Iran, American Style

There is no group more ferocious in denouncing the extreme, intolerant, and repressive group of religious zealots who rule Iran than America’s Evangelical Christians, something of an irony since they aspire to same sort of regime in the United States.  Their choice to fill Ali Khamenei’s role as Supreme Leader is no less than that pious and devoted Christian, he of the upside-down Bible, Donald Trump.

On its face, it would be difficult to find a less likely demographic to form the bedrock of Trump’s support than Evangelicals.  Their members, spread through a number of Protestant denominations, have adapted the Greek word euangelion, meaning “good news,” to denote “a person, church, or organization that is committed to the Christian gospel message that Jesus Christ is the savior of humanity.”  As an Evangelical website notes, they purport to eschew earthly rule and instead view “obedience to the Bible as the ultimate authority.”

As Speaker of the House and proud Evangelical Mike Johnson put it, when asked how others can know how he stands on an issue, “Well, go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it. That’s my worldview.” 

Evangelicals are not passive.  Unwilling to simply practice their faith personally and allow others to do the same, an Evangelical believes, since “Jesus Christ’s death on the cross is the only sacrifice that could remove the penalty of my sin,” that “It is very important for me personally to encourage non-Christians to trust Jesus Christ as their Savior.” 

Not exactly the most tolerant set of beliefs.  In addition, each of these dicta could be paraphrased to apply to what Americans call “radical Islam.” 

Still, in living by this creed, Evangelicals seem committed to a higher standard of behavior, one which takes a dim view of immorality.  That was certainly true during the Clinton years, when they were vociferous in declaring the sinful, adulterous Clinton morally unfit for the presidency.

How then, to explain their fervent, unqualified embrace of a serial sinner like Donald Trump?  Actually, “worship” might be a better word.  Popular among his supporters is merchandise that proclaims “Jesus is My Savior.  Trump is My President,” from which Trump himself may or may not be getting a cut.

Conventional wisdom is that Evangelicals forgive Trump his (many) sins because for all his personal failings, his political actions have been, well, Godly.  As Iowa’s Bob Vander Plaats explained, “He moved the embassy to Jerusalem, appointed three pro-life Supreme Court justices, and has supported religious liberty.”

Setting aside that to Evangelicals “religious liberty” is merely code for legal intolerance and means no liberty for anyone but themselves, why is it that Ron DeSantis, who espoused the same principles and is a decorated war veteran and devoted family man, cannot make a dent in the support for an indicted felon and convicted sex offender who has unabashedly violated nine of the ten commandments and threatens a clean sweep if he keeps his vow to order the death of his enemies?

A lifelong Southern Baptist and former pastor from northern Mississippi provides some excellent insights.  “Evangelical culture has developed over the years into this angry, cynical group.  There is a feeling of victimhood.  Evangelicals used to rule everything and be the group every politician and entertainer pandered to. A fast shift happened in the 70’s when we became the minority (though not oppressed by any means). That generation is Trump’s base, the ones who watched the shift happen and were disgusted by it.” 

And Donald Trump, with a sense of the sucker every bit as fine-tuned as was P. T. Barnum’s, knows exactly how to tap into that desire for revenge and turn it to his advantage, all the while privately sneering with contempt at his converts.  Even with a wishy-washy stance on abortion, he can be confident that it is far more profitable to assail the people white Evangelicals abhor—LGBTQs, Blacks, social liberals, etc—than to hew closely to what they support. 

Although Evangelicals deny being racist, the former pastor knows better.  “Older white Evangelicals feel victimized by affirmative action…  The perception is that tax dollars that they pay are used to make those black lives better only to have the recipients disrespect and destroy what’s given to them.  When Trump rails against entitlement spending and threatens to send the National Guard in with guns to stop riots, we all know what he means.”

And so, Jesus, who taught love and forgiveness, has been appropriated by an avenging angel whose message is anger and hate.

Add to this a prudish sense of both sexuality and decency (often ignored in their own ranks), the belief that liberals are corrupting public education and “Issues like climate change, CRT, progressive economics, psychology, vaccines, and others are all looked at as a power grab by dirty Democrat politicians. Trump railed against them all and gained the love of the ignorant.”

In the end, by backing Trump in record numbers, Evangelicals, especially the white ones, have demonstrated that all that piety, that professed belief in the teachings of Jesus Christ, turns out to be as false and self-serving as mullahs who claim to be guided only by the teachings of Muhammad while they and their military leaders enrich themselves at the expense of ordinary Iranians, many of whom deal with an economy near collapse.

But Iran is the societal model that Evangelicals would foist on America, one with a glorified morality police, dress codes, defined sexuality, religious homogeneity, arrests of dissidents, restrictive civil rights, crooked elections, protection of vigilantes, and a pretense of piety that cannot mask intolerance, envy, and loathing.

Up until now, Evangelicals have avoided direct attacks from Democrats by hiding behind God, Jesus, and the Bible.  That cannot last.  Every Democrat, from Joe Biden on down, must violate what has until now been political gospel and take the fight to these faux Christians by denouncing their hypocrisies and challenging them to actually live the words of Christ, which now merely drip treacly off their tongues. 

Trump changed the rules. It is time for Democrats to play by them.