At this point, it’s safe to say that some New York Times editors are still engaged in a passionate quest to find a large group of Americans to blame for the 2016 general-election victory of Donald Trump of Queens.
There’s an obvious answer: White evangelicals. And it’s certainly true that independent and, especially, Pentecostal Protestants played a strategic role in the shocking rise of Orange Man Bad. It’s also true that independent evangelicals, fundamentalists, charismatics and Pentecostal believers have played high-profile roles in video-friendly pro-Trump events, including the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol to hunt down Vice President Mike Pence — a mainstream White evangelical if there ever was one.
However, White evangelical voters were not the crucial Rust Belt voters that put Trump in the White House, although Latino evangelicals and charismatics were a major force in Florida
Therefore, what are discerning religion-beat readers supposed to make of that long, vague Times sermon that ran the other day with this dramatic double-decker headline? (Sorry for the delay getting to this piece, but surgery slowed me down last week.)
The Growing Religious Fervor in the American Right: ‘This Is a Jesus Movement’
Rituals of Christian worship have become embedded in conservative rallies, as praise music and prayer blend with political anger over vaccines and the 2020 election.
Here is one strong opinion that is drawn — with his permission — from an email I received from Kenneth Woodward, for decades the religion-beat pro at Newsweek and the author of “Getting Religion: Faith, Culture, and Politics from the Age of Eisenhower to the Ascent of Trump.”
This is the most naive religion story I’ve read in decades and illustrates precisely why the Times still does not get religion.
Why does Woodward think that? To some degree, he is blaming a newspaper story for lacking the kind of depth seen in interpretive magazine pieces produced during the glory years of religion-beat work at Newsweek and at Time by GetReligion patriarch Richard Ostling. For a short period of time, Emma Green was allowed to do similar work at the Atlantic.
Depth is an issue here. But this Times feature is quite long and has lots of room for anecdotes, when what is missing (once again) is a hard skeleton of facts that link — if this is possible — these trends and illustrations to actual denominations, publishing houses, parachurch groups, think tanks and academic institutions at the heart of “evangelical power.”
I will come back to Woodward’s edgy critique. But here is the emotional overture at the start of the Times piece. The foggy first word is “they,” which kind of sets the tone for what follows:
They opened with an invocation, summoning God’s “hedge of thorns and fire” to protect each person in the dark Phoenix parking lot.
They called for testimonies, passing the microphone to anyone with “inspirational words that they’d like to say on behalf of our J-6 political prisoners,” referring to people arrested in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, whom they were honoring a year later.
Then, holding candles dripping wax, the few dozen who were gathered lifted their voices, a cappella, in a song treasured by millions of believers who sing it on Sundays and know its words by heart:
“Way maker, miracle worker, promise keeper
”Light in the darkness, my God
”That is who you are … “This was not a church service. It was worship for a new kind of congregation: a right-wing political movement powered by divine purpose, whose adherents find spiritual sustenance in political action.
The Christian right has been intertwined with American conservatism for decades, culminating in the Trump era. And elements of Christian culture have long been present at political rallies. But worship, a sacred act showing devotion to God expressed through movement, song or prayer, was largely reserved for church. Now, many believers are importing their worship of God, with all its intensity, emotion and ambitions, to their political life.
All of this sounds new and important. I certainly agree that there is an important story here, in part because the rise of truly independent Protestant megachurches and superstar pastors is a big deal that touches many parts of American life.
Yet this is only one piece of American evangelicalism, even “White” American evangelicalism. Once again, the Times team is focusing on one niche and trying to say it represents an entire complex movement. Yes, there are elements of the cultural right that play this game, as well. But we are talking, in this case, about material produced by, arguably, the world’s most influential newsroom.
Let’s keep reading more of the attribution-free Times prose:
At events across the United States, it is not unusual for participants to describe encountering the divine and feel they are doing their part to install God’s kingdom on earth. For them, right-wing political activity itself is becoming a holy act.
These Christians are joining secular members of the right wing, including media-savvy opportunists and those touting disinformation. They represent a wide array of discontent, from opposing vaccine mandates to promoting election conspiracy theories. For many, pandemic restrictions that temporarily closed houses of worship accelerated their distrust of government and made churchgoing political.
At a Trump rally in Michigan last weekend, a local evangelist offered a prayer that stated, “Father in heaven, we firmly believe that Donald Trump is the current and true president of the United States.” He prayed “in Jesus’ name” that precinct delegates at the upcoming Michigan Republican Party convention would support Trump-endorsed candidates, whose names he listed to the crowd. “In Jesus’ name,” the crowd cheered back.
Who was this Trump-esque evangelist? Anyone want to bet that this unnamed superstar is from a local church that may or may not have any ties to any major evangelical body?
Now, it’s true that the Times team does point to the strong role of charismatic believers in this drama. However, that’s about as much nuance as one will find here. Did I miss any hard, factual links to major groups in evangelical Christianity?
Back to Woodward. Let me share several blocks of material from his letter:
Ostensibly, the news being reported is the use “praise music and other forms of worship — “sacred acts” — at Trumpist and other right-wing political rallies. But is this news of such import as to merit the space the Times editors gave it? Does it merit location on the front page, just below the fold? Is it even news?
What may be rather new is that “praise music” can be heard and some political rallies, and that’s because praise music itself is of recent vintage. That’s it.
The first thing, then, to be said about the story is that it is naïve because it lacks historical context or even historical consciousness. The writers briefly mention that “religious music, prayers and symbols” have been used at other moments in American moments in history but pretend that what is going on now is somehow different.
It isn’t. Indeed, what they report is pallid compared to the past. Consider: The martial hymn “Onward Christian Soldiers” has a long history of secular use, including the way Winston Churchill appropriated it for support of the Allied cause in World War II. M.L. King made marching, kneeling, and hymn-singing sacred act central to his strategy; Catholic masses and Protestant worship services, not to mention hymns and chants, kneeling and praying, were staples of the ant-Vietnam protests. The Battle Hymn of the Republic alone symbolizes the many ways that Americans have always suffused wars as well as social and political movements with sacred purpose — and visa-versa.
Yes, the Times piece does offer lots of colorful anecdotes, which Woodward notes is rather like the “vignettes” that “flitting gossip columnists used to do around New York City to report which celebrities dined at which restaurants the previous night.”
Woodward made two other crucial points, starting with this editorial advice: “Lay your statistical base.”
Apart from one gathering estimated at 2,000 participants we have no idea how large the events mentioned were, nor how they might compare to similar rallies that lack “religious fervor.”
We know that megachurches, for whom a crowd of 2,000 is a disappointment, tend to avoid politics. And we know this: According to sociologist Mark Chavez’s series of studies, liberal congregations are far more apt to be politically active than conservative congregations — again suggesting that these folks inhabit the fringes of American religious life.
I’ll stop there. Please read the Times piece and let me know if you see examples of the kind facts-first reporting that Woodward is seeking (perhaps this Godbeat veteran will post his full letter on Facebook).
Also, did I miss any specifics, in my comments?
Read it all. This is an important topic and a valid story that is worthy of coverage. The question is whether we are talking about a truly national problem in wider evangelical life, worthy of A1 ink at the Times, or a colorful trend — one with roots in American political life — in a loud White evangelical subculture.
Comments, please. URLs and specifics will be appreciated.
FIRST IMAGE: “I love Christian music” .gif file, posted at Tenor.com