Note: After writing this, I realized I made a critical error and did not actually watch the video of Trump's speech. After seeing the speech, I disagree with some of my analysis. Instead of deleting this post, I'm leaving it up as a reminder of what happens when you jump to conclusions. I also followed it up with this post that clarifies and completes what I intended to say here.
Well, it's official. Donald Trump just lost the election to Hillary Clinton in a landslide.
Okay, so it hasn't happened yet, but that great fear of the conservative, evangelical, right-wing, whatever-else-you-want-to-call-them party looms on the horizon: a Hillary Clinton presidency. It turns out that the only way for Clinton to win an election was to run against a candidate who was so bad that even the most staunch republicans couldn't vote for him or her. So that's what they did.
Trump has done a yeoman's job of digging himself a hole by saying things that ought not be said in civil society, but there's a reason that I think today marks the day that Trump jumped the proverbial shark. Up until today there was only one reason that conservatives, and evangelicals in particular, could vote for Trump, and that was because they felt like the alternative–and what was at stake if she was elected–was worse. The argument goes like this:
Every candidate is flawed, and yet we must vote. Therefore, we should vote for the candidate who is most likely to lead the country in a direction that we think it should go. Trump is flawed, and offensive, but at least he'll put constitutional/conservative judges on the supreme court. Therefore, I should hold my nose and vote for him.
In other words, the main reason that evangelicals and conservatives generally could still support Trump, despite his glaring flaws, was that there was at least one issue that was more important to them than his immorality, his glib tongue, or his dangerous rhetoric: the Supreme Court appointments that are almost certainly going to happen during the next president's first term.
The question, really, was whether or not Trump would ever say or do something that would turn off the evangelicals (in particular) to the point where they would realize that even the Supreme Court nominations are not a good enough reason to continue supporting this candidate. I think today is that day.
Trump has been pretty forthcoming about his views of religion. To whatever degree that deserves credit, I'll give it to him. But no one who is a sincere Christian believes that he is one, too, no matter what he claims. (In fact, it's far more likely that Hillary Clinton has a sincere, Christ-centered faith than he does. That's a pretty bold claim for which I have seen evidence, but am not going to go through the trouble of linking it here.) At least his honesty and authenticity about what he believes (even if it doesn't qualify as "Christian") mean that we know what we are getting. Even non-Christian people can, and almost always do, respect the right of Christians to believe what they believe, and at least this far in American History, have given them the freedom to do so. Yes, we have some concerns about how long that will continue (hence the importance of the Supreme Court) but generally speaking, most Americans respect Christianity and those who adhere to it.
Donald Trump just proved that he is not one of those people.
In speaking to a group of Evangelical Pastors in Florida...
“This will be an election that will go down in the history books for the evangelicals, for the Christians, for everybody of religion. This will be maybe the most important election the country has ever had,” Trump said.
“So go out and spread the word, and once I get in, I’ll do my thing that I do very well. And I figure it’s probably — maybe the only way I’m going to get into heaven, so I better do a good job.”
Translation: "I don't believe anything that you believe, and I'm going to make a massive joke out of it, because I don't give a crap."
Let's just ignore his obvious misunderstanding of the actual message of Christianity, and start with the Trumpian/Cultural view of Christianity that he expresses in the quote: Christians believe in heaven, it is somewhere we should desire to go, and the way that we get there is by becoming good people. That's the cultural view of Christianity. Heaven is good, and good people go there. Bad people go to hell. It's terrible theology, it's inaccurate, but let's just start from that foundation that he, along with many others, believes that this is the fundamental teaching of Christianity.
The problem is that even if he starts from that perspective, he immediately mocks the whole thing by making a joke about how he'll get there. "Haha, you people believe in Heaven. Well, vote me for president, because that's the only way I'm getting there!" Haha. Hilarious. Because Donald Trump doesn't give a crap about whether he gets to heaven.
Which begs the question: if Donald Trump doesn't give a crap about whether HE gets to heaven, why is he addressing a group of people who genuinely care about whether the people around them get to heaven? And why are they listening?
Isn't that like saying, "hey, you all are pursuing something that I think is completely worthless. But vote for me anyway, because I'll make sure you have the right to keep on with this worthless pursuit! And maybe I'll get into heaven!" <wink> <wink>
Maybe I'm misreading the comment. But if I'm not, and if others have the same reaction as me, then maybe we've finally reached the tipping point for the Trump movement: the moment when Christians realize that they have to make a choice between more liberal supreme court justices, or a President who openly mocks their religion and regularly denigrates everything they stand for.