August 10, 2020

News

1. "‘Christianity Will Have Power’: Donald Trump made a promise to white evangelical Christians, whose support can seem mystifying to the outside observer."

But beneath all this, there is another explanation. One that is more raw and fundamental.

Evangelicals did not support Mr. Trump in spite of who he is. They supported him because of who he is, and because of who they are. He is their protector, the bully who is on their side, the one who offered safety amid their fears that their country as they know it, and their place in it, is changing, and changing quickly. White straight married couples with children who go to church regularly are no longer the American mainstream. An entire way of life, one in which their values were dominant, could be headed for extinction. And Mr. Trump offered to restore them to power, as though they have not been in power all along.

2. "Joe Biden’s tough road ahead on religious freedom: Joe Biden’s supporters believe he’ll protect people of faith. Why do many conservative voters disagree?"

However, other voters want more than a candidate who is friendly to faith, Sider said. Conservative evangelicals, for example, generally want someone who has their back in today’s culture wars.

“I hope that Biden recognizes that there are significant numbers of Christians who like him for a whole number of reasons but really are concerned about these issues,” he said.

...

“Biden will reverse Trump’s policies misusing ... broad (religious) exemptions and fight so that no one is turned away from a business or refused service by a government official just because of who they are or who they love,” the campaign’s LGBTQ policy page explains.

Promises like these likely hurt Biden’s chances among religious voters, since many faith leaders have come out in support of the Trump Administration’s efforts to protect faith-based adoption agencies, people of faith who own businesses and other religious organizations.

3. "Trump evangelical rally proceeds despite warnings from city, state" 

After a mostly apolitical start to the event set to live worship music, pastors dived into why they believe the country should back Trump for a second term.

Pastor Jentezen Franklin of Free Chapel in Georgia called Trump “the most pro-life, pro-Israel, pro-Christian and pro-religious freedom president in history.”

...

“God raised up this president,” said Pastor Tony Suarez, chief operating officer of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference.

...

The pastors joined one another on stage for more than 10 minutes of prayer for Trump, law enforcement and others to close the event.

4. "Trump campaign ad used altered photos to make Biden appear to be ‘alone’ when he wasn’t" 

The ad blurs out details that show Biden is praying in a church. He was at the church for an in-person discussion with Black leaders following the death of George Floyd, during which he vowed to address institutional racism in his first 100 days in office.

5. "Trump claims Biden is 'against God' and will 'hurt the Bible'" 

"Take away your guns, take away your Second Amendment. No religion, no anything," Trump said, standing behind a podium with the presidential seal. "Hurt the Bible. Hurt God. He’s against God. He’s against guns. He’s against energy."

Response from Biden campaign: “Joe Biden's faith is at the core of who he is; he's lived it with dignity his entire life, and it's been a source of strength and comfort in times of extreme hardship.”

6. "How Jerry Falwell Jr. Lost His Liberty Flock: The university’s leader has effectively become a spokesman for evangelicalism. Pastors and alumni worry about the consequences for their faith."

As president and chancellor of the country’s largest Christian university and the son of one of the founding fathers of the religious right, Jerry Falwell Jr. has come to serve as a stand-in for American evangelicals. But to those inside the Liberty University community, Falwell’s leading role has lately seemed more like a liability than an asset. On Friday, the executive committee of the school’s board announced that Falwell will take an indefinite leave of absence.

...

With Falwell’s ouster, one of the most influential evangelical institutions in the country is facing an identity crisis: There’s never been a time when Liberty wasn’t led by a Falwell. The president has also lost one of his most prominent ties to the evangelical community. Donald Trump earned credibility in Christian circles four years ago in part because Falwell promoted him as the evangelical champion, and now it’s not clear who Falwell speaks for. Liberty’s leaders see Falwell’s statements and actions as unbecoming of a Christian leader, especially for someone in such a high-visibility role. But most of all, Christians inside and outside of Liberty fear Falwell has tarnished the mission of the school, and of evangelicalism—to “train champions for Christ.”

Related: 

Falwell's radio interview. 

Rep. Mark Waller's, R-NC, CNN interview calling on Jerry Falwell Jr. to resign.

Liberty University announcement. 

Opinion

1. "What white evangelical Christians can't see when they see racism" 

When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail; and when your hammer is “accepting Jesus into your heart,” every nail is an affair of the heart. So when white evangelicals do recognize racism, they tend to see it as a “personal” sin requiring repentance, not a structural injustice demanding rectification. When the sin of racism is reduced to personal animosity, the “solution” is simply relationships.

...

What we are all coming to realize, however, is that racism doesn’t have to convince our intellects to co-opt our imaginations. It is absorbed through practices we never think about, even in spaces where the “doctrines” might be disavowed. 

...

White evangelicals must look to the other historic streams of Christianity, both Catholic and Protestant, for more resources to recognize the spiritual significance of habit. We need a repertoire of disciplines and practices, such as confession, that are meant to rehabituate the habits of the heart.

Until evangelicalism becomes attuned to the habits of the heart, it will never adequately address the sin of racism.

2. "Joe Biden can’t ‘hurt God.’ He can end the catch-22 around religion." 

Here’s the good news: Trump’s truly idiotic language and Biden’s own faith open new opportunities to push back against forms of religious warfare that have done grave damage both to religion and to our politics. Trump’s theology-free theology and his reduction of God to a political consultant’s role offer Biden, and progressives more generally, a large opening for reconciliation. Think of it as a Providential moment.

3. "Letter to an Anti-Trump Christian Friend" 

Thank you for your thoughtful, honest email explaining why you felt frustration and anger about my public support of Donald Trump. I'm glad that you wrote as you did rather than leaving the matter unspoken. 

Thank you also for writing, as a long-time friend, to express your concerns that my support of Trump might jeopardize the reputation that I have built as a trusted professor of theology and ethics for the last 43 years, and that my pro-Trump stance undermines the credibility of the label “evangelical,” and even of the Christian gospel itself.

I take these objections seriously. I have pondered them for several days. Please consider the following twelve points of response:

4. "You Want Context? Jerry Falwell Jr.’s Crotch Shot and Family-Values Evangelicalism"

Falwell’s antics are sometimes contrasted with the more esteemed leadership of his father, Jerry Falwell Sr., but the older Falwell helped create the masculine ideal that would one day be embodied, with all its foibles, by his own son and heir apparent. At Thomas Road Baptist Church, Falwell Sr. promoted a particularly militant Christianity closely linked to a rugged masculine ideal.

Research

1. "Americans Oppose Religious Exemptions From Coronavirus-Related Restrictions: Few regular worshippers say their congregations are operating normally, and most support the precautions being taken"

A new Pew Research Center survey finds that U.S. adults overwhelmingly say houses of worship should be required to follow the same rules about social distancing and large gatherings as other organizations or businesses in their local area. About eight-in-ten Americans (79%) take this position, four times the share who think houses of worship should be allowed more flexibility than other kinds of establishments when it comes to rules about social distancing (19%).

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Three-quarters of U.S. adults who recently attended religious services in person or watched online say that in the past few months they have heard sermons that have expressed the importance of taking steps to limit the spread of the coronavirus. At the same time, about three-in-ten have heard opposition from religious leaders to government orders that prevented houses of worship from holding in-person religious services.

In the wake of George Floyd’s killing by police in Minneapolis, about four-in-ten U.S. adults who have recently watched or attended religious services say they have heard sermons that have expressed support for the recent Black Lives Matter protests, while a quarter have heard opposition to the protests. And with a presidential election looming, four-in-ten say they have heard from clergy about the importance of voting, protesting or other forms of political engagement.

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Democrats and those who lean Democratic are substantially more likely than Republicans and adults who lean toward the GOP to say they have heard sermons that expressed support for the recent Black Lives Matter protests (59% vs. 29%) and the importance of voting (52% vs. 33%). And more Republicans than Democrats say they have heard sermons that express opposition to abortion in the past few months (42% vs. 28%).

...

The vast majority of Americans who have engaged with religious services recently say they haven’t heard either support for, or opposition to, Trump (72%), and 79% haven’t heard either sentiment about Biden.

2. "On LGBT and women's equality, stark statistical reality is coming for white evangelicals"

Among the important changes occurring on the U.S. spiritual landscape, the shift away from religious affiliation in the last 40 years is the most seismic and most significant — the rise of that demographic known as the “nones,” which has gone from 5% of the population in 1972 to 23% of the population in 2018. 

The phenomenon, however, has left white evangelical Christianity's numbers practically untouched. In fact, the nation's share of white evangelical Protestants has dropped a mere two percentage points since 2000 and is essentially the same size as it was in the early 1980s.

Evangelicalism is on a collision course, however, with a culture that is rapidly liberalizing on two areas that define evangelical theology: their view of homosexuality and the role of women in the life of the church.

Odds & Ends

1. Facebook Live: National Town Hall on Evangelical Faith and Politics

2. Ohio governor tweets chart showing how 1 person at a church service spread the coronavirus to 91 people. 

Books

Podcast: "Kristin Kobes Du Mez on Jesus and John Wayne"