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Ben Howe, author of The Immoral Majority: Why Evangelicals Chose Political Power Over Christian Values (and himself an Evangelical Christian), joins the Remnant to discuss his book, the Evangelical reaction to Trump, the past, present, and future of conservatism, and more.
Shownotes
–The Immoral Majority – Ben Howe
-Lance Wallnau on Trump as an Isaiah 45 candidate
-“Why people hate religion” – NYT
–Five Thirty Eight on young evangelicals
-The Kristen Soltis Anderson episodes (here and here)
–Ron Brownstein on Trump as a wartime president
–“Second Thoughts on James Burnham” – George Orwell
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So, voting against the greater of two evils is just too much for you? Gee, thanks.
Listening to this podcast interested me enough to buy and read Howe’s book. The book does a much better job of explaining his argument. During the podcast I found myself wanting to scream I’M NOT THAT KIND OF EVANGELICAL!!
I still had that urge during the reading of the book, but his argument is much more thoroughly explained, with citations, scripture references, etc. By the end, I realized the problem is really much bigger than Trump and that the urge to be “that kind of evangelical” is very real.
A recently released related revelation:
Excerpt from
Evangelical Leaders Ask Trump Which One Of Them Will Betray Him During Impeachment Proceedings
September 27th, 2019
The Babylon Bee
:D
Of course, you’re not. Even if some few are tempted to be “that kind of evangelical”, most evangelicals are not “that kind of evangelical”.
In the primaries while people had at least some real alternatives, evangelical voting for Trump was inversely correlated with church attendance. Those “evangelicals” (at least by their own identification) who were most likely to vote for Trump were those who were the least involved in church. Those most involved in church were the least likely to vote for Trump. In the general election, those who voted for Trump predominantly were resorting to what Jonah frequently refers to as the transactional case. With Hillary as effectively the only real alternative, most serious evangelicals considered the prospect of Hillary a worse outcome than Trump.
Even for those who chose not to vote for either one, it’s not really hard at all to see why most evangelicals who did vote for Trump found him to be the least undesirable choice of the two who could win.
It’s worth remembering that every time any evangelical votes for any candidate, they are always voting for someone who has fallen short of God’s standard (as we all have). Any choice to vote at all is always a choice between fallen people in light of assessing the impact they might have for good or ill.