Trumpianity Has Nothing To Do With Jesus' Message To Man

Benjamin Corey is a prominent evangelical religious figure-- but not in the way most of us think about evangelicals, especially since the so much of the evangelical movement has sold itself to Trump. Corey is an outspoken critic of American Nationalism within the Christianity and writes that Christians should pledge their loyalty only to God, and never to a government . A few months ago, he wrote a post on his very popular and influential blog, Patheos, 10 Signs You’re Actually Following TRUMPianity Instead of CHRISTianity that takes on Trump and his followers directly.

In the Era of Trump’s America, I must admit that I hardly recognize the very people who raised me. I was brought up by the Religious Right, and went on to become a faithful foot soldier for the cause of conservative Christianity and right-wing politics until my mid 30’s. However, long gone is their commitment to the values they tried to instill in me, and so much else that once consistently encompassed their collective identity.

Sadly, my old tribe seems to collectively struggle to realize they’ve done exactly what they spent the entire Left Behind series warning me not to do: they have fallen in line behind a worldly leader who arose to power during a time of “wars and rumors of wars,” who did so by falsely pretending to be a Christian, but who would ultimately lead them to follow an entirely new religion.

To help my former right-wing family out, here’s the top 10 signs you’re now following TRUMPianity instead of CHRISTianity:

10. You spent 8 years criticizing every move of Obama, but the minute Trump was sworn in you started telling everyone that “Christians should respect the president” and that being “divisive” is a sin.

Remember the you of two years ago? That’s okay, because I do-- and you certainly didn’t seem to believe that Christians should “respect the president” or that being politically divisive was any sort of sin.

Here I am recalling you taught me that, “sin is always sin” and doesn’t change just because culture changes. Huh!

9. You think, “but we’re a nation of laws” somehow trumps biblical teachings on how immigrants are to be treated.

You didn’t expect me to forget all of those years where you taught me that the Bible is the “final authority for all matters of living,” did you?

Good, because I didn’t-- but it certainly sounds like you did. I’m reminded every time you dismiss what the Bible teaches about the treatment of immigrants with, “But, but… we’re a nation of laws!”

I thought you’d said, “We have a responsibility to follow God’s law, not man’s law!” just a few weeks ago. Silly me!

8. Your church is planning a “patriotic worship service” for the 4th of July.

Let me simplify this for you: there’s no such thing as “patriotic worship” unless you’re willing to simply admit you’re worshipping your own country.

You were the ones who taught me that if God isn’t the focal point of our worship, that it’s sinful idolatry. Surely you remember Jesus saying, “It is written: worship the Lord your God and serve him only”?

Apparently there’s now room for two. Strange!

7. You instinctively applaud when Trump threatens to “bomb the shit” out of people, but quickly push back if someone quotes what Jesus taught about violence and enemy love.

Jesus commanded we love our enemies, and that we never repay evil with evil but instead repay evil with good. I mean, it’s right there in the red words. I still have it underlined from 1984.

But now when I quote that in response to your thinking that it’s all cute when Trump wants to “knock the crap” out of a protestor or nuke a country, you tell me that I’m twisting scripture.

Sorry, but I think siding with Trump over Jesus is… as Trump would say: Sad!

6. You think that having a filthy mouth and boasting about sexual immorality is a sign of being unsaved, but when it comes to Trump you all of a sudden have a “Who am I to judge?” attitude.

I mean, c’mon. I grew up under your guidance and I think we both know that neither one of us ever thought we’d see the day when you became an advocate of not judging. You told me that if I had sex before marriage or used the F-word that it would be evidence I was never saved to begin with.

Doesn’t it seem odd to you that it was Trump, and not Jesus who got you to (selectively) soften up on the whole judging others thing? Interesting!

5. You think it’s God-honoring to refuse to bow to a national statue, but that you should be fired from your job, kicked out of the country, or even charged with treason for refusing to stand for the flag.

Let me get this straight: When everyone obeyed the king and bowed down to the national statue and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused-- under the pain of death-- to pledge their allegiance to anyone except God, they were the good guys of the story...

But fast forward to present day America, and the good guys are actually the ones who want to force everyone to pay respect to the national symbol? Plot twist!

4. You want the nation to return to "biblical values"... except for all those socialist sounding biblical things like caring for the poor, welcoming the stranger, giving food to the hungry, etc.

So you really want the nation to return to “biblical values”? You do realize that when Israel lived under God’s law (which you love to quote when talking of same sex marriage) also included laws that mandated the rich be taxed, even down to the food they had, and that the wealth was to be redistributed to the poor and immigrants, yes?

Or is this the one situation where you’d rather not remember that you keep saying, “But God’s law never changes”? Confused!

3. Your church spends one month a year celebrating the story of refugee family who fled their violent homeland and secretly crossed the border to safety, only to return home years later where their son became another unarmed person of color killed by the state’s violent security forces because they “felt threatened”...

Yet you spend 11 months of the year missing the obvious. Ironic!

2. You claimed Barack Obama’s election was the result of evil forces, but the minute Trump was sworn into office you started quoting verses about how “God picks a nation’s kings and queens.”

For real, how does this work? Did God only get involved and start deciding elections with the past election cycle, or did you just start quoting this verse after the black guy left?

There’s a lot in this world I don’t know, but I do happen to know the answer to that one. Easy!

1. You spent the 90’s saying “character counts” but now say, “We don’t vote for a national pastor.”

Ahh, my absolute favorite sign you’re following Trumpianity instead of Christianity.

Version of you from today, I’d like you to meet the version of you from the Clinton administration. You were supposedly so morally outraged that you coined the term, “Character Counts” to explain why you felt Clinton was unfit for office. The version of you from today? My, my… as I listen to you explain that “We don’t vote for a national pastor…” I am keenly aware of how having the political power changes things. Totally!

So you’re a loyal Trump supporter and a loyal Christian?

I’m not so sure.

You might want to take a more self-critical look and make sure you’re following Christianity, and not Trumpianity. Really!

That brings us right to the Vote Common Good "Flip The House" bus tour. Yesterday Newsweek reported that while evangelical Christians have traditionally stuck by the Republican Party, a group of them who are anti-Trump enough to hit the road ahead of the midterm elections to convince their peers to ditch the GOP. They want to help flip Congress so the Democrats have control.

With the message that Republicans have fallen short of pushing for the beliefs of core Christians, the "Vote Common Cause" bus tour is traveling to 30 congressional districts where Democratic challengers seek to defeat conservative incumbents. The tour will visit 14 states. It began last week in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and is slated to wrap up two days before the November midterm elections in Fresno, California.

"The need to flip Congress has some of us behaving in ways we have never had to before,” Minneapolis pastor Doug Pagitt, the executive director of Vote Common Good, told the Huffington Post Monday.

“These times call for a response that matches the outrageous nature of what’s happening," Pagitt said. "This is not a typical partisan conversation.”

The tour is unusual since white evangelical Protestants have traditionally backed the GOP for its conservative approach to abortion and LGBTQ equality, among other social issues. In the 2016 presidential election, a whopping 81 percent of white evangelicals voted for Trump, according to FiveThirtyEight.

"We need candidates who would not turn their back on the poor and the sick, who would not separate children from their parents, who support liberty and opportunity for all people,” Arkansas pastor Robb Ryerse, the political director for Vote Common Good, said in a statement to the Huffington Post.

“What we’re doing is trying to give courage to people whose hearts are already opened, whose beliefs have already shifted, to say that they can vote and act according to their own beliefs,” Pagitt said.

Vote Common Good claims it is nonpartisan and backs candidates based on how their platforms match with evangelical values. This year, the group is solely supporting Democratic candidates. The tour is scheduled to stop for six days in Texas to push for Democratic Representative Beto O'Rourke, who seeks to unseat Republican Senator Ted Cruz.

The tour kicked off in eastern Pennsylvania and the Vote Common Good rally for Susan Wild seems to have done some good. According to WFMZ-TV a brand new poll of district voters from DeSalles University shows Wild crushing her right wing opponent, Marty Nothstein, 50.0% to 31.2%.. 80% of Democrats, 8% of Republicans and 39% of independents say they plan to vote for Wild, while just 67% of Republicans, 3% of Democrats and 16% of independents plan to vote for Nothstein. Tomorrow the Vote Common Good tour bus pulls up to the Grandview Park Bandshell on Grandview Blvd in Sioux City, Iowa to help introduce congressional candidate, progressive Democrat J.D. Scholten, to evangelical voters. Aside from J.D., speakers include Frank Schaeffer, Doug Pagitt, Samir Selmanović and Brian McLaren.