Friday, November 4, 2016

Christians Against Trump

Of course, they're Northeast liberal Christians.

Speaking strictly for myself, now, reading alt-right bloggers such as Mike Cernovich of Dangerandplay.com or listening to Sean Hannity or running into young men in sports bars warning the Illumenati is running the government or receiving letters from apparently well-meaning hand-wringers who think Hillary needs "chastising" by Mr. Trump and I need a primer on basic Christianity have worn me down. For thoughtful, progressive Christians — and indeed, for many, many thoughtful, conservative Christians — much of the flag-wrapped-cross jingoism of this election cycle is not merely distasteful. It is also, essentially, apostasy.

And:

Religious scholar Peter W. Marty, writing in the Christian Century, notes the repeated theme of the religious right to "return" to America's greatness, to make American great "again."
Marty questions what era these moralistic nostalgia-seekers have in mind.

"Was it America's legacy of enslaving African peoples, only to lynch numbers of them later? Was it the 18th century and its primitive medicine, or the 19th century and its marginal sanitation? Perhaps [their] cherished past exists somewhere in the past 100 years, when women still lacked the right to vote, laborers had frighteningly few rights, the need of the disabled went largely ignored, Agent Orange wreaked havoc and the water boarding of terror suspects became acceptable to some top brass."

But he concludes robustly: "Nostalgia that ignores blemishes of the past makes for shabby history."

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