One premise of Vote Common Good is that the progressive evangelical group will be able to persuade 10-15% of evangelical Trump voters to not make the same mistake in 2020 that they made in 2016. Last cycle, they helped elect a dozen House Democrats in red districts-- like Katie Porter in Orange County-- and helped other candidates build campaigns that they expect to see flip blue next year-- like Mike Siegel in TX-10 and Audrey Denney in CA-01.But the evangelical establishment is putting its weight fully behind a second term for Trump, defending the Republican-controled Senate and winning back the House for the GOP. Newsweek reporter Ben Fearnow did a piece Saturday on how evangelical hucksters are selling their parishioners Trump snake oil-- along with Trump t-shirts. One of the worst of them, Franklin Graham, wrote Fearnow, "called the impeachment inquiry of Donald Trump an 'unjust inquisition,' and claimed the Christian Bible directs Americans to pray for the president. Graham, the president of Samaritan's Purse and his late father's Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, quoted the Bible Friday in a plea for Americans to purchase a 'Pray for 45' T-shirt being sold on his organization's website. Earlier this week, Graham urged Christians to pray for God to give Trump 'wisdom and protection' just hours after the House voted in favor of impeachment procedures. The pro-Trump evangelical and his daughter, Cissie Graham Lynch, both promoted the $15.99 'Pray for 45' T-shirts on social media alongside Bible verses. 'The Bible instructs us to pray for our leaders & @realDonaldTrump needs our prayers. We have t-shirts that are a reminder to 'PRAY for 45'-- my daughter@CissieGLynch is wearing one. People have asked where they can get one. You can order them at this link,' the elder Graham tweeted Friday, showing a picture of his daughter wearing the T-shirt.'
Graham has been a staunch supporter of Trump's presidency and has publicly defended him after his innumerable controversies since taking office. Graham told MSNBC in 2018 that Trump's repeated denials about having an alleged extramarital affair with Stormy Daniels should be believed for the good of the country. "He said he didn't do it. So okay, let's say he didn't do it. I found the president to be truthful with me, we just have to give the man the benefit of the doubt."And despite Graham's ardent opposition to the impeachment inquiry into Trump, he was one of the most vocal proponents of impeaching former President Bill Clinton in the late 1990s. In an August 1998 piece in the Wall Street Journal entitled, "Clinton's Sins Aren't Private," Graham ridiculed the Democratic president over his extramarital affair with Monica Lewinsky.Making his pro-Trump political stance very clear ahead of 2020, Graham earlier this week applauded South Carolina priest Father Robert E. Morey for denying Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden communion last weekend. Graham said he wishes "more churches, pastors and priests would take a strong stand against abortion."And on Saturday morning, Graham again praised the president over his abortion stance, remarking on Facebook, "Do Christian Adoption Agencies have to conform with the LGBTQ agenda? The Trump Administration says no! Thank you President for proposing these changes that protect our religious freedoms."
More spiritually-serious evangelicals are probably-- or at least hopefully-- ignoring Graham and others like him-- think about his doppelgänger, Jerry Falwell, Jr, for example-- and reading John Pavlovitz instead. His stunning post yesterday, This Isn't Christianity, referred directly to the Trumpist religionist goons."They may use the word and steal the iconography and cop the aesthetic," wrote Pavlovitz, "but that is where the resemblance diverges and where the similarities end. There remain no other commonalities with which to rightly associate the two. This isn’t Christianity. It is spiritual misappropriation: the violent hijacking of something helpful and weaponizing it in order to do the greatest amount of damage in the shortest amount of time. It is a hostile takeover of something beautiful and grossly disfiguring it to terrorize people with. This isn’t Christianity-- that is, not if Jesus was Christian."
If Jesus was Christian, then Christianity is:• “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.• Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.• Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.• Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.• Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.• Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.• Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” — Jesus (Matthew 5:3-10)And there is nothing of mercy or humility or purity or peacemaking in this thing claiming to be Christianity.No, this thing is the antithesis of all of it.This isn’t Christianity-- at least, not if we’re going to listen to Jesus.Where Jesus implored Christians to love and to care for and to show hospitality to their neighbors-- this drives people to fear them and have contempt for them and send them back and wall them off. Where Jesus directed Christians to pray and to give in quiet and secret-- this is a shameless, staged photo op to engender applause. Where Jesus told Christians that they would be defined by the way in which they lavishly love humanity-- this is a malicious assault on nearly all of it.Where Jesus directed Christians to live humbly and take the lowest place-- this is arrogance and boasting and self-promotion.Where Jesus fed multitudes and healed sick without asking for repayment-- this is healthcare repeals and canceled school lunch programs and “pull yourself up by your own bootstraps disdain for the needy. Where Jesus’ followers shared all things and lived interdependently and made sure that no one went without-- this is cries of “Socialism” whenever those with abundance are asked to share with those who lack.Where Jesus threw open the doors of the kingdom so that the entire world could find welcome and refuge and comfort-- this is a guarded, gated community of privileged, close-fisted white Americans.No, this isn’t Christianity-- and more people who know what Christianity was intended to be, need to say so right now.We need to call this what it is: a bait and switch of the vilest kind.This may be what Franklin Graham says Christianity is.It may be what Paula White wants you to believe Christianity is. It may be what Bible Belt pastors screaming from behind pulpits claim that Christianity is. It may be what Donald Trump wants to pretend that Christianity is. It may be what it has been too many times in the past two thousand years, when opportunistic hucksters like these have commandeered it.It’s just not what Jesus says it is.No, he told us what this is:
“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.” — Jesus (Matthew 7:15-20)This thing is not Christianity.Jesus said it wasn’t.
• This is Rome. • This is Empire. • This is corrupt and predatory power. • This is perverted religion wielded like a hammer. • This is hypocritical, showy piety paraded for everyone to see. • This is the darkness Jesus claimed we should be brilliant light streaking into.• This is the bloated ugliness he said we were to live in quiet, gentle opposition to. • This is the table of greed he invited us to angrily turn over.• The Christianity of Jesus left people with more dignity and greater care; with healed wounds and fuller bellies, with calmed fears and quieted worries. It left people seen and heard and known. It left a wake of kindness and generosity and goodness and compassion.No, this isn’t Christianity.To hell with what this is.
