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Where Honor and Christian Values Intersect
I’ve been surprised a lot of things over the past couple of years. Surprised at the outcome of the 2016 election. Pleasantly surprised at how conservative the Trump administration has been in a variety of ways. However, I think what has surprised me the most has been the reaction to these developments.
The left’s reaction is understandable, even if it is out of all proportion to reality. After all, they were beaten unexpectedly, which humiliated them. Within their reaction is also an element of existential panic — rarely does a single party control so many of the levers of power in the government. Think “2009 in reverse.”
For this, they have nobody to blame but themselves. This animation shows how the Democrat party has moved inexorably to the left over the past 20 years:
In polarized era, fewer Americans hold a mix of conservative and liberal views https://t.co/KNlbNeMyUt pic.twitter.com/TzCf3EPZzX
— Pew Research Fact Tank (@FactTank) October 23, 2017
The consequences of their leftward lurch are that they stand essentially at a historically low ebb in terms of controlling local and state elected positions. When viewed through the lens of the left’s problems, the right ought to be ecstatic. Yet, we aren’t.
As we all know, there is considerable internecine disquiet on our side of the aisle, much of it centered around the person of the President himself. Curiously, nobody seems to disagree that Mr. Trump’s biography and habits leave something to be desired. Even more curious is that except for the most deranged Never-Trump types (specifically the Jen Rubins, Bill Kristols, and Max Boots of the world) there is general agreement that he has governed in a fashion which conservatives universally agree has been productive for our stated policy goals.
The part that I said was surprising has been the lengths to which some — especially, Christians — have gone to defend the President. Previously frowned-upon behaviors in politicians like “lying” or “infidelity” suddenly elicit no more than a shrug from many Evangelicals and similar groups.
This development has left many people confused. Why the turnabout? Aren’t Christians who are nominally committed to notions like honesty, fidelity, faith, humility and temperance concerned that a President who acts in a fashion antithetical to those values will have the effect of enabling people to engage in those frowned-upon behaviors?
On top of that, pointing out that those previously stated norms have been violated will typically get you tossed in the category of wanting to help the left. It’s vexing. The answer to why this is has nothing to do with pointing out Trump’s assault on their values, however.
They’re upset about it because they think you’re insulting their honor. Let me explain.
Everybody is a mixture of identities. In the case of most Christians, their values and their identities are practically inseparable. However, American Christians — particularly those ranging from Appalachia to the South — are possessed of multiple strands of identity, which sometimes evince different priorities than their nominal affiliations might suggest. Many of them descend from Scots-Irish stock which is rich in its valuation of honor. They’re clannish. Stubborn. Those familiar with Jim Webb’s Born Fighting (or J.D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy) will understand what I’m talking about.
Donald Trump is nothing if not an exemplar of that sort of Scots-Irish attitude. He confronts and shames those who challenge his honor. He doesn’t “play the Ref” or appeal to intellectual arguments, but busts his opponents in the mush. Even if he doesn’t reflect the Christian values which are so closely related to the identity of many of his supporters, he reflects a different, and at times more deeply held aspect of their being — an affiliation of which Christian values are part but not paramount. Everybody will remember this conversation being played out over and over at Ricochet: “But he fights,” was a not-uncommon refrain heard during the primary and election of 2016 — a strong rallying cry for some yet one which rings hollow to many people who don’t share that identity.
The President may not be one of them, but they believe he is with them, nonetheless.
As a result, what we’re really seeing is a sort of culture-clash within the tent of Conservatism itself. The call to solidarity which the President’s brash and courageous attitude evokes results in his followers interpreting an attack upon Him is an attack upon them … and the honor of their people.
How closely American Christians choose hew onto to President Trump is going to leave a mark much longer lasting than his Presidency — more upon them than him, surely — and it would seem as if it’s worth at least thinking about which part of their identity they’re seen serving in doing so.
Published in Religion & Philosophy
Then perhaps you could provide some evidence for the assertion that Trump’s Christian support, among Republicans, is primarily among those of Scots-Irish ancestry? At most, the OP seems to have taken something that perhaps plays some role in the subconscious motivations of the support of some Christians toward Trump, and (among other things) presented it, without evidence, as the chief explanatory variable for the disparate reactions among Christian Republicans toward Clinton and Trump.
Primary era polling and vote totals do not support this hypothesis (Trump support among Republican voters was at least as strong in Northern states as in Southern states, for example, and Cruz had higher levels of support among Christian conservatives), nor does does the present level of Republican Christian support for Trump (i.e. the vast majority). The OP seems to be grasping at straws, and given his personal revulsion towards Trumps, the implicit (though perhaps unwitting) message is that a.) there is a profound conflict between Scots-Irish culture and Christian values, and b.) he views Scots-Irish culture in a somewhat derogatory fashion.
There probably is, in part, a cultural component in the support of Trump among those Republicans with a high degree of Scots-Irish ancestry, but I suspect a better explanation can be found in the variables that they share with all the other Trump supporters.
Just until the 4th of June. So, make hay now while you can teach me something great.