One bright side of our malignant political moment is that you never have to listen to Political Christians again. Any moral authority these folks might've claimed prior to becoming the number-one constituency for Donald Trump, American president, is gone. What principles of Jesus Christ does the current president embody? Of course, that question assumes the Son of God's words ever played a particularly prominent role in an Evangelical political movement that for decades has devoted nearly all its energy to opposing marriage equality and getting abortion banned. Matthew 25:35 has never been high on the list of priorities, and Trump—as he has in so many other areas of our social and political life—merely laid that truth bare.

Still, it is...something to see a report in Politico outlining what some members of the Evangelical movement found sickening about Trump' recent rally in North Carolina. You know, the one where his fans started chanting, "Send her back!" about a sitting member of Congress who just happened to be a woman of color whom Trump himself had told to go back to where she came from. These Constitutional Conservatives were appalled at the idea of stripping someone of her citizenship because she exercised her First Amendment rights to criticize the country that her constituents had duly elected her to help run. They were gravely offended at the prospect of expelling Ilhan Omar, who came here as a refugee from Somalia as a child, in breach of Christ's edict about inviting in the stranger, the least of my brothers and sisters.

Just kidding! They didn't like the salty language.

The nation was gripped after the rally by the moment when a “send her back” chant broke out as Trump went after Somali-born Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, an American citizen. But some Trump supporters were more fixated on the casual use of the word “goddamn” — an off-limits term for many Christians — not to mention the numerous other profanities laced throughout the rest of the speech.

The issue has recently hit a nerve among those who have become some of the president’s most reliable supporters: white evangelicals...Coarse language is, of course, far from the president’s only behavior that might turn off the religious right. He’s been divorced twice, faced constant allegations of extramarital affairs, previously supported abortion rights and has stumbled when trying to discuss the specifics of religion, once saying “two Corinthians” instead of “Second Corinthians.” Yet to this point, Trump has maintained broad support from evangelicals, including the unwavering backing of prominent conservative Christian leaders.

Did tearing children from their parents "hit a nerve"? It appears not, at least among the 73 percent of white Evangelicals who approve of the president's job performance. Neither, as Politico pointed out, does the president's blatant non-religiosity that borders on outright disdain for his religious audiences. After all, "Second Corinthians" doesn't tell the whole story. Here's the line in full: "Two Corinthians, 3:17—that's the whole ballgame," he said, adding: "Is that the one you like? I think that's the one you like." It's hard to imagine a more condescending delivery.

The president treats all his supporters with the utmost respect. Zach Gibson Getty Images

The simplest explanation is that the most important part of White Evangelical Christian is "white," and that the movement has always been about maintaining the United States as a country by and for white people. No wonder these folks overlooked Trump's many affairs and divorces and vulgarities. He might have "joked" on television about dating his own daughter, or OK'd calling her a "piece of ass" on the radio, but he's on their side on the truly important things, like federal judge appointments. It's kind of like how no one cares that Trump employs—and has always employed—large numbers of undocumented immigrants while railing against illegal immigration. He enforces the racial hierarchy, and that's what matters. It's not really that no one should come. It's that they should be ruthlessly exploited and forced to live in fear as a societal underclass.

In other Political Religion news, CNN reports that Louisiana is preparing to offer some nonsense to schoolchildren, thanks in part to Democratic Governor Jon Bel Edwards.

As Louisiana students gather supplies and class schedules for a new school year, administrators are ensuring legally mandated "In God We Trust" signs are hung in every public school building in the state.

Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards signed a bill in May 2018 requiring the phrase be displayed in all public schools in the state by the beginning of the 2019-2020 school year. The bill gives school administrators discretion over how the phrase is displayed, but there's "a minimum requirement of a paper sign."

The measure also requires students be educated on the history of "In God We Trust" and its status as the national motto.

Shelby Ainsworth, principal of West Monroe High School in West Monroe, Louisiana, praised the bill, telling CNN affiliate WAFB, "I still feel strongly that America is a Christian nation."

Here's a glimpse into the Great American Fantasy Machine. America is not, nor has it ever been, a Christian Nation. Here's Thomas Jefferson, kind of an important guy, on his interpretation of the First Amendment:

Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.

Government institutions, such as public schools, are prohibited under the First Amendment from aligning themselves with any religious sect. The idea that "In God We Trust" is a neutral statement of religious devotion is belied by that school official CNN quoted. Principal Ainsworth quite clearly recognizes what some might play dumb about: it's the Christian God in whom the people pushing this law Trust, and this is about the battle over whether this is a Christian Nation. The motto itself dates to the Civil War, but it did not become official until 1956. This was part of that also included adding "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance in '54. These phrases are not ancient Americana. Meanwhile, even if you pretend that non-believers do not exist, and even if you think public institutions should be free to elect to display the motto, the notion of requiring them to do so by law is nuts.



It speaks volumes that the religious right spends its time pushing those mottos rather than, say, "E Pluribus Unum." That kind of talk might get people thinking about what kind of country this really is. The phrase, "In God We Trust" has no business being the motto of a secular, multicultural democracy such as the United States, where you are free to practice any religion you choose. Arguments about how our society is run ought to be based in universal human values and deliberated using Enlightenment tools like the scientific method. If it must be a motto, it should not be legally mandated that it be displayed in schools. But if we survive this era of traditionalist backlash, the people pushing it may have lost so much credibility that it will cease to be one.

Jack Holmes Politics Editor Jack Holmes is the Politics Editor at Esquire, where he writes daily and edits the Politics Blog with Charles P Pierce.

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