Whichever he adopts, your main task will be the same. Let him begin by treating the Patriotism or the Pacifism as a part of his religion. Then let him, under the influence of partisan spirit, come to regard it as the most important part. Then quietly and gradually nurse him on to the stage at which the religion becomes merely part of the “cause”, in which Christianity is valued chiefly because of the excellent arguments it can produce in favour of the British war-effort or of Pacifism. The attitude which you want to guard against is that in which temporal affairs are treated primarily as material for obedience. Once you have made the World an end, and faith a means, you have almost won your man, and it makes very little difference what kind of worldly end he is pursuing. Provided that meetings, pamphlets, policies, movements, causes, and crusades, matter more to him than prayers and sacraments and charity, he is ours — and the more “religious” (on those terms) the more securely ours. I could show you a pretty cageful down here,
Your affectionate uncle
SCREWTAPE
We are at the end of the Trump era, and I am worried that we will look back at it with envy, based on what is coming next.
For a while, I was rooting for Vivek Ramaswamy to win in Ohio. But a lot of that was because of who was opposed to him. Earlier in the election cycle, Vivek was doing a town hall and a young “Christian” kid asked him a question:
“If you are an Indian, a Hindu, coming from a different culture, different religion than those who founded this country…what are you conserving? You are bringing change. […] How can you represent the citizens of Ohio - who are 64% Christian - if you are not a part of that faith.”
To be clear, Vivek Ramaswamy is Hindu, but he was born in Cincinnati. He had a thoroughly American upbringing, and is more American - or at the very least understands it better - than the kid who asked the question. But it wasn’t just his question that disturbed me.
If you watch the video, Vivek talks about America’s founding, and even highlights the beliefs of the Founders that sometimes conservatives like to ignore (e.g., Thomas Jefferson’s Deism). But he uses the phrase “Judeo-Christian values,” and that causes the kid to wince. Why? He doesn’t like the Jews, like a lot of people his age.
Welcome to the New GOP: Hostile to non-white immigrants, and more than willing to embrace anti-Semitism.
The problem, of course, is that Vivek is a wretched person. We saw this towards the end of his campaign, when he - in an act of desperation - released an ad featuring his opponent’s mother.
Amy Acton had a troubled upbringing, but it became particularly awful when she was raped by her stepfather at the age of 12. When he was arrested, Acton’s mother took her husband’s side, and that was the end of their relationship. Once he made bail, Acton’s stepfather moved from Ohio to Pennsylvania to avoid arrest, and Acton’s mother went with him. She abandoned her daughter and fled with her rapist.
For some reason, Vivek thought it would be a good idea to feature this woman in an ad, in which she calls Acton a liar who fabricated the stories about her upbringing. But the renewed attention only led to more and more confirmations of Acton’s story. Acton said she had to live in tents with her mother because they were so poor, something that Vivek and Acton’s mother called a lie. But the arrest warrant for Acton’s stepfather was served at a campsite where he had been living.
Acton has long said her stepfather also raped his own daughter from a previous marriage. Journalists were able to find a copy of the arrest warrant, and an incest charge. They also found multiple arrests for Acton’s mother, including ones for animal cruelty. Instead of the ad working against Acton, it turned voters off to Vivek and further confirmed her story.
According to Trump, Vivek called him and asked if he should take the ad down. Trump told him to leave it up, despite the fact that it was clearly turning off Ohio voters. After a series of polls showing Acton expanding her lead on Vivek, he eventually pulled the ad less than a week before the election.
This all shows us that while the current GOP is bad (using an abusive mother in an ad to attack your opponent), what is coming (racist) is a lot worse.
So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. - Matthew 7:17-20
The question to Vivek has layers of awfulness to it: There is ignorance about our founding,1 xenophobia, and anti-Semitism, but an additional layer is that the kid was praised by the Christian Nationalist Right. A “pastor” within the movement invited the kid onto his podcast to praise him for his question.
Earlier this year, a different kid asked a question of Will Spencer, who was giving a talk on the radicalization of young Christian men. This is what was asked:
I was raised by my father to believe that the Jews - like any other nation - are pagans apart from Christ, and are opposed to his kingdom. And it’s reasonable that some high performance pagan people like the Jews would put up some high performance opposition to the Christian culture of Western civilization. So, my question for you is: Is there a place in your framework for faithful young Christian men - who aren’t a part of the Manosphere pipeline you described - who believe that Jews and Jewish influence are a major threat to Christian civilization?
To be clear, Jewish Americans are the most likely to experience a hate crime in this country; 3.25 times more likely than the next demographic group (Black Americans).
A heart truly transformed by Christ’s love would not ask a question like this about one of the most vulnerable people groups in the country. But questions like this, wincing about “Judeo-Christian” values, and questioning the loyalty of someone born in Ohio are a glimpse into the future of the young men on the Right. And it’s getting support from people who call themselves Christians.
Donald Trump is going to lose the midterms, and it could be a truly historic result. But that’s actually less of a concern to me than what comes next. I have heard a repeated refrain from people who attempt to justify their votes for Trump:
Many conservatives, myself included, are not necessarily excusing his behavior/ comments. Rather, we are overlooking them for the greater good of the his/conservative policies. Conservative policies are worth fighting for despite his horrible and ridiculous statement as an adult he makes towards other adults. Would most of us rather have seen DeSantis or another face represent the policies of the conservative party? Of course! But he won the vote. Not a single republican friend of mine is a "maga maniac" as some here suggest we are NOT blind to his behavior. Rather they are voting policy over the idiotic/in appropriate things he says, and yes we cringe every single time.
I’ve heard variations of this over and over again: Vote for policy over the candidate. Ignore what Donald Trump says, and focus more on what the other side will do. I will tell you: For a Christian, it is a super-tempting argument. But I always ask myself: What is the limiting principle for this argument?
Would you vote for a pedophile who had the same views as you on abortion?
Would you vote for a rapist?
Would you vote for someone so outrageously corrupt?
Someone who stole from you?
Someone who beat his wife?
Someone who thinks Jews have a poisonous influence?
Someone who doesn’t think Indian-Americans are Americans at all?
Next year, with Democrats in control of the House, the Epstein Files are going to be released and they are going to show that Donald Trump was a member of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex ring and that he engaged in the same acts with underage girls.
That is going to happen. It’s redacted right now but it will be released. And it will look super obvious to any reasonable person looking at it with the benefit of hindsight.
And every Christian who said they were voting policy over character will have to defend their witness. I hope many will say, “I was deceived and made a mistake.” I doubt it will be that many, though. And then Christian Nationalists - who are actively looking to be the ones who take over the GOP after Trump leaves - will make the normie Christian’s current indifference to Trump’s morality look quaint by comparison.
I have been re-reading The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, because it best illustrates how Satan (who I think is real, FWIW) works. He has been around for a while and is more insidious than most people think. The red devil with horns is a caricature that is (probably) purposefully designed to be non-threatening.
In the letters - written from one senior demon to an apprentice - it talks about distractions, especially with politics. But when you read from letter to letter you get a sense that Satan’s plan for continued human suffering isn’t overt or scary, and that it’s more subtle than anything else. Reading it again just makes me think: Could it be a plan of the enemy to trick the American church into supporting an obvious, odious, evil man who made them false and facial promises, only to have it destroy the church’s witness and undermine it for the foreseeable future?
In fact, it seems exactly like the sort of thing the enemy would do.
Those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you. - Mark 10:42-43
See you soon with a recap of the midterms and a final word on SCOTUS.
The Founding Fathers were markedly more liberal in their attitudes towards immigration than really either political party is today.