A Letter To The Evangelical Community
For the evangelical voter, a statement from another evangelical to the effect that God has picked this or that man (usually) to be President can be a powerful announcement. An endorsement from a representative of the most powerful being in – or outside of – the Universe is powerful stuff. As documented in National Review in the case of President Bush during his 2004 campaign:
After 9/11, the sense that God had chosen Bush certainly increased among his supporters, and perhaps in him. “I think that God picked the right man at the right time for the right purpose,” said popular Christian broadcaster Janet Parshall. Others began to find their own evidence. General William Boykin got in trouble in part because of his comment that God must have put Bush in the White House, since the voters didn’t: “Why is this man in the White House? The majority of Americans did not vote for him. He’s in the White House because God put him there for a time such as this.”
I have a vivid memory of a TV interview with a voter who stated that she felt God had picked Bush for the Presidency.
I will now note, not as a matter of snark, disdain, loathing, nor contempt, but as a simple fact, (one worthy of consideration by those who wish to consider themselves thoughtful, and therefore worthy of being an American citizen and intellectual inheritor of the mantle of Jefferson, Washington, Franklin, etc.) that, today, the Bush Administration is not mentioned as a Golden Era, nor as a Blessed Administration; in fact, it is scarcely mentioned at all by its ideological successors. President Bush does not appear to be sought out for his wisdom or experience – and, in fact, his most noteworthy comment lately reported was a succinct statement on the Trump Inauguration, suggesting it was “… some weird shit.” For the serious voter, liberal or conservative, this descent from near-ecstasy to disdain & obscurity, instigated by the conservatives for their own living ex-President, should be a sobering question to be considered for its lessons.
But let me tell you what many of us outside of the evangelical community saw from this particular Administration – two long, expensive wars which killed hundreds of thousands of non-combatants; the botching of opportunities to win hearts and minds in a vital part of the world with those wars; the descent into country-wide dishonor when we began a government-sanctioned torture system, an activity disavowed by our wiser ancestors, regardless of its efficacy (which was, according to the CIA report, zero); wars in which our own military forces were dissipated, men and women killed and injured, thus damaging their families and, for those who worry about material resources, resulting in huge future costs as the injured must receive lifelong care; the horrific revelation that the Iraq War was initiated under false pretenses, as the Iraqis had no WMDs, and our key leaders knew it; and, insult to injury, the Great Recession, brought on by the GOP-led Congress promoting their GOP business ideology, that Government should have little role to play in business regulation.
My fellow Americans in the Evangelical community, the paragraph above describes judgments that are poor, bad, and outright evil. They came from the Administration of a man selected by the Evangelical community, and, regardless of his personal responsibility for any action during that period, he must take responsibility, as he was responsible for placing in his government those who perpetrated those actions. This man, thought to be picked by God, damaged and dishonored the nation.
That’s what those of us outside the Evangelical community saw.
Before I come to the subject of methods, let me briefly cover the previous subject again, the process of selecting a President, but now, I’ll frame it in a different context – the most recent Presidential election. Rather than indulge in discussion, I shall illustrate with example. First, Glenn Beck, as quoted via Mediaite:
I have said that I believe he’s given us the opportunity to unite behind Ted Cruz. I believe that Ted is a man of God. I do believe that if we study, pray, and seek God’s inspiration, he will touch our hearts. We will see the truth about the two candidates: Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. And he will inspire us on the truth … I have seen this man’s life. I have watched this man. I have prayed about this man. I have prayed about it by myself, out loud, in quiet, with my family, with my staff, and I happen to believe that Ted Cruz actually was anointed for this time. Would there not be someone that was in the pool that might have the right qualifications for God? Is he that disinterested in all of us? Or is it perhaps possible that just like in the Bible, people were raised from birth for a specific time? Are we that inconsequential, Dr. Kidd? Are we really not that important enough for him to raise someone up, at this critical juncture?
And, next, Pat Robertson, via Snopes News Service:
You know, you read the Bible, and there was a point in there where God told Jeremiah, he said, “Tell them to take the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar,” and they didn’t want to do it, and you read the second Psalm which says, “Why do the nations rage, and imagine a vain thing,” and they revolt against the Lord and his anointed. I think, somehow, the Lord’s plan is being put in place for America and these people are not only revolting against Trump, they’re revolting against what God’s plan is for America. These other people have been trying to destroy America. These left-wingers and so-called progressives are trying to destroy the country that we love and take away the freedoms they love. They want collectivism. They want socialism. What we’re looking at is free markets and freedom from this terrible, overarching bureaucracy. They want to fight as much as they can but I think the good news is the Bible says, “He that sits in the heavens will laugh them to scorn,” and I think that Trump’s got something on his side that’s a lot more powerful than the media.
Two icons of the Evangelical community, claiming direct communications with the Supreme Being, come to radically different conclusions. If one were to focus only on results, however, this would not be a problem. Reasonable people reach different conclusions, based on differing assumptions about data and processes. But the key word here is reasonable.
And this leads me to my next subject, methods, the crux of this letter. By this, my friends, I mean how we evaluate our candidates. Let me tell you that, outside of the Evangelical community, methods are various and sometimes mystifying, as they range from detailed data-driven analysis which somehow disregards the character of the candidate, to a simple shrug and the statement, “I guess I’m a died-in-the-wool Republican voter.” No one method is perfect, but some are better than others – and most admit to discussion and refinement.
Now – and I truly am not digressing, if you’ll give me a moment of patience – the National Review article cited earlier states:
But many evangelical Christians believe they are despised, misunderstood, and discriminated against by journalists, Hollywood, elites, and almost anyone not in their pack.
Regardless of the applicability of these adjectives, then (2004) or now, I shall add one more adjective as it applies to those outside the Evangelical community – dismayed. Many would say they are dismayed over the election results; dismayed by who was picked by the Evangelical community. But I will dispute that and suggest that this dismay should be redirected at a more apropos source.
The selection methods, themselves.
When Glenn Beck asserts that he believes Ted Cruz has been anointed for the Presidency, this is not on any rational grounds. When Pat Robertson says he believes Trump is God’s intended leader, and those opposed to him are in revolt against God, this has no rational basis.
These assertions are considered privileged communications from God.
And this is the crux. A respected member of the Evangelical community claims to know the mind of God – in this case, who God has sent to lead the United States. Then this man’s choice, without question, is broadcast to the rest of the group as the selection of God. There is no verification. God doesn’t write it on the side of a mountain. How do we know this is really God’s pick, and not just a self-interested selection by that same Evangelical?
And as wonderful and mysterious as these proclamations of holy selection may seem to those on the inside, for those of us outside your community, they fill us with dread and despair. Not, as you might think, at the power or mystery of God, but dread and despair at the folly of man. Because we remember. We remember the disastrous Bush Administration. And the turmoil and deceit of the Nixon years. And the economic free-fall caused by Reagan’s policies. And – we notice how quickly and completely you forget. For those of us of a historical bent, we remember your predecessors, the repeated predictions of the end of the world, the hysteria, the abandonment of responsibilities in expectation of the coming of God. All for naught.
And all of this was based on the words of those who claim private knowledge, straight from God.
But perhaps these are familiar arguments. Let me take this one step further, in a logical yet visceral manner. In this post, I explored my reasons for supporting the secular nature of the United States. Its relevant facet, a short history of the monarchs of Britain in the time directly preceding the American Revolution, may be summarized thusly:
Many of those English monarchs, acting on their religious certainty, burned their opponents at the stake.
Take a moment. Remove the intellectual knowledge of the process of this torture from the forefront of your mind. Imagine, instead, being that victim. Feel their emotion, elicited by the knowledge that someone else’s religious belief has doomed you to an agonizing death. Feel the helplessness of the victim, knowing they had no argument against the authorities, because the mandate condemning them was immune to reason or argument. The other side always bolstered its argument by the simple invocations of God’s Will and God’s Ways Are Mysterious, followed by the Admonition, the Rack, the Chain, and the Flame.
* * *
I hope, then, that the dismay outside the Evangelical community at the selection and subsequent performance of Donald Trump for the Presidency should be of no surprise. It’s widely recognized that the Evangelical community played an important, even pivotal part in bring the Presidency within his grasp.
But allow me to convey to the Evangelical community the perceptions of Donald Trump by those not dependent upon the Word of God.
Bully.
Casual breaker of contracts.
Boastful.
Willfully ignorant.
Deceiver.
A facile promiser, by which I mean someone who would give a promise regardless of how it impacts past, present, or future promises, but merely to gain the support of the person for Trump’s agenda.
All these came from the campaign. The decision of the Evangelical community to back such a man, of whom all these descriptions are objective (that is, provable through a little research into history, and not merely hateful insults), were painfully dismaying to the balance of the electorate who perceived him in this way. These Evangelical methods are impervious to reason and argument, and only vulnerable to an opposing communique from God, again impervious to reason and argument. This leaves us to wonder why our fellow Americans, inheritors of the mantle of reason, as it came down from our Founding Fathers such as Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, and many other distinguished gentlemen, in opposition to the forces of religious communication and absolute power in the personae of the English monarchs who slew and destroyed in answer to their religious impulses, have chosen such a doubtful approach to the fulfilling of their duties as Americans in the selection of their leaders, both Presidential and Congressional.
Since the new Administration and Congress have taken their seats, the performances of both Donald Trump and most, but not all, of the GOP members of Congress, where most Evangelical votes went, have done nothing to quell the disquiet in America. Such words and phrases as incompetent, White Supremacist, extremist, insular, repressive, authoritarian and other negative sentiments have been hurled with great appropriateness at the current government, and by a large segment of the electorate. The proof is in the polls.
The current numbers are unprecedented in their dismal assessment of a President, especially one just getting under way. This is not unreasoning hatred or a rush to judgment, my friends, but rather the sober evaluation of a President whose tangible actions have been a source of dismay, embarrassment and concern for those who love this country.
And yet, his approval rating, at about 38% in this Gallup poll, is still too high in my opinion.
My original motivation in writing this post was to deconstruct a piece of mail that had crossed my desk recently, and, as I like to finish what I start, if perhaps after a long delay, I hope to ask your indulgence in a little more analysis. In this case, I shall copy the mail and intersperse my comments, all fairly spare and referential to my earlier points.
My Fellow Americans…..
“Only through faith in God may a man carrying responsibility find repose” Gen Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1944
A reasonable sentiment, giving cover to the unfortunate sentiments to follow. I also did not find a secular source attributing this quote to Eisenhower, although perhaps I didn’t try hard enough.
Understand the weight of this image. This soldier lost both arms, both arms. The feeling of a handshake is lost to him. Donald Trump realized this and touched his face so he can, at least for a moment in time, feel the human connection!!!
It’s a lovely thought, it really is. However, the writer is naive (or quite deceptive, but I prefer to think the best of my fellow Americans), for it’s a well-established American political tradition to set up photo-ops such as this. It’s an inspirational image, but it does not prove Mr. Trump had that thought in his head; he could have easily been instructed to do so by aides, as so many politicians before him have been instructed in specific actions to gain the sympathy of the public. No doubt Clinton did so as well.
This is what I see when I think of Trump’s motives. He gave up the billionaire lifestyle to be insulted, dragged through the proverbial political mud, and lied about on a daily basis.
All this to save this country and people he loves.
Which presupposes it needed saving. Objective metrics suggest that, while serious challenges exist, we had done well under the leadership of the previous Administration in climbing out of the catastrophe of the Bush Administration.
He’s not perfect. None of us are. However, I believe our Lord has answered our prayers and placed him where he is.
This is an interesting statement, since it references Trump’s obvious and painful failures. Worse yet, for the American who is not part of the Evangelical community, this statement is appalling, because it suggests God has taken a dark view of the United States and, through the Evangelical community, inflicted upon America a leader of many vices, few if any virtues, whose actions do not speak to the requirements of the Nation as a whole – but to his own peculiar set of perceptions of reality (which are better addressed elsewhere). Is this really the desire of the Evangelical community?
PLEASE LOOK AT THIS PICTURE ONE MORE TIME!!!
An appeal to visceral emotion, rather than mature, sober evaluation and judgment.
To my fellow Americans and friends in the Evangelical community, thank you for your patience, consideration, and understanding. At present, the rest of the country is greatly dismayed by your choice for President of the United States. It is my hope that we may be able come together to correct the current situation, then move forward into a time of greater integrity, intelligence and informed reason.
