Some (Hopefully Helpful) Thoughts On Your Safety Pin...

One of the most powerful examples of symbolic protest was during the Second World War when, in April of 1940, Germany invaded neutral Denmark. 

In a powerful act of solidarity with his Jewish subjects, King Christian X donned the yellow Jewish star that the Nazis were forcing Jews to wear. The Danish population followed suit and, since everyone was wearing a Jewish star, the deportation of Jews to concentration camps became completely unworkable and was thoroughly stymied.

It’s an incredible story. And it’s not true.

The truth is that Danish citizens never wore the yellow star, nor did King Christian ever threaten to wear it himself. In fact, Danish Jews never wore the yellow star either, except for the few who were finally deported to concentration camps, nor did German officials ever issue an order requiring Danish Jews to wear it. 

What the Danish people did do was truly extraordinary.

On 23 August 1943, the German occupation of Denmark, which up to that point had been somewhat benign, took a much darker turn. Copenhagen was invaded, the Danish Army was disarmed, the Danish government dissolved, King Christian was jailed, and martial law was declared. In response, sabotage operations by the Danish underground resistance against German targets increased considerably.

On 28 September, Danish officials were informed that Danish Jews would be deported two days later on 1 October. 

In an extraordinary operation that involved almost the entire Danish population, as well as the agreement of the Swedish government, nearly all Danish Jews were hidden and then ferried across to Sweden, where they remained until the war ended.

Out of Denmark’s Jewish population of 8,000, the Germans only managed to round up 400. But even they weren’t forgotten, and the Danish authorities ceaselessly requested to inspect the camp, which the  Danish Red Cross were finally allowed to do in June 1944.

As a result of this undaunted interest in Denmark’s Jews, none were sent to their intended destination of Auschwitz.

At the end of the war, fifty-five had died.

I tell this story because I want to think about what I started talking about at the beginning: symbolic protest, and one symbolic protest in particular- the safety pin.

I’ve had posts from three separate Facebook friends asking me to wear a safety pin.  At a coordinating meeting I attended yesterday afternoon, four people had bags of them and were passing them out.

The safety pin emerged as a symbolic protest in post-‘Brexit’ vote Britain, as harassment and attacks on migrants and minority communities began to skyrocket.

In the wake of the Trump Presidential victory, it has migrated across the pond with the same sentiment attached: let people- particularly those who bore the brunt of Trump's invective- that the person wearing the pin is in solidarity with them, that they are 'safe', that they will listen to them and act on their behalf.

To be honest, my first reaction to it was utter exasperation because, honestly, I’m so tired of 'liketivism'- online petitions, changing your profile picture to support a cause, asking people to get your ‘Stop (insert horrible thing here)' social media site to 1,000,000 'likes'…

If I was tired of it all before the election, I’m really tired of it now, and the safety pin just hit all my buttons.

First of all, I was willing to bet all the money in my pockets that this was not instigated by actually endangered minority communities. This, I bargained, was a white thing. ‘Liketivism’ usually is. It tends to involve a white, Western Middle Class person discovering that something horrible is going on; they then decide that something needs to be done (alongside the vague assumption that nothing actually *is* being done, or at least nothing worthwhile…). Then, they then pick a small, distinct, outward gesture for people to do or (more likely) wear- a red shirt, a pink ribbon, a safety pin- to ‘raise awareness’, show the affected people that ‘we care’, that they are ‘not alone’…

‘It’s a small, simple gesture’, we are told, ‘but it makes a huge difference to the suffering people.’

Does it? I’m not so sure. 

Why am I not sure? Because I haven’t actively asked marginalized, endangered communities what they think of it… and rarely do the organizers of ‘liketivist’ campaigns.

My friend and fellow theologian Jayme Reeves, in a brilliant essay on her blogsite, writes:

What I do know is that chances are it was started by someone NOT at risk.  Most likely it was started by a white, middle class, hetero person wanting to protest a political outcome and show solidarity.  Chances are that an immigrant, Muslim, person of color, or a disabled or LGBT+ person didn't go, "I know! Why don't you all start wearing safety pins so I know who's safe to go to?!

However, we need to be honest about what purpose the safety pins serve in most cases.  Hear me: SOLIDARITY IS A GOOD THING.  SAFE SPACES ARE NEEDED.  But a safety pin does not a safe space make.  More than anything, wearing a safety pin is a marker so that we (people who don't want to be known as racist or homophobic) know each other.  There's strength and comfort in numbers and that is where the solidarity of wearing safety pins lies.  For some, wearing a safety pin makes the wearer feel better, to say "this wasn't my fault."  At the end of the day, it's a political statement.  

Let me be clear: there’s nothing wrong with symbolic protests. There is nothing wrong with political statements. There’s nothing wrong with symbols of unity and solidarity. 

The Danish people had theirs as well; one action involved wearing four coins tied together with red and white ribbons in their buttonholes (Red and white are the Danish national colours, and four coins adding up to 9 øre represented the date of the occupation, 9 April).

But the coins on their lapels saved no Jews; gasoline, boats, planning, expertise, and grave personal risk did.

That brings me to my main concern about symbolic protest: that it might potentially be all people do, or worse, all that they think themselves capable of doing.

‘I can’t do much. This is something I can do.’

I understand. Truly I do. I'm not heartless about this; a couple of close friends have helped me modulate my tone about this.

I do get it; sometimes the issues facing us are so horrific, so overwhelming, that we shut down; we feel paralyzed; we think that we’re unable to do anything heroic. 

But I do want to say this:

You have the same power, the same abilities, and- if you choose to cultivate it- the same courage as any one of the thousands of Danes who saved their Jewish neighbors. They were shopkeepers, mill workers, agricultural workers, housewives, students, white-collar professionals…

… and, when the moment of crisis came, thousands of bank clerks and waitresses looked down at their lapels, saw their coins and ribbons and said, ‘I can do more’…

---

As I was writing that last line, I received a message from my friend and colleague Will Randall, who works for the Montana Human Rights Network. His truck was vandalized last night, the only one on his street. Needless to say, there’s no indication of who did it or their motives. But Will’s outspokenness for the freedom and dignity of everyone here in the Flathead Valley in the face of- since the election- an emboldened far right leave me and him with our suspicions. 

He’ll be in Depot Park in Kalispell this afternoon, where people will be gathering in support of another local activist, Jennifer Allen, who was protesting alone yesterday, when she was jumped by three teenage males who grabbed her signs and tore them up.

They yelled ‘Fuck Hillary’ as they ran away.

I understand your safety pin. But I do most urgently hope you look down at it and say,

‘I can do more’…

'Exile': Doing Theology in Donald Trump's America

I will not lie to you; I'm very, very worried. 

The election of Donald Trump to the US Presidency is bad, potentially disastrous.

A man who so openly courted neo-Nazis to his campaign- the real, honest-to-God ones, not the vaguely centre-right establishment Republicans that so many of the left have ludicrously called ‘fascists’ for the past two decades;

Who so openly enflamed racial divides;

Who so openly incited violence at his rallies;

Who so openly embraced every piece of junk science;

Who praised foreign dictators;

Who made going to war a campaign promise;

Who promised to tear up every international agreement, trade deal, or treaty that he thought was ‘a disaster’;

Who demeaned women, Muslims, people of colour and… well, anyone not like him, really;

Who showed such unveiled contempt for a free press;

Who showed such open disdain for the Constitution, 

Separation of Powers, and an independent judiciary;

Who boasted that his celebrity allowed him to grab women by the pussy- not ‘p**sy’, by the way; that’s not what he said... He said ‘pussy’…

… That guy won.

It’s not good. It’s very, very bad.

I’m not shocked, though. That might come as a surprise, but I’m not. I currently live in Montana, the red state against which all other red states are measured, and I spent almost two decades working with an Evangelical Christian organization. From that long experience, I’m positive that most of the media, American progressive liberals, and establishment pundits had no idea how unpopular Hillary Clinton is and how many people would vote for anyone- and we now know literally anyone- but her. That made her dangerously weak, weaker than any of her supporters who repeated ad nauseum how spectacularly qualified she was, who shouted down anyone cautious about her nomination given what was at stake, seemed to realize.

It was her turn to run. She got her turn. And she lost. Big.

I doubt many African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, LGBT people, or Muslims were shocked either. For them, this was simply a confirmation of what they’ve known for centuries- that racism, intolerance, misogyny, and xenophobia are American developmental disabilities, embedded deep in our national DNA.

So what do we do?

In trying to construct some kind of theological reflection on this, my mind immediately was drawn to one word:

'Exile'... 

It might feel like everything instantly became foreign, all the old understandings were swept away, nothing feel's like 'home' anymore...

The Hebrew prophet Jeremiah, writing to the Jewish community living in exile in Babylon, had this advise for them in chapter 29:

The Lord God of Israel who rules over all says to all those he sent into exile to Babylon from Jerusalem, ‘Build houses and settle down’. Plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters. Find wives for your sons and allow your daughters to get married so that they too can have sons and daughters. Grow in number; do not dwindle away. 

One of the major cautions repeated over and over throughout the Hebrew Bible is against false prophets, those who purport to be wise and speaking for God but are actually just talking out their hats. Hey, who doesn’t want to stay positive and search for good news in the aftermath of catastrophe? Who doesn’t want a ‘word of encouragement’? Obviously, there were those who were telling the Jews of Israel that their captivity in Babylon would be a very short-lived affair, but the prophet Jeremiah here puts paid to that notion. 

Exile would last years, even generations.

My social media is filled with notes saying, ‘don’t worry, it’s only four years!’ Well, it might very well be eight… or more. 

Trump was a terrible candidate who ran a chaotic campaign, struggled to stay on message for hours at a time, and was in open rebellion against his own party’s establishment. I shudder to think how we’ll do against a candidate who espouses all of Trump’s ideas but who is focused, sharp, and an expert campaigner.  

America might have turned a political corner for the foreseeable future; Trump will fade, maybe even flair out spectacularly, we just don’t know… But ‘Trumpism’ might, in some shape or form, be here to stay. 

Those of us who have a very different vision of what American democracy, society, and culture might be had better at least start thinking in the long term, perhaps the very long term…

Work to see that the city where I sent you as exiles enjoys peace and prosperity. Pray to the Lord for it. For as it prospers you will prosper.’

‘Support Trump’s America? Are you insane?!’

Yes. Well, if anything he said in the campaign is to be believed, not necessarily the policies, 

but the people.

Whether we agree with the statement or not, Trump ran as a ‘change’ candidate. Many voted for change because the situation they find themselves is unbearable- poor economy, poor job choices, cultural decline, insecurity, and yes, fear. Any Hillary supporter who had listened to American talk radio for a single afternoon would have had reason to be nervous about her chances. Right-wing demagogues and a good amount of Christian clergy have been screaming for years that these people have a right to be angry and have good cause to fear. 

But like all right-wing demagogues the world over, they’ve pointed the finger of blame at ‘others’- black ‘thugs’, ‘predatory’ gay men, Muslims, Jews (they call them ‘the international banking conspiracy’, but don’t be fooled) …

America has big problems that many- left and right- have ignored for years. There are millions of people- left and right- who have been ignored for years.

Someone once asked Jesus, ‘who is my neighbor?’ Your neighbors are Trump supporters, Hillary supporters, Evangelicals, gays, single parents, ‘zero contract hour’ workers, ‘Black Lives Matter’ supporters, Standing Rock supporters… 

This country is all of us. We need each other... Now more than ever. If you don't know your neighbors, or don't recognize the image of God in the neighbors you despise, You need to start now.

Remember those houses the prophet told us to build? Build a house for someone who has no house.

Remember those gardens we need to plant? Share the produce with a local food pantry.

Remember the weddings we need to plan? Make sure everyone’s marriages are supported, valued, and protected.

Remember ‘Grow in number’? Invite people in.

This is our country. Make it work… for everyone.

…‘Do not let the prophets or those among you who claim to be able to predict the future by divination deceive you. And do not pay any attention to the dreams that you are encouraging them to dream. They are prophesying lies to you and claiming my authority to do so. But I did not send them. I, the Lord, affirm it!’

And Oh my God, did every one of our 'prophets' boot this one...

Every poll was wrong. Every pundit was wrong (Well, Michael Moore called it…). Many of us sat for hours on end listening to tables full of experts explain ‘the numbers’. They all told us to ‘stay tuned’ for more. 

And who won? Chrysler, Cadillac, Viagra, Annheiser-Busch, Travelocity, Target, and every other company who bought airtime on MSNBC, FOX, CNN… All the same companies on every network. What does that tell you?

Now, the same pollsters, pundits, and commentators are on again for hours on end explaining how exactly they got it wrong. And Chrysler, Cadillac, Viagra, Annheiser-Busch, Travelocity, and and every other company are still there…

Turn it off. Turn it all off. You don’t need it.

All of the fun ‘click bait’ stories about how such-and-such celebrity just ‘*DESTROYED* Donald Trump with a single tweet’? Well, funnily enough, the tweet didn’t destroy anyone…

Don’t click. Ever. It’s all worthless.

And while I’m at it, let me just say that I’m done with the late-night ‘comedy news’ people. John Oliver, Seth Meyers, SNL, Sam Bee, Stephen Colbert… Almost a year of all of them saying, ‘Oh, look at him! What a buffoon! And his ancestral name is Drumpf! Can you imagine? Isn’t it just too ridiculous?! Isn’t it all hilarious?!'

Now, after the election, with thousands of lives potentially ruined if Trump does a mere tenth of what he promised to do, the same comedians sheepishly offer us inspirational words of comfort, ‘Oh, well, we’ll all get through it’…

Well, many might not, funny man…

Worse, now my social media is filled with messages saying, ‘oh well, at least Alec Baldwin has four years of work ahead of him!’

I can’t do it anymore.  

‘Don’t worry! It’s funny!’

Well, for a lot of people, it’s serious as hell.

…‘Only when the seventy years of Babylonian rule are over will I again take up consideration for you. Then I will fulfill my gracious promise to you and restore you to your homeland. For I know what I have planned for you,’ says the Lord. ‘I have plans to prosper you, not to harm you. I have plans to give you a future filled with hope. When you call out to me and come to me in prayer, I will hear your prayers.  Then you seek me in prayer and worship, you will find me available to you. If you seek me with all your heart and soul, I will make myself available to you,’ says the Lord. ‘Then I will reverse your plight and will regather you from all the nations and all the places where I have exiled you,’ says the Lord. ‘I will bring you back to the place from which I exiled you.’

God remains God, the God revealed by Jesus- a God of justice, righteousness, compassion, and love.

The Gospel of Jesus- food for the poor, sight to the blind, release to the prisoners, freedom for the captives, life for the lifeless, a voice for the voiceless- has been our Christian duty whether we live under Augustus, Nero, Charlemagne the Borgias, the Vikings, Queen Victoria, George Washington, Hitler, Stalin, Churchill, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama,

and yes, Donald Trump.

This is what the people of God will do- or at least should do- now, without fear, without fanfare, with dedication and determination…

Even in exile…

Fearful Christians (And The Damage They Do)...

One open secret of elections is that people very often aren’t voting for a candidate but against another candidate. They aren’t putting someone in office, but keeping someone else out.

Another open secret of elections is that people often vote out of insecurity and fear- fears for their incomes, jobs, savings, for their children’s futures, that they’ll be worse off under another candidate’s regime…

Finally, there’s the open secret that the fear many people vote from are unfounded or irrational- that the government is plotting to make your religion illegal, allowing immigrants to ‘pour’ into the country, will make owning a gun illegal, founded and funds foreign terrorist groups…

What makes fear so destructive to democracy and social stability is that it’s by its very nature irrational. Unlike someone exercising caution, sober-mindedness, risk assessment, and carefulness, a fearful person is usually uninformed (working without good information) and/or selfish (obsessed with their own safety or desires without attention to others’).

Fear often leads to overreaction- impulsive, knee-jerk action- or, conversely, paralysis- the inability to make good decisions or implement important activity.

Out of fear that our children might take drugs, we’ve ended up creating a multi-billion dollar prison infrastructure and incarcerating millions of nonviolent offenders as part of our ‘war on drugs’;

Out of fear of ‘terrorism’, we’ve severely curtailed the civil liberties of millions, illegally ‘profiled’ certain ethnic groups, cultures, and religions, and waged undeclared war on huge swathes of the globe, raining entire regions with drone strikes and bombing campaigns;

Out of fear for personal safety (and property values), we’ve militarized our police forces, criminalized the homeless, and reinforced structural racism in our courts, prison systems, and grand juries.

Much reporting and analysis during this election has focused on the fears of many Americans, and one group of Americans has stood out- Christians.

This election has been in the thrall of fearful Christians. A quick google search yielded me a whole page of headlines about fearful Christians- 

Christians who fear the loss of their guns; 

who fear Christianity is slowly becoming illegal; 

who fear the presence of Muslims and other faiths openly expressing themselves in their towns; 

who fear that LGBT people are destroying America; 

who fear Common Core curricula is poisoning their children...

The tragedy for me, as a theologian, is that this shows the extent to which so much American Christianity- of every denomination- is disconnected with theological reflection and the biblical text.

The biblical text is rife with exhortations to have no fear of anything. The righteous are not to worry or be anxious. The Hebrew book of Proverbs, the Psalms- and for certain denominations, the Book of Sirach and the Wisdom of Solomon- in dozens of instances all stress clear-thinking, wisdom, and sober-mindedness.

For Christians, Jesus on numerous occasions told his disciples not to fear what was going on, as well as to love their enemies, not fear them.

It is vital to remember, however, that we are not to be indifferent, nor are we to think that nothing really matters, that all situations are equal, or that we are not to care what happens.

Rather, whatever is going on around us, we are to actively pursue, as Jesus did, the Kingdom of God- peace, justice, and kindness;

We are to declare, as Jesus did, the year of God’s favour, not his wrath and his judgement;

We are to declare and live out, as Jesus did, the Good News of the Gospel- food for the poor, sight to the blind, release to the prisoners, freedom for the captives, life for the lifeless, a voice for the voiceless;

But what if, many argue, we feel legislated against? What if they legalize what we hold to be sin? What if they allow what we see as disgusting?  What about creating godly courts and governments?

St. Paul, writing to Christians who were often socially disadvantaged, looked down upon, or legislated against, never told his readers to be fearful of the future or strike back out of fear:

the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law (Gal. 5:22-23).

Whatever happens, love one another; do what is right; live peaceably with your neighbours; keep your head. There’s no law against that…

When was the last time in this election season you heard a Christian priest, pastor, or politician say that?

What if, many argue, the situation is serious, even grave? What if we’re attacked? What if cataclysm falls upon us? What if the Antichrist appears? What if our enemies destroy what we hold sacred?

As he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, his disciples came to him privately and said, “Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”  Jesus answered them, “Watch out that no one misleads you.  For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will mislead many.  You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. Make sure that you are not alarmed, for this must happen, but the end is still to come.  For nation will rise up in arms against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines and earthquakes in various places.  All these things are the beginning of birth pains… So when you see the abomination of desolation—spoken about by Daniel the prophet—standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then those in Judea must flee to the mountains (Matt. 24:1-8,15-16).

Armies will march; persecution will come; God’s Temple will be destroyed…   But make sure you are not alarmed; this isn’t the end of the world; God has not abandoned us… No need to fight; no need to form a resistance; just run, run away, save yourself, save your family; love God and your neighbour...

When was the last time in this election season you heard a Christian priest, pastor, or politician say that?

Socially, fear- and fearmongering- never nurtures democracy. It never builds social capital. It is never the foundation stone of beneficial public policy.

Theologically, fear- and fearmongering- is never described as a good or healthy spiritual trait. It is warned against in hundreds of passages in the biblical text. It is antithetical to the person and message of Jesus as he is described in the Gospels.

It is because of fear, scare tactics, and lowest-common-denominator fearmongering that we stand on a social and democratic precipice- and the fear of many Christians has played no small part in bringing us to this point. 

Those Christian leaders, clergy, the Christian politicians they prop up, and the ordinary Christians posting to Facebook and Twitter who have sown so much fear into the hearts and minds of their congregations, constituencies, and friends have done them, the country as a whole, and American democracy an enormous disservice.

For that, we must all repent…

… And model something very different. 

White Christian Voters: How 'Right' Is Too 'Right'?

I presently live in the Flathead Valley of Northwest Montana. Between Flathead Lake, the Swan Range of the Rocky Mountains, the nearby Glacier National Park, and our endless ‘big sky’, residents of this corner of the US never have cause to doubt that we live among some of the most breath-taking scenery in the world.

The Flathead Valley is a great place to live. People are friendly, the schools are great, and the pace of life is easy. There’s great local restaurants and bars, local entertainment, many local artists and galleries, several local microbreweries and winemakers and- believe it or not- a lively Irish traditional music scene, of which I have happily become a part.

I really like living here.

But the Flathead Valley- and Montana in general- also has a darker side: a small, but extremely active far-right movement.

There are several local individuals and groups holding public meetings, running websites, and having demonstrations expressing a toxic mix of white supremacism, white nationalism, and Neo-Nazi, anti-immigrant, anti-Native American, and anti-Semitic rhetoric.  

The history of some of these people goes back decades, working under one incarnation or another. More often than not, it’s been fairly under the radar and hasn’t really touched upon mainstream politics.

That has changed, however, over the past year, as Donald Trump’s campaign for the US Presidency has mainstreamed things that used to be whispered about or only spoken aloud in carefully-coded conversation.

By ‘mainstreaming’ I mean that a lot of ideas and rhetoric that, until a very short time ago, could have only seen on far-right internet forums like Stormfront or the New Century Foundation are openly expressed by official candidates of a mainstream political party- one of them exactly one vote away from securing the White House.

Please understand that in no sense am I accusing the majority of Republican Party members of racism or white nationalism; what I do mean is that the Trump Presidential run- and the GOP leaderships enabling of it- has widened the parameters of acceptable discourse to include issues, topics, and solutions that would have previously been considered dangerously extremist.

Like it or not, thanks to Trump, more and more right-wing extremists feel welcome in the political mainstream.

Our own local example of this is Taylor Rose, running for the District 3 Montana House seat.

The Montana Human Rights Network and the Southern Poverty Law Center have assiduously documented Rose’s long-standing ties with European neo-Nazi groups, US neo-confederate groups, and local Montana far-right organizations.

He has spoken and written extensively in his own publications, radical right-wing magazines, news outlets, and online; the evidence is public and extensive.

Nevertheless, he is a self-professed Christian and is running as a Republican, and the local GOP have assiduously papered over or dodged questions of Rose’s far-right associations.

I’ve spent the past few days writing to our local newspapers, calling on local GOP leadership, as well as ordinary voters, to repudiate Rose and make clear that there is no place in party politics for candidates so openly associated with hate groups.

Looking at all this as a theologian, I think this touches on an issue that just might be the defining issue for American Christianity at this historical moment.

I’m mindful of the large Christian presence here in the valley-the vast majority of whom are white Evangelicals, many of whom, as I wrote about in my last post, have gravitated to Trump.

Needless to say, I have no concrete idea how these people are going to vote- though, again as I wrote about in my last post, white, older Evangelicals are a key Trump demographic.

When I look at our local politics, I’m not interested in whether or not they vote for Trump;

I’m very interested in if they will vote for Rose...

Simply put, if the fruit of this election cycle is a reinvigorated, uncloaked far-right as a viable presence in US politics, will white Evangelicals gravitate towards openly segregationist, anti-immigrant, aggressively Islamophobic, anti-Semitic candidates once again?

Yes, I did say ‘once again’…

There was a time- and not just in the South- when white Christians supported openly racist political candidates and movements all the time. The Ku Klux Klan, the John Birch Society, Catholic demagogue Father Charles Coghlin... Protecting a white, Protestant status quo- and doing so openly- was the benchmark for many Christian voters.

There has been excellent scholarship and commentary recently about how American Christians of all denominations engage with electoral politics. In the background of it all are the racial, social, and religious shifts going on in 21^st-century America. 

The US is no longer a majority white, Christian nation; it’s still majority Christian by a considerable margin, but discounting African-Americans and Latinos, white Christians are only 45% of the population.

Many of the certainties of their former privilege are no longer concrete;

Issues such as ‘law and order’, the ‘war on drugs’, human sexuality, foreign policy, environmentalism, and gender issues are being explored from more expansive and inclusive- and less white and male- Christian perspectives.

And many older, white, and (mostly) male Evangelicals are pushing back…

American Christianity- particularly that of older, white, and (mostly) male Evangelicals- has reached an important crossroads.

How- and how far- are they willing to push back?

Who are they willing to support who promises to shore up their position?

How far back are they willing to look into their idyllic past for inspiration? 

How far to the right is too far right? 

'Reprobate Theology': The Divinity and the Depravity...

If you had to give this US Presidential election a slogan, it really would have to be ‘Yes, This Is Really Happening’…

Look, I won’t bother to catalog in detail here the myriad reasons that I think Trump is singularly unqualified for high office- the hate, the fear, the lies, the conspiracies, the arrogance, the sexual boasting- and go straight to one aspect of the whole thing that has me thinking:

The large number of prominent Evangelicals supporting him.

When news started to filter out some months ago that many influential Evangelical Christian leaders- as well as many suburban, older, white Evangelical voters (this is a very important distinction to make this early in this piece; younger, black, and Latino Evangelicals, who are largely forgotten and ignored when the term ‘Evangelicals’ gets used in a political context, are another matter entirely) were endorsing Trump, many of my Christian friends- particularly the Evangelical ones- were apoplectic. My social media erupted with posts with variations of ‘Why? WHY?! WWHHYYYYYYYYY!!!???’

Me? I wasn’t surprised in the slightest.

Why? Well, I’ll have to preface this by saying the unthinkable: Donald, this has nothing to do with you…

I’ve been cognizant of politics for over 30 years, and in those years, there have been few political realities as enduring as Evangelical Christian America’s dislike for Hilary Clinton.

I don’t mean ‘dislike’ in the sense of the ‘dislike’ one might feel for a politician with whom one disagrees; I mean ‘dislike’ in the same way one ‘dislikes’ smallpox…

Clinton is loathed, loathed on an elemental level; feared for what her presence might mean for their lives and the lives of loved ones; they hope and pray that all possible actions will be taken to stop her before she destroys again.

And like smallpox, she is loathed by many not as a person or a personality, but as an entity, a force; a disembodied, existential threat.

Whenever Clinton ran for President, the majority of suburban, white, older Evangelical Christian America was going to support whoever opposed her.

Last year, Donald Trump- an amoral, a-religious, profane, thrice-married, twice-divorced adulterer and CEO of a bankrupt gambling empire- became that opposition.

Most Evangelicals, of course, initially supported Jeb Bush, Cruz, Rubio, Carson… sometimes for their Evangelical and conservative bona fides, but always, underneath, because of the threat of Clinton. Each of these men in turn succumbed to Trump’s unique and unprecedented brand of insult-fuelled bullying, eventually leaving only Trump…

… and Clinton, the important part of this sentence being the ‘… and Clinton’.

Many observers thought that, for the majority of Evangelicals, support for Trump would be an insurmountable obstacle.

Focus on the Family founder and prominent Evangelical leader James Dobson laid the groundwork for demolishing that obstacle last June, announcing that Trump had recently come to ‘accept a relationship with Christ’ and was now ‘a baby Christian’. He gave no details, even saying he didn’t know when this conversion had occurred, only suggesting that it had been recent.

The right-wing, conservative Evangelical word breathed a collective, almost-audible sigh of relief. Trump was one of them.

What followed was, in my opinion, one of the most fascinating theological developments in the history of American politics, what I’d call ‘Reprobate Theology’.

At the heart of ‘Reprobate Theology’ is a dual commitment to the Christian doctrine of Total Depravity and the Pauline view of salvation. Emerging from Augustine of Hippo, Total Depravity concludes that every person is enslaved to sin, unable to satisfy divine justice in any way other than the unmerited grace of God. Through this grace, accomplished through the death of Christ, according to the Apostle Paul, the utterly depraved human becomes ‘a new creation; old things have passed away; all things are become new (2 Cor. 5:17)’.

So far, so standard Christian theology. But its specific political praxis that ‘Reprobate Theology’ comes into its own.

This praxis is twofold; first, there is the idea that the depravity itself is somehow to be, if not celebrated, then explicitly seen as irrelevant beside God’s ability to use the depraved person to do his will. God’s use of the person effectively takes all concerns, not just of the person’s sinful history, but indirectly their current qualifications, expertise (or lack of either), basic character, and temperament off the table, out of consideration.  

And, ironically, the more depraved the better, it would seem. Many Evangelical Trump supporters immediately began scouring the Biblical text for serial adulterers given a divine pass. They didn’t have to look far. David! Solomon! Samson! Killers, adulterers, warlords, despots… And God used them! Why can’t he use Donald Trump? After all, he’s depraved! I’m a sinner and God uses me! Stop judging! God’s got a plan…

Thus, bad behaviour is not an indication of a person’s character (regardless of everything drummed into my head from 8 years of Baptist High School…) but of the greatness of God’s forgiveness…

Helpfully, ‘Reprobate Theology’ is cyclically reinforcing; ongoing revelations of depravity serve only to strengthen it; the worse you are, the more God is glorified if he uses you. 

Secondly, ‘Reprobate Theology’ explicitly makes all past depravities off limits in terms of measuring competency or adequacy. Now that Trump is a ‘Christian’- a ‘new creation’- his past is off limits. After all, you can’t judge a brother in Christ. And we’re all sinners, sinners saved by grace…

My social media has been filled for two weeks with ‘Reprobate Theology’, and it’s very difficult to argue against. ‘Trump is a serial misogynist’; ‘So was David, and God used him’. ‘He has a bad character’; ‘So did Samson, and God used him’. ‘He’s woefully uninformed on even the basics of foreign policy, diplomacy, economics, trade…’ ‘’God has used the foolish things to confound the wise’…

The misuse of the Biblical text in this way is profoundly disturbing and personally frustrating for me. I care far, far too much for the Biblical text to see it used to excuse racism, misogyny, and stupidity.

Needless to say, ‘Reprobate Theology’ is meaningless because it can only be used in one direction; it uses the Biblical text to insulate Trump from criticism, but not Clinton herself or her husband. Their past indecencies, indiscretions, and alleged crimes are fair game. 

In fact, they are all magnified, as the election itself becomes, not simply an election, but a spiritual battle of Armageddon-sized proportions.

Why? Because Clinton herself has been so dehumanized for so long, she has morphed in the collective consciousness of ‘Reprobate’ theologians into something almost entirely abstract. She is not simply a liar; she is untruth personified. She is not simply incompetent; she is chaos itself. She is not pro-choice; she is death walking around.

And she is certainly not a Christian, a lifetime of Methodism notwithstanding. Clinton’s Christianity is dismissed out of hand with the same finality as Trump’s is accepted.

The logical conclusion of this is radio host and notorious conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’s rant on his radio show:  

(Hilary Clinton) is an abject, psychopathic demon from Hell that as soon as she gets into power is going to try to destroy the planet. 

I’m sure of that, and people around her say she’s so dark now, and so evil, and so possessed that they are having nightmares, they’re freaking out. 

Folks, let me just tell you something, and if media wants to go with this, that’s fine. There are dozens of videos and photos of Obama having flies land on him, indoors, at all times of year, and he’ll be next to a hundred people and no one has flies on them. 

Hillary, reportedly, I mean, I was told by people around her that they think she’s demon-possessed, okay? I’m just going to go ahead and say it, okay?

They said that they’re scared. That’s why when I see her when kids are by her, I actually get scared myself, with a child — with that big rubber face and that — I mean this woman is dangerous, ladies and gentleman. I’m telling you, she is a demon. This is Biblical. She’s going to launch a nuclear war. The Russians are scared of her.

[…]

Imagine how bad she smells, man? I’m told her and Obama, just stink, stink, stink, stink. You can’t wash that evil off, man. Told there’s a rotten smell around Hillary. I’m not kidding, people say, they say — folks, I’ve been told this by high up, folks. They say listen, Obama and Hillary both smell like sulfur. I never said this because the media will go crazy with it, but I’ve talked to people that are in protective details, they’re scared of her. And they say listen, she’s a frickin’ demon and she stinks and so does Obama. I go, like what? Sulfur. They smell like Hell.

Before you dismiss Jones, understand that his show attracts 2 million listeners a week and Trump, when being interviewed on Jones’s website in December of last year, praised him. ‘Your reputation is amazing’, Trump said, ‘I will not let you down’…

‘Reprobate Theology’ is similar to the idea of ‘Disaster Theology’ I posted about on 21 August- it’s nonsense. It’s unsystematic, illogical, hurtful, hateful, and utterly biblically baseless. Any theological model that requires so many loopholes and exceptions to ‘work’ is simply bad theology- random, pointless, and anti-Christian.

The theological lesson of the 2016 US Presidential race might just end up being that, if the doctrine of Total Depravity is seriously brought to bear upon it, you just might end up supporting a candidate who is totally depraved…