Much hay has been made about how Trump has captured the Evangelical vote. Data shows that he leads against Ted Cruz or that he has a large following among those who self-label themselves Evangelicals. It is true that Trump has captured a larger following of people who claim to be Evangelicals, but it is hard to take these claims fully seriously. The problem with this way of thinking stems from the fact that the larger society doesn't truly understand evangelicals. Evangelicals to them are whipping boys (and women). The Evangelicals are the same this paleo conservatives. In fact the media doesn't really understand the different subgroups of conservatism at all. I'm not a Republican per se, but I'm not so naive as to dismiss an entire group is having a monolithic group-think. The Republican Party is far more complex than the stereotypes peddled by the pundits. The same can be said of the Evangelical group. You don’t have to agree with them to believe that they are complex. And, as we have seen this election cycle, to dismiss an entire group without understanding them is not just foolish but dangerous.
There are so many myths that it is hard to figure out which one to combat first. However, since we must begin somewhere, let us look at the breakdown of Trump’s support. Trump is supported less by evangelicals then by Republicans as a whole. Yet, when we talk about Trump’s supporters we immediately begin talking about the Evangelical vote. Trump’s support on the whole is slightly larger in general than with so-called Evangelicals in particular. This has to mean that the roots of Trump’s support comes from somewhere other than the Evangelical camp. Yet the fascinating thing is that this demographic is never truly examined. When the evidence doesn’t support your claim, you have to examine whether there was a flaw in your evidence or if your claim is truly not correct. While Evangelicals somewhat mirror Trump, they are slightly less willing to back him. So my question is who is actually voting for him if not the Evangelicals?
The issue becomes even more problematic when dealing with the so-called Christians who do back Trump. Trump supporters are less concerned with abortion than other members of the Conservative consortium (according to a Wall Street Journal poll.) However, the real kicker to me was that Trump supporters have the lowest church attendance of any Conservative group. Of the social conservatives, whom the Wall Street Journal says will probably vote for Cruz (another problem entirely) or Carson, 56% are found in church weekly; while 43% of their establishment brethren (Rubio and, formerly, Bush) supporters are to be found in church on a given week. But only 38% of Trump supporters go to church weekly. How is he a conservative Christian movement if the people who support him can’t be bothered to attend the Sanctorum Communio? The answer is they can’t. They can’t claim to be representative of Evangelical Christianity if they are not part of the body of Christ.
Yet the media claims that Evangelical Christians make up the backbone of Trump’s revolt. The simple fact is they don’t. In order to understand who supports Trump, we have to do something that is considered scandalous in America: we have to talk about theology. Trump supporters are usually nominal Christians. These are people we in Christianity call C & E or Christmas & Easter Christians because that is usually the only times we pastors see them. If we were to look at Trump we would see eerie parallels. They do not believe in the sacraments really, put no real stock in confession and absolution of sin and therefore do not really believe in the atonement, and probably only back the parts of the Bible that feel good to them at the time. It is hard to believe that they are actually adherents to a faith. These are the spiritual descendants of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, those men who made a deal with the Republican Party in order to gain power in both the religious and political spheres. They gained a great bully pulpit to dominate not just the party of Lincoln, but also the realm of Billy Graham. These talking heads moved away from proclaiming the Gospel to amassing power for themselves.
Thus we have to look at the other center of Evangelicalism. What are the church leaders saying about Trump? If you claim to be Evangelical and support Trump, it isn’t good news. It is not just the pope (this article from The Federalist sums up the conundrum best) who cannot stomach Donald Trump. People such as Max Lucado and Russell Moore don’t just find him detestable they find backing him to be immoral. Indeed the lion’s share of Evangelical pastors don’t support Trump. (Unfortunately, they are supporting Cruz in large measure.) What we see is not a backing of Trump from the Evangelical Christian in the pew, but rather the average Trump supporter being a kind of Evangelical parasite. They want the benefits of grace without the cost. When these people hang out with the “good people” they believe they will be considered good too.
What really has happened with the Trump supporter is not a political disconnect, so much as a theological one. The people who support Trump enjoy a folk religion. It is a religion where one’s own nation is the elect instead of the elect from all nations. It is a religion where the proclivities of the “volk” and not the ordinances of the communion of saints is the rule of law. It is most importantly a religion where the earthly happiness is valued more than the eternal one, a place where fallen good is considered better than eternal good. Where Evangelicals have failed is not practicing discipleship or rooting people in the Gospel. Just as they have lost members in church, they are finding they are losing the political game as well. What is at root is a disconnect between the riches of the Christian worldview and the people worshipping (or not worshipping) in our churches.
So what is to be done? Well, the shaming of Evangelicals isn’t a good idea. Yet this seems to be what I see all around me. Even good and strong fellow Christians have taken to dismissing people backing Trump. I find it odd when people who are given the responsibility of pastoral care, turn around and mock people with whom they disagree. The way forward is to embrace humility. It is to try and understand the world through the eyes of people who believe that being strong and bullying is the way to get what they need (and want). I have talked to a few Trump supporters and what I usually do is point them to the Gospel. I show them that perfect love drives out fear (1 John 4:18) and that when the Spirit abides in us we are free to love one another (Romans 8:15). To those of you who may dismiss this as simplicitic, I remind you that it is the Gospel that saves and not fear-mongering.
We Christians are faced with a tremendous temptation to chastise and dismiss the people who have fallen away from the truth. However, we are all sinners and need to be reconciled not in fear of the world but in love of promise of paradise. This world is not our home and this culture is not our religion. It may not always appear in the poll data or even in our lives, but being a Christian is more than just saying you are one. It is about understanding that the work of the Triune God is bringing about fullness in the face of our fears regardless of who or what is popular right now.
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