This week, Christianity Today released two pieces explaining the important tenants of the Christian church to explain why President Donald Trump should be impeached. But at one Wisconsin megachurch, Evangelical Christians seemed to be implementing their values only when it conveniently justified their political position.
The Washington Post spoke with a New Jersy truck driver, who stops at the suburban Milwaukee megachurch when he's in town. Rob Muldrow, 54, explained that the CT editorial was simply part of the continued downfall of the publication over the past decade. The comment has echoes of Trump's recent attacks on the publication, saying it's become a liberal rag.
The magazine co-founded by Bill Graham, he said, has been infected by the same “social justice movement” that’s infecting churches and trying to change their way of life.
“If you build the church with a bunch of nonbelievers, you’re going to have nonbelievers influencing the church,” he said.
“The people chose Trump. And our electoral college, which they keep wanting to get rid of, elected Trump,” Muldrow went on. “It is God that raises someone into power for His own purposes. And it is God, in His own divine wisdom, that takes an individual out of power for his own purposes.”
Yet, if God lifts people up and takes them down, how does Muldrow know that God isn't behind using impeachment to bring the president down? It's part of that signature hypocrisy and illogical justifications that have driven young people away from Christianity.
The Millennial Generation, who came of age during former President Geroge W. Bush’s evangelical crusade against LGBTQ equality, have been leaving religion more as they come of age, according to surveys and trends. One-third of young people said that they left religion because they were frustrated with the hypocrisy in the Church.
Dartmouth Religion Professor Randall Balmer wrote in The Guardian that the embrace of Donald Trump by the religious right has prompted a complete rewriting of ethics.
"Lying is all right as long as it serves a higher purpose," was one new tenet of the religion. "It’s no problem to be married more than, well, twice," is another.
The others are: "Immigrants are scum, vulgarity is a sign of strength and resolve, white lives matter (much more than others), there’s no harm in spending time with porn stars, it’s all right for adults to date children."
Finally, "The ends justify the means," he wrote of the new right-wing Christianity. "Too many Americans think of evangelicals as dogmatic and uncompromising, so we’re eager to demonstrate that when it comes to ethical standards we can indeed be flexible. Very flexible."
Read the full interviews with evangelicals at the Wisconsin megachurch in The Washington Post.
