{"id":273093,"date":"2020-10-27T06:16:16","date_gmt":"2020-10-27T10:16:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=273093"},"modified":"2020-10-27T06:16:16","modified_gmt":"2020-10-27T10:16:16","slug":"donald-trump-is-hardly-the-republican-jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/10\/27\/donald-trump-is-hardly-the-republican-jesus\/","title":{"rendered":"Donald Trump is hardly the ‘Republican Jesus’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
The Trump administration and their Christian supporters promote a form of Christianity that scholars call \u201cChristian nationalism.\u201d That\u2019s an ideology that isn\u2019t just about religion, but \u201cincludes assumptions of nativism, white supremacy, patriarchy and heteronormativity, along with divine sanction for authoritarian control and militarism,\u201d according to sociologists Andrew Whitehead and Samuel Perry. (File photo:<\/a> @realDonaldTrump\/Twitter<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s yet unknown how U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s attempts to position himself as the Christian candidate of choice will influence Christian voters in the United States \u2014 and how Democrats\u2019 attempts to speak to Christians may sway previous Trump voters or those not publicly declaring their intentions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\u2018Republican Jesus: How the Right has Rewritten the Gospels\u2019<\/span>
\n(University of California Press)<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cDems want to shut your churches down, permanently,\u201d Trump tweeted<\/a> in early October. A few days earlier, his son, Eric Trump, declared<\/a> that his dad \u201cliterally saved Christianity.\u201d<\/p>\n

These statements fit a wider pattern: Trump has called himself<\/a> \u201cthe chosen one,\u201d proclaimed<\/a> that God is \u201con our side\u201d and warned that Biden will \u201churt the Bible, hurt God<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Trump administration and its Christian supporters have been using Christianity to draw battle lines in this high-stakes election. This Republican political strategy that uses Christian language to cast Trump as a divinely appointed protector<\/a> of Christians warrants more scrutiny than it\u2019s received.<\/p>\n

In my book, Republican Jesus<\/em><\/a>, I identify key trends in the way today\u2019s right-wing influencers interpret the Bible: they view Jesus as a prophet of free-market capitalism who opposes taxes and is against any regulation that supports social welfare programs, protects workers or prevents discrimination.<\/p>\n

More than religion<\/h2>\n

The Trump administration and their Christian supporters promote a form of Christianity that scholars call \u201cChristian nationalism.\u201d That\u2019s an ideology that isn\u2019t just about religion, but \u201cincludes assumptions of nativism, white supremacy, patriarchy and heteronormativity, along with divine sanction for authoritarian control and militarism<\/a>,\u201d according to sociologists Andrew Whitehead and Samuel Perry.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve demonstrated with survey data that about half of Americans support some form of the idea that America is, and should be, a Christian nation. Christian nationalists are especially fond of boundaries \u2014 not just walls, but also social boundaries that cast liberals as outsiders.<\/p>\n

These sociologists say about 20 per cent of Americans are \u201cambassadors,\u201d an overwhelmingly white group that insists the U.S. has always been and must remain Christian. Another 30 per cent are \u201caccommodators,\u201d who lean toward supporting Christian nationalism but hold somewhat more ambivalent views (for example, they say that \u201cChristian values\u201d should influence society but might allow that non-Christians also advance these values).<\/p>\n

When pro-Trump Christians use the language of Christianity under siege, their foremost objective is to court the votes of these \u201caccommodators.\u201d<\/p>\n

Corporate backing<\/h2>\n

As historian Kevin M. Kruse argues, \u201cthe belief that America is fundamentally and formally a Christian nation originated in the 1930s when businessmen enlisted religious activists in their fight against FDR\u2019s New Deal<\/a>.\u201d These corporate-funded conservatives claimed that the social safety net breaks the commandment not to steal \u2014 that the government steals taxes from individuals to reward the indolent.<\/p>\n

They cast Christianity as the free-market antidote to \u201cpagan stateism<\/a>\u201d: a menace they created to conflate progressive forms of Christianity with communism, socialism and Nazism<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Dogmatic adherence to free-market capitalism and limited government is the common thread in the history of the American Christian right. By this logic, anyone who favours a more regulated form of capitalism attacks Christianity.<\/p>\n

In the Civil Rights era, some religious conservatives insisted that the desegregation of public schools was government overreach and a threat to religious freedom<\/a>. Since Roe vs. Wade<\/em>, they have characterized abortions as the government robbing unborn citizens<\/a> of their rights.<\/p>\n

Politics of exclusion<\/h2>\n

On Sept. 26, Rev. Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham and among the most influential pro-Trump evangelicals<\/a>, hosted a massive prayer march that drew thousands<\/a> to Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

The broadcast\u2019s refrain was \u201cthis is not a political event, but a prayer event.\u201d Yet speakers repeatedly invoked the myth<\/a> that America was founded as a Christian nation as the march proceeded on a path through the National Mall<\/a> (with no social distancing and limited masks).<\/p>\n

It was scheduled just before Trump\u2019s announcement of a conservative Catholic judge who has ties to a charismatic and secretive Christian group<\/a> as his Supreme Court nominee later that day.<\/p>\n

Every speaker was a vocal Trump supporter, Vice-President Mike Pence made a \u201csurprise visit<\/a>,\u201d and marchers wore both \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d and \u201cLet\u2019s Make America Godly Again\u201d hats and chanted \u201cFour more years!<\/a>\u201d Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, prayed for law enforcement<\/a> because \u201clawlessness has been unleashed\u201d in America \u2014 an indictment of the Black Lives Matter protests.<\/p>\n

A political strategy<\/h2>\n

It may be obvious that American Christian Democrats and some Christians are outraged by pro-Trump Christians. But as an American teaching Christianity at a public university in Canada, I have noted that a number of my students and colleagues who identify as \u201cevangelicals\u201d or \u201cconservatives\u201d are similarly outraged by how Trump\u2019s top evangelical advisers cherry-pick and distort biblical verses to justify xenophobic immigration policies and restrictions on the government\u2019s role in regulating health care, environmental protection, gun control, employment and the social safety net.<\/p>\n

Whereas conservative Christians outside the U.S. tend to share the same \u201cfamily values\u201d positions (traditional marriage, pro-life) as conservative American Christians, they are less often inclined to agree with their economic conservatism<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Christian nationalism and economic conservatism advocated by Trump can be perplexing to Christians unfamiliar with the American Christian right\u2019s history of reading the Bible as a blueprint for unfettered free-market capitalism<\/a> at the expense of the poor. In the New Testament, after all, Jesus calls on the rich to sell their possessions and give them to the poor<\/a>, and speaks of loving one\u2019s neighbours and enemies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To some who advocate Jesus\u2019s platform of social justice, advancing different views in the language of Christianity can warrant being called<\/a> a \u201cfake Christian\u201d<\/a> or a deluded devotee of the \u201ccult of Trump<\/a>.\u201d I caution against these labels, however, since such exclusionary rhetoric diverts attention from how the American right is busy redefining what it means to be \u201cChristian\u201d for their own political agenda.<\/p>\n

Shaping the election?<\/h2>\n

Democrats\u2019 efforts to challenge the right\u2019s attempt to own Christian identity and values could be critical in the final days of the campaign. In the vice-presidential debate, Kamala Harris stated: \u201cJoe Biden and I are both people of faith<\/a>\u201d in response to Mike Pence\u2019s insinuation that Democrats are attacking Christianity. If it were not for the attention the right\u2019s influencers receive, Harris would not have had to make this statement.<\/p>\n

The Poor People\u2019s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival is calling for \u201ccoming together to confront the interlocking evils of systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation, militarism and the war economy, and the distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism<\/a>.\u201d Christian activists Rev. Dr. William J. Barber<\/a> and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis<\/a> helm this movement organized on the basis of values<\/a>. It\u2019s supported by interfaith bodies like The Islamic Society of North America<\/a> and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the mainstream media, politically moderate and liberal Christian leaders and progressives on the whole must hold the Christian right accountable for their exclusionary doublespeak and their highly selective readings of the Bible and American history<\/a>.\"The<\/p>\n

Tony Keddie<\/a>, Assistant Professor of Early Christian History and Literature, University of British Columbia<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s yet unknown how U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s attempts to position himself as the Christian candidate of choice will influence …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":245833,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-273093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-w","mauthors-tony-keddie-university-of-british-columbia","mauthors-the-conversation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273093"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273093\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":273094,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273093\/revisions\/273094"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}