p.s. To engage a bit more with your core question about spiritual warfare... I'm not sure what I think or believe about that concept, but it's a provocative one. And certainly, the Dark Enlightenment views that seem to drive Musk, Vance, Thiel, and others around them are nothing if not chilling. I guess I tend to think of things primarily in psychological terms, and see this as the logical extreme of what happens with far too much money and unchecked power and not an ounce of love (not only the somewhat hackneyed point that they perhaps didn't feel loved as children, but more that their views are radically, radically devoid of love for others).
But to your point, I've felt the instinct since the inauguration to try harder now than ever before to live from a loving and compassionate place, and to amplify from within my own little heart the values that I believe we need in our country and world. To try to take extra care of my loved ones, neighbors, and myself, as I also try to figure out more ways of engaging in political resistance and advocacy. To take more steps to be kind to our animal and plant siblings. To listen to Robin Wall Kimmerer's wise and kind voice in her audiobooks and on podcasts, and other loving folks, to help anchor me. To do my UNICEF work as a love letter to the world as it deserves to be for all of the world's children, and to those who still believe in striving toward this vision of equality. To hold fast to the truth, to sanity, and not give way to seductive fictions. To try to do as much healing work as I can so that I can be a stronger part of the network of loving beings that exist alongside of all this cruel insanity.
So, I don't know how to approach the question of whether there's a spiritual component to the deeply anti-compassionate politics afoot, but I do believe that love and sanity anywhere can help to bolster love and sanity everywhere, and that courage is contagious. Thank you for your immense courage and kindness in all that you share in your writing and pedagogy. You are a light if I ever saw one.
Meg, you mentioned healing work and that feels like a place to focus for me too. It often seems as if the conflicting narratives that led to the Civil War were never healed. They were vaguely suppressed and now that poison can easily be mined to continue the strife.
Could there be a spiritual component to the healing process, and also a psychological component? People have been talking about ways to address Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome. Maybe we also need to talk about ways to heal "Post Traumatic Enslaver Syndrome." The mental acrobatics that made enslavers able to set aside their humanity (and that of their victims) made them sick. (The book, "Marse: A Psychological Portrait of the Southern Slave Master and His Legacy of White Supremacy" by H.D. Kirkpatrick really opened my eyes about this.)
I'm not sure how we address that sickness without setting up a defensive response. That's one of the challenges we seem to be facing now. Like Tiya suggested, people want to be absolved before there's been understanding and redemption.
Thanks for your reflection on Meg's comment, LC! (And thank you, also for the warm affirmation.) I am dwelling on what you and Meg have both picked up on about the intersecting aspects of spirituality and psychology in this "dark enlightenment" political-scape we now find ourselves in. I wonder, how can we, the people who want to elevate love, consciously work in/through those spheres?
I've been thinking about your essential question, Tiya. My approach at the moment is to ask why are so many Americans — particularly Americans labeled as "White" — so easily manipulated? Maybe it’s because so-called White people often have a hard time knowing who they really are. There is a crisis of identity because being "White" really isn't being anything. Whiteness excels at providing material well-being but fails at providing spiritual well-being. That’s what makes this identity crisis a spiritual crisis.
I come from a progressive tradition that follows the teachings of Jesus and embraces a God of Love. (I no longer feel comfortable saying I'm a "Christian" since that label has been co-opted.) I think Jesus has a lot of good, healing ideas about how to address this spiritual identity crisis. After all, the guy was a walking encyclopedia of tips on how people could get along with each other and be in right relationship with the Creator. He also was really good at throwing out devils. That might come in handy.
But a Jesus-influenced approach isn't for everyone. I wondered about amplifying the inspiring actions of people who put love, respect, and unconditional compassion first? Realistically, we should probably focus on people who are in male-presenting bodies of European descent because this is the demographic that seems the most lost, and therefore, the most easily manipulated by operatives who don’t have our collective best interest at heart. But that sounds like we’re elevating the people who are already “on top.” And yet, they’re the ones who can seem like they’ve forgotten everything their Mama, or Grandma, or Auntie ever taught them and need a refresher in how to behave like decent human beings. Maybe there are other ways to get at that problem?
Anyway, I realize it’s not our role to try and "fix" anybody because people need to take responsibility to heal themselves. But I think we can spiritually support each other by affirming everyone’s underlying God-given integrity. Spiritual leaders throughout history tell us we should sincerely bless our adversaries in our hearts. That’s such a tall order right now, but I'm working on it. I don’t have to bless the frightening actions of what seems like a flawed mortal. Instead, I’m trying to bless each person’s inherent wholeness and see them as the Creator sees them, loved and lovable. This fledgling practice is challenging and empowering at the same time. Maybe if enough of us disengage from the outrage, disrespect, fear, and blame, we’ll see the healing of our world beginning to unfold?
That's a great question, Tiya! Could you tell us more about in what sense you mean this -- do you primarily have in mind working in/through spiritual and psychological spheres within our own hearts and lives, or in public spaces/interventions? Or both equally?
p.s. LC, I only now realized that I should have clarified that what I meant when said I'm trying to "do as much healing work as I can so that I can be a stronger part of the network of loving beings that exist alongside of all this cruel insanity" was inner healing work. I'm trying to surface and heal whatever is still broken within myself, partly because this is part of what I think love looks like for us all (and excluding myself from this was one of the biggest and most destructive mistakes of my youth). But also because it's so clear to me that to the degree that I still have parts with unmet needs for care, I will not be able to be caring and loving to others the way I want to be. The IFS (internal family systems) approach has been incredibly helpful, even transformative, for this. Anyway, I say this just to clarify what I had in mind when I wrote what I did -- not to discount the value of external healing work! :)
Hi and thanks for this! Hmm, I guess I'd just say that I agree that the mentality of enslavers would have made them broken (but, saliently, through their own culpability), and that understanding and reparation is needed before absolution. I do see the lack of apology, anything like a truth & reconciliation process, and meaningful reparations as a huge unhealed wound in this country. I yearn for it.
I'm not sure I have a lot of ideas right now about how to make it happen practically, but I can just offer that I think that when white people get resistant, it sometimes has to do not only with racism but also confusion arising from their presumption that the culpability or responsibility we're talking about has to be personal (so if "I didn't do it," it shouldn't apply?). For me, a better way of understanding it is that this is a national debt, not a personal one, and that for all white Americans, whether or not our ancestors were enslavers, our families still survived/thrived in a country that was built in large part through the system of slavery (not to mention illegal colonization, genocide, and violence toward and subjugation and/or exclusion of many other groups of people). For example, even if many of my ancestors were poor Irish immigrants, they still benefited from this system in some way. So, we (white Americans) all share in the responsibility, on that collective level, to address these gross injustices.
I suppose there was a spiritual moment when Harriet stopped to swallow, to take in once again the enormity of suffering, of the injustice that power enabled, and she would just scream. Scream!
I hear her echo and your scream through these words and the screams of many others who comment and stand with you to denounce the evil that grows among power. I walk in the darkness, searching out the like-minded, the strong, the vocal, the resolute, the courageous . . . and, most assuredly, the hopeful. I am the nobody, naked of influence but boiling with rage. Where can I turn not to be Tased over and over by some new outrage, blasphemy, delusion, insult to humanity, self-serving thoughtless action that produces so much harm? And it comes from not just one but many who excuse and condone.
Finding God’s purpose where evil is among us becomes such a challenge. My soul spins. I must keep my moral compass steady. I want to turn away from journalistic media, from social media, from conversation. But I know that leads to capitulation, acquiescence, and complicity. But how can one fight such power? It’s a feeling perhaps like one who is paralyzed by a stroke, struggling to vocalize fury that only shows in the eyes, trying so hard, frustrated to the edge of insanity. The passion is strong, but any effectual ability I might have eludes me. And the shadow of dementia follows me ever closer, a frustration I must bear. Even so, I find power in writing, other’s writing, and, in particular, your words that show compassion and profound wisdom. Let them be our prayer to overcome wrong. Guide us North with truth and righteousness as our banner and words as our sword.
This comment comes perhaps days late (and from a Substack newbie who found the post in a roundabout way). I very much needed to share.
Thanks for sharing, Tim. I am so sorry for the personal health issues you may be struggling with right now. You write: "But how can one fight such power?" That is the question many of us are also asking. You are not alone. I am unsure about the most effective strategies and tactics, but I do think part of the answer must be with the very strength of passion that you mention, and with a commitment to pushing until we find the tactics that yield results. I have been talking with friends and colleagues who are putting their efforts behind contributing funds to organizations that are defending democracy in the courts, such as the ACLU and Democracy Forward. If you have extra resources, this could be a way to be effective. I also think calling our elected representatives in Congress and expressing our concerns is important even if they frustrate us with their votes at times. Capitol Switchboard number: (202) 224-3121.
Thank you, Tiya, for sharing your brave "unedited" self. This is just what I needed to read this morning after a fitful night.
Having just finished John Swanson Jacob's book, "The United States Governed by Six Hundred Thousand Despots" I think he would be saying, "I told you so!" There has always been a toxic element in our society that called themselves "Christians" yet acted in direct opposition to the teachings of Jesus. Abolitionists like Jacobs were very good at pointing that out. We can learn a lot from their arguments. They already did the work.
Who are the actual Christians in America? People who walk the talk? I think (hope) we're about to find out. We have so many examples from people in the Black community. We seem to need more role models from people who have been identified as "White." We hear about people like William Lloyd Garrison, the Grimke Sisters, and families who provided safe houses on the Underground Railroad but there were many more everyday people whose stories were forgotten. Like a pocket of Seventh Day Baptist abolitionists who "opted out" of the United States slave economy by growing, or making, almost everything they needed to survive and bartering for the rest until after the Civil War. I'm inspired by their homegrown resistance in the service to their moral compass.
Take heart. I think we need to focus on two things. One, that this is how meaningless Christianity is and has been in America in the pre-modern and current eras. Debatable as it is that Christianity ever helped humanity writ large in pre-modern Europe, it does nothing to shape the nation state trajectory in peaceful ways. Look at the use of it in non democratic countries, to say nothing of how religious belief is hijacked in Hindu, Islamic, and yes, in the Jewish state.
Secondly, there is a way to find happiness and contentment in spite of current events. Since the ancient Greeks, we know a focus on our personal lives will bring satisfaction to us. Pick a Greek and you may find the answers. I enjoy Epicurus' teachings on the simple ways to find a sense of personal peace and happiness.
Thanks for sharing these thoughts, Dave. I agree with you on the second point that awareness of and gratitude for the people and places close to us can bring a sense of personal satisfaction and peace.
This is a fascinating perspective that I'd never considered. Thank you so much for sharing it!
It certainly makes some psychological sense, as you describe. I'm just baffled because I can't find a precedent for this in evangelical theology, and I had thought of that group as (for better or for worse) supremely theological, textualist, fundamentalist. I can think of a number of Bible passages that exhort people to choose the opposite qualities from his in their leaders, and none that would support this choice. I guess that's part of the point you're making, though...?
Hi Meg. Thanks for the thoughtful comments. It seems that somehow evangelicals who support Trump have been able to substitute core biblical teachings and previously linked beliefs for anything-Trump-says-goes, while telling themselves that they are still being true to their faith. More than that even -- I think they tell themselves that this embrace of Trump's words, actions, and politics is actually an authentic expression of their faith. I am curious to see where this goes in the future and if Christians outside of this camp will argue for a kind of spiritual traditionalism that has the force to counter a Trumpist theology in the public culture.
Thank you so much for this, Tiya. This is wild! I haven't seen it up close so I don't know (much less understand) the details -- *how* are they able to tie this abomination to their faith?? But since your post I've become eager to learn more, so I reached out to the leader of the main evangelical campus group at Dartmouth from when I was there.
He said, "I can’t begin to describe how catastrophic it is that evangelical Christians have been duped to propel DJT to the presidency. [David] French says it is one thing to know how to live under a totalitarian regime, just read the New Testament about how to do that. But It is another thing when the church contributes to the creation of that totalitarian regime, which is what we are seeing in the Trump administration. The Evangelical vote tipped the scale in both the 2016 and 2024 election. [...] So basically I think this is the most disastrous political turn of events of the 21st century."
He linked me to a podcast with evangelicals that attempt to explain why/how this happened, but they didn't do a very good job in my opinion. They made a suggestive point about how, in a recent Jonathan Rauch essay in the Atlantic, he points out that patrimonialism that Max Weber described is the best description of Trump's style of ruling (rather than governing), and that this style is what most people in Biblical times lived under, so it... feels familiar or even "right" to evangelical Christians? That feels to me like a "maybe," and not sufficient to explain all this. It was remarkable how they also danced around the issue of racism among white evangelicals, now and historically, without *ever* saying any of the words, which was telling. (I also find myself wondering what role white evangelicals' tight embrace of hetero-patriarchy plays in all this -- are these prejudices in fact more fundamental for them than is the message of Jesus?) But their main point was that this was a failure of leadership among evangelical pastors afraid of pissing off the members of their church who pay their salary. And while that may have been the case, it wholly fails to explain the fact that Trump was the affirmative choice of white evangelicals (82-17%), while non-religious people chose Harris 71-26% (https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-elections/exit-polls). I'll let you know if I'm able to get any further explanation of this from this white evangelical leader (I had planned on writing you after finding out if he'll reply again).
I know a couple of white clergy in mainline Protestant denominations (Methodist, Lutheran, Episcopalian) who have been very vocal about how alien to Christianity Trump's ethos and actions are. (So has the Pope!) I guess white evangelicals make up only 14.6% of the US population, so I hope that these radically white-hetero-patriarchal views will soon no longer have such an outsized voice in our culture (though they're engaging in state capture on a political level).
p.s. To engage a bit more with your core question about spiritual warfare... I'm not sure what I think or believe about that concept, but it's a provocative one. And certainly, the Dark Enlightenment views that seem to drive Musk, Vance, Thiel, and others around them are nothing if not chilling. I guess I tend to think of things primarily in psychological terms, and see this as the logical extreme of what happens with far too much money and unchecked power and not an ounce of love (not only the somewhat hackneyed point that they perhaps didn't feel loved as children, but more that their views are radically, radically devoid of love for others).
But to your point, I've felt the instinct since the inauguration to try harder now than ever before to live from a loving and compassionate place, and to amplify from within my own little heart the values that I believe we need in our country and world. To try to take extra care of my loved ones, neighbors, and myself, as I also try to figure out more ways of engaging in political resistance and advocacy. To take more steps to be kind to our animal and plant siblings. To listen to Robin Wall Kimmerer's wise and kind voice in her audiobooks and on podcasts, and other loving folks, to help anchor me. To do my UNICEF work as a love letter to the world as it deserves to be for all of the world's children, and to those who still believe in striving toward this vision of equality. To hold fast to the truth, to sanity, and not give way to seductive fictions. To try to do as much healing work as I can so that I can be a stronger part of the network of loving beings that exist alongside of all this cruel insanity.
So, I don't know how to approach the question of whether there's a spiritual component to the deeply anti-compassionate politics afoot, but I do believe that love and sanity anywhere can help to bolster love and sanity everywhere, and that courage is contagious. Thank you for your immense courage and kindness in all that you share in your writing and pedagogy. You are a light if I ever saw one.
Oh, that is lovely, Meg, and so well put. (Thank you for those concluding words of affirmation. They are a gift.)
Thank you so much, Tiya! And I'm just describing the truth as I experience it, so thank you for being the remarkable person you are!
Meg, you mentioned healing work and that feels like a place to focus for me too. It often seems as if the conflicting narratives that led to the Civil War were never healed. They were vaguely suppressed and now that poison can easily be mined to continue the strife.
Could there be a spiritual component to the healing process, and also a psychological component? People have been talking about ways to address Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome. Maybe we also need to talk about ways to heal "Post Traumatic Enslaver Syndrome." The mental acrobatics that made enslavers able to set aside their humanity (and that of their victims) made them sick. (The book, "Marse: A Psychological Portrait of the Southern Slave Master and His Legacy of White Supremacy" by H.D. Kirkpatrick really opened my eyes about this.)
I'm not sure how we address that sickness without setting up a defensive response. That's one of the challenges we seem to be facing now. Like Tiya suggested, people want to be absolved before there's been understanding and redemption.
And yes, you're so right, Tiya is a light!
Thanks for your reflection on Meg's comment, LC! (And thank you, also for the warm affirmation.) I am dwelling on what you and Meg have both picked up on about the intersecting aspects of spirituality and psychology in this "dark enlightenment" political-scape we now find ourselves in. I wonder, how can we, the people who want to elevate love, consciously work in/through those spheres?
I've been thinking about your essential question, Tiya. My approach at the moment is to ask why are so many Americans — particularly Americans labeled as "White" — so easily manipulated? Maybe it’s because so-called White people often have a hard time knowing who they really are. There is a crisis of identity because being "White" really isn't being anything. Whiteness excels at providing material well-being but fails at providing spiritual well-being. That’s what makes this identity crisis a spiritual crisis.
I come from a progressive tradition that follows the teachings of Jesus and embraces a God of Love. (I no longer feel comfortable saying I'm a "Christian" since that label has been co-opted.) I think Jesus has a lot of good, healing ideas about how to address this spiritual identity crisis. After all, the guy was a walking encyclopedia of tips on how people could get along with each other and be in right relationship with the Creator. He also was really good at throwing out devils. That might come in handy.
But a Jesus-influenced approach isn't for everyone. I wondered about amplifying the inspiring actions of people who put love, respect, and unconditional compassion first? Realistically, we should probably focus on people who are in male-presenting bodies of European descent because this is the demographic that seems the most lost, and therefore, the most easily manipulated by operatives who don’t have our collective best interest at heart. But that sounds like we’re elevating the people who are already “on top.” And yet, they’re the ones who can seem like they’ve forgotten everything their Mama, or Grandma, or Auntie ever taught them and need a refresher in how to behave like decent human beings. Maybe there are other ways to get at that problem?
Anyway, I realize it’s not our role to try and "fix" anybody because people need to take responsibility to heal themselves. But I think we can spiritually support each other by affirming everyone’s underlying God-given integrity. Spiritual leaders throughout history tell us we should sincerely bless our adversaries in our hearts. That’s such a tall order right now, but I'm working on it. I don’t have to bless the frightening actions of what seems like a flawed mortal. Instead, I’m trying to bless each person’s inherent wholeness and see them as the Creator sees them, loved and lovable. This fledgling practice is challenging and empowering at the same time. Maybe if enough of us disengage from the outrage, disrespect, fear, and blame, we’ll see the healing of our world beginning to unfold?
That's a great question, Tiya! Could you tell us more about in what sense you mean this -- do you primarily have in mind working in/through spiritual and psychological spheres within our own hearts and lives, or in public spaces/interventions? Or both equally?
p.s. LC, I only now realized that I should have clarified that what I meant when said I'm trying to "do as much healing work as I can so that I can be a stronger part of the network of loving beings that exist alongside of all this cruel insanity" was inner healing work. I'm trying to surface and heal whatever is still broken within myself, partly because this is part of what I think love looks like for us all (and excluding myself from this was one of the biggest and most destructive mistakes of my youth). But also because it's so clear to me that to the degree that I still have parts with unmet needs for care, I will not be able to be caring and loving to others the way I want to be. The IFS (internal family systems) approach has been incredibly helpful, even transformative, for this. Anyway, I say this just to clarify what I had in mind when I wrote what I did -- not to discount the value of external healing work! :)
Hi and thanks for this! Hmm, I guess I'd just say that I agree that the mentality of enslavers would have made them broken (but, saliently, through their own culpability), and that understanding and reparation is needed before absolution. I do see the lack of apology, anything like a truth & reconciliation process, and meaningful reparations as a huge unhealed wound in this country. I yearn for it.
I'm not sure I have a lot of ideas right now about how to make it happen practically, but I can just offer that I think that when white people get resistant, it sometimes has to do not only with racism but also confusion arising from their presumption that the culpability or responsibility we're talking about has to be personal (so if "I didn't do it," it shouldn't apply?). For me, a better way of understanding it is that this is a national debt, not a personal one, and that for all white Americans, whether or not our ancestors were enslavers, our families still survived/thrived in a country that was built in large part through the system of slavery (not to mention illegal colonization, genocide, and violence toward and subjugation and/or exclusion of many other groups of people). For example, even if many of my ancestors were poor Irish immigrants, they still benefited from this system in some way. So, we (white Americans) all share in the responsibility, on that collective level, to address these gross injustices.
I suppose there was a spiritual moment when Harriet stopped to swallow, to take in once again the enormity of suffering, of the injustice that power enabled, and she would just scream. Scream!
I hear her echo and your scream through these words and the screams of many others who comment and stand with you to denounce the evil that grows among power. I walk in the darkness, searching out the like-minded, the strong, the vocal, the resolute, the courageous . . . and, most assuredly, the hopeful. I am the nobody, naked of influence but boiling with rage. Where can I turn not to be Tased over and over by some new outrage, blasphemy, delusion, insult to humanity, self-serving thoughtless action that produces so much harm? And it comes from not just one but many who excuse and condone.
Finding God’s purpose where evil is among us becomes such a challenge. My soul spins. I must keep my moral compass steady. I want to turn away from journalistic media, from social media, from conversation. But I know that leads to capitulation, acquiescence, and complicity. But how can one fight such power? It’s a feeling perhaps like one who is paralyzed by a stroke, struggling to vocalize fury that only shows in the eyes, trying so hard, frustrated to the edge of insanity. The passion is strong, but any effectual ability I might have eludes me. And the shadow of dementia follows me ever closer, a frustration I must bear. Even so, I find power in writing, other’s writing, and, in particular, your words that show compassion and profound wisdom. Let them be our prayer to overcome wrong. Guide us North with truth and righteousness as our banner and words as our sword.
This comment comes perhaps days late (and from a Substack newbie who found the post in a roundabout way). I very much needed to share.
Thanks for sharing, Tim. I am so sorry for the personal health issues you may be struggling with right now. You write: "But how can one fight such power?" That is the question many of us are also asking. You are not alone. I am unsure about the most effective strategies and tactics, but I do think part of the answer must be with the very strength of passion that you mention, and with a commitment to pushing until we find the tactics that yield results. I have been talking with friends and colleagues who are putting their efforts behind contributing funds to organizations that are defending democracy in the courts, such as the ACLU and Democracy Forward. If you have extra resources, this could be a way to be effective. I also think calling our elected representatives in Congress and expressing our concerns is important even if they frustrate us with their votes at times. Capitol Switchboard number: (202) 224-3121.
Thank you, Tiya, for sharing your brave "unedited" self. This is just what I needed to read this morning after a fitful night.
Having just finished John Swanson Jacob's book, "The United States Governed by Six Hundred Thousand Despots" I think he would be saying, "I told you so!" There has always been a toxic element in our society that called themselves "Christians" yet acted in direct opposition to the teachings of Jesus. Abolitionists like Jacobs were very good at pointing that out. We can learn a lot from their arguments. They already did the work.
Who are the actual Christians in America? People who walk the talk? I think (hope) we're about to find out. We have so many examples from people in the Black community. We seem to need more role models from people who have been identified as "White." We hear about people like William Lloyd Garrison, the Grimke Sisters, and families who provided safe houses on the Underground Railroad but there were many more everyday people whose stories were forgotten. Like a pocket of Seventh Day Baptist abolitionists who "opted out" of the United States slave economy by growing, or making, almost everything they needed to survive and bartering for the rest until after the Civil War. I'm inspired by their homegrown resistance in the service to their moral compass.
I hope we're about to find out, too--in a good way!
Take heart. I think we need to focus on two things. One, that this is how meaningless Christianity is and has been in America in the pre-modern and current eras. Debatable as it is that Christianity ever helped humanity writ large in pre-modern Europe, it does nothing to shape the nation state trajectory in peaceful ways. Look at the use of it in non democratic countries, to say nothing of how religious belief is hijacked in Hindu, Islamic, and yes, in the Jewish state.
Secondly, there is a way to find happiness and contentment in spite of current events. Since the ancient Greeks, we know a focus on our personal lives will bring satisfaction to us. Pick a Greek and you may find the answers. I enjoy Epicurus' teachings on the simple ways to find a sense of personal peace and happiness.
Thanks for sharing these thoughts, Dave. I agree with you on the second point that awareness of and gratitude for the people and places close to us can bring a sense of personal satisfaction and peace.
This is a fascinating perspective that I'd never considered. Thank you so much for sharing it!
It certainly makes some psychological sense, as you describe. I'm just baffled because I can't find a precedent for this in evangelical theology, and I had thought of that group as (for better or for worse) supremely theological, textualist, fundamentalist. I can think of a number of Bible passages that exhort people to choose the opposite qualities from his in their leaders, and none that would support this choice. I guess that's part of the point you're making, though...?
Hi Meg. Thanks for the thoughtful comments. It seems that somehow evangelicals who support Trump have been able to substitute core biblical teachings and previously linked beliefs for anything-Trump-says-goes, while telling themselves that they are still being true to their faith. More than that even -- I think they tell themselves that this embrace of Trump's words, actions, and politics is actually an authentic expression of their faith. I am curious to see where this goes in the future and if Christians outside of this camp will argue for a kind of spiritual traditionalism that has the force to counter a Trumpist theology in the public culture.
"Trumpist theology" — that’s the perfect term, Tiya.
Thank you so much for this, Tiya. This is wild! I haven't seen it up close so I don't know (much less understand) the details -- *how* are they able to tie this abomination to their faith?? But since your post I've become eager to learn more, so I reached out to the leader of the main evangelical campus group at Dartmouth from when I was there.
He said, "I can’t begin to describe how catastrophic it is that evangelical Christians have been duped to propel DJT to the presidency. [David] French says it is one thing to know how to live under a totalitarian regime, just read the New Testament about how to do that. But It is another thing when the church contributes to the creation of that totalitarian regime, which is what we are seeing in the Trump administration. The Evangelical vote tipped the scale in both the 2016 and 2024 election. [...] So basically I think this is the most disastrous political turn of events of the 21st century."
He linked me to a podcast with evangelicals that attempt to explain why/how this happened, but they didn't do a very good job in my opinion. They made a suggestive point about how, in a recent Jonathan Rauch essay in the Atlantic, he points out that patrimonialism that Max Weber described is the best description of Trump's style of ruling (rather than governing), and that this style is what most people in Biblical times lived under, so it... feels familiar or even "right" to evangelical Christians? That feels to me like a "maybe," and not sufficient to explain all this. It was remarkable how they also danced around the issue of racism among white evangelicals, now and historically, without *ever* saying any of the words, which was telling. (I also find myself wondering what role white evangelicals' tight embrace of hetero-patriarchy plays in all this -- are these prejudices in fact more fundamental for them than is the message of Jesus?) But their main point was that this was a failure of leadership among evangelical pastors afraid of pissing off the members of their church who pay their salary. And while that may have been the case, it wholly fails to explain the fact that Trump was the affirmative choice of white evangelicals (82-17%), while non-religious people chose Harris 71-26% (https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-elections/exit-polls). I'll let you know if I'm able to get any further explanation of this from this white evangelical leader (I had planned on writing you after finding out if he'll reply again).
I know a couple of white clergy in mainline Protestant denominations (Methodist, Lutheran, Episcopalian) who have been very vocal about how alien to Christianity Trump's ethos and actions are. (So has the Pope!) I guess white evangelicals make up only 14.6% of the US population, so I hope that these radically white-hetero-patriarchal views will soon no longer have such an outsized voice in our culture (though they're engaging in state capture on a political level).