As you can tell by now, I’ve decided to give November over to writing posts from a posture of gratitude, particularly for institutions for which gratitude may not be the stock and trade of what I read online.
I don’t know how many of us #NeverTrump people are writing about what we appreciate in the Moral-Majority-slash-Religious-Right, but if it is not a genre yet, I’m willing to be the one to start it up.
I’ve studied enough of our history to have an appreciation for the Religious Right. For Southern Baptists, the advent of the Religious Right was, in my opinion, a very healthy development that actually made us LESS politically partisan. Consider the following lines that I penned in 2006 in this post over on my personal blog.
Consider the officers of the SBC elected in 1901: Gov. W. J. Northen (Democrat governor from Georgia) as President, Gov. A. H. Longino (Democrat governor from Mississippi) as 1st VP, and Gov. W. W. Heard (Democrat governor from Louisiana) as 2nd VP. Gov. James P. Eagle (Democrat governor of Arkansas) served two terms as SBC President immediately after Gov. Northen. By the way, Gov. Eagle was also the President of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention for twenty-one consecutive years. Eagle’s church, Second Baptist Little Rock, publicly excommunicated agrarian upstart Gov. Jeff Davis during (and arguably because of) a political campaign.
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I believe that the recent alignment of the Southern Baptist Convention with the GOP is one of the healthiest things that has happened to us in our history. The stranglehold that the Democratic Party held over the SBC for so long has collapsed because of Roe v. Wade. The resulting friendship with the GOP is something so startling that virtually nobody would have predicted it as recently as 1970. The SBC’s connection with the GOP is not yet any sort of blind loyalty, but is issue-oriented and genuine. It has not yet come anywhere near the kinds of improprieties that we demonstrated during our marriage with the Democratic Party. By building closer ties with the GOP, Southern Baptists have proven that neither party had better take us for granted—that we will go where our convictions take us regardless of past history with a party. I think that is an extremely healthy thing.
When we point out the flaws and failings of the Moral Majority and the Religious Right, we ought to be careful not merely to look back and compare those days with some idealized notion of an apolitical SBC; rather, we should compare it with the trajectory in which the SBC was headed while joined at the hip with the Democratic Party. Our erstwhile lockstep union with the Democrats was unhealthy. Something needed to change, and change it did.
Yes, it is true from my perspective that I would be less likely to write about some Evangelicals and Southern Baptists these days using my former words: “The SBC’s connection with the GOP is not yet any sort of blind loyalty, but is issue-oriented and genuine.” And yet, the controversies of this year related to Donald Trump have in some way proven those words still to ring with some truth. Our connection with the GOP is conditional, not doctrinaire.
For any who think that the Religious Right shackled us to a political party, please do not neglect to acknowledge that it broke our chains to another political party. If we have an opportunity to maintain a healthy and principled independence today, we owe a debt of gratitude for that opportunity in large part to our predecessors. The best tribute we pay to them may be our determination to prevent the convention from ever developing again any sort of a political allegiance that would run as contrary to our principles as our Democratic alliance had proven to be.
“The SBC’s connection with the GOP is not yet any sort of blind loyalty, but is issue-oriented and genuine.” And yet, the controversies of this year related to Donald Trump have in some way proven those words still to ring with some truth. Our connection with the GOP is conditional, not doctrinaire. I’m not saying there’s not still some truth there, but it may be down to a whisper of a hint of a suggestion of a possibility of truth. I think this election proved that if you nominate someone far enough to the left to attract Democrats, you can… Read more »
Nevertrumpers should especially be grateful to the religious right; without them we would now be talking of President Hillary and would have a radical pro-abortion, liberal / progressive administration.
David R. Brumbelow
As a #NeverTrumporClinton voter, I am not grateful to the old Christian Right. Now we have a President who is a sexual predator, and he is presiding over a racist, anti-semitic administration.
Define “racist” and “anti-semitic” in terms of Trump, his writings or actions. Is he racist because of his immigration policies? For desiring that American citizens (by birth or legal residency/citizenship) should have first priority in all things American (regardless if that American citizen is yellow, red, black or white). Is it “racist” in desiring that people follow the law in terms of immigration = that if you have to wait for the darkest of night to slip over a border then that very act should tell you if you are doing the right or wrong thing. He is racist for… Read more »
My problem with Bannon and Breitbart is that it simply publishes lies. Bald-faced lies. They are a click-bait site totally lacking in journalistic integrity – and now that influence is in the White House? I’ve seen Breitbart articles labeling a guy as a “Renegade Jew.” That’s definitely crossing a line. I had to explain to a man in my church that, no, Beth Moore did not endorse Hillary Clinton – that’s just another Breitbart lie. Andrew Breitbart had integrity. The online journal that bears his name abandoned it. Beth Moore simply said that when we say that Trump being a… Read more »
Jeff, Anti-semitic??? Wow, there is no end to ridiculousness is there?
Trump hired Steve Bannon, who runs the racist, anti-Semitic White Nationalist website Breitbart, to be his Chief Advisor.
Mr. Ayers, I didn’t vote for Hillary Clinton, so I do not feel the need to defend her. Nevertheless, your reasoning is rather bizarre. For example: HIllary “failure to hold her own husband to account for his multiple sexual indiscretions,” is just as bad as Trump actually sexually assaulting women? According to you, we are supposed to forgive Trump for his sexual assaults, but when Hillary forgave Bill, it was “failure to hold her own husband to account for his multiple sexual indiscretions.” Regarding, grace and forgiveness, Trump has said that he has never asked God for forgiveness and doesn’t… Read more »
Prove that Bannon is anti-semitic beyond the cheap parting shot of a divorcing wife that was a bit ambiguous. Breitbart has employed multiple Jewish writers and thinkers including David Horowitz (who by the way wrote the article about Bill Kristol, not Bannon). The only reason Ben Shapiro left was a personality clash and not because he believed Bannon was a racist. Read his article posted today. How about this: hypocrisy. How hypocritical was it to “forgive” her husband and yet chastise her opponent? Her husband did so much more than Trump has ever been accused of. I don’t believe she… Read more »
http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/05/15/bill-kristol-republican-spoiler-renegade-jew/
After he appointed Breitbart’s Bannon, I think the jury is still out on how thankful Christians are going to be about a Trump presidency and how much of a moral improvement it will be.
I hope it will be superior, but racism, xenophobia, misogyny, and such things are not morally superior to liberalism. Let’s hope Trump pilots the ship in a new direction.
I consider myself a part of the “religous right” of whom you speak. For me, to approach my responsibility to spread the Gospel in any manner other than from a Radical perspective, is a cop out on my part. I, at least, must go out of my way to stand up for and verbalize what I feel God has led me to do and say.
The religious right may well have done us a favor in tipping the balance to Trump over Clinton when those were our only two choices. Time will tell. But they also bear responsibility for giving us Trump the nominee in the first place. And by electing Trump, we have given up our ability to make moral observations about the things Trump does (at least some). Sexual sin, for example, is off the table. Rudy Guiliani and Newt Gingrich are adulterers, multiple in Gingrich’s situation. Can Trump supporters raise a moral objection to having these men in Trump’s cabinet? Of course… Read more »
I imagine then Bill since 3/4’s of all politicians are morally abhorrent, Christians should just cloister themselves in their homes and never come out. Such righteous piety and indignation would please the Pharisees. Most of us have been on record that we did not support Trump but anybody else during the primaries but that does not keep you from spouting off that nonsense. Cease with the genetic fallacy = if a detestable group agrees with you that somehow invalidates what you believe or that confirms you agree with them with all things. What unmitigated carp. It is time for all… Read more »
If a Christian decides that a candidate’s sexual immorality does not matter enough to disqualify him from their support, it stands to reason that the same Christian cannot reasonably oppose that candidate’s staffing picks based on standards of sexual immorality. Sexual immorality certainly matters to you, but if you supported Trump then it did not matter enough to make you stop supporting him. That’s fine. Lots of people decided that. But it seems unlikely, even if you were inclined, that you can reasonably gainsay any of his cabinet choices based on their sexual immorality. If a bunch of despicable groups… Read more »
Sure sexual immorality matters to me. But both candidates were guilty of immorality = so what’s next? One of them will be President so my choice was to stay home or vote for principles and not the candidate. My prayer is that the new President will have some wisdom and listen to the wisdom of his Vice-President who is a good guy = or is Mike Pence somehow tainted by association? My goodness man if you are so rigid never read Psalm 23 again, = ever. It’s author was a murderer and an adulterer. In this sin infested world who… Read more »
You seem to be skirting the very specific issue I’m talking about. Trump’s sexual immorality is well documented and pretty egregious. You felt that it didn’t matter enough to lose your support. That’s fine. Now I don’t know if you have any reservations about Giuliani or Gingrich as members of Trump’s cabinet based on their adulterous history, but even if you did, don’t you think you’d be hard pressed to bring it up, based on Trump’s history and your support for him? I understand that we’re all sinners, but using that argument to excuse or overlook immorality is a relatively… Read more »
I have not overlooked morality. These people are not in my church and they are not being appointed to teach Sunday School. I only wish that they would accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ and receive God’s best: the sacrifice of the Son for the vilest of their sins. Documented? Besides the multiple marriages and the tape what other evidence do you have? Unsubstantiated accusations are just that = and they look poorer in the face of when they were announced. “Qui Bono.” Shucks Bill we are not asking these people to take a church position. If I could choose… Read more »
“He who is without sin…”. Yeah, I do know the rest. But I would like to know how you are applying the verse.
As a personal reminder to me – and a reference for everybody else 🙂
Rob
The question here Dave is if Bannon or Breitbart the website is antisemitic – not if they have integrity. Like many blogs they have a multitude of authors whose web titles are often designed to gain traffic and clicks (something I personally find abhorrent but there it is). The article you posted was written by a Jew, David Horowitz, calling out another Jew, Bill Kristol, for his NeverTrumpism and how detrimental it would be to JEWS WHO LIVED IN ISRAEL AND AROUND THE WORLD! His concluding paragraph:in that article you posted is proof to my point: “I am a Jew… Read more »
I linked to one of the anti-Semitic articles.