s. The good news is that our good people seem unusually determined to do the right thing.

Paul Krugman

Democrats (being human) certainly have their biases, blind spots, even irrationalities. But their big picture perception of today’s political reality is basically grounded in fact. While Republicans’ picture is a false one self-servingly painted by a monstrous liar, Trump. I say this as a Republican myself, for half a century, until I saw the party plunge down that rabbit hole.

The other night I attended a dinner, with a couple of Trumper friends (I do have some). They are not (otherwise) stupid or crazy; one has a Masters in History. One mentioned “Shifty Schiff” unmasked as a sex criminal. They avowed lack of surprise, wondering only how such a scumbag got away with it so long.

Frank Robinson

I know people just like Robinson’s friends. We really do have a huge bloc of people in this country who are living in a fantasy-world, but a malicious fantasy-world rather than a happy fantasy-world — a horror show.