"God Bless Trump?" The Final, Uncertain Prayer of the "Moral Majority"
In 1979, alongside conservative political activist, Paul Weyrich, the Southern Baptist Pastor, televangelist, and founding father of Liberty University, Jerry Falwell, founded the political action group known as the Moral Majority. Many have argued that it was, by and large, the formation and success of the Moral Majority that led to Ronald Reagan’s 1980 landslide victory in the race for The White House. When later reflecting on why the movement was needed Falwell wrote:
"I was convinced that there was a moral majority out there among those more than 200 million Americans sufficient in number to turn back the flood tide of moral permissiveness, family breakdown and general capitulation to evil and to foreign policies such as Marxism-Leninism." (http://www.pbs.org/godinamerica/people/jerry-falwell.html)
Of course, with a sordid and decades-long record of appalling statements in reference to homosexuality, African-Americans, women, abortion rights, and education, the late Jerry Falwell was no stranger to controversy. Not surprisingly, after 9/11, he was quick to claim that the terrorist attack was merely evidence of God’s punishment for America’s sins (though he would later retract that statement). Nevertheless, it might rightly be said that Falwell tapped into the heart of a malcontent portion of the American electorate that by some means felt abandoned by modern society. Furthermore, via the divisive tactics of religious extremism and the politics of fear, he gave birth to a movement that, while having officially disbanded in 1989, still exists in various forms today.
Today’s majority-white, evangelical Christian movement is the direct descendent of Falwell’s Moral Majority, and it is has just nominated Donald J. Trump to serve as the 45th President of the United States. Much to the dismay and embarrassment of the religious center, Donald Trump, a Jerry Falwell for the modern era (in his rhetoric, if not his actions), has captured the hardened hearts and exasperated minds of many among the religious right. In fact, a recent Pew Research Center study claims that 78% of White Evangelicals in America say that they will vote for Trump in 2016. (http://www.pewforum.org/2016/07/13/evangelicals-rally-to-trump-religious-nones-back-clinton/).
This is a remarkably stunning figure. After all, if one were to have informed Jerry Falwell that one day the descendants of his movement (meant to “turn back the flood tide of moral permissiveness, family breakdown and general capitulation to evil”) would vote for a man on his third marriage (due in large part to his infidelity), a man who rarely darkens the door of a church, a man who referred to 2nd Corinthians as “two” Corinthians, a man who could not call to mind a single passage of Scripture when once asked if he had any favorites, a man who had claimed never to have asked for God’s forgiveness, a man who didn’t describe himself as a “tremendous believer” until he decided to run for President, then I dare say that in true Falwell fashion, the ostentatiously pious preacher would have condemned this “tremendous believer” as the pawn of Satan himself.
Even so, Falwell said many of the same outlandish, indefensible, and reckless things that Trump is saying today. He judged, condemned, and denigrated people with comparable viciousness and enthusiasm. He championed the same sort of politics of fear with similar success, and he appealed not to the “better angels of our nature,” but instead to the most depraved nature of our demons. However, there exists one key difference with regard to the Falwell movement and the Trump movement: Say what you will about Falwell (and we could assuredly say plenty), but at the very least he lent religious credence to the political efforts of the people. Was he wrong? Absolutely! Was his theology a mixture of flawed Scriptural interpretation and self-aggrandizing delusions? No doubt! All the same, because of his supposed devotion to his understanding of faith and morality, the Moral Majority could at least feign some measure of religious motivation for their political actions—even for the deep hatred they possessed for the many they would deem unworthy.
This November, as scores of evangelical white Christians make their way to the polls to cast a vote for Trump, that ability to feign religious motivation evaporates. Trump has tapped into the same self-righteous fervor that Falwell did, but has at the same time unwittingly exposed the movement’s tremendous hypocrisy, thus having dealt what might well become the blessed final deathblow to that once formidable movement known as the Moral Majority. And so, on its deathbed, the zealous remnant of the Moral Majority can be heard crying out with a most desperate and befuddled plea, “God bless Trump?” - Rev. Barrett Milner & Rev. Pete Jones, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
