Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

suspended in her jar

Home
Catholic
Those Who Shamed Us For Immorality Are Now Its Biggest Defenders: The Gaslighting Cycle of the Christian Trump Supporter

Those Who Shamed Us For Immorality Are Now Its Biggest Defenders: The Gaslighting Cycle of the Christian Trump Supporter

Last updated on: January 21, 2020 at 1:07 pm by Rebecca Bratten Weiss

Those Who Shamed Us For Immorality Are Now Its Biggest Defenders: The Gaslighting Cycle of the Christian Trump Supporter 2020-01-21T13:07:09-04:00 Rebecca Bratten Weiss

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.

The right-wing religious activist group One Million Moms is upset over a Burger King commercial in which a man, trying out the new non-meat burger, says “damn, that’s good.”

According to their press release:

“One Million Moms finds this highly inappropriate. When responding to the taste test, he didn’t have to curse. Or if, in fact, it was a real and unscripted interview in which the man was not an actor, then Burger King could have simply chosen to edit the profanity out of the commercial,” the group said in a press release.

“Burger King’s Impossible Whopper ad is irresponsible and tasteless. It is extremely destructive and damaging to impressionable children viewing the commercial. We all know children repeat what they hear.”

My husband and children were laughing about this together, and I commented “I’m pretty sure that group supports Trump, too.” We looked it up and yes, there they are thanking Trump for denying funding to Planned Parenthood, and defending him against a satiric representation in a children’s book.

One Million Moms claims to be fighting against indecency. So why are they not protesting Trump? Why are they, instead, thanking and defending him?

This is a man who is the very embodiment of indecency, in any meaning of the word. He has bragged about assault, been accused of multiple acts of predation, including marital rape. He was one of many wealthy and powerful men close to convicted child rapist Jeffrey Epstein. He has deliberately walked in on women in changing rooms. He uses crude sexist and racist slurs. mocks the disabled, and leads trashy populist rallies designed only to stir up hatred and hysteria. For a man born into wealth, he is entirely lacking in the kind of “decency” associated with good etiquette and correct social behavior. This is a man who does not know how to behave in public. As David Bentley Hart famously described him, he is a person you flees at parties.

I think one of the most monstrous offences of the past four years has been seeing the people who for decades harangued us about morality and decency turn and fawn upon a man who is the antithesis thereof. It’s not just the hypocrisy of it all. It’s the abuse on top of the hypocrisy on top of the abuse.

The people who show up now at Trump rallies, who write LOVE TRUMP (flag emoji, heart emoji) on their social media, who lead prayer meetings calling blessings down on Trump’s head – these are the same people who ran the purity campaigns that caused so much damage to young people in Christian communities. They kicked pregnant students out of Catholic schools, slut-shamed girls in short skirts, attacked and bullied gay teens, and policed us for our language, music, and reading. They told us we must be pure, or our lives would be worthless. They told us we must be virtuous, or burn in hell. They told us we needed to call out the vulgar, denounce LGBTQ people, rat out sexual transgressors, speak up and object if anyone told a dirty joke.

Because of these people we grew up perpetually afraid of damnation, afraid of our latent sexuality, ashamed of our natural desires, horrified even by our own bodies. They held high a standard of moral perfection to which we never could aspire – because it was never really about human flourishing. It was not human at all.

Lives have been ruined because of the relentless morality-policing of these religious leaders, school administrators, teachers, youth leaders.

Over the years, many of us may have learned to distrust their rules, disbelieve their account of morality. We have seen that for many of them, obsessing over enforcement of purity was really intended only to cover their own moral failings in matters of sex and marriage. That, indeed, is the likely rationale for their support of Trump: the excuses they make for his moral failings also serve to cover their own predations and infidelities.

But one thing we maintained: our belief that there is such a thing as moral virtue, even if it’s not the thing they said it was. We may no longer believe that sexual morality is all about not being gay, or wearing “modest” dresses, but we care about actual offenses against sexual ethics, such as rape, objectification, commodification, and predation. We may not think that it’s bad to use salty language, but we do know that words have power, and can hurt. We try to avoid those words that hurt the vulnerable, and save our aggressive words for aggressors.

We may even still be Christian. We may be deeply, faithfully Christian. It’s just that we no longer buy into the nationalist religion of white supremacy and purity fetishizing that we were told would save us. We still love Jesus – just not Fake White Jesus with his rosy cheeks and American flag.

And now, when we are trying to live according to the principles of ethics, justice, and decency we still believe in – now, when we call out the truly sinful, speak against real violations of justice and honor – now, when we do as we were taught to do, and stand up for what we believe is right even if it means losing friends and prestige – now, when we try to follow the Gospel, we are told to sit down and be silent?

The hypocrisy of those who claim to defend decency while standing up for everything that is base and indecent is breathtaking. They’re not just violating our “progressive” codes of virtue and decency. They are violating the traditional codes of morals they told us were so important.

Then on top of this hypocrisy, Trump’s religious devotees dare to pretend to still have a moral high ground. They are still trying to police and shame us – this time, for doing what we know is right.

We might be rid of the menace in the White House within a year, if all goes well. But what will we do with this colossal betrayal on the part of our fellow Christians? How can we go on co-existing with them, worshiping with them? How could we do so, in good conscience, knowing what we now know about their attitudes towards the refugees, the non-white, the queer, the marginalized – attitudes no doubt the less privileged already knew about. If only we had listened to them.

And what will “Christianity” even mean in this nation, tethered as it is now to Trump’s falling star?

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Donald_Trump_Rally_Evansville,_Indiana.jpg

Previous Post

January 10, 2020

Reducing Abortion Rates and Protecting Women's Rights Are Goals That Can and Should Co-Exist

Next Post

January 17, 2020 We Need To Talk About Sexism In Politics

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category abortion anti-semitism art Atwood Betrothed church clergy abuse coronavirus culture economics education environmentalism ethics faith family feminism gardening gun violence immigration Judaism literature MaddAddam New Pro Life Movement news pandemic personalism poem politics politics blue Pope Francis racism religion salvation sexuality social justice spirituality Station eleven Stephen King The Stand Trump Uncategorized war World Health Organization

Select a Month March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 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

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What book contains the "Suffering Servant" prophecy?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Jeremiah Lamentations Zechariah Isaiah

Support this
Column