Public-facing Christianity in the U.S. isn't a collection of beliefs.
It is a collection of believers.
It is a fan base with a popular -- but divisive -- team mascot.
I met a new minister in town pastoring a once-large, now poorly attended, local church. We exchanged names and pleasantries. I asked her what kind of church it was.
"Are you a love-your-neighbor church," I asked? "Or is yours a we-are-tight-with-Jesus-we've-got-ours church?"
She understood my question, and nodded ruefully. She said, "We are a love-your-neighbor church. It is hard now, but there are still a few of us left."
Public political Christianity today functions less as a coherent ethical and spiritual framework and more as a form of collective identity, akin to team allegiance. I realize that many individual Christians practice their faith with earnest sincerity, but the public-facing expression of Christianity in the United States increasingly resembles sports fandom. It looks like cheering for the Oregon Ducks or the Boston Red Sox. Team Christian is Team Republican.
Pew Research reports that 72 percent of White Evangelicals support Trump.
The cross, Bible, and other Christian imagery serve a similar role. They are displays of group membership.
The analogy extends further with narratives of rivalry, e.g. between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees. The GOP isn't held together by the glue of consistent policy. The glue is dislike of Democrats and their brand symbols. Lock Hillary up! Drink liberal tears!
At the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot Christian flags and large wooden crosses appeared prominently alongside Trump banners, “Make America Great Again” banners, and “Jesus Is My Savior, Trump Is My President” signs.
Team fans do not evaluate their team’s actions on moral grounds; they assess them in terms of advantage and victory. Christianity encompasses centuries of theological debate, multiple denominational histories, and a range of ethical perspectives. When Christianity functions as sociopolitical team identity, its ethical teachings on humility, forgiveness, or care for the vulnerable are reshaped to be consistent with the current Republican political agenda. The tail wags the dog. Christianity bend to politics.
-- Feed the hungry? Yeah, right. Cut USAID and SNAP.The liberal church still exists. There are "a few of us left," as the minister said. They are nearly invisible in the public square. Christians wearing MAGA hats sell a more popular product than Jesus' did: What's yours is yours, foreigners are enemies, and America first. Christian practice is hard. Generosity and empathy to strangers and rivals go against the grain of human nature.
The modern GOP and the modern Evangelical Church are in a sweet spot of easy politics and ethics, each complementing the other. They seem content in this marriage. Public evangelical Christianity is Trumpism: selfish, cruel, xenophobic, and violent. They have made an idol of Trump. It is the best of both worlds from a marketing perspective: un-Christian human nature combined with all the branding and tradition of Christianity.
This looks like a good partnership -- Trump up front, the watermark imprimitor of Jesus behind him -- but it is not. Christianity is getting the worse part of the deal.
For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, but lose his immortal soul? Mark 8:36
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5 comments:
It’s another way in which I view Trump as evil, in this case sullying what I view as true Christianity. It’s maddening for me that “Christianity’s” name has been taken over by such unloving principles. The good news for me is Trump is mortal and this too shall pass.
Liberal denominations are foundering because of an absence of doctrinal foundation. The only thing members and attendees have to believe is that there is nothing they have to believe. Fundamentalist (substantive, required) convictions, for better or worse—and add in LDS and Islam—continue to thrive, here and worldwide.
Trump remains popular with evangelicals because of Roe’s overturn. Haven’t read yet where he tithes….
Liberal denominations have a doctrinal foundation based on Jesus' law of love. MAGA denominations don't.
For them it’s a feelgood ethic, not a doctrine, since even those who believe Jesus actually existed are not expected to believe that he is the exclusive conduit of grace whereby to reach a literal heaven and avoid a literal hell. That tough love, final-judgment component of Jesus is likewise minimized or ignored, so misunderstood, for purposes of Christian doctrine anyway.
If you can believe the Bible, Jesus' judgment won't be based on the doctrine people subscribe to, but on how they act. For even as you do unto the least of these...
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