In my efforts to understand how otherwise sane and wonderful people who identify as Christians can support Donald Trump, I have identified a basic fear that many Christians have that undergirds this support. They fear that they are ‘losing their religious rights’, that there is an ‘assault on their religious freedom’. They are panicked that America is becoming a secular nation and that the ‘family’ values they hold dear are under attack.
They point to the decreasing role that the church and religion play in our society. They fret that more and more people are leaving the church and becoming agnostics or atheists. They see changes in sexuality, family make-up, patriotism, demographics and other cultural phenomena and fear that we are on a downhill slide to immorality and decadence.
What do these anxious Christians view as their religious rights, their morality, and their values? Jesus spoke most about seeking spiritual rather than material wealth, welcoming the stranger, meeting the needs of the poor and hungry, being humble, forgiving and loving. Are these the values that American Christians think are under assault? Are these the values that Trump personifies?
No, the values that American Christians (mostly the evangelical ones) espouse have more to do with sexual practices, abortion, homosexuality, prayer in schools and government and other issues that Jesus never or rarely addresses.
No one is saying that these Christians cannot hold their beliefs or practice their religion. If they want to remain celibate until marriage, they are free to do so. If they want to suppress any homosexual urges they or their children may have, no one will stop them. If they want to carry a bible around with them and pray constantly, fine, but don’t force others to do it in school or anywhere else.
And if they want to spurn birth control and have a large family, by all means go for it! Let’s face it, if they really wanted to dramatically limit abortions, they would be encouraging birth control and sex education rather than trying to pretend that we can go back to an age of no pre-marital sex. Shall we have our children marrying at 13 again?
On the family values front, it is indeed sad that many families fall apart, that divorce is common, and that single parenting occurs so frequently. But that trend began well before the decline in church attendance and its causes lie more in the realm of the changing and complex world we live in, and the evolving roles of women and men, than in our religious practices.
Europe and Canada have transitioned to mostly secular societies. Church affiliation and attendance in those nations is generally below 20% and much lower in Scandinavian nations, for example. Where is the moral degradation and decline that Christians fear would result? It is not to be found. In fact, an argument can easily be made that these nations are much more moral and ethical than America. They have taken the true substance of religion to heart and jettisoned the façade.
I understand the anxiety that animates conservative, evangelical Christians. There are always unsettling changes in society as it evolves. Unfortunately, the rigid dogma that these Christians embrace makes it difficult for them to adapt to these changes and work within them for a better world. Fundamentalists are profoundly uncomfortable with ambiguity. They long for absolutes and certainty. And as they cling desperately to biblical inerrancy, scientific skepticism, and other doomed fallacies in thought, they have blithely enabled, in Trump, the most dangerous assault on our true values (honesty, humility, love, forgiveness, kindness, community) that the country has ever seen.
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