Do Christians Resent Their Own Morality?

Last updated on: October 20, 2018 at 1:43 pm by Erin Wathen

Do Christians Resent Their Own Morality? 2018-10-20T13:43:47-07:00 Erin Wathen

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Guest post by Benjamin J. Dueholm

Do Christians resent their own morality?

I’ve been asking myself this since I saw video of the president of the United States engage in a rollicking, vicious parody of Christine Blasey Ford, who had recently testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee about her alleged assault by now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. He did this in Mississippi, in front of one of the rapturous crowds he seeks out with such desperate regularity. It was a cruel and ugly spectacle seemingly at odds with the respectful words (however grudging they may have been) used by Republican senators as they sought to push Kavanaugh’s confirmation ahead without appearing to slander or demean his accuser. And the audience, as if it needs to be said at this point, ate it up.

Benjamin J. Dueholm

The commentary from and about the part of the electorate once labeled “cultural conservatives,” “values voters,” or just “conservative evangelicals” has evolved over the last three years. At first, when the GOP nomination was still an open contest, it was claimed that religious commitment offered an inoculation of sorts against Trump’s misogynistic, openly bigoted appeals. When conservative Christians proved to be just as willing as anyone else in the Republican coalition to vote for Trump, it was sometimes interpreted as an explicitly transactional “bargain.” They didn’t identify with Trump’s personal immorality or rhetorical excesses, they just wanted judges and policies from him. “We’re not under any illusion that we were voting for an altar boy,” said First Baptist Church of Dallas pastor and frequent Trump defender Robert Jeffress (though as far as I know, Baptist churches don’t have altar boys anyway).

Increasingly a new meme is establishing itself: these voters don’t actually dislike Trump at all, in any respect. Their support for him is deep, genuine and profoundly personal. This is more interesting, I think, and perhaps more revealing. It’s one thing to rationalize support for morally defective individuals, as most people have to do at some point if they’re going to preserve both their Christianity and their engagement in civil politics. It’s another thing to truly come to love and identify with the defects themselves.

Not that long ago, exchanging lewd pictures with adult film actresses was enough to kill a political career. Now it’s possible not only to have an affair with an adult film actress only months after your wife bears your child, but to pay hush money for it, offer no somber expression of remorse but publicly call your partner in adultery “horseface,” and only come out stronger. Not that long ago, I took seriously the claim from conservative, traditionalist Christians that their approach to sexual morality was quite distinct from the vicious pick-up-artist version of gender essentialism. Now I’m not at all sure. When every grotesque slur and ludicrous transgression only bonds people more tightly to him, I have to wonder if, on some level they are perhaps not inclined to admit, these Christians admire Trump for breaking the rules they deeply resent but feel obligated to keep. Maybe adultery and misogyny are guilty pleasures they will grudgingly deny themselves but want to see someone get away with.

This wouldn’t be a novel problem, after all. Martin Luther, looking back on his career as a monk, wrote, “I couldn’t be sure that God was appeased by my satisfaction. I did not love, no, rather I hated the just God who punishes sinners. In silence, if I did not blaspheme, then certainly I grumbled vehemently and got angry at God.” Luther’s way out of this double-mindedness was to reformulate the Gospel as the promise that God makes one righteous, thereby emptying the Law of its terror. On this basis, Luther argued that the believer could indeed joyfully affirm the righteousness of God and love God’s Law. But the dynamic he identifies—of pious fear of the Law on one hand and resentment of it on the other, coexisting with and reinforcing each other—is an enduring problem. Nietzsche, three centuries later, diagnosed Christianity as perpetuating a “slave morality” derived from a human version of just such a resentment. We’ve certainly provided evidence for his claim, as we do every time we cheer on people who live with less constraint and more vice than we dare to.

I don’t even think this is a uniquely Christian problem. Humans being that we are, we’re always going to be formulating moral codes we can’t live up to, and forcing ourselves into positions of ambivalence toward both the code and the transgression. Those who try and fail will always be tempted to envy those who don’t even try and pay no price, at least if we can be persuaded to identify with them on some other grounds. I don’t doubt that this is part of why liberals, men in particular, have been so late in jettisoning their attachment to Bill Clinton, and why bad behavior of various kinds has been covered up or winked at in business, entertainment, academia and, yes, the church.

But Christianity is supposed to offer another way, an alternative to a perpetually frustrated search for moral purity on one hand and a nihilistic rejection of all morality on the other. We’re supposed to believe both in sin and the gift of repentance, both in inescapable moral demands and the promise of grace. Embracing the “both”-ness of Christianity can certainly feel paradoxical and unsettling (and for Martin Luther and, well, me, it literally is a paradox). But if we won’t embrace it, proving our past and present critics right will be the least of our problems.

Benjamin J. Dueholm is Pastor of Worship and Education at Messiah Lutheran Church in Wauconda, Illinois, and author of Sacred Signposts: Words, Water, and Other Acts of Resistance (Eerdmans, 2018).

Spirituality in Culture

Uncategorized

faith and politics

progressive christianity

spirituality

Previous Post

October 19, 2018

Creating a World Where the Vulnerable No Longer Live in Fear

Next Post

October 23, 2018 We Solemnly Swear That We Are Up to No Good: The Gospel of Harry Potter

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category a good week for progress Advent and Christmas Being a Person desert life faith and community Good News for Progressives Lent and Easter Marriage and Family S*^! Jesus Says sabbatical road tripping Spirituality in Culture Talking to Strangers the "Best Stuff I Ever Ate" diet travel Uncategorized writing Writing Prompt Wednesday

Select a Month January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 February 2011 July 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who was Abraham's wife?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Rachel Sarah Leah Rebekah