Have Evangelical Leaders Become Disciples of Trump?

Posted Oct 17, 2017 by Michael L. Brown
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Perlay123 posted a comment · Oct 19, 2017
One more thing Dr Brown: to be clear, I am asking that you actually invite African American Christians who disagree with you politically to star as guests on your show. Inviting black Christians to call in is not the same thing. This is going to need a full segment of uninterrupted, expert exchange from fellow evangelical leaders, leader to leader.
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Perlay123 posted a comment · Oct 19, 2017
Along those lines, one of the things too many white evangelicals do not understand is their - for lack of a better word - “Anglo-normative” behavior which really isolates large majorities of people of color. What do I mean? For example, look at this very article, and how you titled it. It ought to be very evident to everyone, even casual observers, that this ought to refer to “White Evangelicals”. Very clearly, no other community of evangelicals could be characterized as supporting Trump, and any other media outlet would denote this. The division along racial lines is so stark that, to omit the fact that white evangelicals are generally the ones grandstanding for Trump, especially given the fact that they are literally the ONLY cohort that is so supportive of Trump, is not only omissive, but exclusionary to evangelicals of color. Seems like to white evangelicals, it doesn’t matter that evangelicals of color soundly rejected Trump. It seems that all that matters is that white evangelicals generally supported Trump. With such an obvious division along racial lines, the only reason for such a glaring omission would be that white evangelicals see their own political behavior as the gold standard, the norm from which other evangelicals might deviate (or not). This might be unintentional on your part, but you need to understand that By excluding the viewpoints of such a large percentage of your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, you normalize yourself and denormalize them. In other words, to put it very bluntly: your title of this very article is an insult to the vast majority of Christians of color, whose leaders are clearly not for Trump, but who you have (unwittingly) ignored in your article’s heading because you have normalized your community, and denormalized theirs. This is part of the reason why you really ought to get out of your bubble and invite these Christians of color on your show to educate you on these things.
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Perlay123 posted a comment · Oct 19, 2017
Dr Brown, if you are truly genuine when you claim you’d like to understand why a statistically significant majority of African American Christians agree with you theologically but completely disavow you politically (especially in the Trump era), if you really want to Know why your politics are such a stumbling block to the majority of African American Christians (not the ones that call in to your show, but the ones outside of your bubble who constitute the vast majority of the black Christian community), then, why not invite such christians on your show as guests to enlighten you, instead of lamenting the audacity of their continued offense by you? Until you are willing to do this, your claims that you want to understand their grievances ring hollow. Until you are willing to do this, you will be continuing the tragic, unfortunate tradition of most white Americans in this country, who might claim to sympathize with the plight of African Americans with their words, but pour gasoline on the fire with their actions. How could I make such an outlandish, even offensive claim, you ask? Invite African American Christians who disagree with you politically on the show. They will show you everything you need to know.
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Xrucianis posted a comment · Oct 18, 2017
What's been most troubling about our evangelical championing of Trump is where we repeatedly serve as his apologist for his many outlandish (even reprehensible) statements/opinions. Are all of his actions bad? Of course not. But our silence, turning-a-blind-eye-to and/or thin excuse-making for his ongoing, blatantly unchristian behavior makes us look like we're disconnected from reality, hypocritical, and primarily, politically power-hungry. One (of many) cases in point is the utter silence of the Christian right re: his statements about former Commanders-in-Chief not reaching out to fallen veterans. It's an unbelievable, and unnecessary lie that only betrays Trump's inner insecurity - and our uncircumspect partisanship.