The conservative church has been struggling for survival for a number of decades.
The final nail in the coffin may be the support given to a man devoid of moral character. This is isn’t the first political entanglement to trip up the far right in America, but it is perhaps the most obviously hypocritical. True, the followers of Jesus who espouse an ethic of love have shown themselves to be less than loving to same sex relationships, unwed mothers, and victims of domestic abuse. However, perhaps never before has it been so obvious that any sort of moral high ground is lost than in the blind loyalty to a corrupt and morally bankrupt man like Donald Trump.
Over the decades and centuries past, the church has used and misused the Bible to justify atrocities such slavery, genocide, racism, child abuse, violence against women, xenophobia, and homophobia. The church has often been the enemy of new ideas and new scientific discoveries. “Why take care of the earth? It’s all going to end in fire on the judgment day,” has been the excuse to ignore global warming, pollution, and the extinction of species. “Didn’t God tell humans to take care of creation?” you might ask. And yet many in the conservative church have treated the earth as their personal garbage dump with no thought to the impact on future generations.
The conservative church is one of the last pinnacles of an aging patriarchal society. In college at a conservative Christian college I was told I was an intelligent student who should consider graduate studies, while simultaneously being told women should not hold positions of leadership in the church. It was suggested instead that I could be some sort of teacher, or even better, a church secretary. To all of these wise male scholars I would like to make the uncomfortable statement that Jesus was a liberal. He went against tradition and constantly argued with the conservatives of his time. He spoke to women when he was not supposed to, he gave them important roles in his ministry, he placed an emphasis on children, who were not seen as highly valuable in his society. He touched “unclean” people, ate in the homes of disreputable individuals that no decent person associated with, and spent time with the “racially impure” Samaritans. God-fearing people who were deemed as “unclean” because of their racially mixed background.
Which brings me to the current issue of race and the conservative church. The church has a very bloody history where race is concerned. How many Southerners used the fact that men in the Bible owned slaves as a justification to continue the horrors of slavery in America for far too long? The Pilgrims and Pioneers saw North America as the “Promised Land” and used those ancient bloody stories of genocide and conquest as a justification to drive out by any means available and kill indiscriminately the indigenous people. When these issues are brought up, the conservative Christians I know squirm in their chairs and mutter that was a long time ago and they are not responsible for what happened in the past. Perhaps not, but what has the modern church done to address the issue of racism? One woman complained it was “unfair” that Christians ae seen as racist. My observation has been that because Christians are willing to accept people of any race at their church, they claim not to be racist. Accepting people only after they have adapted to your personal religion and culture is still racist in nature. If the conservative church wants to convince anyone that they are not racist, then they need to take a hard stand against system racism instead of making excuses or going into denial. Call it out for the evil it is and adopt a policy of zero tolerance and maybe you will convince society that the church is not racist.
What does any of this have to do with Donald Trump?
Trump exemplifies all of these hypocrisies in the most obvious way possible. In 2016 during his first campaign a recording was released of Trump saying because he was a celebrity he could kiss any woman or grab her in her most private body parts and no one would say or do anything. This wasn’t hearsay or an ugly rumor. This was a recording of him saying exactly that and demonstrating zero respect or regard for women. And conservative Christians STILL went to the polls and elected him as their leader. And what happened to those all-important “family values?” There has certainly never been a President with so many ex-wives. Or so many ongoing sex scandals within a few short years. What happened to those super important moral values? People have been run out of church for far less than Donald Trump has done. And this is the leader we should look to and respect??
Since his election Trump has demonstrated the most racist ideology of any President in generations, rivaling even the notorious Andrew Jackson. He has stated sympathy and understanding to white supremist hate groups and refused to denounce their actions. He has made it “okay” to make racist comments and worked to defund cultural sensitivity training programs for government employees. In so doing he has lifted that heavy burden of “political correctness” from the conservative right wing. Because learning what is hurtful to others is just too much for the delicate white conservatives to bear. Trumps policies included trying to revive the coal industry and protecting the oil industry. Like the conservative church, Trump’s policies have no regard for climate change or damage to the environment.
And so we see how the conservative church could throw in their lot with the most morally corrupt candidate to come along in years. But were they too obvious in aligning with someone like Donald Trump? The hypocrisy is so blatant. What pretentious moral high ground is left to claim? Perhaps the election of Donald Trump needed to happen to expose once and for all the hypocrisy and moral decay that has been eating away at the conservative church for decades and even centuries. How does the church recover from this embarrassment? Maybe now conservative Christians will start to wonder if supporting a man like Trump has undermined their credibility and “Christian witness.” Maybe they will start to wonder if anyone can take them seriously if they continue this support. And maybe, just maybe, they will ask themselves that old clique question from the 1990s when election day rolls around: “What would Jesus do?”
