Just WOW. Usually, when I sit down early in the morning to pray and read something “inspirational” I don’t choose something like this. I only have so much time, after all. The morning only has so many moments in it, after all. I want to be uplifted and inspired, not smacked in the face with reality in all its forms, after all. But once I began this read, I couldn’t stop. Could. Not. Stop. Till the very end. And then, at last, I took a breath. Didn’t realize I could hold it so long. Wow, Tripp. Thank you. Long past time we heard - I heard - the rest of the story.
Great read. Going to save this history. “sequential complicity”, I left religion over 50 years ago and never looked back. My own brother however became the frog. He told me just before this last election that he preferred a “just king”, because he was anti democracy and said we were becoming a socialist state. Sequential complicity also allows for turning your back on these states of of affairs, as he now says that this was preordained, and that Jesus is coming soon to give him a new body and a new world order. In other words, this is supposed to happen. No compassion for anyone not believing in Jesus.
Stephen Haynes writes that liberals “have been as guilty as anyone of ascertaining Bonhoeffer's relevance for contemporary political life by portraying their governments in Nazi images.”
Excellent and informed analysis of how a Christian movement became utterly morally bankrupt. As a person of no religious faith I can only guess at the depth of grief and betrayal you must feel. This story should be taught in schools. Thank you for sharing with us.
This is the most concise, and also heartfelt, explanation I've found of the longer history leading the church to this moment. Thank you. I share your grief.
Thank you, Tripp, for the best ever description that explains Trump's success based on the backing of the Evangelicals. I am Australian, not American, but I watched January 6 live, as I wanted to see the event and what I believed was the end of Trump. I, too, was horrified, and remain even more so after the re-election of Trump. Your piece explains the evolution of the support for Trump that is so puzzling for outsiders. The evangelicals have effectively also killed the wider church, and tainted all Christianity, I think. This piece is very, very important, especially coming from someone formed by the Evangelicals, who understands from the inside as well as the outside.
Its not just Evangelical churches, all churches have succumbed to some degree. It depends on how rabid the congregants are. How much they refused to compromise their "beliefs." I'm seeing it in my little UCC church in Northern Kentucky. Your account how Hate is trying to overcome Love is accurate and true. Love is the only way through it.
There's a really interesting stat from PRRI that isn't often quoted. Regular church attendance in white evangelical churches and in white Catholic parishes corresponds with voting for Trump and embracing some form of Xian Nationalism.
The majority of white mainliners, like other white Christians, voted for Trump and generally support MAGA. But -- here's the thing -- the more a mainliner goes to church the LESS likely they were/are to have voted for Trump and be a Xian nationalist. It is the only group of religious white folks to have this anomaly.
Means that mainline churches are actually saying and teaching SOMETHING that isn't along for this ride. Problem is: mainliners attend church in much lower rates than white evangelicals and white Catholics.
Tripp, thank you, thank you, thank you. I restacked your article this morning, which I never do. I also subscribed and paid for a subscription(!) just because this article spoke to me and for me-100%. I wish I could see this insanity and yes, evil, in the church, as calmly as you do……..I still attend a Baptist church, as my wife(of 49+ years ) is still part of that neutral “both sides” be nice to the Trump enablers and cultists “middle,” and the “abortion is 100% evil in all circumstances so Democrats are all evil,” camp. I have been driven insane for a long time by the incomprehensible hypocrisy and shallow tribalism of churches. I am 72 years old and grew up in an SBC pastor’s home, my mom was the daughter of a SBC pastor, etc., etc. I know these people. My disquiet and confusion and quiet rejection started with Carter and Reagan, and the SBC purge of the 1980’s, but I rationalized for way too long. I said it was a small group, and not the “committed Christians,” who were so racist, so political, so mean and cruel. My frustration and bitterness accelerated exponentially with Trump in 2016, and is now total and complete. Believe it or not, the final, final, final straw was the Charlie Kirk assassination. Watching the church’s and church people’s hysterical response to such a racist, arrogant, greedy, and 100% POLITICAL dude, sapped the last bit of delusion about the church out of me….
Anyway, sorry for this long lament, but you captured EVERYTHING I know in my heart of hearts is true about Baptists, evangelicals and the American church and its absolute corruption and moral bankruptcy, which I have witnessed over my long lifetime. All that stuff we were taught about love your neighbors was only if they are in the right tribe, religiously, politically and OF COURSE ethnically. I see that now, finally I guess….that is on me…..
One comment, evangelical followers say they are pro life, in reality it’s pro birth not pro life. Look at the number of bills on the republican side that have been killed that support efforts to support a child in need post birth.
I was a freshly minted young Christian in 1972, saved and baptized in a Southern Baptist church. There was no young man more eager than I to begin serving as a conduit for the Christian message. My church was an open and loving group of people, who I emulated and admired. Imagine my horror as we rolled into and through the late 70's and early 80's and I watched this wonderful place transform into a house of judgement, bigotry, and hate. I heard the mission and the messages change in real time, and watched as people left, many by their own choice, but others forced because they refused to comply with the new doctrinal direction that was coming down from the SBC hierarchy. There was a virtual choker chain on anyone who was in a teaching or instructional position in the church, and there was no discussion allowed. In short order, the purge was complete.
I left Christianity in the early 80's and have never returned. My life is perfectly fine now as a non-believer. But over the intervening decades, as I have watched the transformation of evangelical Christianity into a purely political arm, I can't say I am surprised. As I have studied the mechanics of authoritarianism over the years it seems this was so predictable. I have always felt the ground was tilled for this for many decades, the seeds were planted and intermittently watered through the 50's, 60's and 70's; and with the election of Reagan in 1980, the shoots finally broke free from the ground, and it has been growing unabated now for almost half a century. I'm not sure what it will take to kill it. It might be something that simply becomes an eternal part of the fabric of our American culture. Certainly, with the years I have left on earth, it will be maybe the most major force shaping our country. For that, I am very, very sad.
I must say that what you wrote here in this episode might be the most concise and well written piece I have ever seen on this subject, and I have read a lot of them. I have watched over the years as so many people I know, many for all of my life, have succumbed to the sequential complicity. Of those who are churchgoers, virtually 100% are evangelical Christians. But most are not living the life of Jesus' admonitions, what they practice is mostly a tribal marker to telegraph that they are part of the safe in-group.
It is often difficult for me to hide my disdain for those evangelicals I know who have transformed into enthusiastic supporters of all the inhumanity we are witnessing right now in our country. I have had to distance myself from some of them over time, as it was apparent that we were simply not going to be able to maintain the type of relationship we enjoyed prior to their awful transformation. I know it is supposed to be fashionably comforting to say, "We have more in common than we have differences", but when the issues on which we disagree are more the founding principles of how we view other human beings, then maybe whatever those views might be on which we agree become trivial and irrelevant. I really have a deep foreboding about what the future holds for the United States, and really, for the world.
Great article. There is a wonderful documentary about the village in France you mentioned that didn't comply. It is called "Weapons of the Spirit," and can be viewed for free at weaponsofthespirit.com/weapons-of-the-spirit-deportations
I spent 8 months there for language school with my parents before we went to Zaire as missionaries. It's such a small village, but amazing people and they talk about what they did during the war. This was in '79-'80, so there were people who were there and we visited some of the farms that helped hide the children.
So before the Bonhoeffer Berlin conference last summer, I read Barnett's book, which I had to put aside. The point that good people lost all sense of conscience, made me ill. You capture the slippery slide well here. God have mercy on us as we seek to be faithful with perilous consequences in these ensuing days.
Tripp, this is one of the most helpful dissection of white evangelical profligacy I have read. You preach, but the tone is never preachy. If we don't understand how white evangelicals became as they are we have no hope to offer them. You offer hope and I thank you!
Thank you for this wonderfully coherent and succinct explanation of the last 50 years in evangelical turnabout. Reading Richard Hofstader 40 years (Anti Intellectualism in America, 1963) shaped my understanding of how American religious and socioeconomic myths shape American partisan politics and religious life. Our human ability to hold two contradictory stories at once about origin and purpose is truly what separates us from the other creatures. We are wonderfully and stupidly made.
Thank you for this analysis. Very enlightening and helps explain why otherwise intelligent people refuse to listen to hear what the facts actually are. Our egos limit us. No wonder the scriptures are so full of models of humility. Love plus humility might open the way through this terrible time.
Just WOW. Usually, when I sit down early in the morning to pray and read something “inspirational” I don’t choose something like this. I only have so much time, after all. The morning only has so many moments in it, after all. I want to be uplifted and inspired, not smacked in the face with reality in all its forms, after all. But once I began this read, I couldn’t stop. Could. Not. Stop. Till the very end. And then, at last, I took a breath. Didn’t realize I could hold it so long. Wow, Tripp. Thank you. Long past time we heard - I heard - the rest of the story.
Thanks Carol
Great read. Going to save this history. “sequential complicity”, I left religion over 50 years ago and never looked back. My own brother however became the frog. He told me just before this last election that he preferred a “just king”, because he was anti democracy and said we were becoming a socialist state. Sequential complicity also allows for turning your back on these states of of affairs, as he now says that this was preordained, and that Jesus is coming soon to give him a new body and a new world order. In other words, this is supposed to happen. No compassion for anyone not believing in Jesus.
Stephen Haynes writes that liberals “have been as guilty as anyone of ascertaining Bonhoeffer's relevance for contemporary political life by portraying their governments in Nazi images.”
I’ve read all his books and had him on the podcast a few times if you are interested. His last visit is right here: https://processthis.substack.com/p/stephen-haynes-the-battle-for-bonhoeffer?r=2cs6p&utm_medium=ios
Excellent and informed analysis of how a Christian movement became utterly morally bankrupt. As a person of no religious faith I can only guess at the depth of grief and betrayal you must feel. This story should be taught in schools. Thank you for sharing with us.
This is the most concise, and also heartfelt, explanation I've found of the longer history leading the church to this moment. Thank you. I share your grief.
Thank you, Tripp, for the best ever description that explains Trump's success based on the backing of the Evangelicals. I am Australian, not American, but I watched January 6 live, as I wanted to see the event and what I believed was the end of Trump. I, too, was horrified, and remain even more so after the re-election of Trump. Your piece explains the evolution of the support for Trump that is so puzzling for outsiders. The evangelicals have effectively also killed the wider church, and tainted all Christianity, I think. This piece is very, very important, especially coming from someone formed by the Evangelicals, who understands from the inside as well as the outside.
RE: the evangelicals have effectively also killed the wider church, and tainted all Christianity, I think.
I, too, think this....especially since a significant number of Americans under 40 have given up on organized religion.
Yes. I said this with feeling. My church closed last year. Christianity must change, or soon it will be dead.
There is always a remnant 💜🙏🏽
Its not just Evangelical churches, all churches have succumbed to some degree. It depends on how rabid the congregants are. How much they refused to compromise their "beliefs." I'm seeing it in my little UCC church in Northern Kentucky. Your account how Hate is trying to overcome Love is accurate and true. Love is the only way through it.
There's a really interesting stat from PRRI that isn't often quoted. Regular church attendance in white evangelical churches and in white Catholic parishes corresponds with voting for Trump and embracing some form of Xian Nationalism.
The majority of white mainliners, like other white Christians, voted for Trump and generally support MAGA. But -- here's the thing -- the more a mainliner goes to church the LESS likely they were/are to have voted for Trump and be a Xian nationalist. It is the only group of religious white folks to have this anomaly.
Means that mainline churches are actually saying and teaching SOMETHING that isn't along for this ride. Problem is: mainliners attend church in much lower rates than white evangelicals and white Catholics.
Tripp, thank you, thank you, thank you. I restacked your article this morning, which I never do. I also subscribed and paid for a subscription(!) just because this article spoke to me and for me-100%. I wish I could see this insanity and yes, evil, in the church, as calmly as you do……..I still attend a Baptist church, as my wife(of 49+ years ) is still part of that neutral “both sides” be nice to the Trump enablers and cultists “middle,” and the “abortion is 100% evil in all circumstances so Democrats are all evil,” camp. I have been driven insane for a long time by the incomprehensible hypocrisy and shallow tribalism of churches. I am 72 years old and grew up in an SBC pastor’s home, my mom was the daughter of a SBC pastor, etc., etc. I know these people. My disquiet and confusion and quiet rejection started with Carter and Reagan, and the SBC purge of the 1980’s, but I rationalized for way too long. I said it was a small group, and not the “committed Christians,” who were so racist, so political, so mean and cruel. My frustration and bitterness accelerated exponentially with Trump in 2016, and is now total and complete. Believe it or not, the final, final, final straw was the Charlie Kirk assassination. Watching the church’s and church people’s hysterical response to such a racist, arrogant, greedy, and 100% POLITICAL dude, sapped the last bit of delusion about the church out of me….
Anyway, sorry for this long lament, but you captured EVERYTHING I know in my heart of hearts is true about Baptists, evangelicals and the American church and its absolute corruption and moral bankruptcy, which I have witnessed over my long lifetime. All that stuff we were taught about love your neighbors was only if they are in the right tribe, religiously, politically and OF COURSE ethnically. I see that now, finally I guess….that is on me…..
Thanks for your wisdom and insight. It helped me.
Thanks Rick
One comment, evangelical followers say they are pro life, in reality it’s pro birth not pro life. Look at the number of bills on the republican side that have been killed that support efforts to support a child in need post birth.
“The church is not the antidote. For white evangelicals, it appears to be the incubator.”
Quite devastating.
Yeah that line hit like a ton of bricks. I had thought the same thing about sexual predators. Incubator.
I was a freshly minted young Christian in 1972, saved and baptized in a Southern Baptist church. There was no young man more eager than I to begin serving as a conduit for the Christian message. My church was an open and loving group of people, who I emulated and admired. Imagine my horror as we rolled into and through the late 70's and early 80's and I watched this wonderful place transform into a house of judgement, bigotry, and hate. I heard the mission and the messages change in real time, and watched as people left, many by their own choice, but others forced because they refused to comply with the new doctrinal direction that was coming down from the SBC hierarchy. There was a virtual choker chain on anyone who was in a teaching or instructional position in the church, and there was no discussion allowed. In short order, the purge was complete.
I left Christianity in the early 80's and have never returned. My life is perfectly fine now as a non-believer. But over the intervening decades, as I have watched the transformation of evangelical Christianity into a purely political arm, I can't say I am surprised. As I have studied the mechanics of authoritarianism over the years it seems this was so predictable. I have always felt the ground was tilled for this for many decades, the seeds were planted and intermittently watered through the 50's, 60's and 70's; and with the election of Reagan in 1980, the shoots finally broke free from the ground, and it has been growing unabated now for almost half a century. I'm not sure what it will take to kill it. It might be something that simply becomes an eternal part of the fabric of our American culture. Certainly, with the years I have left on earth, it will be maybe the most major force shaping our country. For that, I am very, very sad.
I must say that what you wrote here in this episode might be the most concise and well written piece I have ever seen on this subject, and I have read a lot of them. I have watched over the years as so many people I know, many for all of my life, have succumbed to the sequential complicity. Of those who are churchgoers, virtually 100% are evangelical Christians. But most are not living the life of Jesus' admonitions, what they practice is mostly a tribal marker to telegraph that they are part of the safe in-group.
It is often difficult for me to hide my disdain for those evangelicals I know who have transformed into enthusiastic supporters of all the inhumanity we are witnessing right now in our country. I have had to distance myself from some of them over time, as it was apparent that we were simply not going to be able to maintain the type of relationship we enjoyed prior to their awful transformation. I know it is supposed to be fashionably comforting to say, "We have more in common than we have differences", but when the issues on which we disagree are more the founding principles of how we view other human beings, then maybe whatever those views might be on which we agree become trivial and irrelevant. I really have a deep foreboding about what the future holds for the United States, and really, for the world.
Great article. There is a wonderful documentary about the village in France you mentioned that didn't comply. It is called "Weapons of the Spirit," and can be viewed for free at weaponsofthespirit.com/weapons-of-the-spirit-deportations
I spent 8 months there for language school with my parents before we went to Zaire as missionaries. It's such a small village, but amazing people and they talk about what they did during the war. This was in '79-'80, so there were people who were there and we visited some of the farms that helped hide the children.
Wow. The Bonhoeffer piece would make a great group study in my church. With your permission of course. Thanks Tripp.
No problem. Thanks!
So before the Bonhoeffer Berlin conference last summer, I read Barnett's book, which I had to put aside. The point that good people lost all sense of conscience, made me ill. You capture the slippery slide well here. God have mercy on us as we seek to be faithful with perilous consequences in these ensuing days.
Wow! This the best writing I have read about the evangelical dissent with trump. Thank you very much!
Wow! This the best writing I have read about the evangelical descent with trump. Thank you very much!
Amazing stuff. Kept thinking about the “sunk cost fallacy”, but your explanation is far more accurate.
I continue to pray that my life of faith and my preaching seeks to avoid the steps into the kettle.
Tripp, this is one of the most helpful dissection of white evangelical profligacy I have read. You preach, but the tone is never preachy. If we don't understand how white evangelicals became as they are we have no hope to offer them. You offer hope and I thank you!
Thanks
Thank you for this wonderfully coherent and succinct explanation of the last 50 years in evangelical turnabout. Reading Richard Hofstader 40 years (Anti Intellectualism in America, 1963) shaped my understanding of how American religious and socioeconomic myths shape American partisan politics and religious life. Our human ability to hold two contradictory stories at once about origin and purpose is truly what separates us from the other creatures. We are wonderfully and stupidly made.
Thank you for this analysis. Very enlightening and helps explain why otherwise intelligent people refuse to listen to hear what the facts actually are. Our egos limit us. No wonder the scriptures are so full of models of humility. Love plus humility might open the way through this terrible time.