In a rabid new op-ed, atheist author Frank Schaeffer blasts leading evangelicals Revs. Franklin Graham (pictured) and Jerry Falwell Jr. for their support of President-elect Donald Trump, suggesting that they have betrayed their biblical values in exchange for white supremacy and irrationality.
“How will white American evangelicals follow Trump’s moral leadership?” Schaeffer queries. “Their daughters might want to become ‘golden shower’ Russian hookers and their sons could become neo-Nazi Jew-haters.”
Schaeffer, who was raised in an evangelical household, abandoned his childhood faith and now makes a living denouncing evangelical Christianity and those who practice it. A New York Times best-selling author, the 62-year-old ex-evangelical has written 12 books, including Why I am an Atheist Who Believes in God and Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back.
A self-described “survivor” of an evangelical/fundamentalist childhood, Schaeffer accuses Franklin Graham of selling out evangelical principles by backing Donald Trump. So, on the one hand, Schaeffer denounces evangelicalism and its followers, and on the other, he corrects evangelicals when they fail to follow its principles the way he thinks they should.
In a tone of satire, Schaeffer suggests that Franklin Graham, Jerry Falwell Jr. and other evangelical leaders, educators and parents adopt a “new Trump moral biblical curriculum.”
The new program would replace “your old outdated evangelical hopes and prayers,” asking things like salvation, growth in grace and perseverance, for new “Trump-Teachings,” asking that children may become imposters, sex offenders, racists, sociopaths and “anti-American.”
In December, Franklin Graham said it was the “hand of God,” rather than Russian hackers, that determined the outcome of November’s presidential election.
While acknowledging that for many, voting for Trump might not have been easy, he insisted that it was, nonetheless, the better choice and that Trump was a “changed man.”
“You may have to hold your nose and vote,” Graham said in early November. “I have people that say, ‘Well I don’t like Donald Trump, I don’t like what he says.’ Well I don’t like what he said either, I promise I don’t like it. But those are things that he said 11 years ago, not something that he said today.”
“I think Donald Trump has changed,” Graham added. “I think God is working on his heart and in his life. But people have to make up their own mind.”
Schaeffer’s hostility toward Donald Trump and evangelicals seems rooted in a deeper hatred of conservative principles, such as the pro-life cause.
in 2012, Schaeffer posted an article by Greg Rubottom on his site, which stated: “In my lifetime, I can’t think of a more insidious act done in the name of the Christian God than the Republican Party’s nefarious campaign to teach Americans that God opposes abortion.”
The piece goes on to say that “the most illogical aspect of the pro-life argument occurs with the irrational assumption that it is God’s universal will and desire that all human conceptions proceed to full development and result in live birth.”
Follow Thomas D. Williams on Twitter Follow @tdwilliamsrome
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.