Trump is like ‘horror movie villains’ who won’t go away, says Christian Scholar

Christian ethics scholar likens former president Donald Trump like a villain from a horror movie.

Dr. David P. Gushee, a professor of Christian ethics at Mercer University known for his advocacy on issues such as LGBTQ+ inclusion and solutions to climate change, called Trump a “particularly malign” force for Republicans in an interview published Tuesday by Salon.

Gushee expressed concerns about the possibility of Trump taking back the White House in November’s presidential election, while saying the former president’s influence over the Republican Party had “facilitated the rise” of a ” authoritarian reactionary Christianity.”

“I feel a sense of dread as I contemplate a Trump-dominated 2024,” Gushee said. “He’s like one of those horror movie villains who you think has been defeated or destroyed but keeps showing up to terrorize the neighborhood.”

“Even though the poll results are mixed, many polls show him leading in most or all key states,” he added. “The fact that this person in 2024 may well create a constitutional crisis, and he doesn’t care at all – and his supporters accept it – is appalling beyond words.”

Gushee added that the president’s “weakness” Joe Biden as a candidate “only creates a sense of vulnerability” about the election and his fears that Trump could return to power.

He said he was approaching the election “as someone facing a grave spiritual, emotional and moral challenge” and urged his fellow Christians to fight against Trump for “the soul of Christianity.”

“In light of the clear abandonment of so many Christians in the face of Trump and reactionary, authoritarian Christianity, being a Christian means resistance to this capitulation, to this participation in this internal struggle for the soul of Christianity in the United States,” Gushee said.

News week On Tuesday, he contacted Trump’s office via email for comment.

Although significant While the majority of white evangelical Protestants supported Trump in the 2016 and 2020 elections, the ex-president does not have total control of the Christian vote. Gushee is also far from the only prominent Christian to question his ethics.

Peter Wehner, former speechwriter for the former president George W. Bush and a senior fellow at the evangelical nonprofit Trinity Forum, accused Christians who support Trump of “betray the Lord” in an opinion article published by Atlantic in November.

In an interview with NPR in August, Russell Moore, editor-in-chief of Christianity today and former senior leader of the Southern Baptist Convention, lamented that Trump’s influence has pushed some Christian conservatives to reject the fundamental principles of their professed religion as being too “weak” or “liberal”.

“Several pastors tell me essentially the same story about quoting the Sermon on the Mount parenthetically in their preaching – “turning the other cheek” – (and) having someone come up afterwards and say: “Where did you find these liberal talking points?'” Moore said.

“When the pastor said: ‘I literally quote Jesus Christ’… The answer would be: ‘Yes, but it doesn’t work anymore. It’s weak,'” he added. “When we get to the point where the teachings of Jesus himself are considered subversive in our eyes, then we are in crisis.”

Asset castigated against evangelical leaders who he said had demonstrated “great disloyalty” by hesitating to support his presidential bid during a January 2023 interview on the conservative network Real America’s Voice.

“It’s a sign of disloyalty,” Trump said. “No one has done more for the movement than me. And that includes the evangelical and Christian movement and the ‘right to life’ movement.”

Faithful American progressive Christian group spear an online petition opposing Trump’s candidacy shortly after announcing his 2024 candidacy, quickly garnering tens of thousands of signatures.

The group denounced the former president, saying he promoted “fascist tactics” and launched the Make America Great Again movement that “clearly rejected” basic Christian principles.