The power of faith meets the corruption of power

I am an American who believes President Donald Trump and his political collaborators and enablers have done catastrophic damage to our country. And I am a Christian who believes that Trump’s religious right collaborators and enablers have done great damage to Christian witness. 

I am hopeful that the upcoming midterm elections will be a turning point away from both MAGA destruction and the religious right’s corruption.  

And not a moment too soon.  

What could make people more cynical about politics than Republicans who loudly declare their devotion to the Constitution but abandon the rule of law, embrace or excuse Trump’s self-dealing and devote themselves to making it harder for people to vote? And what could make people more skeptical about Christianity than religious leaders who pose as champions of truth while embracing or excusing Trump’s lying, cruelty and relentless attacks on the dignity of his political opponents?  

How about leaders who preach that political engagement is a Christian duty, but then viciously smear Christians who don’t share their belief that Trump was anointed by God? 

The attacks on Christians like U.S. Senate candidates James Talarico and Adam Hamilton — a Presbyterian seminarian and the pastor of the nation’s largest Methodist Church — have been revolting and revealing. 

MAGA pastors and pundits have savaged the faith of Talarico, who has respectfully challenged Republican colleagues in the state legislature who fly a banner of Christianity while enacting harmful policies. For that he has been insulted as a “fake” Christian and much worse — a “tool for the devil” and “son of Satan.” All while avowedly Christian leaders rally around Ken Paxton, one of the most notoriously corrupt figures in American politics.  

Vice President JD Vance, who notably tried to school the pope on the application of Catholic social teaching, outright lied about Andrew Hamilton’s faith and declared that the author of 30 books about Christianity was not a real Christian. It was as pathetic as it was dishonest.  

Religious right leaders have spent decades building political power by claiming ownership of faith, family and freedom — all while pushing agendas that have made people’s lives more fragile and less free. Along the way they’ve attacked progressive leaders whose Christian faith has inspired their justice-seeking activism and public service, from Martin Luther King Jr. to Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.).   

When Trump came along, they made a deal with the Donald. During the 2016 election, he knew he had to overcome conservative Christian skepticism about his greed and amorality. So, he proposed a transaction. If they could convince their followers to put him in the White House, he would make them more politically powerful than they had ever been.  

That sounded to one evangelical writer like the deal that the devil offered in the Bible story about Satan tempting Jesus in the wilderness with earthly power. Religious leaders shouldn’t take the deal that Jesus rejected, he wrote. But they took the deal, and they’ve been drunk with the power and access that Trump has given them.  

Polls suggest that plenty of American Christians, including many who voted for Trump in the past, are done with his bigotry, bullying and indifference to the ways his policies are making life more difficult and less affordable for millions of families.  

That gives me hope. But there are good reasons not to be complacent.  

Religious right leaders are doubling down on their devotion to Trump. Trump’s faith advisor Paula White and her National Faith Advisory Board are working overtime to energize pastors who are willing to turn their churches into get-out-the-vote operations for Republican candidates. 

In addition, polls may not be capturing the impact of the religious right’s big data and big money driven voter turnout operations that are spending tens of millions of dollars to try to preserve Republican majorities in Congress and ensure that Trump can continue to operate without oversight or accountability. 

And I’m afraid that whatever illegal schemes Trump’s team might employ to interfere with the elections or refuse to honor the results, he will be able to count on the support of many of the religious right figures who have backed his other lies. 

If Trump tries again, with the backing of Republican leaders, to subvert the Constitution and carry out a coup against the expressed will of the American people, it will be a severe challenge to our already strained democratic institutions. And it will be a supreme test of character for Trump’s Christian supporters, who will have to choose between their commitment to democracy and their loyalty to its corrupter-in-chief. 

If we find ourselves facing such a crisis and moment of truth, I hope those Trump supporters might consider one of the most famous questions Jesus asked of his followers: “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” 

Sadly, I am not confident about how they will answer that question. So, the rest of us must be prepared to defend our democracy and continue to fight for the soul of our country. 

Svante Myrick is president of People For the American Way.