How the religious right embraced Donald Trump and lost its moral authority

[rug]

Attendees say the Pledge of Allegiance at the Values Voter Summit in Washington, Sept. 26, 2014.

JEFF JACOBY
OCTOBER 14, 2016

IT WILL TAKE a long time to assess the full extent of the damage wrought by Donald Trump on the Republican Party and American conservatism. But this much is already clear: Buried under the post-election wreckage will be the moral credibility of the religious right.

Hypocrisy and politics have gone hand in hand since time immemorial. But the embrace of Trump by influential religious conservatives — who have always insisted that they, like Hebrew National, answer to a higher authority — is orders of magnitude worse than the customary flip-flopping and sail-trimming of a presidential campaign.

For decades, Christian (and some Jewish) conservative spokesmen portrayed their involvement in partisan battles as an aspect of their faith’s witness. Judeo-Christian ethics and the inculcation of moral standards in public life were not just talking points to the organized religious right; they were the reason the movement existed in the first place. Jerry Falwell, who launched the Moral Majority in 1979, explained that its purpose was “to turn back the flood tide of moral permissiveness, family breakdown, and general capitulation to evil” that he feared was inundating American life.

You didn’t have to sympathize with the Christian right’s political platform to understand why so many evangelical leaders were appalled by the sexual scandals that trailed Bill Clinton into the White House. It was no mystery, for example, why Ralph Reed, an early leader of the Christian Coalition, would insist vehemently, in 1998, as pressure was growing for Clinton’s impeachment, that “we care about the conduct of our leaders, and we will not rest until we have leaders of good moral character.” Or why the formidable televangelist Pat Robertson would blast Clinton as a “debauched, debased, and defamed” politician who turned the Oval Office into a “playpen for the sexual freedom of . . . the 1960s.”

https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/editorials/2016/10/14/how-religious-right-embraced-donald-trump-and-lost-its-moral-authority/zmnffYc0elZ5cdGHbLrBVL/story.html

[vlyons]

1. The Christian dominionists won't change

but their kids might change

[RKP5637]

2. With improved communications, many are finally waking up to what this type of

religious crap is about. These types would have probably loved the medieval inquisitions and the Salem witch trials, and of similar ilk. They love persecution and hatred while clutching their belief system as something honorable. I feel so sorry for kids exposed to this damn crap. They thrive on hatred and persecution. It's their high in life and get an endorphin rush from it all.

[HassleCat]

3. All fundamentalism is political.

These people are exactly like the extreme Muslim jihadists they hate. Their actions are dripping with gallons of piety syrup, quoting from the holy texts, praying and invoking the name of the deity, warning of the evil unbelievers, and so on. What they really want is betrayed by their willingness to bargain with the devil to achieve their political goals. Donald Trump is a blatant womanizer, a notorious groper, and not a bit repentant about any of it. If these people had any integrity, or if they cared at all about Jesus and his teachings, they would reject both presidential candidates, or perhaps embrace Hillary because she appears to have some interest in Christianity, doing good works for the less fortunate, etc.