I'm a conservative Christian in terms of Bible and theology. I also vote Democratic. The author of the piece is not Evangelical if he thinks that the "heart of" the "movement" is a thriving community of people created in God's image". The Gospel of Jesus Christ, which Christians are called to proclaim, is there is a real God. The God of the Bible. After Adams's fall all humans are all born in sin, separated from God and destined to an eternity in Hell. Man can't ever make himself 'good enough' to meet God's Holy Standard. So God sent Jesus Christ to pay the penalty for those who would repent of their sin and believe in Jesus as their Lord and Savior thereby redeeming and adopting sons and daughters in Christ. Not everyone is going to thrive during this earthly life. Many will suffer but live with a Hope that is sure of an eternity with God in Heaven then the New Heaven and the New Earth upon Christ's return.
4
Sadly, Wilson-Hartgrove makes sense. Common sense. Too much sense. The Jesus he cites is NOT the same person, savior that the Trumpist White Nationalist Evangelicals know. And love. They don't want to know Wilson-Hartgrove's Jesus. And they would, I think, work very hard to smear someone like Wilson-Hartgrove and plow under the Jesus to whom he refers and holds up as exemplar.
40
Pastor Wilson-Hartgrove speaks of reading the Bible alongside Kavanaugh's record. That doesn't matter in today's world, nor has it mattered since Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson were in their heyday.
Please, writers - whether thoughtful as Wilson-Hartgrove or passionate as Tenisi Coates - understand this:
The 'evangelicals' who so fervently support the Republicans are not Christian. They are seekers of political power. They are reactionary conservatives who are scared to death the soap bubble world they have so carefully created in their own image will burst. Their claim to be 'evangelical' is only a convenient entry into the voting populations of their states. It is no accident that the 'leaders' of this reactionary political movement are all from southern or deeply conservative states. They are arch-conservatives first. Never forget that.
The 'reading of the Bible' is secondary for these people. Of course, application of Biblical teaching is even further down the To-Do list. Their first concern is their reactionary, white-protective ideology.
Full disclosure: I am a Christian, a teacher of the Bible for 40 years, and a member of a church affiliated with the So Baptist Convention. It ain't easy, sometimes.
31
Mr. Wilson-Hartgrove conveniently neglects to cite specific opinions written by Judge Kavanaugh. This is an exercise in stating conclusions and is not helpful.
@Jeff
He does cite a lecture to the American Enterprise Institute.
6
This is an articulately written presentation of Christian faith in better alignment to the thinking of Jesus Christ than much of the extremist views of millions of Evangelicals today. However, Mr. Wilson-Hartgrove, you missed a major point in what lies beneath the more extremist Evangelical viewpoints today.
As a student of propaganda deception since 1967, (I started teaching my students about the dangers of it in 1968), I look to what lies beneath viewpoints and how people are tricked into false beliefs. Based on my insights, the extremist Evangelical views are driven by, in general, a desire to maintain white and/or male and/or Christian domination of American life. Unfortunately, they have allowed this desire to override core values of Jesus Christ. This weakness of heart has shifted their thinking into the philosophy of the end justifying the means. To Jesus, the means are everything. Focusing on the means allows the ends to take care of themselves, justly, and with compassion. When Evangelicals call for making abortion illegal again, what they are really saying is they want to maintain male dominance of American life, and the number one way to accomplish that in America is to make abortion illegal again. Overturning Roe v Wade is the number one way to reestablish and maintain that dominance of men over women.
Jesus was born a jew, lived the life of a jew, and died a jew. Jews have many thousands of years of life experience. They accept abortion rights.
15
The alleged Culture wars, really skirmishes, have not even begun. These Theocrats, have not seen the outrage they are about to unleash.
If they think Americans are gonna rollover while they and their few GOP minions try and legislate our lives from the bible...they are as crazy as many of them sound.
The Culture War - (upper case W) they speak of are about to set this nation on fire.
12
If Kavanaugh was sworn in, and then *lies to congress, while under oath, impeachment and debarment is only around the corner! As in you swear to tell the truth, and only the truth, so help you god! Just read aloud the new 42,000 documents / pages, and then ask Kavanaugh if it’s the truth. It might take up some time, but hey, it’s all we have!
4
The reality is, Trump and his GOP minions, are giving the nation over to Christian extremists. Its really that simple. History is rife with enough reasons not to do this, as Christians in charge of personal decision making for individuals and the justice system, has never been pretty. Its never had a lot of Jesus in its rulings and/or outcomes. Plenty of swords and state sanctioned torture and murder - and zero in the dove and olive branch stuff.
Zero tolerance for whomever they deem a sinner and threat to their God.
Trump and the GOP are also on the wrong side of history. But of course it means we have to let history play-out. As such, there will be victims. On both sides too. But more on the anti-Theocratic side, the eventual winning side. As they will be haunted, hunted and persecuted by the powerful, who will control the law enforcement strings. And far too many local LEO's will comply.
Trump is being used, while also using. He's not a real friend of the Evangelical theocrats, but he knows he needs them, as much as they need him. With Trump, he's not strayed from being the disingenuous, facts-challenged, liar, and con-man he's always been. But he has exposed - finally to many of their own - their rank hypocrisy and lack of true religious faith in their God.
Their God doesn't need judges to serve his agenda. His tenets should be enough. His salespeople clearly lack the necessary skills - so they will come after the rest of us with man-law. Not their faith, man-law.
6
I was tracking along with him and agreeing with several points until the end, where he completely fell off the rails when he quoted and summarized Jesus, in John 10 : "I have come that they might have life, and have it more abundantly." In that chapter Jesus repeatedly lay out an extensive metaphor for his role as Savior for sinners: I am the door, I am the good shepherd, I lay down my life for the sheep, if anyone enters by me, he will be saved, etc. Jesus was not inviting us to "all of us to work together for the vision at the heart of that (the Civil Rights movement)--a beloved community where all...can thrive," as the author of this article said.
Jesus was not talking about something so prosaic as simply creating a loving community here on earth, as worthy as that might be. He was clearly and boldly referring to his whole purpose: the exclusive ability to be a Savior and provide eternal salvation--"eternal life," as he goes on to explain (and foreshadow his ultimate sacrifice) to those who repented of their sins and followed him.
I'm no great pundit or scholar, but this wrap to the article was so glaringly off to anyone who has even a basic understanding of Christianity that it reflects poorly on the writer, the value of his opinion and the NYT for publishing it. Get a better writer on this topic and from someone who understands Christianity, NYT.
5
Do our Supreme Court Justices believe theology or objective science-based evidence should be the basis of legal decisions? Tragically, the conservative judges think life begins at conception. This is theology and not an objective science based conclusion. Fetal homicide laws now in 38 states are based on this fallacious theological presumption. The result: 100s of 100s of young minority girls and women are incarcerated after having a miscarriage or coerced into cesarian surgery because some ambitious prosecutor arrested them. Is this America or the Salem witch trials?
Life begins when the baby takes its first breath. Further, Jesus never once voiced opposition to abortion. Abortion is legal and normal in Europe, Israel, Canada, and Japan. Pro-Life is a scam extraordinaire and judges throughout the land must be informed. Kavanaugh, Roberts, Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch must be admonished to protect church/state separation and the 1st Amendment, not tear it down with flakey decisions like Hobby Lobby and phony religious liberty decisions.
9
He cannot be a christian & advocate for women. Today's christians feel women should be barefoot, pregnant but working so the men can protest everything that has to do with women. He is just as much a hypocrite as all the evangelicals who support trump. If he is confirmed which is almost a given, he will reverse Roe vs. Wade first chance he gets, work to take away freedom from religion rights & help to impose only evangelical christian agenda on all the rest of the country. The Crusades were fought for this very same reason...imposing christianity on all peoples of the world. The christians lost almost every crusade. Ought to tell them something.
2
You speak for me and other Christian humanists.
2
How would the compassion of Jesus extend to an unborn baby in danger of being killed for the convenience of one or more grownups? We can see His compassion to women with sexual histories in John 4 and John 8, and His compassion extended to dealing with the histories and not simply accepting what they'd done. The father (Father) welcomes with parties sinners who repent, but He does not define the prodigal son's pigsty as part of His house.
Jesus hung out with tax collectors and prostitutes, and we can see in Zacchaeus a tax collector repenting. By analogy, I suppose He'd be happy with a lady moving (repenting) from fornication to monogamy, reforming her practice of sex and not abstaining from sex, but do you think a practicing prostitute, whatever her virtues, would be living up to the standards of His movement?
Do you think his compassion to a couple not ready to accept the baby they'd started would include some advice (or orders) about their sex life? He gave the rich young ruler a radical choice. If people are as chained by lust as the ruler by greed, might He in love give some of them a corresponding demand?
2
amen
1
Harmful beliefs and manufactured values are not limited to the religious domain. The values held by our court judges play an important role in the lives of us all. Presently, we do not see the harm caused to our species by our beliefs and fixed values. The human mind is guided by a survival program (in addition to pain, pleasure, and sex programs), and we've tricked that survival algorithm with our ridiculous beliefs and made-up values about what exactly is supposed to survive. In the near future, we will program this survival program in the computer, and finally will have irrefutable proof of the mischief we reek on the human mind with our foolishness. Until then, we will continue to stumble down the road to our own destruction - while enduring all manner of unecessary suffering along the way. See RevolutionOfReason.com
The last two paragraphs of this article are POWERFUL! Amen and Amen.
2
The International Mafia operatives who make up the current "republicans" in office care nothing about fetuses or anything else but maintaining power over 99% of us so they can get cheap labor. They want women to keep pushing out their war fodder.
NOW is the time for every American who value democracy to take action to stop Kavanaugh.
I do not tweet but NOW is the time for #NO Kavanaugh on OUR U.S. Supreme Court.
Phone your senator, every senator on the judicial committee and Traitor McConnell right now and say NO. Here is a link to their phone numbers:
https://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
Forward this information to everyone you know and ask them to take action.
WE THE PEOPLE must not let this stand. Not now. Not ever.
4
I have never understood how people who claim to love and care about babies (especially the ones who haven’t been born yet) can at the same time hold grown-up people (even children past a certain age, usually when they aren’t cute anymore or have become an inconvenience) in such contempt. The women who have difficult pregnancies, who are poor and lack access to appropriate health care (podiatrists are fine but not for delivering babies) were once babies themselves.
6
Trump nominated judges haven't followed the law. Why should Kavanaugh? Trump chose him for a reason. To stop talk of impeachment. And to stop women's rights. Kavanaugh will set women's rights back decades. Kavanaugh refuses to show his documents. That would not be allowed under a Democrat President. The Republicans would not allow Obama to sit a Supreme Court Justice. Yet they have forgotten that.
10
Religious faith should have nothing to do with the seating of anyone to the courts. The factor of faith in politics has placed a bloc of conservative Catholics on the court primarily to satisfy the anti-abortion lobby.
Someone needs to have said it. Enough.
47
@David Gregory
The Court has 4 Roman Catholics, and one Episcopalian who was raised Roman Catholic. I don't see a block on Catholics.
1
Amen to Jesus' way rather than Caesar's way: Meeting the needs of pregnant women in poverty rather bringing the cold hard hand of the law down on these women. How can Christians, especially men, be for the legalistic approach? Men are responsible for all unwanted pregnancies and for leaving women feeling unsupported and unable to see their way to carrying through to birth. We are accomplices. So we should shut up about favoring Caesar's way, unless we are willing to be regarded as such.
39
I want to thank you for your thoughtful piece. It helps us keep our minds open in a time when it is far too easy to shut down meaningful dialog about religion's role in politics. It reminds us that there are people of faith who do not buy into the Religious Right's rhetoric.
4
Thank you for your essay, Mr Wilson-Hartgrove - it's eloquent and well-argued, and displays a compassion for women that is strikingly absent from the mainstream Evangelical position. But let's cut to the chase - most Evangelicals have not reached their uncompromising opposition to abortion and intervention in the biology of "human life" after long and conscientious thought, deep consideration of the merits, and even open-hearted prayer. No, most Evangelicals oppose abortion to receive 2 payoffs: 1. It allows them to seem principled while despising and oppressing poor, and often colored, women; 2. It's their ticket into a large, entertaining, politically powerful club that is also championed by our current President.
This being the case, I regret that your worthy column will change nothing.
5
For most of their history evangelical churches fiercely defended the separation of church and state as fundamental to freedom of religion. The current evangelical movement's reactionary political activism bears a strong correlation to the the rise of money as a driver among many of its purported leaders. Without the vocal support of evangelical pastors, it is unlikely that the amoral Trump or the reactionary Kavanaugh would be threatening our democracy.
"For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind." - Hosea 8:7
12
I finished reading this with tears in my eyes. I have opposed the entirety of The Republican Party as more and more Christian Conservatives (Mr. Wilson-Hartgrove uses the term Evangelicals) formally known as The Moral Majority and Religious Right hijacked control of the party. For all the reasons stated in this article, they are detrimental to my well being, and my well being includes my deeply rooted faith side.
Sir, you get it in a way that it seems like few others do. Making it more difficult for me as a gay man is not going to help this country one iota, but giving me basic protections under the law will, as I feel safer to be open about who I am and help my neighbor or just strangers out in the world.
Believe it or not I share your desire to protect unborn children, but not at the expense of the rights of women who feel that carrying a child to term is not feasible for them. Who am I do make a decision for someone I don't know?
Leave the laws to protect EVERYONE, then go live your life within the teachings of your religion, as I do mine. I hope that it is lived well in God's eyes. That is a goal I have set for myself.
11
The thing I don't understand is what do those evangelicals think is going to happen when Republicans legitimize partisan jerrymandering and voter suppression? Do they think the vast majority will roll over and accept their illegitimate "leadership"? If history teaches us nothing it predicts a monumental backlash against dictatorship of the few. Heck, our own revolution was incited for less. I guess those evangelicals think they won't live to see it, but I guess they also don't really believe in an afterlife. Their acts on earth are the key to everlasting salvation, not some last minute, empty acceptance of Christ. They will be judged by how their actions illuminated their acceptance of Christ. I fear they better be preparing for a fiery eternity.
5
Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove is to be commended for this very thoughtful and honest analysis of the evangelicals' impact on the public realm. I must express one, for me troubling question.
Whatever happened to the separation of Church and State? Have we forgotten the disasters, wars, pogroms and slaughters and a long etcetera of horrors that led our founding fathers, ever-so-wisely, to reject the idea of bringing the word "Christianity" into the Constitution?
We must respect one another's very different, and at times incompatible personal and religious beliefs if our increasingly imperfect union is to survive.
To bring God's laws into the realm of Caesar, is to turn back, not only on the fundamental principles of our American democracy, but on the very words of the Jesus some of us hold holy.
Too much hypocrisy, this.
4
I lost my respect for the evangelical movement 20 years ago when evangelicals with whom I taught at an alternative school used their "biblical" beliefs to support the 2nd Amendment. It is not a movement that has shown itself to be Christ-like in many ways.
Individual Christians tend to behave morally and pursue ethical and compassionate ends, however when their faith becomes politicized by politicians masquerading as preachers (wolves in sheep's clothing) those same individuals start to advocate all manner of non-biblical positions. They want cruel big-government interventions like state-sanctioned killing (the death penalty) and interference with difficult, complex individual health care decisions like ending a pregnancy. They push back against organized governmental care for the vulnerable (social safety net policies like Medicaid), equal treatment of children through public education, and compassion for refugees, unhoused people, those with addictions, or persons who are simply different.
They choose such positions not because they have looked at them through the eyes of Christ but because they are told by a white man that adopting those policies is "right" and "moral" and will lead to a more godly nation. It is a sad misappropriation of the spiritual impulse that each person possesses.
7
With all due respect to Rev Wilson-Hartgrove, here again we have an example of the TImes cherrypicking a friendly but grossly atypical voice from seemingly enemy territory in order to prop up its relentless and futile campaign against Justice Kavanaugh. Yes, we know how the Times feels. Yes we can understand the Times editors' frustration a the futility of their efforts to derail the appointment of Justice Kavanaugh. But we can also recognize the transparency of choosing an op-ed like this. For it is clearly a low hanging fruit from a source to which the TImes would normally not give the time of day, one that conveniently plays into its hands and offers a faux sense of bipartisanship. Ultimately a cheap shot. A very cheap shot indeed.
3
For anyone who worships the god of materialism, the god of fetuses before children, mothers, and families, the god of exclusion, the god of victim blaming, I suggest a visit to your primary text. Stop being the one to cast the first stone, to whiten your sepulchers, to be the moneychanger in the temple, to cross the road rather than help someone in need. Stop thinking wealth is a sign of god's favor, and misfortune a reason to be shunned.
Please reread the Gospels. It is a short repetitive document.
Too many Republicans, like Sessions, seem to have appointed the self-approving voices in their heads to be god. It is unfortunate that there appears to be no deity responding to this hypocrisy.
Dominion over the earth does not extend to trashing it. Stewardship is not a dirty world.
If we are to survive, we are going to have to get together to solve problems and stop being so greedy and eager to make money on poisoning the earth and hurting people.
High powered killing machines are not as important as a human life.
An unborn baby is only a baby in potential, and babies need families, nurture, and health care.
11
And why exactly have Evangelicals supported Trump? Where are these voices you mention seeking balance and fairness? What is it you know that has failed to be shared?
3
Jeremiah 1:5.
That is, of course, long before Jesus of Nazareth, carpenter, ordinary man until he began to preach his faith. But I hold that this ordinary carpenter said he had not come to replace or remake the law but to fulfill it.
So....
A woman has and abortion then shall she be stoned? What about a woman such as myself? If I rode in a car the jiggling about would probably cause me to spontaneously abort. If I ran the vacuum, or my husband caused me stress, I would spontaneously abort. If I wasn't confined to bed with my legs elevated I would abort. Sex was absolutely out of the question. But doesn't the Bible also demand that a woman, regardless of her health-state, serve her man he has a right to set her aside?
I was pregnant 7 times that I know of. I spontaneously aborted 2 of those at around 10 weeks. I miscarried one (after 3 months) because my then husband insisted on driving 220 miles to the California coast for vacation. It was no vacation for me. The fourth died in utero at 6 months and remained in utero for another 41 days before being expelled. I'd like to see a man carry around a dead fetus internally for over a month and submit; it would never happen in a billion years.
Although I did give birth to 3 beautiful healthy babies it was not without great sacrifice on my part.
So...
Stoning it is!
Hooray America!!!
You are the new ISIS
9
I have been increasingly alarmed at the way hateful exclusionary groups have been labeled "Christian Evangelicals". For me, the Sermon on the Mount states the basic tenets of the Christian faith.
Thank you Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove!
4
Amen. Thank you for reminding us that evangelical Christians are not all hypocrites and Pharisees.
The irony of evangelical leaders who defend a philandering, hate-filled racist bigot as the true hope of the nation, if not the world, has not been lost on us. Those of us who thought that repentance was a precondition of absolution have been bemused by the 'get out of Hell free' card that the evangelical leadership seems to have awarded Mr. Trump. Men have sold their souls ere now, but doing it for a vote on the Supreme Court seems a poor bargain.
8
This article needs to be picked up by Evangelical Churches's newsletters and reprinted in Christianity Today.
5
Too little attention has been paid to a meeting between Trump and evangelicals before the election, during which this foul-mouthed womanizer ridiculed Ms. Clinton's religious activities, saying "there's nothing there". The reporters thought that he was accusing Ms. Clinton of hypocrisy. What he was actually doing was pandering to the evangelicals' prejudice that other Christians are heretics whose religious activities don't count because they don't practice the "true religion".
The Times desperate needs more reporters who understand religious talk, both good and evil.
1
Reading this makes me understand why my Christian faith is being challenged by the cultural elites in our country. I see pastors everywhere willing to surrender their doctrine to be able to join the cool crowd and perhaps keep the sinicure of their pulpit without having to challenge their congregant's views. Abortion is wrong and if there is any part of our society that should point that out unapologetically it should be our ministry. This pastor should enjoy his 30 pieces of silver and find relief in not worrying about values getting in his way.
@ALFREDO What about the living children, their mothers and families? What about the victims of gun violence? What about arms sales? What about the death penalty? What about victims of rape and incest?
Your precious fetus seems to Trump all other considerations of wisdom and compassion, and you are willing to hate, lie, and exploit in the person of your minority government, who are wholly bought and paid for.
Your 30 pieces of silver are in the hands of Republicans in Congress, the Courts, Citizens' United, the Kochtopus, Trump and his family, and the new domination of far right of the Supreme Court. Kavanaugh is for vote cheating, presidential power, torture, and putting the lives of women behind that of unborn fetuses. But never mind letting the poor have health care. Living babies, you don't value them as much.
Forget compassion and sharing. You just want those unborn babies and your guns.
Jesus has many choice words for hypocrites, prideful and greedy people, and hatred and exclusion.
Back in the day, it was "kill a commie for Christ". Now it seems to be get rid of Democrats for Christ.
Jesus would be put in Gitmo or some such.
3
According to a 2011 PRRI/Brookings poll, 30 percent of white evangelicals said that "an elected official who commits an immoral act in their personal life can still behave ethically and fulfill their duties in their public and professional life." Considering the beliefs of white evangelicals (as I thought I understood them), I was surprised it reached 30%. What you do in your private life affects and influences your judgement, a serious matter when you’re part of the face of government to the citizenry. However, in 2017, the same poll showed 72 percent say so!! Let me repeat that.....72%!!!!! For the religious right, moral integrity is now firmly subservient to the acquisition and retention of political power. Donald Trump is the star result of this ethical shift. One prominent white New York pastor has even said that “evangelical” has now become almost synonymous with “hypocrite”.
5
The primary motivation of conservatives is racism. Wilson- Hartgrove wastes his breath trying to make conservatives think of something else ahead of racism.
Don't overlook the antiabortion stance of the Catholic hierarchy, which lent weight and credence to the evangelical movement. And as we have seen, the Catholic hierarchy is capable of every concupiscence.
2
Putting aside the propensity of the Evangelicals to misread the moral lessons from the Bible, the Constitution, US history, the geological record, and the laws of physics, they apparently fail to realize that they are a minority; a dwindling minority, even.
They fail to appreciate that their distorted worldview is enormously over represented now in all three branches of government. And they see the Kavanaugh nomination as an opportunity to ensure their worldview dominates the Supreme Court for at least the next generation.
If they succeed, democracy loses.
1
“Conservative Christians” means cruelty to children at our borders, depriving healthcare to the sick, providing weapons and logistical aid to nations that are murdering civilians, making sure that their beliefs are enshrined in law contrary to the prohibition in the First Amendment. “Conservative Christians” are damned by Jesus: “‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 44 Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ 45 Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life’”
Kavanaugh? Good start. Let’s see if you can help the refugee children, the hungry, the sick, those in prison and get back to us.
4
Evangelicals have sacrificed the right to preach to the rest of us. Their religion is forever tainted by their embrace of regressive conservative politics. It is about time to start taxing ALL religions since they have become additional political mouthpieces for the conservative right.
7
This is all further confirmation of my decision at age 16 to abandon all notions of religions was correct. All the baggage attached to religion are just filled with rocks that are only there to impede any search for genuine truth. That was 60 yrs ago and the liberation continues
3
Agreed. One problem for all Christians is that their is no clear code of conduct for what it means to be Christian. The Nicene and Apostles Creeds address only Jesus' miraculous birth and his death and resurrection; omitted: everything about his teachings, ministry, and miracles. Have faith according to creed, and anything else is allowable. So any sect can fill the gap with anything to their liking, most notably in America the political positions of the culture wars, and call them "Christian" positions.
Democrats where are you? Wake up!
1
The most aggravating development in the past half century is the willful ignorance of the spirit of what was intended and the righteousness of those adhering to the letter of a text. You cannot tell me that Christ was all about saving fetuses only to have them grow up in poverty and neglect. And you cannot tell me the Founding Fathers wanted the narrowest majority to determine one of nine Supreme Court Justices - a lifetime appointment. It is obscene that the same people who are trying to defend the unborn are so willing to tell them they are on their own once they breathe their first breath. And to also think that a single parent working multiple jobs without healthcare or social safety net will give the newborn the best chance to become a thriving human and productive member of society is absurd. There is plenty of work to be done for those that are alive and struggling and that is where Christians should be focusing their attention. If they fix that then there might not be a need to mandate that all that find themselves pregnant should become parents. As for Supreme Court Justices they should be confirmed with at least 65 votes as that would more likely represent the greater population of the United States more than manipulated, gerrymandered minorities with strong ideological agendas.
90
@Lucas Lynch
Amen, Brother! I have fled as fast and as far from false "Christianity" as I can. As a nurse, I witness children who are forced to be born into poverty be abused, malnourished and unwanted. This is not my savior's description of pro-life. These children grow up to often populate the welfare roles (if there is still any $$$ available) have children young (no birth control) end up in prison(no good jobs) and perpetuate the sick cycle of the unwanted and uncared for misfits. My Savior would feed, clothe, and care for all God's children. These charlatans who call themselves "Christian" are an abomination to all Christ holds dear. All this for the ability to tell "heathens" how to live. When Christ comes again, he will say, "Get thee away from me, for I know you not."
3
@Lucas Lynch "Comments are moderated for civility," and that must be a good thing since "The most aggravating development in the past half century," "willful ignorance of the spirit," "You cannot tell me," "obscene," "manipulated, gerrymandered minorities," and "strong ideological agendas" all fall within the Times' bounds of civility. Jesus had His agenda (in a word "repent"), and I suppose His ideology, but would the man of compassion talk as you wrote? You do notice that you have a strong ideological agenda yourself, and that some of us fellow human beings think your agenda erroneous and harmful, however poorly we may be working out ours.
1
As a politically liberal evangelical Christian, I agree wholeheartedly with the content and tone of Mr. Wilson-Hargrove's piece. I do question, however, if he has underrepresented the many organizations and churches that do highlight racial reconciliation and civil justice that are present in American evangelicalism. I also question if Mr. Wilson-Hartgrove has a good handle on the diversity of evangelical organizations. I was shocked to see him list the Family Research Council (which is a good example of his article's thesis) with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (which is not at all). A bit more nuance would be helpful.
1
While acknowledging that there is a principled minority of evangelical Christian's pushing back against the slave holder mentality of the evangelical christian majority I don't see it as making much difference. When it comes to issues of climate change, environmental protection, economic / social justice & reproductive rights the power of the not-so-moral majority and the purse resides in the old white men and their progeny. For these mostly white and older evangelical Christians it is about political power and societal domination. Not content with a country that protects their right to practice the religion of their choice they seek to frame the rest of that society in their image and under their control. They claim a Biblical mandate to re-Christianize (only their version of Christianity) the United States and the rest of western civilization while undermining democracy and criminalizing "sinful" behavior. I don't think they much care for Mr. Wilson-Hartgrove's minority opinion any more then they would mine. Mammon has captured their souls and power is all that matters.
Blinded by their determination to implement their vision of God's Kingdom by seizing hold of the levers of political power, it seems that the majority of evangelicals made an astonishing bet on Donald Trump. Ignoring billboard-size indicators that his only god was himself, they jumped aboard his ship in hopes they could finally impose their vision on society.
I once respected evangelicals for their integrity, dedication, and commitment to individual accountability. Hard to remember those days now.
I cannot imagine that the Jesus who repeatedly rejected political power as the path to implementing God's intention and who always spoke from the perspective of those most in need would recognize as his own this materialistic, smug, self-protective enclave who've banded themselves together with the most materialistic and morally craven political leader the US has ever seen.
I accept that sometimes we all misjudge those we call to leadership. But I cannot fathom that evangelicals are unable to recognize that they've paid their souls in exchange for a mess of pottage.
As the truth about Donald Trump becomes undeniable in the coming months, I think evangelicals with brains and a conscience will find themselves deeply stricken. Conservatism once contributed important values to our society, but the empoverished remnant of it that today's evangelicals have tied themselves to richly deserves the decline Donald Trump is about to deal to it.
154
@ChadiB
"..... I think evangelicals with brains and a conscience will find themselves deeply stricken."
Don't hold your breath. The evangelicals who have put a stranglehold on The Republican Party are about imposing their views on the rest of us, totally lacking in a moral vision. Now Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove shows what a deeply moral vision looks like.
1
I'm not a US citizen, so not really impacted by this issue; But what I find it strange is that people calling/considering themselves devoted/hardline Christians do not mind supporting someone who, by any measure, does not abide by any Christian mantra (e.g. being faithful to his wife, love thy neighbor, ....)
168
@Ghassan We did not elect him to be our Spiritual leader or mentor. " Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone."
@Ghassan The evangelicals here in the US do not believe in the principles of Jesus. They treat their religion like a business and some of these pastors rake in millions of dollars every year, live in mega mansions and fly around in Gulfstream jets.
8
@samuel That's the excuse for supporting trump? Morals and ethics don't apply? No one has sinned as much as Trump but you still worship. Might as well worship the devil.
2
Thank you also for reclaiming Evangelical Christianity towards a vision like that of President Carter, and away from the far right ideology that has assumed the Christian name for too long.
161
When one considers the abnormality of our present government and the tortuous path we have followed to get to this Supreme Court nomination, it is hard to imagine what difference this evangelical (or any evangelical's) opinion makes.
A supreme court seat was hijacked by the Republican senate on no legal ground whatsoever. Our president was elected by an electoral college majority predicated upon less than 70K votes which were most likely influenced by a pervasive campaign originating in Russia.
The Supreme Court itself, as has been oft noted, now votes upon predictable political lines--not reliably upon stare decisis.
The evangelical 'case' means nothing in a banana republic.
We need a wholesale re-imagining of what our Republic should look like. Before it is too late.
205
Regardless of what people who call themselves "Evangelical Christians" believe they do not have the right to force their beliefs on everyone. The USA is supposed to have separation of church and state -- freedom to practice any and all religion or none at all with parity. They are entitled to think abortion is "wrong" but not to force that belief by stopping it at any cost.
Rich white men who think god ordained them to determine how life should look and function are in a word, wrong. There is no such caveat. They ideas are arrogant and ignorant and they will push them down our throats with a ton of money and the Bible (as they translate and interpret it) as a justification.
SHAME on the people who do not understand what is in this column. If you are "pro-life" you have to care about babies after they are born. You have to care about their mothers, their health and their day-to-day lives. Poverty is terrible. Ignorance contributes to poverty. Keeping people out of school makes them easily manipulated and gullible. A broad-based liberal arts education, with the addition of science and math (STEAM) makes for the best citizenry.
The USA should be shining light on the world through kindness and generosity, responsibility, rational science-based technology and turning away from greed for greed's sake. Mr. Trump is a dim, dark individual and has surrounded himself with the same. Without the lantern of the USA, the world suffers. What is "christian" about that?
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@Jeanie LoVetri
Unfortunately the Supreme Court has of late allowed exactly that -- for employers to force their own religious beliefs on their employees. We are supposed to have separation of church and state but recent Republican governments and appointees to the court have been hard at work demolishing the wall, brick by brick and not only allowing the establishment of religion, but forcing taxpayers to subsidize it.
23
@Jeanie LoVetri. Most Jesus freaks I know consider poverty to be a moral judgement and that people are poor because they are bad and don't have the Lord's favor. Conversely rich people are good and favored by god. It's a very Victorian view that's been revived with all the prosperity scammers that Trump surrounds himself with. Worse, since Trump is profoundly stupid and immoral he's seen no reason why these people shouldn't be inserted into positions of power so they can inflict their warped version of Christianity in a system that's supposed to have a separation between church and state.
7
Thank you for speaking what many people of faith (various and different faiths, including atheism) feel and think. Religion has been used as a political tool to subjugate, terrorize and disenfranchise people for a very long time. We cannot allow this to continue. No one can really believe that the current president and his policies speak for the greater good; and after all, the greater good is what all religions are really about. Oppose Kavanagh. Do the right thing. This is not how Jesus would have behaved.
3
As soon we get the power back we need a serious reset. DEFUND TWO SCOTUS seats and remove Gorsuch and Kavanaugh from the bench.
3
Be afraid, America, be very afraid! A thinly disguised theocracy is just around the corner and those old white men will not stop at going after the LGBT community, or racial and ethnic minorites, or the most vulnerable in our society. Eventually, they will take on the mainstream denominations, the Catholics, the Orthodox, the Lutherans, the Anglicans, Muslims, Jews et al. And the rule of law will be the rule of how they interpret their bible, selectively and with harshness.
7
Reading your piece, I hear the Lord's majestic words from I Kings ringing in my mind.
"I have reserved unto myself seven thousand that have not bowed the knee to Baal nor kissed his image."
Thank you!
As for the immense majority (as you tell us) of black evangelicals who have never climbed aboard the right wing band wagon. . . ..
. . .KEEP THE FAITH, MY BROTHERS! KEEP THE FAITH!
Like you, Mr. Wilson-Hartgrove, I am dismayed--horrified--sickened by the casual, unthinking equivalence made--and trumpeted to the heavens--between the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. . . .
. . .and a narrow, flinty-hearted nationalism that proclaims itself to be that glorious gospel. . . .
. .. but which (in reality) has been made the lackey of bigots and plutocrats.
As for Roe vs. Wade--I would content myself with quoting my mother-in-law. Died several years ago at the age of ninety eight.
Back during the Reagan years, she delivered herself of the following. Responding to some super conservatives, urging her to sign up:
"When you begin showing equal concern for the unborn ONCE THEY'RE BORN. . . .
" . .once they're OUT OF THE WOMB . . . .
". ..then maybe I'll listen to your admonitions.
". . .and not till then."
I say to you in all honesty, Mr. Wilson-Hartgrove. . . .
. .. FOR THE HONOR OF JESUS CHRIST HIMSELF. . . .
. . continuing to proclaim the things you HAVE proclaimed.
The world needs it.
We all need it.
I need it.
Thank you.
5
Well said!
3
Catholics who decry priestly pedophilia but continue to attend and to pay their dues. Republicans who decried the racism of Trump but still voted GOP and remained silent throughout the current destruction of American civil rights; Evangelicals who think that religious freedom confers on them the right to enforce the dour dogmas of John Knox and John Calvin by law. All complicit in the decay of America.
8
There are reasons why Republican politicians are more than willing to destroy public education, mainly by infusing religion, making higher education far more expensive and promoting religion and/or crony capitalism in almost every public policy.
There are credible data to show that Republican Red states are poorer, more violent, attract low paying manufacturing jobs where exploitation and job security is worse.
Yet, mostly those gun loving, white supremacist, deeply religious (read, Christian fundamentalists), uneducated or poorly educated (14% American adults can not read, 38% College graduates believe in fairy tales of 'creationism' and not science of evolution) Americans tend to support the party which is hell bent to keep those poor people that way, so that the party bosses and thier rich donors can enjoy electoral win and wealth associated with political power. They are also hell bent not to allow election campaign finance reform for the same reason.
Just take out religion from our education system, de-recognized religious private schools & home schooling. Then see how fast GOP grip over power tend to crumble.
It would take long and tedious process to reform our public education system and corporate governance. Till then, era of people like Trump would come quite often.
Remember those days when we used to think how low a President can go- during Bush era? Probably we are yet to see worse GOP President than Trump.
3
Every faith gets its Pharisees.
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This is a lonely voice crying in the fanatical Evangelical wilderness. Only the kind of warped thinking that has burned witches, murdered medical doctors and bombed clinics can see their champion in a racist, misogynist, morally degenerate man who ordered the separation of hundreds of young children from their parents just to send a message to others who would dare to seek refuge here.
5
Jesus taught a Samaritan was THE example of the one who knows the way to heaven. Not a "Christian". A kind human being. One who offered care to a stranger found lying in the road. As he made so clear, to Jesus it was "by their fruits you shall know them".
The fruits of the tree of white Evangelical Christianity are clearly sickening America.
As a believing Christian, I'm beyond grieved.
5
Reverend Wilson-Hartgrove talks the talk of a believer because he roots his political theology in the New Testament. Enough of Leviticus, Sodom, and the Pharisees. Conservatives of faith must embrace sound social policies as a means to helping those Americans whose identities they hypocritically and selectively cast as ungodly. Monotheism simply doesn't jive with high federalism.
1
I appreciate the efforts to mitigate religious extremism by Mr. Wilson-Hartgrove, I think he is missing the point. The evangelical movement led by extremists like Falwell and Graham (the youngers now that their fathers are thankfully gone) seeks nothing more than a full on theocracy. If you oppose that then milquetoast articles like this just don't cut it. These religious fanatics must be exposed for what they are; charlatans, war mongers, misogynists, racists, gay haters...basically everything evil about humanity manifests itself in evangelical christianity as in ALL religious extremism. They must be opposed at every turn lest they bring about a Taliban-like rule here in the US, because that is what they want.
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Evangelical Christians in America caring about the poor? Can it be April Fool’s Day already?
3
no doubt if the president read a newspaper he would rail against this writer.
at least on person who Evangecal will be able to hold his head up with dignity when the next generation asks "What did you do when the white wealthy elitist estate began?" And "Why were so many silent?"
2
Great op-ed. If one claims to be a Christian, you can't pick and choose which part of the New Testament you will follow. Hatred for Obama by Republican (so-called Christians) was one of the ugliest racist agendas I've seen in my life.
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"My faith compels me...."
No one cares.
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Trump is evil. Evangelicals who support him for his policies have made a pact with a devil. And they are disobeying their lord and savior, Jesus Christ.
“My kingdom is not of this world,” Jesus said. “If it were, then would my servants fight . . . “
When Evangelicals fight for this president or this court nominee or a “Christian nation,” they are clearly not following Jesus Christ. He told them not to fight.
2
Mr. Wilson-Hartgrove,
You are an enigma in the twenty-first century--a deeply religious, pious person. You read, you believe in sciences--soft and hard-- and you follow the most basic of Jesus' teachings: helping the less fortunate.
I am an atheist but wish you Godspeed in your attempts at getting the Evangelicals to think outside of a very narrow abortion-box.
6
All these organized religions are a racket and behave in an unconstitutional manner. They all need to have their tax exemptions revoked since they are nothing more than political organizations masquerading as something else.
2
As Billy Graham stated in regretting and rejecting the mixing of religion and politics, "The hard right has no interest in religion except to manipulate it." Robert Jeffress is clearly oblivious to Mr. Graham's warning.
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Wilson-Hartgrove: Sorry, you don't speak for Evangelicals. Their votes speak for them. And their voting voices are reprehensible. Better find another tag for your particular minority sect.
2
It's so easy to "care" about people by opposing abortion because it doesn't cost you a dime. You can thump your chest and claim that you are a good Christian because you oppose abortion. Many I'm sure are, but many more just want tax cuts and are happy to see black and brown people die without healthcare or food or a place to live or workers rights or a decent education or etc. Being anti-abortion is cheap. Actually working to help your fellow American is expensive. Most of these "Christians" just worship money. They sicken me.
3
Organized religion. The greatest scam ever pulled on the human race. The Framers realized this when they forbade the commingling of religious dogma with government business.
The GOP , which cares not about either the Constitution or the country, realized , with the advent of Roe , that it could hoover up votes from the religious right. That comprises 20% or so of the population. Accordingly , Trump and the party now cater to the bigotry of the Bible which is clearly manifest in the rampant misogyny and homophobia of the Republican platform. Trump knows full well that without Evangelical support , he is long gone.
It is no surprise that Judge Kavanaugh , a staunch Catholic , would love to outlaw Griswold , Roe , Windsor , and Obergefell in the shortest order possible. Not because they fall short of the standards required for 14th amendment inclusion of equal treatment under the law...but because they fall short of the standards required by the Roman Catholic Church and the Republican party.
If this continues , we will no longer be a Democracy , but a theocratic dictatorship...….please VOTE
2
Would President Trump swear under oath that he has never asked or compelled a woman to get an abortion?
Just askin'.
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Wasn't Rev Jeffres the same guy that had to be shamed into opening his mega church to flood victims? I guess he's the perfect Trump "Christian" . Totally fake unless there is a camera rolling.
1
The hypocrisy of the loudest, Bible-thumping evangelicals was on full display when AG Sessions announced his policy of separating children from their parents accompanied with a quote from the Bible.
3
Mr. Minister, for whom did you vote in 2016? In for a penny, in for a pound, right?
Jewish tradition posits that the Messianic Era of global peace and harmony will be ushered in in the Hebrew Year 6000, the equivalent of 2239 in the Gregorian Calendar.
This coming week Jews will celebrate the onset of the Jewish New Year 5779 --- leaving the world just 221 years shy of reaching the magic number of 6000.
A mere blink of an eye as it were before the arrival of the Messiah to usher in a thousand year period of redemption and reconciliation culminating in an everlasting world of universal peace and harmony.
Evangelical Christians interested in marking their November election ballots in a manner consistent with their own core beliefs should reflect on this matter long and hard before reflexively casting their ballots for Trump’s cronies and partners-in-crime.
One does not have to be a believer in Judaism to appreciate the fact that the old Jewish rabbis and sages who wrote the Old Testament and the Talmud got many important things exactly right.
4
I applaud your column here today as a fellow evangelical. There is nowhere in my Bible where it says that we are to use the courts to make people be Christian-like. We are to influence them by demonstrating the love of Christ to them.
I had this conversation with a pastor friend who is of like mind. He told me of pastors who laugh and say, "We will make them." "Making" people does not cause them to become Christian, it causes them to hate you. The exact opposite of what Jesus told you to do, and exactly what radical Muslims do that Christians hate.
Christians are to be different in this world, but many have bought into the wealth/power/ways of the world methods for which one day they will have to answer to their Creator. While there are many things in our country that we should be against, taking over the courts and supporting politicians who cheat and lie to achieve these goals, I never the way. The Jesus and the apostle Paul lived under a corrupt wicked government and they never once espoused those methods.
Christ followers should follow, not seek a new way that is of this world.
3
The people you refer to as reactionary evangelicals are neither evangelical not Christian. They are craven, greedy frauds who use the pulpit as a means to enrich themselves and amass power and influence. Jesus, in his kinder moments, would call them Pharisees and Saducces. In his moments of human anger he would upturn their tables and cast them out of the temple. Their fealty to Trump has exposed them, and will inevitably destroy them.
9
There is no " evangelical case " against Judge Kavanaugh. Mr. Wilson-Hargrove should concentrate on preaching the Gospel rather than writing political op-eds for the NY Times with the pretext that he has " an evangelical case " to make. It is laughable that he calls his Christian brethren " reactionary conservatives" when I would call him a liberal , radical who clearly is errant in his interpretation of Scripture. Will pray for you to see the light.
1
And the first Christian convert, outside of the Hebrew people and their faith, was an Ethiopian eunuch.
And the first Christian church in Antioch was organized to live as one people and share life together in a communal way.
And somebody said, probably not Jesus, when asked about paying taxes, "render unto Caesar that which is of Caesar, and unto God, that which is of God".
And in most states, a church and most church property and investment, pay no taxes.
render unto Caesar...
2
You just don't seem to get it. When you you say all those created in God's image, if you are not White then you are not created in God's image to them.
Evangelicals, to me are a cult in that they claim to be Christian, but money and hate define them. For example, abortion. If you are truly against abortion go to the root of the problem, unwanted pregnancies.
Instead to raise money it is better to attack a woman or child already pregnant. Helping to solve poverty, poor education and lack of quality health care just doesn't raise the millions the false preachers want.
3
The extreme evangelicals who are the base of voters for the party of Trump would risk our entire democracy and add more dissension and division throughout the Country and the world. Their myopic view of "their" religion would be as destructive, maybe even more so, than the Cardinals and Bishops who enabled and turned blind eyes to the pedophile priests who abused the innocent children of the Church. Religion has no place whatsoever dictating our politics.
2
I once posed a question to an Evangelical Christian who believed the protection of the unborn was the most important political fight because unborn children have souls.
My question was: Given the fact that hundreds of thousands of mothers and fathers have frozen embryos, if a fire broke out in a storage facility would he risk his life to carry out a tank containing a thousand frozen embryos?
He answered honestly "no." He said frozen embryos are unborn children, but he wouldn't risk his life to save frozen embryos - unborn children (with souls according to him).
How many Evangelical Christians would risk their lives to save unborn children? Sure, some would but most would decide that living breathing people are the first to save. The un-watched toddler who started the fire would be carried to safety the unborn embryos would be left behind.
Evangelical Christians make saving the unborn the central focus of their politics. What they don't get is, their politics are killing America. To save the unborn they are murdering democracy (the will of the majority) and the Constitution, which guarantees equality to all citizens - that includes women. Women must be the ones to make decisions affecting their own bodies otherwise they are denied equality.
If the government can force a pregnant woman to give birth then the government should neuter an absent father. That might make men think twice before imposing a life sentence on a woman who is not ready for and does not want a child.
3
Liberal Evangelical & Biblical:
1. Taking care of creation. Climate change will kill many unborn children and their families.
2. Get rid of Citizens United. If guns cannot kill corporations, they are not people.
3. Gun Control: The framers were dealing with muskets. How the right to own a musket has morphed into gun shows and no background checks for military grade human killing machines is hard to square with originalism.
4. Compassion, Mercy, and love-- Jesus is the OPPOSITE of Donald Trump and would never use him for a mouthpiece.
7
Did Jesus freely give his life, or was it taken (taxed and regulated) from him 'for the public good'? Was he a bureaucrat or a libertarian? 'It is for liberty that Christ has set us free.' What do you learn from triune Jehovah's advice to the Israelite constitutional convention in I Samuel 8--is your God big enough to challenge what most governments take for granted? What do you learn from Romans 13 and I Timothy 2 about the purpose(s) of government and what jobs it must do to fulfill its purposes?
Well whaddaya know - an evangelical leader who actually seems to want to practice what he preaches, and who recognizes that there are ways to tackle issues like abortion, where there's more common ground than some might have you believe.
Sadly, I fear there's no place for people like that in today's GOP or conservative movement. Hypocrisy is their game - those who want to do good and hold to their principles need not apply.
2
Samir
We mainstream Christians are disturbed by how a minority with a loud voice, with strong foreign ally, and lots of money was able to high jack the US Christian voice as if the mainstream Christian majority doesn’t exist. The damage is done. Recognizing recently Jerusalem as the Capital of the Jewish people, makes one wonder were does it leave us as Christians. Jerusalem is the heart and soul of Christianity. Have our mainstream Christian leaders thought what sort of impact long term this official recognition will have on the billion and more Christians around the world.
What if one day a whimsical government such as the one that passed recently the Jewish nation state law decide to deny us Christian access to our most holy places in Jerusalem. We need guarantees from our government to the Christian majority that Jerusalem will remain to be an open city for worshippers regardless of race, skin color, nationality or place of origin.
WHAT GOOD IS CHRISTIANITY WITHOUT JERUSALEM!!!!
1
Your Supreme Court can only find that laws are either consistent with your Constitution or not. How about Americans get down to the hard work of amending your Constitution thus altering the ‘yard-stick’ by which the Court measures things?
Forget religion. Forget that Congress and the American public are denied the right to view millions of documents that would shed light on Kavanaugh's prior work in the White House. The mere fact that Kavanaugh was nominated by "a president whose campaign and administration are under federal criminal investigation" should be reason enough to delay confirmation hearings until that investigation is concluded.
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I'm glad that Mr. Wilson Hartgrove is expressing resistance to Trump's agenda, but why did the Times think that they needed an evangelical to make their case credible? There are lots of religious denominations in the country. What do Methodists, Presbyterians, and Episcopalians think about Trump's regime? Does the Times care?
I work in a mainstream (I'm tempted to say "normal") Protestant church. How much discussion have I heard about "religious liberty"? Nothing. We already know that we are free. "Religious liberty" is really a code phrase for special privileges to be given the evangelicals, in violation of the First Amendment. One "privilege" is to allow an evangelical minister to tell his flock how to vote, pretending that it is God's will. That is currently illegal, and what's more, that would be taboo in my church.
2
Since when has anything in the secular sphere--including (perhaps especially) law and politics--followed a Christian ethic?
Hartgrove would be an "evangelical" only in the Jimmy Carter/Jim Wallis mold (a little to the right of the Rev. Al Sharpton), and about as relevant to the cause as the blacks who fought in Confederate ranks. He's a staple of the white old line denominations trying to escape that ever expanding crypt--pure politics sprinkled with Jesus sayings. Moreover, he is only a "minister at large", like so many free-wheelers. He does not pastor a church, as those who believe what he does find political activism the better part of worship.
1
We are being railroaded by minority interest groups whose interest is not in putting our country first.
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Do my eyes deceive me? An evangelical who does not use the words "prophecy", "prosperous" or "worldview"? And he illustrates a compassionate, inclusive Jesus, not a Jesus who spews hatred and divisiveness. Mr. Wilson-Hartgrove absolutely nails it when he refers to the current crop of mostly white, politically vocal evangelicals as part of a "slaveholder religion". Let's call groups like Family Research Council and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and those who blindly follow them what they actually are: "Slaveholder Christians".
4
You're writing this article on the **assumption** that Evangelicals are benevolent, yet for the most part, this isn't the case. I grew up w Robt Jeffress at FBC Dallas. We were in Training Union together. There isn't a loving bone in his body.
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You would think that the fact that for millions of Americans, myself included, and women in particular, the very word “Evangelical” now evokes such negative feelings, might give some of the “GOP faithful” pause. That young people are leaving the current “Trumpian evangelism” in droves doesn’t seem to bother them either, as long as they can keep pushing their regressive patriarchal religious agenda.
I do not fear words like “fire and brimstone” or “hellfire and damnation” that men like Jeffress and Graham Jr. no doubt reference for their followers, but currently the word “Evangelical” sure sends a shiver down my spine.
5
Very heartwarming to hear of Christians opposing Trump in the name of Love, Charity, Peace, Brotherhood and Care for the poor. You restore my very bruised capacity to fathom Christian transcendence. May a blue wave fueled by decency, patriotism and, yes, Christian sentiment, unfurl against the contemptible GOP Trump sycophants who are rapidly plunging us into dictatorship and their brain-washed "base" fueled by resentment rather than by Love!
2
Any Christian, Black or White, Evangelical or otherwise, worthy of his or her professed faith will oppose Kavanaugh ever being seated on SCOTUS. Jesus, who could forgive practically anything, flew into a violent rage when encountering hypocrites; especially those whose actions suggested they were consumed, above all, with a limitless greed for filthy lucre.
4
The Constitution's separation of religion from government was designed to protect religion from crooked politicians as much as it was designed to protect the government from crooked religious leaders.
Unfortunately, no amount of laws can save us if both the government and the church are led by crooks.
1
Minorities, workers, poor people and the L.G.B.T.Q. community; these are the people Evangelicals consider the enemy. They will give them no ground. With Judge Kavanaugh on the bench, Evangelicals will finally be able to vanquish them from the face of America.
"My faith compels me to challenge the way reactionary conservatives have hijacked our faith to serve their narrow interests."
That's nice, and since I like the result, I could be forgiven for overlooking the rationale. But I won't overlook it.
I was taught that a person's religious views are protected under the Constitution via the First Amendment. I also was taught (and later confirmed for myself, first as an American history major and then as a practicing lawyer for 38 years) that in this country, no one's religious views are binding on anyone else.
So tell me (I'm likely to agree) why you think the nominee's views are substantively at odds with the kind of person we'd like to see on the Supreme Court. You know, a history of bad public policy, ruling against certain classes, an incorrect view of Constitutional theory- something along those lines. But don't tell me you're against his nomination because Jesus allegedly said this or that.
I don't care what Jesus supposedly said (according to those who wrote down his "words" several generations afterwards) about anything. Civilized behavior, common decency and being informed about our particular form of representative government do not require reference to a book cobbled together over centuries by people whom we know nothing about and hence cannot trust.
If Jesus had never existed, presumably you could still come up with principled reasons to oppose Kavanaugh's nomination. Couldn't you?
As a long time Christian and student of the Bible and history, I agree with the case this author has made. "Christian nationalism" is a terrible concept. The church and state are both better off as separate entities, as history has proven time and time again. This judicial candidate is likely to be an activist judge who stamps his views on the situation rather than following precedent.
As for Trump, all of his policies are anti-life to people, wildlife and the planet as a whole (read his administration's own report about the 1,400 premature deaths per year that his coal pollution rollbacks will cause) with the exception of abortion, which he uses to get votes. I hope he is not chosen for the court.
7
Evangelicalism is a religion. "White" evangelicalism is a white power movement. They don't recognize the separation of church and state because they are all state, all politics. Trying to legislate sin away, they fail to humbly appraise their own sins. Or worse, they use the political fight against other people's sins to distract them from looking at themselves. They gleefully cast the first stones, thinking their "born again" status is a free ticket to the sinless state.
It would be laughable if it wasn't so serious. Causing harm to vulnerable people, not just passing them by and not offering aid like in the Good Samaritan tale, but actively pursuing policies that cause harm, like family separations, this is not a minor sin. Heaven will not be their destiny.
You cannot buy salvation. You cannot legislate it. You cannot earn it. It is a gift given by the grace of God, but your heart must be open to receive it. Love is that opening. Loving others prepares the heart for the infusion of grace and light. Anger closes the heart. Hate results when the heart goes mad, cut off from love and light.
There is so much anger and hate in America today because religion has become politics. They stopped believing in God and started worshipping money and power.
17
Sadly, the GOP will get what they want. I applaud your faith, but the Christian faith is hollow in these United States. The culture warriors may be happy that Roe will finally be overturned. But what will come of the many poor and lower class whites as this reactionary conservative majority rules on fairness and liberty for the individual, his wages, his labor, and yes his very soul? Judicial fairness will be confined only to those with vested finsncial interests.
4
The core truth is that religious fundamentalists and Supreme Court justices read into the Bible and the Constitution, respectively, in essentially the same manner. The precise wording of a text is a vehicle for a truth of your own making. And those who are outraged don't get it.
What other way is there to give meaning to ambiguous, authoritative texts? Religion and law are not mathematics. There are no provably right or wrong answers. There is only what you want to believe and what you don't. In the words of the Bible, there is a time to cast away stones and a time to gather them together. And what you are to do with your stones at any given moment depends ultimately on you. It is your heartfelt decision as to whether it's time for more stones or less. There simply is no definitive way to decide.
I came of age in a Southern Protestant town. Never heard anti-Catholicism among school mates, teachers or conventional Protestants. But I got my fill of it at an evangelical revival.
To win the Presidency JFK beat back anti-catholic evangelicals, among them Southern Baptists. The Evangelical leaders who have made a graven image of Donald Trump frequently are prejudiced against Catholics. Examples, pastors Jeffress and Hagee.
In Latin America, where for years Catholic politicians restricted Protestant freedom of religion, the evangelical role in politics is questionable. In Guatemala. often run by butchers, the worst of them, General Efrain Rios Montt professed an evangelical faith. A shadowy would be dictator, supported by evangelicals, may win Brazil's election. In Costa Rica an evangelical appeared headed for victory but was undone by the exposure of the candidate's mentor as an anti-gay, anti-Catholic bigot.
Trump, playing 2 Thessalonians "Man of Recklessness" is intent on making Evangelicalism our official religion. Catholicism flourished here because of the Constitution's Establishment Clause forbidding state religion. Everyone, evangelicals among them, benefits from religious freedom.
Like the writer, I worry about Judge Kavanugh. This intelligent man, swaddled in executive privilege, appears to be a politician first and jurist second -- witness his too clever by half opinion in an immigrant abortion case.
3
Fundamentalist "evangelicals" did not have their faith hijacked by conservative interests. They rejected critical thinking and difficult debate of complicated issues and surrendered themselves blindly to the conservative cause.
The intellectual travesty that is today's Republican party, and the epic national embarrassment that is the Trump administration, are in large part due to evangelicals surrendering their thinking in favor of "faith"----in conservative dogma.
6
I applaud you for standing against those who met with Trump and both gave their 'blessings' to him as they supposedly received his blessings.
Suffice it to say that it is the support he gets from the GOP on Congress who will make or break the Kavanaugh selection approved.
You would do well if there are any in your congregation you reach out to the Republicans who will question him and approve him.
When gate and fear are the underpinnings of any political decision, it should fail.
Christians should back away from hate and fear.
And you must condemn hate and fear being used to convince people to vote for any one who uses that tactic.
1
I once posed a question to an Evangelical Christian conservative who believed the sanctity of life, the protection of the unborn was the most important fight for Republicans.
The question was this: Given the fact that hundreds of thousands of mothers and fathers have frozen embryos, if a fire broke out in a storage facility, would he risk his life to carry out a tank containing a thousand frozen embryos?
He answered honestly, "no." He admitted he wouldn't risk his life to save frozen embryos - unborn children.
How many Evangelical Christians would risk their lives to save unborn children? I'm sure a few would, but most would decide that living breathing people are the first to save. The toddler who started the fire would be the one to save, the unborn embryos would be left to their fate.
Evangelical Christians make saving the unborn the central focus of their politics. What they don't get is, their politics is killing America. To save the unborn, they are murdering the Constitution which guarantees equality to all citizens - that includes women. Women must be the ones to make decisions affecting their own bodies, otherwise they are denied equality.
If a pregnant woman must give birth, then an absent father should be neutered. That might make men think twice before imposing a life sentence on a woman who is not ready for and does not want a child.
14
Compulsory reading for religious extremists who think that their pet religion is the only moral authority and is to be inflicted on others:
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Article 1
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Article 2
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.
Article 30
Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.
Article 30 is significant because it constrains the exercise of so-called 'religious rights'.
Atheists and LGBTQ people have a right to NOT have religion impact their lives.
8
My lack of faith requires me to remind people that evangelicals like all religious people are primarily cruel and intent on controlling the minds of other people. Nothing good comes from joining or tolerating cults that are based on nothing but pure human imagination and with the purpose of gaining wealth and power. Evangelicals know what Trump is. He is exactly like them. Needy, greedy and cruel.
7
The pastor was expressing solidarity with the left from the point of view of a certain type of Evangelical Christianity; and he made some reasonable points along the way. His thanks? Rather too many commentators mocking his religion.
3
Organized religion is the root of all evil.
1
Fear is the absence of faith. A Christian vote for Donald Trump was a vote of no confidence in Christ. The Lord says "Fear not for if I with you, who could be against you?" It's abundantly clear by now that white Evangelicals believe everyone is against them. Why, they weren't even free to say "Merry Christmas" before Trump came along. He told them "I alone can fix it" and they made a conscious decision to choose Trump's protections here on earth rather than the words of their Lord. Fear is the tell of a phony Christian. I left the White Evangelical Party decades ago. Yes, I meant to say party. A party is an exclusive gathering of like minded people. A church is the gathering place of everyone else.
5
Sadly too many white evangelicals would happily go back to a time when neither blacks nor women were considered the true equals to white men in the workplace and under the law and a time when LBGTQ people were invisible.
And that's the real goal of so many of Trump's supporters who so strongly back both Trump's inflammatory rhetoric and his nomination of Kavanaugh for the Supreme court: They want to take this country back to a time when white men did not face competition from nor acknowledge the basic humanity of all these others---the women, the blacks, the Hispanics, the Asians, the recent immigrants, the new refugees, the LBGTQ people, the Muslims, and so on and so forth.
6
As a neighbor was saying as we discussed this long national nightmare of a Trump presidency: if Evangelicals really cared about the abortion issue they would welcome the impeachment of Trump because it would usher in one of their own, Mike Pence. They obviously believe in the dictum "the end justifies the means" because Trump is a bully and will wields the bully's power. Another irony is that Evangelicals (see Ireland) historically used to regard Roman Catholics as their enemies. What has happened. Apparently they were willing to change their judgment on veneration of Mary, Icons, making people saints etc.
1
Brett Kavanaugh, regardless of what label he attaches to himself, adheres to a philosophy which is centered on political activism, and which has for its purpose the subjugation of women and people of color.
Judge Kavanaugh has spent his career finding esoteric legal reasons to mask or to justify his disrespect for black Americans, for immigrants of color to the United States, for women who demand a voice and for working people who want an even playing field in opposing scofflaw corporations.
The man who nominated Judge Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump, has tampered with a legal investigation, shown contempt for the Constitution and chosen the word of a hostile Russian leader over the experts in America’s law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
Judge Kavanaugh’s answer to this crisis has been to write articles, opinions and lectures suggesting that President Trump is above the law and immune from scrutiny.
Americans must unite against the Kavanaugh threat, and black evangelical Christians are leading the fight. Good for them.
8
It is so refreshing to see someone tell evangelical conservatives that their fundamentalist interpretation of the Bible is often in contradiction with the spirit of the Gospel. The famous theologian Paul Tillich said that Jesus was the first socialist and Tolstoy thought that he was a pacifist. The obligation to seek peace and social justice is a core value of the Judeo-Christian prophetic tradition. Where are the Christian politicians who protest against the bombing of Muslim countries? Where are those who advocate socialized medicine? Or those who want to repeal the Second Amendment?
5
"A call to pause"? How about a call to STOP the madness of Trumpism and all the very un-Christian acts, beliefs and values Trumpism represents? How about Evangelicals lead the way to sanity and morality by leading us out of the nightmare of Trump and back into a civilized kind and caring national morality?
That the Evangelicals and Trump are in bed together tells me everything I need to know about both --- hypocrisy, lies, and a-morality are at the heart of this relationship. Money and power are their common bond.
I feel sorry for any true believer of the Evangelical faith but would respect them a lot more if they would take stronger stands against Trump and his brutal assault on the poor, women, people of color and on our country.
5
In his memo as part of Ken Starr’s impeachment case against President Clinton, Kavanaugh charged “He has lied to the American people.” Throughout the 2016 campaign, Trump promised his supporters he would nominate "pro-life justices" whose votes would undo Roe "automatically." Since Kavanaugh is now saying that Roe v. Wade is “settled law” Democratic senators must press him on why that does not make him complicit in another of Trump’s many lies to the American people, worthy of impeachment? Or does he plan to keep Trump an "honest" man, meaning the law will not be so settled once he is on the Court?
3
I make it very clear as a Christian that I am not to be associated with the right-wing evangelicals. You are correct that the Supreme Court justices opposing future cases that protect pro-choice will "not necessarily save unborn children, but it will make life more difficult for minorities, workers, poor people and the L.G.B.T.Q. community." Women who want an abortion for whatever reason will find a way to have that abortion or they will be leaving babies at your doorstep or in trash bins. Until the religious right is also concerned about social justice issues it makes a mockery of Jesus' teachings.
8
I just want your religion out of my government, including the courts. I also want my religion, or lack of it, out of the government and the courts. I also want his, her, and their religions out of our government and the courts.
Call me a First Amendment "Originalist."
8
The core 40 percent of American voters, who almost blindly support Trump, roughly correlates to the same percentage of adults who deny evolution and believe that human being, in its present form, was created by God! These are the people who would believe just anything, any fairy tales and lies, if it's told by certain people (church included) &/or in a certain way. Everything else are "fake news" for them.
US is now the 2nd worst among 36 developed countries (only ahead of Turkey) in terms of percentage of college graduates (38%, worst in our own history) denying evolution to believe that human beings in its present form was created by God! Worse, all of it is despite the fact that USA has the largest budget in education and research, more than next 10 or more countries combined together, and with the most expensive higher education in the world. American education is just like American health care.
Fate of American democracy started its decline mainly since Reagan Presidency, who started destroying public education (both school & higher education), besides being the central architect for crony capitalism in the US. Religion in education and public policy are inseparable now. Crony capitalism makes it far more deadly.
Now atheists & agnostic people make about 25% of US population, larger than Evangelicals (23%). Yet there is not a single Congressman to represent them.
It would take long and tedious process to reform our public education system and corporate governance.
4
"Praising" and "Since" are the only to usages to "sin" in this article. With that kind of analysis, it's no wonder things are in the shape they are.
When that great political pendulum swigs back to the left, as it will do some day, it may well have the sword of Damocles attached to it.
I'm 82 years old now and have seen a thing or two in my life, and I think I can safely say that there has never, since the civil war been such a divide in our country. I can look back with a bit of nostalgia at the days of WW2 when the country was united against a common foe. We were actually a happier people then, or so it seemed.
Now it's almost like there are those religious fanatics that would rather rip the country apart by trying to force their beliefs on other people, like it or not. Think Taliban in Afghanistan if you want to see how well that works. s
We are probably stuck with this sanctimonious dweeb which means the progressives will have to rely on congress to keep things from slipping over the edge and into a religious war right here in the home of "religious freedom".
4
All people of faith and Evangelicals in particular should keep in mind that politics in this country is a pendulum. it may be swinging their way for the moment, but it can just as easily swing back, particularly if their efforts go too far.
7
The constitution maintains that the government must be neutral towards religion. I wish that religious leaders would adopt the same policy towards government. It is fine to spread religion but using religion to further political ideology seems rather presumptuous about what God wants.
17
A helpful alternative account of recent Evangelical history in America. There are more Evangelicals with views like the author's than is generally known. Their voices are drowned by the power, wealth and political influence of the presently dominant voices. It is urgent that more is heard from this side of this religious - political movement.
25
In addition to their ahistorical beliefs about Jerusalem, this piece helps explain why evangelicals can overlook Trump's absolute flaunting of the Ten Commandments! But I do think the media narrative that a pro-Kavanaugh vote is a foregone conclusion in the Senate is extremely dangerous. It engenders complacency; after all, an organized Twitter campaign directed to all Senators could give some of the pause.
9
I want to see our Supreme Court modified to either to put a balance of equal conservatives/liberals so no decision can be made with a close 5/4 vote, or else add more justices to water down the power of each Justice. Other countries have more Justices on their highest court than we do. We could also make term limits so that each new Presidential term includes choosing one or more new Justices, or we could take the choosing of Justices out of the hands of the President. Making changes to the basic makeup of the court is the only way I can see to ending the politicization of the Court. The way the Court is today is unhealthy for our country's future.
18
The truly religious among you need to come and get your people.
These evangelical right wingers seem to hate everybody but themselves, and rather than uplifting the areas in which they live by helping their neighbors, the needy... they instead castigate difference and promulgate intolerance, while calling for open carry and the death penalty. What would Jesus think?
35
Thank you for this historical view--very helpful. I never did understand how a religious movement that rejects Darwin could get itself welded to a political movement grounded in the harshest kind of social Darwinism. High time that marriage of opposites should split up.
19
The Bible, that collection of divers materials, provides texts to justify whatever may come to mind, so one if free to pick and choose. Turns out, same is pretty much true with the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. So, in confirming nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court, one might look to the moral character of the nominee. In the case of a sitting judge, the practical, real-world consequences of decisions in which the nominee has participated require attention, not theories of jurisprudence. In other words, overly much attention to current political struggles in confirming or failing to confirm nominees to the Supreme Court should focus on what a nominee has done, not on what a nominee might think. Historically, much of the role of the Supreme Court in major cases has been a surprise that could not have been anticipated at the time of confirmation hearings in the past. Theories of jurisprudence are not consequential in the face of novel change in society.
3
In France, the principle of laïcité (secularity) "discourages religious involvement in government affairs, especially religious influence in the determination of state policies; it also forbids government involvement in religious affairs, and especially prohibits government influence in the determination of religion." (Wikipedia) I guess religious leaders in the US want government to stay out of their religion but won't stop trying to influence government policies. The French are very serious about laïcité; if settlers to the US hundreds of years ago borrowed the concept, we're getting it very wrong these days. Just remember, Christians: There will likely come a day you're not the majority; make sure you're treating non-Christians how you want to be treated when you're in the minority.
47
It's puzzling how being anti-abortion was somehow labeled "pro-life" when the health of the mother and well-being of the child after birth are apparently not considerations.
84
@Chris Bowling. ....Thank you for stating that "pro-life" is a misuse of language....anti-abortion or anti-reproductive choice is far more fitting...nothing close to pro-life in their rigid fundamentalist agenda. We should all refuse to continue to use that twisted phrase "pro-life" to refer to these people....more correctly we should call them anti-abortion or most correctly anti-freedom of reproductive choice for all women & girls. I am so sick of this wedge issue taking up so our time....I am sick of these evangelicals trying to force their so-called religious beliefs down the throats of other Americans...where are our civl rights, where is our freedom from their religious beliefs?
@Chris Bowling
Republicans are not Christians and Christians are not Republicans. Politics has gotten too confused with religion here in the US for the past 50 years, to the point where labels identify the way you must think. Many Christians care for the well being of the mother and child (in care for the poor in churches, supporting single moms, social services, through adoption, supporting affordable child care) you just wouldn't know it from the way politicians vote.
Assuming the almost certain confirmation of Kavanaugh and the relatively likely return of Democrats to control first of the House, and later of the Senate & Presidency, what can be done to rebalance court? Can justices be removed or can more justices be added? Can Constitutional changes be made to clarify abortion laws or right to bear arms?
9
@lvzee
In a word, NO!, is the answer to all your questions. Those who chose to stay home or vote 3rd party on 11-8-2016 also chose to lay ruin to well established civil rights for minorities, women & the gay community for the foreseeable forever.
27
@Elizabeth You are right. Our liberal/progressive friends seems to want to do anything to help their cause except vote. But supporting electable candidates and voting are the only ways to really have a voice in making law/policy. Most of us hate Mitch McConnell, but he was right when he said " those people who win elections make policy; those who lose elections go home and find other work."
I can't say it enough -- vote on election day.
30
@Elizabeth
Political fantasy is big in Houston, I see. Or maybe it's misinformation.
In any case, the real answer to all Ivzee's question is yes, absolutely. All those things can happen and, maybe, should.
To Elizabeth's point, they will not and cannot happen unless those who opened the door to this political cataclysm can rouse themselves to vote in November.
And unless those who did vote can overcome their sense of superiority and go out and help people in their communities to see how desperately important the vote is this time around, and make sure they go and do it.
And unless the Berners can just give it up already, and maybe try to act as if America is more important than their fragile and resentful egos.
1
Kavanaugh’s confirmation is a foregone conclusion, unfortunately.
The Republicans will have packed the Supreme Court with loyal Republican apparatchiks whose reactionary ideological votes on any future case is almost as much a foregone conclusion as Kavanaugh’s confirmation. And by appointing relatively young new justices, the Republicans hope to keep this reactionary lock on case outcomes for at least a generation.
But what they overlook is the political preferences of the next generation of voters, who almost certainly will be repulsed by the future decisions of Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, et al.
As the electorate becomes increasingly progressive, the Court will come to seem less and less legitimate, with the Trump and Bush justices rendering their pre-baked reactionary decisions for decades to come.
The short-term advantage achieved by the Gorsuch and Kavanaugh nominations will in the long run do lasting damage to the prestige of the Court and fuel a political backlash.
37
@Jeffrey Herrmann
"The short-term advantage achieved by the Gorsuch and Kavanaugh nominations will in the long run do lasting damage to the prestige of the Court and fuel a political backlash."
Let us hope it is only a political backlash. I have my doubts, given the well-armed resistance to America being assembled by Mr. Trump and his Evangelical Irregulars.
9
@Jeffrey Herrmann Yes, but in the meantime, this white male right wing majority will have years to wreck our nation!
Vice President Pence wants to repeal ACA but along with Trump has no plan to provide health care to those who would lose that care after repeal.
How then do evangelicals support the Trump /Pence position of denying health care in light of Matthew 25:4-38.
41
Reference should have been Matthew 25: 34-38.
9
@david: The evangelicals you reference are not followers of Christ. They are followers of Mammon,
@david
Matthew 25:40-45 King James Version (KJV)
40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
42 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:
43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.
44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?
45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.
Confused ??
Matthew 13:13
Therefore I speak to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
Jeremiah 5:21
Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not.
Still confused ??
Don't worry !
Christianity says it will all be much better when one is dead.
In the mean time how about:
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you !
Easy thanks to the Greeks.
The Christians stole the idea and could not therefore make it one of God's Ten Commandments.
Shame about that.
1
It is hard for me to read the descriptions in this column of responses that lump all Evangelicals in one disturbing basket. But that is possibly the result of journalists who don't know that there are variety of Christian groups that exist in the Christian faith.
I, for one am still willing to call myself an evangelical, but I do not fit with most of what is written here. I am a liberal Democrat (a reconstructed or converted Republican) who will not vote for any Republican candidate as long as they continue to trash the most vulnerable in society, vote against any of the safety nets that are needed and refuse to encourage laws and programs that promote social justice..
My friends in the Evang. group are now refusing to use that definition of Christian and are coming up with new labels. I may have to do the same.
49
@edmele, I'm sorry this has happened but it was inevitable because of people like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell. They were bigger than life evangelists and their imprint is all over evangelicals now. I would choose another label. Baptists could be considered evangelicals but I remember in the fifties and sixties they were as protective of the separation of church and state as any liberal. They even considered each church independent of the whole denomination. That has changed and many evangelicals today consider it their duty to change the world by having the government make the change. What they haven't been able to change, they want the government to do.
17
@Katherine Cagle
One problem is that many evangelical mega-churches are led by men (almost always, men) who have poor or no theological credentials. They preach the Bible as they see it (which is their right), but don't know the original Hebrew and Greek texts at all, and don't understand that the English translations of the Latin texts they have pored over are third hand at best. They are preaching some form of prosperity gospel based on the idea that God rewards "moral" people and therefore prosperity is a sign of morality. This is circular reasoning at best, and in direct conflict with Luke 18:25: "For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God". Religion is too important to be left to amateurs.
2
"Whether we have any experience in reading the law, evangelicals are familiar with Judge Kavanaugh’s way of reading authoritative texts. This is precisely how fundamentalists read Scripture in the early 20th century, when evolutionary science challenged their reading of Genesis and social science confronted narrow corporate interests during the Gilded Age."
There are enormous differences between Scripture and the US Constitution.
One lacks an amendment process to alter the text to correct errors or oversights or to adapt to changing principles leaving little choice but to "reinterpret" even when it when it is found to contain outright lies. The other includes Article V which defines a process for making amendments which has been used many times successfully.
One only binds those who choose to follow it voluntarily. The other is enforced on everyone under threat of arrest, imprisonment, and even execution.
One describes an authoritarian model by a leader with absolute and unquestioned power. The other descries a democratic model where leaders are regularly voted upon.
14
@Bob Richards Those are useful and essential distinctions and offer hope for amendments under Article V.
Just over a week ago or so, evangelicals invited into the White House heard Trump say that Democrats would react in violence if they won races in the mid-terms. Surely even the most conservative Christian believer would question Trump's veiled threat and moral vacancy--and denounce him. Surely.
127
@Ann
Antifa beats up anyone they don't like. An old lady daring to hold an American flag? To the hospital. Berkeley invites a non-progressive to speak? You get fire-bombing.
The only man ot leave home armed with a rifle and a kill list of the opposition in Alexandria? A progressive Democrat, of course, and a Bernie fan.
Auntie Maxine Waters orders her tribalists to attack any Trump officials or employees, and the Sarah Sanders experiences at Virginia restaurants are well known.
The majority of Christians supporting Trump can actually tell the difference between a priest or rabbi and a political leader. We figured he would reinvigorate the economy, and we were right.
Your candidate just got outworked and then defeated fair and square, dears. It is past time to realize this.
Have you even wondered why hundreds of Obama counties went for Trump?
@Ann
Sadly, Ann, even a cursory look at or listen to the Religious Right since Saint Ronnie was in office, let alone the faux Christian "leaders" today would have your reaction be "Surely, you jest." These men
(primarily men) want the same power and control and money that their brothers the Pharisees wanted.
2
@Ann One conservative Evangelical just did in the article you are commenting on. He’s not alone. Too often the thoughtful words of evangelicals and other Christians are ignored when they don’t fit the trope we’ve been conditioned to expect. Many Christians, even conservative evangelicals, preach and attempt to live out Christ’s vision of the Beloved Community over and against slaveholder religion.
1
There is a very simple, historical reason why the white church in this fracas is called the Southern Baptist Convention. At Augusta Georgia in May 1845 they formed the new Convention in a direct repudiation of the national body who had prohibited slave owners from serving in the Foreign Mission Board.
The SBC finally decided in 1995 that this slavery business had been somewhat problematic in the past 150 years. Indeed....
49
For every evangelical, like Mr. Wilson-Hartgrove, who sees a larger picture of justice, there are ten evangelicals who will toe the far right mantra. With evangelical control of GOP primary electorate and GOP control of House, Senate and the White House, one can fight a symbolic battle for the court but there is little hope that one can keep Trump from seating one more justice. One may argue that if we can delay until November, there is a chance that the Democrat will retake the Senate. Yes. I agree that a battle to delay confirmation until after November election does make sense. However, from all the polls so far, the chance of flipping the Senate is remote. I am afraid that it is most probably that progressives have lost the court for a generation. We better make plan to best preserve justice with an reactionary court for many years to come through initiatives from the legislative and the executive branches.
32
@Peter Actually the polls indicate that it is about 3 out of 10 evangelicals agree with Jonathan. That means that for every evangelicals like Jonathan there are 2 who are extreme right wing. If you include the minorities, it is close to 50-50. The right wing is still a majority but hardly overwhelming.
14
The right wing evangelicals live for the days of Oliver Cromwell. Of course, this is the one thing the founders undoubtedly wanted to avoid. Th worst thing these people could get is what they want. My guess is that it would take a very short time for that to get old. Then they would find out how bad anti-clericalism can get.
25
@Andy Makar I suspect that some of them actually pine for the time of Thomas, not Oliver, Cromwell. i.e. before, not after, the English and Protestant Reformations, when the moral authority of "the sole religious leader" (the Roman pope) was essentially unquestionable.
18
@Paul Davis.
I'm thinking Oliver. This is a Puritan bunch. After ten years of that, the Brits were so fed up they brought back Charles II. This bunch are definitely not papists.
I've said it once, and I'll say it again.
2000 years of christianity gave us Donald Trump.
Something is seriously wrong here.
101
By that reasoning I guess one might say 1860 years of Christianity gave us Abraham Lincoln and 2008 years Barack Obama. Silly and simplistic.
1
@Stephen: No! 2000 years of subjugation of Christianity to the will of Caesar.
1
Yes some evangelicals care about children and the socially disadvantaged as per their belief in the bible. But most evangelicals as seen in their slavish addiction to Trump and the GOP are advocates of ideology and the party line even more than biblical calls to tolerance and love for their fellow men. Indeed, it seems that they have sacrificed their ethical and religious standards to laud a corrupt Trump for the sake of ideology. Their stand against any abortion for instance fails to consider the life of the child the product of that ideology after its birth nor does it consider the life of the mother whose life is sometimes threatened without an abortion. Slavish adherence to ideology which for many their religion has become prevents any useful discussion and now these 'evangelicals' with their devotion to Kavanaugh and an ideological view of the law will condemn us all to a 'Christian' tyranny.
56
First, an Evangelical meeting at the White House is inappropriate. It reeks of favoring one religion over all others. It is hard to imagine any topic at that meeting that did not cross the line between church and state. Giving members of one religion special access to the president is un-American and unethical
Second, there should be transcripts of all White House meetings like this. It was reported that the press was escorted from the room and then the president launched into his bizarre remarks asking these folks to preach that their congregation should vote GOP in the Midterms lest Democrats win and violently overturn special considerations Trump has claimed for this group. Soliciting votes like this or campaigning in the White House is against ethics rules and it is still illegal for non-profit churches to endorse candidates.
Finally, Kavanaugh must recuse if any case reaches the Supreme Court resulting from the Mueller investigation. Of course he won’t, but he should. I am presuming he will get this seat since the GOP has made SCOTUS the be all and end all of their power grab. The tyranny of the minority continues.
Evangelicals, though, may well face a backlash if Kavanaugh unwinds hard-fought civil rights protections and reproductive freedoms. There are still enough people of conscience of many religions - including true Christians & African American Evangelicals - and non-believers who will not accept this assault on our rights and freedoms.
103
And our money shouldn't say "In God We Trust"; our pledge shouldn't include the phrase "One nation under God"; there shouldn't be a Senate Chaplin; there shouldn't be a Capitol Prayer Room. These all, in my mind, violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
However, if a religious group wishes to exercise their right, under the First Amendment, to petition their government in the form of speaking to the President, they have that right if the President grants them his time. A group should not be banned from meeting with government officials because they are a religious group.
14
Donald Trump has demonstrably committed six of the Seven Deadly Sins, and who knows how many of the Ten Commandments he has broken. Yet Evangelical "Christians" support him because of his empty words on the abortion issue. Who knows how many abortions he has paid for? Perhaps it's in those mysterious tax returns.
156
@Bearded One
Not likely, unless Trump's abortion payments exceeded 7% of his adjusted gross income.
1
@Bearded One
Trump hasn't just "committed six of the Seven Deadly Sins", he has dedicated his entire life to them.
2
Kavanaugh is a Catholic, rumored to be observant, and not an evangelical Baptist. While I don’t consider one to be more or less legitimate than the other, I also don’t consider the specific dogmatic interests of either to be relevant to the selection of a federal jurist; or to the rulings of such judges once seated. Federal judges are not supposed to spend their time splitting hairs on what is legitimately God’s, but what is legitimately Caesar’s. Shamans of all sorts, including priests and Baptist (and other) ministers, can worry about what is God’s.
From the president’s perspective, conservative evangelists were at the White House to pledge their loyalty to him as the most likely to defend their basic interests among the available political rascals. The clerics clearly were there in their own minds to acknowledge that pledging their loyalty to Nancy Pelosi or Bernie Sanders likely would be an act caused by some form of dementia.
It appears that all those who oppose Kavanaugh’s confirmation have one thing in common: they are purists of the first water. Apparently, the only acceptable jurist would be one who embraced ALL of THEIR cultural, political and religious totems. Yet it’s clear that no such hippopotamus exists on Earth. It remains that Kavannaugh is more likely to respect the right of religious communities to define the fence posts marking those communities than many others.
ALL religious leaders should take their win and run like thieves.
6
@Richard Luettgen - "It remains that Kavannaugh is more likely to respect the right of religious communities to define the fence posts marking those communities than many others."
Problem is, we have religious communities who are trying to use everybody's land for their fence posts. We don't need that activity to get a free pass.
71
@b fagan
Never (in over eleven years in this forum) suggested that we did. However, that's also a matter of confirming imperfect (by the lights of some) jurists.
1
@Richard Luettgen Kavanaugh won't respect my religious rights one bit. I'm a secular humanist who is a member of the Satanic Temple, you see. He will impose evangelical and conservative Catholic views of religion upon me, including but not solely upon my body and my uterus. I have a very strong philosophical/religious commitment to bodily autonomy, and Kavanaugh would make it illegal to exercise that autonomy through abortion.
Religion has no place in the laws of a secular nation, which is what we are. Make laws and policies based on what works to make a stable, prosperous, non-corrupt society; increase education, decrease poverty, care for others, respect others. Religion (especially evangelical religion) does none of this very well and is explicitly opposed to some of this. Kavanaugh, if confirmed, will explicitly oppose all of this, and that is a problem.
Plus, of course, that 100,000 pages of unreleased documents. We absolutely need to see those released to the Senate, because the potential ethical issues exposed in them are critical to whether Kavanaugh has the ethical background to even be considered. Hiding reams of documentation doesn't look good, let's put it that way.
28
If Kavanaugh gets in.
An algorithm can be written
That could replicate the then sittin’
SCOTUS, replete
With opinions neat,
A situation that’s not fittin’.
Labor? Would always be against,
Wealth? Would always be well fenced,
Stare decisis?
Depends what the price is,
Results? E’er discussion commenced.
Abortion you could kiss goodbye
Without giving a reason why,
Separation Church-State
Bound to quickly abate,
A Supreme Court lowered from the Sky.
39
I am sincerely sorry, but this 'call to pause' is as likely to move most evangelicals as the Democrat's 'a better deal' is likely to move Trump's supporters.
Even if there is a blue wave in 2018, Democrats at very best would have a tiny majority in the Senate, nowhere near enough to convict and remove an indicted Trump.
If Trump is removed by the Electoral College after the 2020 election, a very reasonable possibility, the inevitable Grand Jury could indict him. A prosecutor could try him, a jury could convict him. A plausible case could be made that all judicial appointments made by a convicted traitor are null and void. There could a either a Democratic super-majority in the Senate after most of the (at least) 21 Republicans lose their seats, or enough of the remainder could be spooked enough to go along with impeachment of every Trump-appointed judge who was a member of the Koch cult Federalist Society.
Dan Kravitz
29
@Dan Kravitz
it is pretty to think that, but as wittgenstein said: call it a dream. it does not change anything.
12
@Dan Kravitz if not a single banker has been convicted for what took place around 2008, I feel fairly confident in stating that Donald Trump will never be convincted of treason, regardless of his guilt or innocence.
1
There will not be a 2/3 majority of Democrats in the Senate in your lifetime so you're fantasizing about something that simply won't happen.
The notion that judges nominated by Trump are in some way illegitimate if Trump is eventually convicted of charges related to the 2016 election is nonsense. That's one reason for the "confirmation" process -- at least 50 Senators would have also vetted these judges as being qualified and suitable for the job. It doesn't matter who nominated him.
"Plausible" is a term used in contexts like this when one is expressing an opinion for which there is no legal basis (otherwise one cites the basis in the form of statutory law or case law). As in, a "plausible case could be made that every law signed by a President becomes null and void upon his impeachment and conviction or resignation upon threat of impeachment" -- see, no legal basis so I use the phrase "plausible" to make it sound better.
Mr. Hartgrove, a self-described evangelical, is entitled to his political opinions and also to recite those verses from Scripture he thinks are relevant to the discussion at hand. But he ought to have referenced the Scriptures that speaks directly, for example, to the issue of abortion. David's Psalm 139 recites: My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place . . . your eyes saw my unformed body." Luke 1:41-44 recites the visit of Mary to Elizabeth, when John the Baptist, leaped for joy in Mary's womb when Mary spoke. The Apostle Paul recites that "before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad - in order that God's purpose in election might stand." God declared the Esau would serve Jacob. Rom. 9:11. Human life begins at conception. Opposition to abortion on demand has been an unvarying hallmark of the Christian Church for almost two millennia. Simply declaring oneself an Evangelical, and then disregarding both Christian history, established Christian doctrine, and the plain message of Scripture, is hardly persuasive. 'Rejecting reactionary extremism' (the author's highly colorful phrase) is not an excuse to ignore the witness of Scripture, the unambiguous teaching of the Church, or her consistent history on abortion. This 'Evangelical' Op-Ed by Mr. Hartgrove opines on nearly everything, (little of it pertinent to Judge Kavanaugh), but conspicuously avoiding what is relevant in Scripture, or the qualifications of Judge Kavanaugh.
2
@Tom Wolpert
So why should I care what scripture says if I am not a Christian. The abortion debate is all about imposing religious beliefs on others. Debate whether a fetus developed enough to have a brain and heartbeat should be protected. But ascribing rights to an undifferentiated embryo at conception because of the religious concept of the soul is imposing your religion on others.
97
@Tom Wolpert: Applying the Bible, an Iron Age book written as a guide of how to live your life, does not apply to our modern conception of abortion. There are no direct references for a woman to end a pregnancy and Christian law saying she is not allowed to do so. Women were considered property of men back then, so if a man didn't want a child, he could direct her to do what he wanted, not what she wanted.
59
Those verses cited are not “the plain message of Scripture”, just verses taken out of context by those who wish to use the Bible to justify their misogynist political agenda. The same Bible that explicitly forbids tattoos in Leviticus 19:28 is vague at best on the issue of abortion. The party that cuts funding to education and social services while adamantly opposing any measures to stem the tide of firearm deaths is not the slightest bit interested in life, just in control.
75
Kavanaugh would also uphold the rights of the wealthy and corporations to bribe politicians and resist regulations that are supported by most voters and that support the common good. He would uphold citizens united and protect gun rights over human rights
79
The support by Evangelical Christians of Trump is, to me, a strong argument against Christianity. The fact that, repeatedly, throughout history, Christianity has been used as a force of oppression, and justification for hate and racism, demonstrates that religion fails. When the same people who read and claim to believe in Luke 6:29, where Jesus invites us to meet violence with submission and theft with generosity support violence and greed, I have all the evidence I need that myth, no matter how well intended, fails to make people good.
The only thing that makes people good is empathy, and that is sorely lacking in modern Evangelical culture.
134
@Edward AllenCompletely quite the opposite of your argument Mr. Allen.There was a lot of prayer prior to the 2016 election and the prayers that Donald Trump would win the election were answered. A " miracle " win, is a strong argument for Christianity and it is paying off in policy after policy that aligns itself with Scripture.
1
@Edward Allen
I wouldn't base your opinions on whether someone who says they are a Christian votes for Trump, Edward! There are many Christians who don't support Trump, and don't support violence and greed. God still is God, and who He is and His own goodness doesn't change, despite the bad actions of people. He doesn't make Christians "good," he forgives their sin when they sincerely repent and desire to honor Him, and in so doing begins the process of changing their lives: words, thoughts and actions, which will be imperfect nonetheless until they are in heaven.
With all due respect, reactionary conservatives didn’t hijack Evangelical Christianity; if anything it was the other way around. White Evangelical Christians hijacked the Republican Party and helped turn it into the xenophobic, homophobic, racist institution that it is today. Sorry, but 80% of white Evangelicals voted for Donald Trump. You do not have my sympathy.
189
Come on. He is trying to convince his follow believers to right this wrong thinking. And you criticize? This is what will defeat the Democrats. The total inability to meet the other halfway, to cooperate, to recognize when we are all working on the same side. How can we, as Democrats, rail against the intransigence of the Radical Right when we want to swat the olive branch out of the hands of those who try to reach out? I am sick to death of it. Eyes on the prize, people!
1
That people of such faith have so little faith that they will praise a demon like trump makes me wonder if the end times are near and what part does trump play in the end of times. What is under that comb over? Pray tell or just Pray?
47
@george: It is said that when the wind shifts just right, if you are standing close enough, you can see a tattoo in orange ink on the forehead under that comb-forward.
It says 666. Some say it is Trump's idea of the address of the White House. Some say it is a highway in southern Utah and Colorado. It may be the wearer's net worth, or the number of times he has refused to release his tax returns.
I don't know. I've never stood close enough to the comb-forward to read it. At this point, I can't confirm that rumor. But, the number of that highway has been changed, and all the signs have disappeared. Coincidence? I think not!
2
Love your neighbor as yourself..........and who is your neighbor?
Everyone!
49
Too little, too late. You must disavow your terrible creed. Enough of your evangelical hypocrisy, please.
25
@Michael Judge: Don't be quite so harsh to this writer--I'm not a church goer but I know many evangelical Christians who didn't vote for Trump and are just as appalled as you are at his actions both before and after his "election."
21
@Andrew Gillis: If more reflected the values espoused Mr. Wilson-Hartgrove perhaps the Evangelical movement might still exist 100 years hence. As it is, I'm skeptical.
Mr Judge,
You would be well-repair for googling Mr. Hartgrove before you sling mud at him. Mr Hartgrove has dedicated his life to living among, working with, and advocating for the some of the poorest people in the United States. That’s where his beliefs have led him. For my part, I thank God for his attempt to imitate Christ.
1
I am sorry that your faith was long ago hijacked by people like Pat Robertson, Franklin Graham and Jay Sekulow, money changers in the temple. An exorcism is long overdue and would be welcome by many of us. But until that occurs, we are held hostage.
Brett Kavanaugh carried credit card debts between $60,000 and $200,000 for five years. The debts vanished shortly before he was nominated to SCOTUS. A coincidence? I doubt it.
292
@Njlatelifemom
What difference does credit card (or mortgage, auto loan, student debt, etc...) have to do with ones qualifications to be a judge? Even a Supreme Court Justice? And what business is it of yours?
Perhaps his credit score was good enough to qualify for low interest rates. In the uppity world of high finance this could be fopped off as arbitrage. He leveraged low rates to use the money to gain a higher return.
I have no idea if any of this is true. I also have no idea if it has any more to do with his qualifications than did Timothy Geithner's large outstanding past due balance owed to the IRS had to do with his qualifications to be Sec-Treasury.
1
@Concernicus
What does it have to do with his qualifications? Much depends on how the debt was dissolved. To whom might he be beholden (if certain people desperate to have him on the Court made sure he didn't have an unseemly debt, based on excessive consumption of baseball tickets)
His independence from undue influence is at issue.
39
@Concernicus
It isn't the amount of debt that is a concern, it is how that debt magically disappeared suddenly before being nominated. Which certainly allows one to think he is being bribed or bought off.
18
Thank you for this, and especially for mentioning the work of Lisa Sharon Harper and other evangelical women who are properly leery of what the old white men might have in mind for our courts.
67
Can't we go back to honestly saying "religious leaders" and so on, instead of the Bush, W, euphemism "faith"? Bush, W, wanted a euphemism for his violation of the First Amendment's clause that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion". Religious people, you know there are kinds of "faith" other than religious faith, and we who have such faith deserve your respect.
31
Yes this is good. We have to remember that there is Evangelical Fundamentalism that was right there in the past justifying slavery, and later segregation, and other very non-Christian ideas on the basis of faith. That brand of Evangelical Fundamentalism is still there, and now they're worshiping Donald Trump, of all people.
215
We can argue a case on a number of fronts against Judge Kavanaugh, unfortunately he will be confirmed.
In a few years with some good fortune the Democrats will gain the Presidency and both houses of Congress. Then increase the Supreme Court to 11 members. That is the only way we'll see a Court that truly matches the liberal majority of its citizenry.
56
@cherrylog754 And six-to-five decisions will be SO much more legitimate than five-to-four decisions. In my opinion, two things have to change: no more one vote "wins" and term limits for justices -- I suggest ten years.
8
I have read they idea of expanding the size of the SCOTUS when the Dems return to power by several others commentators who post here. It begs they question if you would be okay if the Republicans did that now?
6
@Norville T. Johnson
if Trump's illegitimacy were to be established, then Gorsuch and Kavanaugh might be impeached and removed on the ground that they were not legitimately nominated in the first place
We can dream, at least.
2
I hope this voice of sweet reason is heard far & wide. Kavanaugh & the GOP are not seeking civic good but a return of oppression of civil rights of many.
148
AMEN & AMEN
1
Minister Wilson-Hartgrove, thank you for your essay. Judge Kavanaugh embodies the reaction of Chief Justice William Rehnquist in countless dangerous ways.
It would seem that many civil rights are on the Donald Trump cutting board and that his choice of Judge Kavanaugh reveals a distressing determination to roll back protections from a minority citizenship. He wishes, as he campaigned for and preaches about, to "make America great again."
Chief Justice Rehnquist, an ardent segregationist, was angrily opposed, as a law clerk to Justice Robert Jackson, to Brown vs. Topeka (1954). His memo to Justice Jackson I quote in full:
"I realize that it is an unpopular and unhumanitarian position, for which I have been excoriated by "liberal" colleagues, but I think Plessy v. Ferguson was right and should be reaffirmed. To the argument that a majority may not deprive a minority of its constitutional right, the answer must be made that while this is sound in theory, in the long run it is the majority who will determine what the constitutional rights of the minority are."
The sum, Minister Wilson-Hartgrove, of this astonishing memo, is that the majority should, in perpetuity, practice its tyranny upon a helpless minority whose redress would dissolve. Judge Kavanaugh would rule for "separate but equal" once again. Christ would approve?
Nominated to the Court by Richard Nixon and appointed Chief Justice by Ronald Reagan, Chief Justice Rehnquist's anti-American viewpoints scald the skin.
201
@Soxared, '04, '07, '13: Wow. Rehnquist wrote that? That makes him a demon on not one, but two counts.
40
@Soxared, '04, '07, '13: What white Evangelicals need to remember is that no Semite has ever been white. None ever will be. Therefore in hating all non whites they are hating Him they profess to love more than any other. They can say God is white. But, Mary, Jesus’ Mother was a Semite, which makes her non white. Which by their beliefs make her Child non white. Since everything God does has a purpose, so does this.
2