When Pastors Leave Over Trump
What do you do when the people you have spent decades with in a religious community feel like strangers? Or begin to see you as an outsider? These questions are at the heart of a story Ruth Graham reports on to Michael Barbaro of the New York Times podcast “The Daily.” Discussing an article Graham wrote in May of this year, “The Daily” traces the moments that led Kevin Thompson, former lead pastor of Community Bible Church in Fort Smith, AR, to leave the church he had led for 15 years.
Thompson's story is, unfortunately, one that is becoming too common. Pastors who were against Donald Trump's influence in Christian politics and churches, and stood against racial violence and police brutality in the wake of George Floyd's murder, have found themselves at odds with church members. While Thompson found a place with a new church in California doing a different kind of ministry, Graham mentions that Community Bible Church’s new pastor is not likely to encourage the church members to grow out of their comfort zone.
Barbaro and Graham end their conversation with a disturbing trend that Graham often hears when she talks with pastors. Pastors will joke that they get one hour weekly with their members, and Fox News gets them for 10. But what happens when pastors like Thompson are pushed out, and more Trump or Christian Nationalist-friendly pastors take their place? When people choose to live in a bubble, what can pierce it?
As Jesus told his disciples, there is no shame in dusting off your sandals and leaving when people prove to be uninterested in the truth. Kevin Thompson did that and only left when it became clear that the church would no longer listen to him. But it is also true that pastors like Thompson cannot win the fight against encroaching radicalism on the right and disinformation on their own. As Christians and conservatives, it is essential to stand for what is good and true, which means that it is also up to regular folks to band with pastors and leaders who take a stand for what is true and get hit by a mob who believe in Q and see Trump as some kind of messianic figure.
So long as it is pastors and leaders taking the fall, there will be little to no change. This is not to say that everyone must be willing to lose their job, but being ready to speak up and make a good friend a little uncomfortable is needed. Listening to a family member's beliefs on QAnon, Trump, or the benefits of Christian Nationalism is necessary so that you can give a response informed by their beliefs while also working to maintain a relationship with them. And yes, there may come a time when the best thing to do is to dust off your sandals and find those more willing to hear the truth. But that only comes after the hard, and sometimes years-long, work of seeking to understand those who disagree with you.
3 More Things
1) Speaking to 60 minutes, former January 6th Committee Senior Technical Advisor Denver Riggleman reported a call from the White House to a January 6th rioter while the insurrection was happening. It is important to note that Riggleman says he does not know the White House end of that call. This information does show that, with all the Committee does know and has uncovered, there is still more to discover about the depths of Trump's/the White House's involvement with the Jan. 6th attack on the Capitol.
2) Writing for Time, sociology professor and co-author of Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States, Andrew Whitehead gives what he sees as the three main threats Christian Nationalism poses to the US. Whitehead notes that Christian Nationalism 1) is anti-democratic, 2) perpetuates racism, and 3) approves of political violence. But perhaps most disturbing is the link he adds to a recent poll showing that a majority of Republicans want the US to be declared a Christian Nation even though they understand it is unconstitutional to make such a declaration a reality.
3) QAnon is evolving, which is the main takeaway from a new Washington Post report on the splinter group, Negative48, quickly becoming a feature at Trump rallies. Led by Michael Brian Protzman, Negative48 is the group most notable for their belief that JFK Jr. was going to be resurrected in Dallas last January. What is changing with Negative48 is their use of gematria, the ancient Hebrew tradition of assigning letters a numerical value, to decipher clues in Trump's speeches. We don't know where this will lead yet, but one couple WaPo spoke to seems to believe Q has been around for centuries. The couple said, "Q was the force behind a long series of events in American history, including the Civil War, the JFK assassination, the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the 2020 election."