"He grew up on a farm in Indiana, the son of a factory worker and eldest of five children. He studied at Liberty, a Christian university founded by the conservative pastor and televangelist Jerry Falwell, and recalls wearing a T-shirt expressing opposition to Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.
Two decades later, Justin Douglas is running for the US Congress – as a Democrat.
He is among around 30 Christian white clergy – pastors, seminary students and other faith leaders – known to be potential Democratic candidates in next year’s midterm elections, including a dozen who are already in the race. While stressing the separation of church and state, many say that on a personal level their faith is calling them into the political arena. [snip]
'We’ve seen Democrats time and time again sell out working-class people and we’ve seen Democrats time and time again look like liberal elitists who are looking down on people who think going to church on Sunday is a core part of their life,' said Douglas, who has been in ministry for more than 20 years. 'Some people might feel judged for that.
But I also think the stereotypes of Republicans being pro-faith are bullshit too. We’re seeing a current administration bastardise faith almost every day. They used the Lord’s Prayer in a propaganda video for what they’re now calling the Department of War. That should have had every single evangelical’s bells and whistles and alarms going off in their head: this is sacrilegious.'" (our emphasis)
The big shift in evangelical political loyalties came with the bigoted fraud Jerry Falwell, creator of the mis-named "Moral Majority" in the 1970s to coincide with and support Nixon's "Southern Strategy" of converting racist southern Dixiecrats and their followers to Republicans. The ploy worked and generations of right-wing bible- banging preachers worked Republican talking points. Now, clearly, the MF has left some of them disillusioned:
In Arkansas, Robb Ryerse, a Christian pastor and former Republican, is mounting a challenge to representative Steve Womack, adopting the slogan “Faith, Family & Freedom” – rhetoric more commonly found in Republican campaign literature.
Ryerse, 50, from Springdale, Arkansas, said: 'I joke sometimes that the two people who have changed my life more than any others are Jesus and Donald Trump, for very different reasons. Donald Trump is absolutely inconsistent with Christian principles of love and compassion, justice, looking out for the poor, meeting the needs of the marginalised.
But Donald Trump has also used and been used by so many evangelical leaders who want political power. He has used them to validate him to their followers and they have used him to further their agenda, which has been a Christian nationalist culture war on the United States, which I think is bad for both the church and for the country.”
White clergy are deciding to run for office, Ryerse believes, in part as a response to the rise of Christian nationalism and the reality that, according to a Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) survey, Trump won 85% of the white evangelical vote in last year’s presidential election.
Ryerse said: “We realise, hey, our churches and the people in our churches have been duped by this guy and so rather than hope someone else will clean up the problem, what we’ve seen is a lot of pastors respond with, you know what, I’m going to jump in and I’m going to be a part of the solution. (our emphasis)
Some of this represents the awakening of a re-energized "Christian left" movement. Meanwhile, the MF's assumed participation in the Epstein sex trafficking crimes might be the final straw for some wavering Christian- right religious leaders, while others may continue to pursue a Christian nationalist culture war under another cult leader. By then, the damage will have been done to their movement.
(photo: Right wing evangelicals lay hands on the MF as he nods off. White House photo)
Seems like they would be more effective running as Republicans helping to purge the MAGAts a seat at a time. It's easier to run as a Dem but easy isn't going to get the job done.
ReplyDeleteIf the MAGA fingers are ever pried of the corpse of the GOP these new "converts" will change their spots in a flash.