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How Trump Is Remaking Evangelicalism
The Atlantic ^ | 3-12-18 | Emma Green

Posted on 03/12/2018 9:30:57 PM PDT by DeweyCA

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“Most evangelical Christians like me exclaimed, ‘Who are these people?’” wrote Mark Galli, the editor in chief of Christianity Today, in his essay. “‘I know hardly anyone, let alone any evangelical Christian[s], who voted for Trump.’”

In trying to understand Trump-supporting evangelicals, journalists and commentators have often smoothed over the vast diversity within evangelicalism. “Many of us shake our heads at the ‘evangelical leaders’ that the news media anoints for us,” wrote Tom Lin, the president of InterVarsity Fellowship, in his essay.

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Fundamentalism, argued Mark Labberton, the president of Fuller Theological Seminary, is the driving force behind the hyper-partisan political norms among conservative Christians, which yielded Trump. Fundamentalism’s “attraction to theological and social purity plays easily into a theologized ideology,” he wrote. Yet, “the more ‘evangelicalism’ seeks to be cast or accepts being cast as a theo-political brand,” he added, “the more motivating it is for some evangelicals to walk away from the tribe, not as a rejection of Christian orthodoxy but as a way to preserve and defend it.”

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This, above all, may be the fracture line within the church that Trump has most exacerbated: race. As Michael Gerson wrote in The Atlantic’s April cover story, “Here is the uncomfortable reality: I do not believe that most evangelicals are racist. But every strong Trump supporter has decided that racism is not a moral disqualification in the president of the United States. And that is something more than a political compromise. It is a revelation of moral priorities.”

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(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: christianity; evangelical; evangelicalism; evangelicals; fake; fakenews; intervarsity; racism; trump; trumplovespornstars
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To: DeweyCA
"But every strong Trump supporter has decided that racism is not a moral disqualification in the president of the United States."

Huh!?

21 posted on 03/12/2018 10:28:55 PM PDT by D_Idaho ("For we wrestle not against flesh and blood...")
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To: taterjay

Better!


22 posted on 03/12/2018 10:33:01 PM PDT by donna (Chelsea Manning is Obama's legacy.)
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To: DesertRhino

You win the thread!

That comment is so perfect it ought to be your tagline! (well a bit too long for the FR tagline, I suppose)


23 posted on 03/12/2018 10:44:39 PM PDT by Enchante (FusionGPS "dirty dossier" scandal links Hillary, FBI, CIA, Dept of Justice... "Deep State" is real)
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To: Enchante

Why...Thank YOU! And I think I would like to give some recognition to all of the people who made it possible for me to receive this award tonight... (etc ad nauseum.)


24 posted on 03/12/2018 11:03:44 PM PDT by DesertRhino (Dog is man's best friend, and moslems hate dogs. Add that up. ....)
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To: DesertRhino

You can give your award acceptance speech at the next Academy Awards, so long as you don’t bash Trump or the American public..... :^)


25 posted on 03/12/2018 11:06:07 PM PDT by Enchante (FusionGPS "dirty dossier" scandal links Hillary, FBI, CIA, Dept of Justice... "Deep State" is real)
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To: DeweyCA
...“‘I know hardly anyone, let alone any evangelical Christian[s], who voted for Trump.’”

If Mark Galli knows anyone who voted for Hillary, he is running with the wrong crowd.
As flawed as President Trump may be, he is the best friend Christians have had in public office than anyone I can remember. Pro-Life, and supporter of oppressed Christians abroad.
Viva Trump!

26 posted on 03/12/2018 11:08:26 PM PDT by El Cid (Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house...)
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To: DeweyCA

People

Quit worrying about who gets called racist

We have got to quit acting so stupid about it

It’s a weakness like perpetual diarrhea

It’s over

No more beaded knee.

Speak and act on truths your brain sees empirically without feeling ashamed

Thanks for listening


27 posted on 03/12/2018 11:27:42 PM PDT by wardaddy (As a southerner I've never trusted the Grand Old Party.....any questions?)
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To: right way right

I agree with your thoughts.

They trash Christians at will, and see nothing wrong with Islam.


28 posted on 03/12/2018 11:33:34 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (01/26/18 DJIA 30 stocks $26,616.71 48.794% > open 11/07/16 215.71 from 50% increase 1.2183 yrs..)
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To: Tamatoa

The accusations seem to be connected with the fact that most uninvited guests from Mexico are, well, Hispanic.

It’s the disparate impact theory writ silly.


29 posted on 03/12/2018 11:35:24 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Tryin' hard to win the No-Bull Prize.)
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To: wardaddy

Aw, lets all bead our knees.


30 posted on 03/12/2018 11:36:15 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Tryin' hard to win the No-Bull Prize.)
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To: DeweyCA

Christians have accepted for decades with little real resistance being taxed and getting really nothing for it, while atheists scream, “My tax dollars aren’t going to support...whatever I disagree with!”

By any measure, for example, it’s a fair question for anyone to ask if there’s a God, but the left calls the very question ridiculous. Secular science also has so many limitations and shortcomings, and can’t even begin to answer many important questions, like if there’s a purpose for us being here, but those shortcomings don’t get taught in school, but only the atheist ideas that science is everything and of course God didn’t create the universe and us. Atheists wouldn’t have it any other way than that their children and everyone else’s is taught according to their own personal beliefs, at the expense of all taxpayers.


31 posted on 03/12/2018 11:57:17 PM PDT by Faith Presses On (Above all, politics should serve the Great Commission, "preparing the way for the Lord.")
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To: DeweyCA
Are they ignorant or just full of Schiff?

I can't think of any evangelicals in our social network who did not vote for TRUMP.

32 posted on 03/13/2018 12:22:43 AM PDT by JockoManning (http://www.zazzle.com/brain_truth for hats T's e.g. STAY CALM & DO THE NEXT LOVING THING)
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To: taterjay

Truth doesn’t matter to these people. The racist is Obama who met with Louie
Farrakhan.

Black Americans are doing better under President Trump.

We can say Obama is no flag waver. You might say he is an America hater.


33 posted on 03/13/2018 2:07:18 AM PDT by ChiMark (America America)
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To: donna; All

But every strong Trump supporter has decided that racism is not a moral disqualification in the president of the United States.


This is the leftist propaganda mill at work.

Translation:

Every Trump supporter no longer falls for the Orwellian definition that anyone who does not accept the Progressive agenda is a racist.

Does not matter if you are white,black or green with polka dots. Does not matter if you judge people by racial groups.

“Racism” in the MSM has come to mean “You disagree with our policies”.


34 posted on 03/13/2018 3:56:11 AM PDT by marktwain (President Trump and his supporters are the Resistance. His opponents are the Reactionaries.)
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To: Luircin

The particular evangelicals who support Trump are predominantly black. How, precisely, does that square with anti black racism?
This is more pseudo intellectual scrabbling about for some nefarious justification for Trump’s victory. Balderdash.


35 posted on 03/13/2018 4:03:17 AM PDT by Louis Foxwell (Islam is Satans finest work.)
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To: DeweyCA
this [set of anti-Trump 'evangelicals'] is also arguably at odds with many Americans who call themselves evangelicals. They write from elite perches. Many are unabashedly progressive....“Most evangelical Christians like me exclaimed, ‘Who are these people?’” wrote Mark Galli, the editor in chief of Christianity Today, in his essay. “‘I know hardly anyone, let alone any evangelical Christian[s], who voted for Trump.’”

This hatred of Trump is also evident in online presences of those claiming to be evangelical. Not all, but many. Some remain true to the Bible, while others think it is their duty to lecture out of the side of their mouths that Trump voters are stupid.

To his credit, Franklin Graham is not a Trump basher.

Very disappointed in Christianity Today magazine. Romans 13 applies, even if the so-called evangelical elites ignore the Scripture.

I am encountering evangelicals whom I once thought were solid on theology but who now are rabid Trump bashers because, in one instance, the President isn't increasing spending for certain projects in Africa. Reminding these folks that it is the job of believers to help our neighbors is what I try to do. They've fallen victim to the "more government is better" lie. Sad.

36 posted on 03/13/2018 4:11:39 AM PDT by SoFloFreeper
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To: El Cid

I would imagine Mark Galli came out of the leftist remaking of the mainline Protestant churches that coincided with seminarians getting a ticket out of the draft during the Vietnam War. They got a draft deferment and often had no particular use for Christianity other than as a vehicle for their own pursuits. Having kept their tails out of the military, and otherwise not having envisioned a pastoral career, they nonetheless had to work in the ministry for awhile and found: 1) the ministry had become a far more lucrative job than it used to be, particularly due to endowments for local churches left by dead wealthy parishoners; 2) if you’re really not into the theology or helping people spiritually, its not a particularly hard or taxing job; and 3) you can spout all sort of leftist political SJW crap that used to be verboten from the pulpit. This all resulted in a mass exodus from the mainline Protestant churches and a “pulpit” for leftist draft dodgers. I can remember one, a few years ago, proclaiming that “Islam, Hinduism, Christianity, basically they’re all the same”. Well, they are not the same; they may have certain common ethical and moral tenets but the theology and belief systems are dramatically different.


37 posted on 03/13/2018 4:16:31 AM PDT by laconic
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To: DeweyCA

Having the Left write about Christianity is about equivalent of WW2 era Nazis writing about family dynamics of Jews.

In other words, NEITHER has any business writing about the other, as they could not possibly understand it.


38 posted on 03/13/2018 4:59:10 AM PDT by BobL (I shop at Walmart and eat at McDonald's...I just don't tell anyone)
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To: Luircin

“Evangelicals nowadays realize that they are under attack with the goal of utterly exterminating them.”

It ALL comes down to the courts. Christianity will be as strong in the US as it now is in Canada and Europe, which is to say VIRTUALLY DEAD should the Left gain total control of the courts.

It’s that simple...and, at this point, if Christians want ANY CHANCE to be left alone by government, they sure as hell better vote for Trump...as they did in big numbers in 2016. If they don’t continue to do so, they will only have THEMSELVES to blame.


39 posted on 03/13/2018 5:02:24 AM PDT by BobL (I shop at Walmart and eat at McDonald's...I just don't tell anyone)
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To: laconic
a “pulpit” for leftist draft dodgers

So much of your post was spot on. I am around ministers who project beliefs that cause me to ask myself - "I wonder if their name is in the Lamb's Book of Life" The good thing is that I am not the one to make that call.

When I hear information such as - "I have read the koran several times" "Trump is a clown" and that they meet weekly with other ministers to pray and one of the attendees is an Imam. That is when I begin to wonder if they have experienced the phrase - "The sheep know my voice"

40 posted on 03/13/2018 5:37:58 AM PDT by Dustoff45 ( The secret to success - Love God, Israel and the unborn child.)
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