Why do Christians normalize unacceptable behavior patterns like Donald Trump’s? I see five main reasons for this conundrum, but mainly, it gives freedom for everyone else, especially the religious, to act badly.
As a lifelong newspaper reader who tries to stay on top of current events, I cannot avoid reading about the presidential race or the candidates.
A caveat: All politics are brutal, particularly national ones with so much at stake. Thin-skinned individuals will never make it, so it is not surprising that many candidates show some intriguing character flaws. Nothing is overlooked. Enemies lurk around every corner.
The love of money and the lure of power, the deepest corrupters of the human soul, generally drive the process, no matter what the political party. Christians, above all, should be aware of those two corrupters: warnings about their dangers are all over the Bible. But there is something far deeper going on, something that has unearthed the inner darkness of too many people.
Keep in mind what was written about Mr. Trump in 2016, over eight years ago, after he’d secured the nomination:
Mr. Trump has said so many irresponsible or dangerous things so often and in so many settings that there is a real risk that many voters will simply tune out and his campaign will somehow be normalized.
So it is particularly important to note when Mr. Trump’s statements go beyond the merely provocative or absurd and instead represent a threat to America’s carefully balanced political system. This is such a moment. It is not too late for Republicans who revere that system to question how they can embrace a nominee who has so little regard for it.
Yet the GOP and much of the Christian world did then, and still does, embrace a man who is morally, spiritually, emotionally, educationally, and temperamentally unfit to be President of the US. This is a man who operates solely out of the basic principle of revenge/hit back harder and nastier to anyone who doesn’t suck up to his massive ego.
If Trump takes office again, we will stay stuck in chaos-ridden, principle-empty, female-denigrating, race-baiting partisan politics. We will cripple our ability to deal with the real problems besetting us, including increasing hostility emanating from China, a more volatile than usual Middle East, the inability to pass reasonable legislation to handle our immigration issues. (the failure to do so is 100% Mr. Trump’s doing), and the challenge of reviving our scarily shrinking middle class. Losing that demographic threatens the entire economic situation that undergirds our democracy.
So, what happened? Why do we normalize unacceptable behavior patterns this way and move again toward an unacceptable candidate for POTUS?
I see five main reasons. They are primarily personal, not political.
- The need for a tribal/in-group/out-group security.
- The human tendency to “other” people not in our comfort zone.
- The desire for a “savior” outside ourselves.
- Our own unexamined inner sadness and rage against being left out and the unfair world of the “elite.”
- The need to justify our own unacceptable behaviors.
One: we all need our tribes
Let’s face it: we much prefer to be with people who agree with us. Those unspoken agreements make life easier, less awkward, free us from having to think hard about our positions. The Christian world is littered with “I’m going to get into heaven but you are not” churches.
Mr. Trump’s ability to create such a powerful “in-group” with the ever-recognizable MAGA hats gives people a sense of security.
Two: we all master at “othering.”
Trump is also a master at “othering” people who don’t agree with them or don’t give him the adulation he needs/craves: his cruel words and taunting have had the effect of turning his opponents into caricatures, making them less than human. They are reduced to the boundaries of the cruel nickname.
People often “other” those we don’t know or disagree with unconsciously simply by the use of the term “all” followed by some cryptic and untrue description (“All Democrats want post-birth abortions without restriction” or “All Republicans hate women and want to force 10-year-olds to have babies by their rapists”) that lumps everyone together and makes them less than human.
We also manage this process in the church: every religious group has some way to shun those they find unacceptable for any reason. For example, simply by calling someone a “heretic,” we can banish them forever, rendering them invisible, effectively “non-people.”
Three: how we want someone to rescue us!!!
From the very beginning, Donald has declared that the USA is a place of sick carnage and he, and only he, can fix it. In other words, he is the “savior” of the US. The appeal to those on the margins of society is undeniable: finally, someone who “gets” them. Of course, in private, his utter disdain for such marginalized folk comes through, but the public statements are adequate for most. He will make their lives work for them–all they have to do is put him in office. He’ll do the rest.
Jesus? Well, the world was indeed a place of sick carnage, but he took upon himself all the burden of that carnage out of infinite love. Even so, we now have the responsibility to work out our salvation by seeking the transformed, Jesus-centered life, also one of sacrifice and service.
Trump’s way to save is so much easier: just vote for him (and maybe vote for the last time if he gets his autocratic way), and it’s all done.
Have you ever wondered why Christians tend to move toward conspiracy theories? Here’s the explanation!
Four: we’ve all had moments of being on the outside wanting in.
For all his wealth and with a rich daddy who consistently bailed him out, Mr. Trump was an outsider socially. As one writer put it, “Though he is the scion of a wealthy real estate family, the city’s old aristocracy never quite accepted Trump. In a tribal city, Donald Trump has no real tribe.”
He, too, stood at the window with his nose pressed to the glass, begging someone to let him in. This outsider status became a strong source of identification for many.
I also wonder if it is why so many who call themselves “Christian” found their home in Trumpland. One of the church’s biggest failures is our history of pushing people outside, refusing them entrance because they just couldn’t make the cut, whatever the standard might have been.
Five: we all get to normalize our unacceptable behavior patterns.
Truly, Donald J. Trump gives permission for everyone else to act on their worst instincts. After all, if someone who has never been guided by one moral principle can be elected President of the US, why should anyone else even bother to develop more adequate character qualities? We can indeed descend to a “dog-eat-dog” world where only the meanest and strongest survive.
Let’s face it: the sexual abuse of vulnerable women has long been a pattern among church leaders. But it’s OK: they brought in a lot of money in the process, didn’t they? Doesn’t that make those abusers winners, after all?
Don’t be fooled: Project 2025 is alive and well
Mr. Trump, the ultimate political outsider, ran in 2016 on the platform of getting rid of “the establishment.” The [pretending-to-be-defunct] Project 2025 framers put the whole plan into writing. Yeah, it may temporarily be on hold, but should Mr. Trump win in 2024, that plan will guide White House policies for his entire term–or much longer. Is this really what we want? A government bureaucracy fully loyal to Mr. Trump with not one person who will dare differ from him or have the wider public good in mind?
A vote for the Harris/Walz team will not lead to a perfectly just government or idyllic world peace. It just won’t happen. But it will help preserve our democracy, an always fragile institution, and put decency–and a sense of joy and hope–back in the highest office of the land. The nature of politics means we are always in a corrective mode, moving from one extreme to another.
Right now, that means voting Democratic. It is simply necessary now. It might not have been had the GOP been a more courageous group willing to defy Mr. Trump’s bullying, threats, endless lies and outright dishonesty. But they wouldn’t or couldn’t. Either one means they have no business right now in national leadership.
A post on how the 2016 election made me rethink my entire faith structure: read it here.
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In