New Rule: Evangelicals Who Opposed Trump Don’t Get to Counsel Him

Woke evangelicals, who have opposed Donald Trump every step of the journey, are busying trying to offer advice to the new regime. Don’t let them.

Beginning in 2013, with the coronation of Russell Moore at the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, the Evangelical Intelligentsia presented itself as the helpful companions of the Obama Administration and only reluctant co-belligerents (at best) with the rest of us.

Richard Land, despite his faults, made clear during his tenure at the ERLC (1998-2013) that the Southern Baptist Convention was an ally of the political right. Moore, a lifelong Democrat, had a different approach, and immediately set about to convince impressionable seminarians that our best bet was remove ourselves from partisanship. Why? Something-something gospel-centered something something.

Attempting to set the tone for his new ethics empire, Russell Moore did an interview with CSPAN, announcing that a new day had dawned for evangelicals, one that would “end the culture wars.”

The credential Moore gave at the beginning of that interview was his time serving on the staff of Democrat congressman, Gene Taylor. When asked by the CSPAN interviewer whether he was on the Democrat or Republican side of the culture wars, Moore replied, “I don’t like to think in terms of culture wars. I don’t think we are at war with one another in this country. I think we have very deep disagreements on issues that matter, but we come to that with civility and in conversation.”

He went on to explain that conservatives “are not majoritarians” and, therefore, partisanship has to end.

Which, if you think about it, would be a pretty convenient thing for a Democrat to tell a denomination full of Republicans.

During Obama’s tenure, Moore heaped lavish praise upon the president at any opportunity, but withheld political support from Republicans. But, it was something-something gospel-centered something-something. Few noticed that the ERLC suddenly stopped any political involvement that would appear opposed to President Obama. He happily used his “positive influence” with the Democrat regime to gain the ear of Obama and other Beltway Democrats, so he could advocate for non-controversial “Christian values” like spaying and neutering pets or teaching endangered seals to read or whatever.

However, Moore had no reluctance opposing Donald Trump, Roy Moore, or any number of politicians on the right, whenever he felt like it. He had become such a vociferous critic of Donald Trump during the 2016 campaign that Trump called him a “nasty guy with no heart.”

Moore’s army of liberal “research fellows” and useful idiots, like Bart Barber, applauded Moore for Trump’s designation of him as a nasty guy, because it was evidence that Moore was “prophetically speaking truth to power.” And from 2016 onward, the message of the ERLC changed from “we need to avoid partisanship” to “we need to oppose Donald Trump.”

Although Moore was forced to apologize for making an enemy of the President of the United States, after more than 100 churches threatened to withdraw from the denomination, and he confessed to “using words that were at times overly broad or unnecessarily harsh,” it stands in stark contrast with his treatment of President Obama (which were neither too broad nor too harsh).

And from 2016 to 2021, Moore’s ERLC presented itself as a co-belligerent against Trump, allied with the Democrat partisans.

For example, just prior to the inauguration of Joe Biden, Andrew T. Walker – who was appointed the Director of Public Studies at the ERLC by Russell Moore in 2013 – wrote an article in National Review, explaining how Christians could possibly vote for someone as terrible as Donald Trump.

Walker called Trump, “a morally compromised, ill-tempered man” and wrote, “No religious conservative I know does not wince, grimace, or eye roll at many of President Trump’s actions, even those who voted for him with more enthusiasm than I am comfortable with. They see him as a compromised contrast to their faith.”

Walker went on to accuse Trump of being “an embarrassment” and having “petulant rage.”

He went on, “Whatever relationship there is between religious conservatives and Trump is not one of principle.”

Prior to the 2020 presidential election, Walker’s main contribution to the ERLC was promoting “racial justice” and providing reasons why good Christians can abstain from voting for Trump with a clear conscience because “politics is not a test of fellowship.” Well, it was that and also venerating Martin Luther King despite his own moral failures (which far surpass those of Donald Trump’s).

So then, consider our annoyance that – having done everything in his power to castigate Donald Trump as a moral vagrant for the last 8 years – Walker is offering Trump advice on policy priorities after his campaign victory.

Lol, no. Be quiet.

You simply don’t get to cast shade at President Trump for close to a decade, tell evangelicals it’s okay not to vote (or to vote for the Democrat if they want), and attack his moral character while ignoring Martin Luther King’s homosexual orgy whore-mongering, and then bend Trump’s ear to listen to you.

That’s not how this works. That’s not how any of this works.

Evangelical leaders who have insulted, derided, and attacked President Trump for years are not invited to give their input. And that’s a shame, because when there’s not a Democrat in office, there’s a chance they will have something to contribute other than advocacy for racial justice, economic justice, or environmental justice. In other words, they might have some non-bull hockey platitudes to offer (as Walker probably has). But nobody is going to listen to them.

Nor should they.

The Evangelical Intelligentsia discovered on Tuesday that they command literally 0% of the evangelical vote. We would recommend that Donald Trump take that into consideration when they offer him their advice.

Meanwhile, this is a prediction: In coming weeks and months, the Evangelical Intelligentsia will lament with great sorrow and at great volume, that Donald Trump has surrounded himself with evangelicals who have sub-standard doctrine. They will, with the weeping and gnashing of teeth, see that he has surrounded himself with the likes of Paula White or Mark Driscoll.

That’s their fault. They own that.

Evangelicals who opposed Trump need to sit in time-out. In the corner. With their nose in it.

[Contributed by JD Hall, and you can see more of his writings at Insight to Incite]

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