Connecting dots

and making sense of Christian support of Trump

I just finished the book The Violent Take It By Force by Matthew D. Taylor and I highly recommend it. A marker for me of a good book is one that I repeatedly end up telling friends about. It is a book that, like Kristin Kobes Du Mez’s book, Jesus and John Wayne, connects a lot of dots and helps to answer THE question since 2015 - how can so many people who call themselves Christians be supportive of Trump?

In trying to gain an answer to this besetting question, some definition of terms is required. One of the most helpful aspects of the book was Taylor’s four-quadrant model dividing and defining today’s Christians into four categories: 1 - non-charismatic/denominational - most Catholics, most mainline Protestants, historically Black Protestants; 2 - non-charismatic/nondenominational Protestants - evangelical, Bible churches, community churches; 3 - charismatic/denominational - Pentecostals, charismatic mainline Protestants, charismatic Catholics, 4 - charismatic/nondenominational - independent charismatics, including Word of Faith, Apostolic and Prophetic Movement, New Apostolic Reformation, Messianic Judaism. It helped me to understand that evangelical is a broad brush term. The focus of the book is around the fourth quadrant of independent charismatics - what Taylor calls “the Wild West of the modern church.” This quadrant is also the fastest growing and the most innovative and media savvy. It is also the quadrant most responsible for this current mess.

Taylor takes us under the surface of quadrant four by introducing us to the cast of characters operating in the nondenominational charismatic space - Paula White, Peter Wagner, Cindy Jacobs, Lance Wallnau, Dutch Sheets, Sean Feucht, and others. As to the title of the book - who are the “Violent”? - these leaders are the violent ones who in Taylor’s words “have created an entire vernacular of spiritual violence: of Christian war campaigns against Satan, of literally demonizing their human opponents by accusing them of being possessed by evil spirits, and of advancing a belligerent theological orientation toward the rest of American culture.” Most of Trump’s spiritual advisors come from this fourth quadrant.

While the racist and nationalistic strands of current Christianity cannot be neatly separated out into quadrants, what emerges as the fruit of bad theology and worse social action is a Christian supremacy as manifested by Trump supporters. Taylor explains:

Christian supremacy emerges out of various strands of Christian theology, and it amounts to a theological habit of mind that parallels white supremacy in upholding one type of person as more trustworthy, fit to lead, and inherently virtuous than others. A Christian supremacist is someone who thinks that Christians should occupy authoritative and privileged positions in culture, politics, and other domains of public life. In other words, Christian supremacists believe that Christians—by dint of being Christians—are morally elevated above the rest of humanity and are empowered by God to govern civil society. Christian supremacists divide the world into stark binaries: the kingdom of God versus the kingdom of Satan, Christians versus the rest of demon-plagued humanity, those enlightened by the gospel versus those driven by base and carnal desires.

Which brings us to last week when two Democratic lawmakers were attacked at their homes, resulting in the death of state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark Hortman and the injuring of state Senator John Hoffman and his wife Yvette. The killer has now been apprehended and had a hit list of 45 Democratic lawmakers. It also was learned that he was a graduate of Christ for the Nations Institute, a charismatic college in Dallas, that is a hub for the followers of the New Apostolic Reformation - the movement founded by Wagner and the network behind much of the organization of the January 6 insurrection. Taylor describes the NAR: ”...they were divinely anointed apostles and prophets, empowered by the Holy Spirit to awaken the church into a great end-times revival. They believed themselves to be generals of spiritual warfare, equipped with special authority to destroy demonic strongholds and orchestrate campaigns of Christian prayer combat. They built a far-reaching but low-profile set of leadership-networking institutions, which Wagner called the NAR, and they also assembled apostolic networks of nondenominational churches..”

In summary, as I have observed Christianity interacting with culture over the past fifty years, I have seen many well meaning Christians co-opted by a fundamentalist Christianity - as manifested by folks like Jerry Falwell, James Dobson, and others well described in Du Mez’s book. What has won the day with many Christians is a Christianity of domination and the notion of a Christian nation, not faithful presence and salt and light. Now through Taylor’s book we can understand how well meaning co-opted Christians have been led to believe in the anointing of Trump as a modern day Cyrus (Isaiah 45) and how violence couched in spiritual warfare language has reached the very scary point of assassination of political rivals. When will we learn to test the spirits (I John 4:1) and use Jesus' measure of good fruit?(Matthew 7, Galatians 5)

This week the Convocation Unscripted discussed the Minnesota shooting and the lack of outrage - it is well worth checking out. I also encourage you to pick up a book I am currently learning a lot from - Angela Denker’s White Disciples of Jesus: The Radicalization of American Boyhood. I hope to discuss it in a future post. Additionally, be sure to sign up for the upcoming Summer Read of On Tyranny, led by Kristin DuMez and Bruce Berglund.