So large parts of the leaders of the evangelical community has embraced Donald Trump whose entire life epitomizes the pursuit of wealth and personal vainglory at the expense of anyone who gets in his way. Even without any discussion of how he treats women or specific minority groups, it is fair to say his value system stands diametrically opposed to that of Jesus. However, at the debate this week he endeared himself to the political Christian right by promising to overturn Roe v. Wade and thus pave the way for the banning of all abortion in at least some states.  No matter that the opposition to abortion was conceived in the Vatican and has only the most tenuous relation to any Christian scripture and none at all to the teachings of Jesus. I see this is an outright surrender by the evangelical right of any real connection to the religion they claim to follow. They are now simply fighting a rearguard action to preserve any political clout when the very nomination of Trump indicates their influence is on the wane.

As presented by Jesus and as practiced by the early church, the Christian religion was focused on helping the oppressed find meaning in their lives despite living under a political system that did not care one wit for their well-being.    Neither Jesus nor the writers of the New Testament ever once suggested or even hinted at the idea that Christians should expect the government or the society at large to live by the morality that they espoused for themselves.   Quite the contrary was true. The early church assumed they would always be the small minority subject to the whims of the larger world and their way of living was what set them apart from the general society in which they lived.

This stands in stark contrast to both Judaism and Islam where there is an assumption that the larger society will conform to their view of morality. The founders of both religions aggressively used the sword to oppress existing cultures to conform to their view of morality.   Consider how both Joshua and Mohamad used brutally violent armies to conquer their way to religious supremacy in their sphere of influence.  Contrast this to the example of Jesus who never advocated violence, but rather willingly laid down his life as an example of passivism because he envisioned a spiritual, not a temporal power.  He made it clear that he did not advocate violence when he said “I am not an earthly king. If I were, my followers would have fought when I was arrested by the Jewish leaders. But my Kingdom is not of the world.”

Of course, when Christianity was embraced by the Roman government as the official state religion the cross, a symbol of passivism, was replaced by the cross as a symbol of official power that was regularly enforced by violence.  Few Christians I know ever reflect on this transition of Jesus as symbol and example for the poor and oppressed to the Jesus the symbol of the rich oppressors.  Within a few hundred years of Constantine’s embracing the Christian religion, it would be hard for anyone to see the religion of Jesus as anything but the hand of the state.

There were attempts at reform. Men like St. Francis of Assisi saw how Christianity had been perverted and advocated a vision of the Christian as the servant to the poor, but he was the exception.   Sadly the reformers who lead to the reformation did not look to Jesus as an example, but believed in Christian asceticism enforced by violence.  Savonarola famously tried to purge the entire city of Florence of any hints of the Renaissance by burning art, books and everything else he thought was “un-Christian”.   His actions were certainly not driven by the example of Jesus who never once condemned the personal lifestyles of the Roman occupiers.

Savonarola’s vison of forced adherence to what he thought to be Christian living was followed by nearly all the leaders of the Reformation.  Most notably when John Calvin took over the great city of Geneva, he turned it into a theocracy very similar in nature to the way ISIS runs its territory.  He banned everything that he thought was a distraction to his vision of proper Christianity.   Cards, musical instruments and plays were all banned.  Where did he get such a vision of Christianity?  Well, I can tell you it did not come from the words of Jesus.

The desire of the Reformation leaders to make all people obey their Christian rules was passed down to the early American colonies.  Most famously were the New England colonies where their vision of Christianity was enforced with draconian rules, up to and including executing those who they thought were an affront to Christianity.   In the larger country, traveling evangelists such as John Wesley and George Whitfield had a huge influence in colonial America.   Though a firmly secular nation, the desire to enforce “Christian” codes of conduct was pervasive.  This was not entirely a bad thing. The fight to abolish slavery was driven in large part by the desire to make the new American nation more “Christian” and even in the South, John Wesley’s followers opposed slavery and took active measures to help slaves escape to Canada.

It was during the post WW2 period though, that the seeds of the modern movement to turn the US into a theocracy has its roots.  Positioning itself against the atheistic communists, the evangelical community began to develop a doctrine that completely bypassed Jesus and taught that the United States was the successor to ancient Israel as God’s favored people.  And as God’s favored people, the United States is obligated to enforce the Mosaic Law upon all people regardless of their personal beliefs in order to gain God’s blessings.  The evangelical community also began to believe the converse as well, i.e. that if the US did not enforce Mosaic morality, then God would smite it down like it did the ancient State of Israel.   Beginning in the early 1970’s, this belief system became embedded in the evangelical mindset.  I know I was taught that way in the early 1980’s as was my son-in-law who was home schooled in the 2000’s.

The rise of the Moral Majority movement in the late 70’s and the conservative backlash of the 1980’s were a direct result of this belief system.   So, for most evangelical’s today, they don’t remember the time when Christianity was not a political movement driven by an existential fear of God’s wrath on the nation as a whole.  However; they are now having to come to grips with the idea that their vision of Christian morality is no longer ascendant.  Yes, they continue to push the anti-abortion agenda (which I noted earlier has no basis in the words of Jesus), but from the widespread normalization of young people living together outside of marriage, to sex on TV to same-sex marriage their vision of the US as a nation that lives by  Mosaic Law to get God’s special favor is losing its viability.  The rise of Donald Trump as the titular head of the political party that has long been claimed by the evangelical right is just the final straw in a long decline of their hold on society.

This is a very good thing for Christians in general and evangelicals in particular, even though they don’t see it now.  As we see in Europe, government backed and enforced Christianity first loses its reason for being then loses its credibility.  I see a subtle change in the evangelical rhetoric, I’m beginning to hear a return to the idea that Christian morality is a way for Christians to distinguish themselves from the larger population.  The very fact that some of the “Never Trump” crowd are principled evangelicals signals a new willingness to separate Christianity from Republican politics.  This is a huge shift away from the paradigm that Christian morality is the way everyone is expected to live and the Republican Party is the party of Christian enforcement.  Of course I differ greatly from many evangelicals in my vision of Christian morality in that I privilege the morality of Jesus over the morality of Moses; but still I’m glad to see the evangelicals moving in the right direction.  In time, I have no doubt that Christian writers will see the 40 year experiment with the idea of a Mosaic Christian nation was a mistake and that the rise of Donald Trump was the beginning of the return to personal Christianity in the US.

Thus, the loss of the culture war, I believe, will usher in a new lease on life for Christianity in America.