WaPo takes a look at a small-town Southern Baptist congregation and how congregants struggle to rationalize support for Trump.
I liked the report because it does not lump all congregants together. A few seem focused on the many presents they hope to receive in heaven for having been good (the kitchen appliances in the title). Some are elderly people still trying to come to terms with the civil rights movement and are dismayed to find themselves in an America that seems to be pushing religious diversity to the detriment of their faith. Some feel comfortable putting qualifiers in teachings like "love your neighbor."
But most struggle to square up Trump the womanizing bully with his stated support for the things they care about: abortion, law and order, and an America rooted in European Protestant values.
Reporter Stephanie McCrummen does a good job letting the congregation speak for itself without making wry comments or falling into regional stereotypes. A pleasure to read.
That was a good article. As you said, the author let the people speak for themselves without injecting herself into it. I noticed that several people were struggling with cognitive dissonance in their support of Trump and his works and pomps. I can sympathize; I have struggled with cognitive dissonance at times also (though not in support of Trump!)
ReplyDeleteGoing in search of the article led me on some side trips. Apparently WaPo has gotten really stingy with their free articles; I think it's like 3 now. and I had already maxed out on my tablet. NYT is the same way. Sometimes I can find the article on another site that picked it up by typing in the title and author. But no luck this time. Fortunately no one had looked up any WaPo stuff on our PC this month. So I was able to read it there. However in the process of searching, I observed that the fake news and very right-leaning sites had Ms. McCrummen in their cross-hairs. She was accused of falsifying accusations against Roy Moore when he was up for election (seemed like his sins were pretty well general knowledge. Also she was accused of checkbook journalism and writing fake checks for it to boot. Seemed like they were just throwing excrement against the wall to see if anything stuck. Made me think of Jim P.'s post about truth a few days back. Sometimes the truth is hard to find, especially if people don't want to recognize it when they see it.
Their claim that the personal morality of an officeholder is less important than his positions has some merit. But it is important that that person not be sociopathic or narcissistic. The Cuban Missile Crisis was resolved by two men who were human enough to not want a lot of fried Americans and Russians and took personal risk to avoid it. Krushchev was probably deposed as a result. Perhaps it set Oswald on his course. Trump is a black hole trapped in his own gravity. He cannot see beyond himself. And he can't think.
ReplyDelete"Trump is a black hole trapped in his own gravity." Good description, Stanley.
DeleteStanley, yes, I think "flawed" is one thing, but the folks in McCrummen's story seem to be struggling with whether Trump is merely flawed or has gone beyond the pale.
DeleteIt's pretty interesting. I suppose I'm as religious as the next person, but that "brand" of religion is different than mine. I find myself sympathetic to some of the church members, and of course one or two of them are just whacked out - probably par for the course for any church.
ReplyDeleteSeems the pastor elected not to preach about Trump the adulterer. But it doesn't seem that any of the congregation are confused on that particular point about Trump, so maybe that was the right call on the pastor's part.
Wish I would have kept the article open so I can revisit Trump's evolution from "very" pro-choice to "totally" pro-life (it was something like that). He over-adjectivizes - among the many things he cheapens is public discourse.
I found myself wishing I had the text of the pastor's sermon, but, of course it was probably extempore. Baptists have a horror of written prayers and sermons because they block the Holy Spirit.
DeleteEarlier in the article, the pastor told about how adultery and hypocrisy among the clergy had eroded his faith for a time. I wonder if he went as far as to discuss the corrosive effects of immoral behavior on the part of community and national leaders.
Possibly that message would have helped clarify thinking for some of the parishioners.
This is a second-hand account of a Catholic pastor's sermon this weekend. The person who heard it first hand was my sister, who lives in our hometown. Mostly it was about the Jesus pitying the people who were like sheep without a shepherd. But he got in some rather pointed comments, without mentioning names, about civil leaders who aren't good shepherds, who scatter the sheep. I was like, wow. I have been acquainted with this priest for many years, and for him that was most unusual. Probably the majority of his congregation were Trump voters. But not near as many of them as there would have been in most of the Protestant congregations in the same town. Still a few JFK Democrats around. My family of origin is split along gender lines. The women are not Trump voters. The guys are. We don't talk about it much.
DeleteThere but for the Grace of God live I.
ReplyDeleteDarn, I closed it too. I had marked a comment by Terry (Drew ?) about how Trump was an answer to all the smartypants. I think that attitude explains a lot about the evangelicals, who tend not to be coastal. All the smart asses from Paul Krugman to George F. Will and from Chuck Schumer to Jerry Brown sneer at Trump, and they sneer at us, and the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I suspect McCrummen could spend time being a camera at a lot of Catholic churches and find very similar attitudes in the congregations and very similar decisions by the pastor. Except for the part about Hell being stranded in pitch darkness while surrounded by fire.
And THAT said, I really am getting tired of reading how each and every one of the 62.3 Americans who voted for Trump came to vote for him, which I have to read just because coastal editors can't believe that anybody did. How about "balancing" those interviews by talking to some folks in Bent Prong and What Cheer who did not vote for Trump? There's a scoop waiting to happen.
We live in Corn Bucket, Mich., and it's pretty clear that folks here saw the 2016 election as a run between the Braggart and the Bitch.
DeleteHillary seemed to reflect the REAL face of liberalism the folks whereabouts always suspected was there: haughty, rich, entitled. So the Braggart (also haughty, rich, entitled) won.
My brother (who usually voted libertarian) runs a small music store in Dust Ditch, Okla. Here's what he sent me about tip-toeing through the dog doo that is our political scene these days:
I generally don't speak about politics around the store and try to keep generic when it comes up because I want all the Trump supporters' money I can get. So I lean whatever direction I have to within limits. Some guy was in Thursday blowing his horn about Trump but mentioned that he wished he'd stay off Twitter. I told him that if you hired Trump to shovel out your driveway and he does a great job and doesn't charge you for it that would be great. But in the meantime, if he craps in your yard, kicks your dog, and then cusses out your neighbors are you going to ask him back? He did, after all, do a great job on the driveway just like he promised, but now you're at war with your neighbors and your dog is turning mean and you have to clean up your yard after him. Is it worth it? He thought that was pretty damn funny which was a shame because I wasn't joking.
I think it's more like somebody else shoveled the driveway and was coming back later to collect. Then Trump showed up, took credit, took the money and then attacked the neighbors.
DeleteAnd kicked the dog. Don't forget the dog.
DeleteJean, I like your brother. I do want to add that there actually is a What Cheer, Iowa (near Ankaney), where high school students learn to detassel corn and go on to marry the president of the Green Bay Packers. I was under the firm impression that there is a Bent Prong, Utah, but I can't find it on Wiki. Must have changed their name.
DeleteTom, I have friends in Iowa, and there seems to be little cheer there.
DeleteEveryone likes my brother. Witty, charming, and artistic. I am merely sarcastic, observant, and the one you'd trust with a large sum of money.
"...I really am getting tired of reading how each and every one of the 62.3 Americans who voted for Trump came to vote for him..."
DeleteTom, me too. Our state is pretty red. But about 41% of those residents who voted in the last election did not vote for Trump. That isn't zero, or approaching it. As they say, "we aren't chopped liver." I think very few of us would qualify as "elite". So yeah, they should talk to some red-staters who didn't vote for Trump, "not with a fox, not in a box, not in a house, not with a mouse."