White evangelicals love Donald Trump. Given that his words, actions, and policy stances are the very opposite of Christ-like, this is both bizarre and disturbing. Nonetheless, Trump consistently enjoys a more than 70 percent approval rating among this demographic group. Under the leadership of white conservative evangelical leaders like Jerry Falwell Jr., the self-proclaimed Moral Majority has adopted the politics of fear and a rigid dogma which is completely disconnected from Jesus’ teachings on love, compassion, and care for the most marginalized among us. Though this represents a distorted version of Christianity, it fits right in with the Trump-Pence agenda of white supremacy, homophobia, religious intolerance, and sexism. This is why evangelicals are with Trump, no matter what he does or whom he hurts.
Critics have dubbed this “toxic Christianity,” warning that many of today’s evangelicals have received bad theology, which has filled them with hate stemming from religious and racial fear. I’ve been very curious about this recently, especially because their version of Christianity seems particularly aggressive and hostile in the age of Trump.
Like a lot of people, I was horrified at the incident that took place a few weeks ago in Washington at the Indigenous People’s March. Nick Sandmann, a white male teenager from Covington Catholic High School in Kentucky, stood smirking in the face of Native American elder Nathan Phillips and refused to let him pass while his friends hollered, cheered, and made fun of Mr. Phillips and his prayer song. The following week, I spoke about it with John Pavlovitz, a progressive Christian pastor whose work has been circulating widely on social media over the past few years. To give you a sense of his impact, Pavlovitz has more than 156,000 Twitter followers and has had his work featured in publications like Slate, Quartz, and Cosmopolitan.
Pavlovitz also writes a blog called “Stuff That Needs To Be Said” where he takes on, among other things, the hypocrisy of the Christianity that Donald Trump, Mike Pence, and their conservative supporters claim to follow. In 2017 alone, more than 23 million people viewed his blog. Though his wisdom is applicable to a wide variety of audiences, Pavlovitz’s writing and messages specifically address white people (especially those who identify as evangelicals) and their need to understand white supremacy, hatred, religious bigotry, and other issues in the context of Trump’s America.
During a phone interview, I asked Pavlovitz about the Covington Catholic students and the toxic blend of religion and politics that is infecting the country. Pavlovitz said that for him, the most unsettling part of the story is the adult chaperones who were with the students but failed to correct their behavior.
He said that the students were young people acting impulsively and not thinking clearly, but he remains worried about adults who allow them to wear political clothing (like MAGA hats) and fail to see how those messages are not neutral and make others feel oppressed.
“These represent emboldened adults who feel free to express certain things in a setting like that and they are effectively weaponizing those children. The [MAGA] hats are a tool to make certain statements,” Pavlovitz said.
The North Carolina pastor has been trying to engage other white people in conversation about holding each other accountable and about how to correct these young people’s behavior. He also points out the need to stand up to the racist, bigoted behavior being expressed in the name of religion in the age of Trump. He says it’s important for white people to recognize that when they are asked to be accountable around issues of race and white supremacy (because they’ve never had to be), it can feel like persecution or oppression.
This is also a reason why he thinks so many white evangelicals gravitate toward Trump. For years, they’ve been deeply immersed in the religion of fear, which has them believing that they are oppressed for their beliefs and their whiteness. Trump has successfully capitalized on this message and Pavlovitz says this is why they are unable to see that their fear or losing power and influence has completely removed them from the ways that Jesus was actually in solidarity with marginalized peoples.
One of the important lessons that Pavlovitz shared about his work is that he often hears from people of all faiths, and even those who are atheist, that they are frustrated and fatigued with the lack of empathy and the cruelty that seem to be trending in our country. He says that everyone is feeling the sense of disconnection and estrangement from friends, family members, and loved ones. Suffering and hurt are everywhere, and we need healing on a basic human level. “We need to understand that we aren’t well and that is where we need to start,” he shared. Though this kind of division has been a long time coming, he reminds us that the politics of Trump have now created firm fault lines where people are either all in or all out.
“Shades of grey or nuance are now squeezed out and certain people lack empathy for those who are not like them … This is now a battle for our shared humanity, not our political lives,” he said.
Though he speaks about creating a bigger table where all people can be present, Pavlovitz is not about trying to coddle the views of the racist, bigoted, homophobic, etc. in the name of civility or shared humanity. He says that right now the most important thing we can do is protect the people who are not being heard. This is a message he repeats over and over again in the various communities in which he speaks each week. “When people say to me, ‘I support Trump, am I welcome at your table?’ I respond, ‘Everyone’s humanity is respected here. But we have a responsibility to protect the most vulnerable.’”
Pavlovitz is currently speaking in communities around the country. He also has a new book out called Hope and Other Superpowers: A Life-Affirming, Love-Defending, Butt-Kicking, World-Saving Manifesto. You can learn more about the book, and about the pastor, by clicking here.