Evangelicals misguided in support of Trump

Considering the so-called religious wars going on in this administration, it might help to consider the proper definition of the word Christian: (1) “one who professes belief in the teachings of Jesus Christ; (2) the hero in John Bunyan's “Pilgrim's Progress.”

Jim Wallis, editor of Sojourner magazine, is worried about the uncritical devotion to President Donald Trump by some conservative Christians. He says it calls to mind the complicit church in 1930s Germany.

People today wonder how so-called Christians – which most Germans in World War II would claim as their religious authority – could have supported the Nazi regime, but Wallis sees some similarities in what is happening today in this country under this administration:

“Perhaps the most recent example,” he writes, “… in relation to Donald Trump was a tweet by Franklin Graham. ‘Never in my lifetime,’ the son of Billy Graham tweeted, “have we had a @POTUS willing to take such a strong out-spoken stand for the Christian faith like @realDonaldTrump. We need to get behind him with our prayers.’

“Such an uncritical, un-prophetic, and ungodly devotion to such a deeply ethically compromised president does call to mind the complicit church in 1930s Germany,” Wallis says.

At this point, anyone who is still a Trump supporter cannot in good conscience argue, as do Graham and other right-wing evangelicals, that Trump has any resemblance to a Jesus-minded Christian God’s anointed.

Some in the Trump camp say they knew what they were getting. They love his ability to work a crowd into a frenzy against government and don’t give a whit that he plays games with the truth. They are all in on his mindset about immigration, the economy, health care and workplace ethics. That’s all that matters to them, though they seem unaware or unwilling to admit that Trump’s policies are not working-class friendly.

Urged on by evangelicals who claim him as God’s anointed, his base doesn’t flinch at his language, his apparent racism, his sexual immorality and his record as an egomaniacal, vindictive personality. He’s God at work, they insist.

Lori Brandt Hale, associate professor of Christian Ethics at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, writes:

“(Trump’s) ‘Make America Great Again’ nationalism seeks to close the borders and recover some idealized picture of what America supposedly used to be, a picture steeped in white supremacy and the misguided ideology of ‘separate but equal.’ Disturbingly, large numbers of white evangelical Christians share in this longing for Mayberry.”

I wish I were that articulate. I mostly get mad and flustered when I hear the so-called Christian right and evangelical base praise Trump as their man and chastise anyone who would challenge his behavior or politics.

The second definition of the word “Christian” is that it is the name of one of the most famous Christian pilgrims in English literature. His advice to all of us trying to piece together the Christian way all these centuries later?

“Follow your heart.”

Columnist Ina Hughs may be reached at inamackie@yahoo.com.