The GOP Reinvents Itself
Though I’ve brokered many disappointments in the last ten years, none has been so acute as seeing roughly half my friends and extended family members exchanging the “compassionate conservatism” for which I used to vote for in favor of the unhinged vitriol and autocratic aspirations of the two Trump administrations. These evangelicals and I sat in the same pews for decades. We listened to the same sermons and read the same Bible. How could a large plurality of them, perhaps even a majority, make the sudden 180-degree turn necessary to transform them into raging avengers seeking retribution against roughly half the world’s population?
We were all primed to vote Republican—I recognize that. We all hated abortion. Even so, I had always voted out of a sincere belief that the politicians I favored would transport our values to our state and national capitols. When the party changed its rhetoric from family values to disparaging its opponents as subhumans, hating immigrants, and defending sexual assault and misogyny, it was unambiguously clear I couldn’t vote for this. There was no struggle for me, no wrestling with complex realities.
Not for a nanosecond did I ever consider voting for a man who bragged about his sexual conquests regularly on the Howard Stern show, hanging out with recognized pedophile Jeffrey Epstein (legally recognized as such since 2006) and at the Playboy mansion, owning (and bankrupting) casinos, one of which also housed a strip club, disparaging his ex-wives and denigrating other women based upon their looks, boasting on watching Miss Teen U.S.A. contestants undressing.
When he admitted on camera to Billy Bush that he didn’t ask for women’s permission to grab them by the genitals, quipping “When you’re a star, they let you do it,” I was naïve enough to think that Americans had dodged a bullet, and his 2016 candidacy would now be decisively buried. Imagine my dismay when my evangelical friends remained crestfallen for less than twenty-four hours, and then inexplicably began rushing to the sexual predator’s defense with the support of Mike Pence, from whom I expected ethical behavior.
81% was the number of so-called “evangelicals” I was told had supported his narcissistic ascendency to power. Yet, wasn’t it just the politically disinterested who sat in the pews with me, voting solid-GOP as our Voter’s Guides had instructed us to? I had gotten a balanced education after becoming a Christ-Follower andtknew enough not to ever choose party over principle. Jerry Falwell, Jr. had been shilling for the MAGA regime, but he wasn’t exactly a minister, and surely our educated leaders would take a stand against the immorality, divisive language, and obvious malice being unleashed.
A MAGA Apologist Emerges
On inauguration day, 2017, I began to fully realize the breadth of the problem. Our 45th president spoke on the topic of “American Carnage,” transparently setting the tone for the iron fist he planned to exact upon us. I was mortified that some of my friends were posting, “Good speech—I don’t see anything wrong with that.” The most perplexing component of the ceremony for me, though, came when the Rev. Franklin Graham stood for an exhortation.
It had begun to rain. Some might say it was raining on their parade, but the Reverend Graham had a different perspective, which he stated with obvious delight.
“Mr. President, in the Bible, rain is a sign of God’s blessing. And it started to rain, Mr. President, when you came to the platform.”
I groaned. It’s one thing to say that you have great hope and aspirations for a leader; It’s quite another to stand before the American people and declare that God’s blessing IS upon this serial adulterer who insulted women, immigrants, and everyone opposed to his rhetoric just as easily as most of us exhale.
Franklin Graham’s Reputation
As a minister-in-training in my thirties, I had been thrilled to read how Billy Graham’s son had been a rebellious teenager as I had been, but was now living consistently, and had turned his attention to international ministry as I had, rather than focusing merely upon America. I had enthusiastically contributed to Samaritan’s Purse, believing that it was certain to be an organization of high integrity since it had a man with such a pedigree at its helm. In other words, I was not indifferent to the ministry of the younger Graham; I had been a supporter. As I listened to him that afternoon, I saw him transformed from a man who had initiated relief work for people in the Global South to an obsequious, boot-licking toady. He was now not only an apologist for the Republican party, but was specifically shilling for an adulterous, venom-filled, divisive politician who had spread conspiracy theories and stirred up racial hatred targeting citizens of the Global South. Would Franklin even bother with relief work in those countries any longer? I wondered.
When Did Character Matter?
In the days of Bill Clinton’s administration, it had been encouraging to me when Graham had delivered a righteous and appropriate rebuke to the White House’s chief occupant:
“If [Clinton] will lie to or mislead his wife and daughter, those with whom he is most intimate, what will prevent him from doing the same to the American public?”
Surely, then, a fellow minister like Graham would use his favorable standing with the current administration to remind the American church we need to demand higher standards from our leaders, I reasoned. Instead, in 2018, he delivered the following message:
“I think this thing with Stormy Daniels and so forth is nobody’s business… The country knew the kind of person he was back then, and they still made the decision to make him the president of the United States.”
He also offered pious platitudes excusing Trump’s “rough language” and referencing something about how the future felon was not elected to be our pastor, which pretty much mirrored the language Clinton’s supporters used in the 1990s. Upon hearing that, this writer had the following takeaway: Has there ever been such a textbook case of hypocrisy? Graham’s partisanship couldn’t have been illuminated any more clearly. The sins of “their guy” were formidable; The sins of “my guy” were perfectly acceptable.
Franklin Graham’s Autocratic Instincts
In the last two weeks, Graham’s rhetoric has veered beyond mere partisanship and hypocrisy. He has become a mouthpiece for the autocratic crackdown being initiated by the MAGA movement. He is using the January 7th slaying of Renee Good by ICE agent Jonathan Ross as a pretext to demand acquiescence by U.S. citizens, encouraging us to relinquish any notion of contesting our fate:
“This incident serves as a strong reminder that everyone needs to obey law enforcement. If they tell you to raise your hands, raise your hands; if they tell you to get out of the car, get out of the car.”
This is without even considering the nature of the dubious “authority” he is now trying to affix upon our backs. As U.S. citizens, why would we be required to comply with a supposed police force specifically focused on immigration and customs issues? Add the component that these so-called authorities are wearing masks, showing no identification, and hurling epithets. What Graham seems to recommend is a situation custom-designed for tyranny and abuse. Just raise your hands and yield, he counsels, for Big Brother must not be challenged!
He speaks with a certainty that any protests must be the work of the “radical Left”. Due to his political blinders, protests are tantamount to the work of Satan: “The protests we see across the country right now are underpinned by the radical socialist left, whose goal is to make the United States like Venezuela, ultimately destroying the America we know.” Graham also asserts that…”Lying, stealing, cheating — nothing is out of bounds in order to grab power…. Unfortunately, many people joining these protests have no clue that they are just being used as pawns.”
Evangelicals Citing Proof-Texts for Compliance
I don’t have time or space to even begin to parse the language of Romans 13, which Republicans are quick to quote when their chosen candidate is in power, but demur when Democrat administrations hold sway. I will just state briefly that submission to authorities is not equivalent to the obedience to authorities that Graham here is promoting. John the Baptist did not obey, and neither did Paul in his preaching ministry. They preached the Gospel regardless of what local and national laws were in effect. Jesus did not obey; The martyrs in the colosseum were not obedient to the Roman government, but they submitted. They paid taxes. They were good citizens.
Those who love to cite Romans 13 never read far enough into the text, for immediately after their favored two paragraphs (verses 1-7), Paul admonishes them to “Owe nothing to anyone—except for your obligation to love one another. If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill the requirements of God’s law.” It will take a better apologist than me to demonstrate how ratting out one’s immigrant neighbor, in violation of all the “welcome the stranger” texts throughout Scripture, would meet the criteria for loving one’s neighbor. Republicans have been perfectly willing to disregard abortion laws from the 1980s until recent years. Why then, when it comes to treating immigrants shabbily, are we being admonished to act like agents of the state, helping them to enforce laws which we may believe to be unjust? As for me and my house, this citizen will err on the side of “loving your neighbor” any day.
Christ’s Followers Resisting Tyranny
Even more compelling than this is the witness of millions of martyrs over the centuries who, to this day, have been unwilling to comply with government mandates because of their faith. Who among us has ever faulted Chinese Christians for illegally creating or meeting in house churches in the 20th century? Who will criticize the heroic believers exiled to the Gulag in the era of the Soviet Union for their failures to comply with Stalin’s official atheistic agenda? Yet only in America, it seems, is the church expected to comply with every single mandate—to pledge our obedience to the state! This constitutes the clearest possible example of the privileged attitude presumed by the MAGA movement. “American Exceptionalism,” it would seem, mandates that we bow our knees to the Empire—since, after all, we dwell in a “Righteous Empire.”
I believe that the Reverend Billy Graham, Franklin’s father, had a unique perspective on the dangers of labelling political movements and political leaders “God’s anointed agents.” In the February 1st, 1981 edition of Parade Magazine, the elder Graham somberly declares,
“I don’t want to see religious bigotry in any form… It would disturb me if there was a wedding between the religious fundamentalists and the political right. The hard right has no interest in religion except to manipulate it.”
Though it is not always the case, sometimes father simply knows best. Franklin Graham should have heeded his father’s counsel, and it is to his disgrace that he has instead rebelled against the faith of his father– concluding instead that God indeed embodies a party, and a candidate. The candidate he has anointed, and the movement he is admonishing us to “obey,” could hardly be less Christ-like or more problematic. Franklin and like-minded evangelical leaders are now embedded squarely in the fulcrum of MAGA’s autocratic aspirations, and as such, they will be transferring a motherlode of sorrows into future generations.
Photo by Jose Fontano on Unsplash
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