How the “Religious Right” has abandoned their proffered values
Donald Trump has plucked his strongest supporters from two baskets, the Alt-Right and the Religious Right. The Alt-Right are straight forward haters. They hate African-Americans. They hate Moslems. They hate Hispanics. They hate Jews and they hate women. They live in a parallel universe that is free of facts. Their organizing principles are manufactured conspiracies theories. Steve Bannon, Trump’s campaign honcho, has fanned the flames of hate since he took over Breitbart’s propaganda network. They dream of a monolithic white America, devoid of diversity or pluralism.
Most Americans are familiar with the Religious Right. For years, they have made a public spectacle of themselves, thumping their Bibles and preening with sanctimony. They floated in their own arrogance and grandiosity, deluding themselves that they spoke for God. They were active in the Clinton impeachment witch hunts and had powerful allies in Congress with child sexual abuser, Denny Hastert, and serial adulterer, Newt Gingrich, who abandoned his wife while she was fighting a life or death struggle with cancer.
Back then, these pious phonies were continuously harping about “character”, “family values”, and the “evil of moral relativism.” Now, as 73 percent of white evangelicals promise to vote for Trump, we are finding that all of their “values” and “principles” were nothing more than pretense.
Recent research by the Public Religion Research Institute found that 72 percent of white evangelicals condoned immorality by public officials, while the general public and the “unchurched” were significantly less accepting of immorality. (62 percent and 61 percent respectively). One evangelical leader had this explanation: Adultery is “evil”. Approving of adultery is “wrong”, but to vote for a misogynistic adulterer for President is okay. This hypocrisy makes a mockery of their pious fabrications.
There are some evangelicals that are not fooled. Southern Baptist Russell Moore says, “These evangelical leaders (Trump supporters) have said that for the sake of ‘the lesser of two evils’ one should stand with someone who not only characterizes sexual decadence and misogyny, brokers in cruelty and nativism, and displays a crazed public and private temperament- but who glories in these things. Some of the very people who warned us about moral relativism and situational ethics now ask us to become moral relativists for the sake of an election.”
Most Americans want this lewd election to be over but this unholy alliance on the Right may persist, undermining our nation well into the future. American strength is multiculturalism. She is at her best when tolerance of social differences is wedded to the ideal of social equality and respect for our country’s institutions and when individuals are willing to make personal sacrifices for the common good. This toxic brew on the Right is unwilling to contribute to any of these community-building endeavors.
As a matter of fact, Trump supporters have already threatened to undermine the peace and stability of our nation. If Trump loses, they promise rioting, violence, and even insurrection. This is a note of caution from Napoleon to potential insurrectionists: “God seems to favor the side with the most cannon”.
Terry Stulce served two combat tours in Vietnam, one with the 101st Airborne and one with the 69th Border Rangers. He was an LCSW and owner of Cleveland Family Counseling before retirement in 2009.