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The Trendy Heresy of Christian Trump Supporters

If you are or ever have been a Christian whose beliefs have drifted from orthodoxy, either gradually or dramatically you’ve learned something: you will lose people; those you served alongside, cared for, looked up to, or even lived with. 

They will either quietly disconnect with silence or unfriend you on social media or fire you or tell you privately or quite publicly how sad they are for you, how lost you are, how they’re praying for you.

Ever since I began openly sharing the details of my shifting faith journey here in this blog, I’ve lost people too; called a heretic, a false prophet, a wolf in sheep’s clothing, a deceiver (you know, all the Bible biggies to succinctly tell someone they’re going to Hell). For the most part I get it and I normally don’t take it personally. Back when I believed what they believe I remember what I thought about people like me too. I remember lamenting prodigals falling away from the faith. I know the damnation they feel is surely due me and so I get why they’ve severed the ties, lest they condone my immorality and themselves earn God’s wrath. Some of those relationships I’ve fought very hard to keep and some have caused me to kick the dust from my feet and walk on when I knew it was time.

But this year is different.

This year I’ve seen something revelatory.

This year I’ve watched so many of  those professed fierce defenders of the faith, those zealous protectors of Christian purity, those for whom my honest questions and doubts proved too divergent for them to tolerate, hitch their theological wagons to three time-married, career misogynist, openly bigoted, violence-inciting Donald Trump—and invoking their Christian faith to do so.

And honestly the absurdity of it all is as staggering as it is sad; to watch someone poke fun of a disabled man, suggest protestors should be beaten up, call women fat pigs and dogs, categorize Muslims and immigrants all as terrorists—and then to see him receive the vigorous endorsement of high-profile evangelists and celebrity pastors, and from ordinary people who claim Jesus Christ as Lord.

The very same believers who abandoned me for my supposed heresy, have now chosen to align themselves with this bigotry and racism and materialism, as if God is totally cool with it and the Bible fully endorses it. The disconnect is something that I can’t quite wrap my mind around.

But what’s been enlightening is what these days are teaching me about these Conservative Christians; how willing they are to stretch the parameters of their own religion when it suits them, while not tolerating the expansion of mine and people like me. I see how conveniently they retrofit orthodoxy to accommodate their current reality. I see that they are as prone to fluctuate as those of us who’ve they’ve condemned. Turns out heresy is in the eyes of the stone-thrower.

For them, someone else affirming the LGBTQ community or questioning the existence of Hell or advocating for a woman’s right to choose or saying that Black Lives Matter or believing men wrote the Bible, all become immediate relational deal breakers that their spiritual convictions won’t allow. Yet these same folks will claim some uncompromising moral high ground while openly campaigning for a man, who in all measurements is about as opposite of Jesus of Nazareth as you can find in human form—and act as if it makes total sense.

It’s interesting to see how pliable they can make their faith, yet how rigid they are with someone else’s.

This year I’ve come to realize that there really is no orthodox Christianity left; not if it and Donald Trump can be mentioned in the same breath. There really is no heresy then either, if this politicized Evangelism is what represents the standard. The labels of Conservative or Progressive faith are no longer relevant because there is no steady center to measure legitimate Christian faith by anymore. 

Yeah, in theory it’s supposed to be Jesus, but practically speaking that doesn’t work; not when my Jesus loves gay people and theirs is packing heat; not when my Jesus grieves with people of color and theirs wants to build a wall around America; not when my Jesus is a servant and theirs is a bully. I’ve come to realize that as orthodox or Conservative or traditional as any person fancies themselves, in the end their God is in their own image; allowing what they want to allow, consenting to what they desire consent to; sanctioning the candidate they want sanctioned. 

Those who most fervently claim there is absolute Truth, have shown this year how relative that Truth really is when the rubber meets the road or when the finger meets the voting booth.

In some ways these days have freed me from the fear that I’m getting it wrong. They shown me that crying heresy is really someone’s way of saying “my version of Jesus is the only one I’m interested in”.

I’m no longer worried that I have abandoned the faith, because they’re reminded me that we all have, to one degree or another. Two thousand years removed from the life of Jesus of Nazareth and they don’t have any better version of his life than I do. They certainly aren’t glorifying God by elevating a human being who fails to emulate the Jesus of the Gospels in word or deed. If that’s not heretical it’s surely irresponsible and reckless.

If these Christians want to support someone like Donald Trump and to claim that their faith in Christ compels them that’s fine, but they really don’t have a leg to stand on while they attack mine or anyone else’s religious convictions for being unorthodox. That sanctimonious ship has sailed and they’ve christened its departure.

Heresy is dead and Donald Trump has killed it. That is something to be grateful for. 

Maybe now we Christians can stop all the name calling and the silencing and shunning, and just admit that the only Absolute Truth—is that we’re all the same in our faithfulness and our failure. 

 

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