#8-Oct. 10, 2016

See Something? Say Something!

by Dave Jackson

Law enforcement and politicians wisely curry the good will of Muslim citizens in hopes they will report any suspicious behavior in their community. But we don’t hear much about similar initiatives among Christians even though some very high-profile Christian leaders defend and minimize the “terrorist” behavior of Donald Trump.

If terrorism is anything that intimidates people, hurts them, makes them afraid, then Trump’s recently released “locker-room banter” with Billy Bush qualifies. (If you assume it can’t be that bad, then listen to it all the way through by clicking HERE.) Trump denies that he actually committed the sexual assaults he bragged about, but the most dangerous terrorists don’t necessarily build bombs or pull triggers themselves. They merely inspire others to do it. So even if you believe Trump’s boasting was all lies, he fully participated in a culture condoning and encouraging that kind of behavior.

The support and cover some evangelical leaders provide Trump in spite of his “flaws,” is embarrassing. People like James Dobson, Franklin Graham, Jerry Falwell Jr., Pat Robertson, Paula White, Richard Land, Jack Graham, Sealy Yates, Gary Bauer, Tony Perkins, and others should be ashamed. If their spiritual discernment had not been so clouded by the promise of political influence, they might have detected long ago the depth of Trump’s moral bankruptcy. He has exhibited it publicly for years, but they chose to minimize and excuse it. For instance, James Dobson justified overlooking Trump’s “inexcusable” rhetoric in a recent Christianity Today article by claiming “this is a single-issue election because it will affect every dimension of American life: the make up of the Supreme Court” and particularly the future of abortion.

I, too, am strongly prolife! But women don’t end up with unwanted pregnancies by themselves. A man is always involved, and many times—far too many times—it’s a man who treats women like Donald Trump. As one rape victim posted online, challenging Trump supporters: “You’re part of the reason my ‘friend’ felt entitled to my body.” But even when Trump’s influence doesn’t result in actual rape, his attitude encourages men to treat women as objects to be conquered, used, and abused in every way possible to prove their manhood and power.

The popular Bible teacher Beth Moore says, “I’m one among many women sexually abused, misused, stared down, heckled, talked naughty to. Like we liked it. We didn’t. We’re tired of it. Try to absorb how unacceptable the disesteem and objectifying of women has been when some Christian leaders don’t think it’s that big a deal.”

But it is a big deal. The ethos that cultivates those presumptions comes precisely from Trump-type “locker room talk”! Fortunately, not every male participates, but those who do are always bullies in other ways, whether in or out of the locker room, on a date, on the street, in sports, in business. Anytime they interact with someone weaker, they pump themselves up by putting other people down. And those evangelical leaders should have recognized this quality from the start. Trump has demonstrated it dozens of times. That’s where their discernment has been so faulty. They were played by an unscrupulous and powerful conniver. I cannot judge Donald Trump’s personal relationship with Jesus, but I can see his fruit, and it is bad fruit! He’s playing Christians with promises of conservative appointments to the Supreme Court.

But “Donald Trump will not be a champion for the unborn,” Rachel Held Evans predicts. “That would run completely contrary to everything we know about his character and worldview. This is a man who consistently valuates life based on its perceived usefulness to him. . . . Do you really think that after decades of being pro-choice, this man has suddenly had a change of heart? Donald Trump is not a champion for the voiceless. He is an exploiter of the voiceless, a mocker of the voiceless. He uses people to get what he wants and he is using pro-life evangelicals to try and get the presidency.”
If the prominent evangelical supporters of Trump remain on board after hearing the tape of his lewd conversation with Billy Bush, they are more than gullible; they are culpable! If you “See something? Say something!” when there’s a threat. We are all responsible. But if you hide it, minimize it, excuse it, or claim as Trump did that, “It’s just a distraction,” you are telling our children and every insecure person in the country that it’s okay to be a bully in order to get what you want. Instead, all of those evangelical supporters of Trump should follow Wayne Grudem’s example and jump ship NOW. Enough is enough!

Here’s the good news. Not every man is like Trump. Several years ago, when our then pastor let the church down by his moral failure, many of us men were utterly shaken. We had known something was deeply wrong for some time, but were devastated when the truth began to come out. The impact on many of us was a sense of inevitability, that the whole world was untrustworthy. Out of that crisis grew a men’s Bible study of which I’m still a part today. Initially, our purpose was to reassure one another that even though we are all capable of sin and failure, we don’t have to succumb. We literally needed to tell each other that we can stand, shoulder to shoulder, and say, “No, it’s not okay to go there! We don’t have to go there! And we’re going to hold one another accountable to not go there.”

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Dave Jackson is the author of Risking Grace, Loving Our Gay Family and Friends Like Jesus, Castle Rock Creative, 2016. He and his wife, Neta, live in the Chicago area and together are the authors or coauthors of over 120 Christian books.