{"id":1637090,"date":"2022-09-08T19:20:31","date_gmt":"2022-09-08T23:20:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1637090"},"modified":"2022-09-08T19:23:27","modified_gmt":"2022-09-08T23:23:27","slug":"grazing-in-political-dumpsters-why-gersons-attack-on-trump-evangelicals-is-all-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/grazing-in-political-dumpsters-why-gersons-attack-on-trump-evangelicals-is-all-wrong\/","title":{"rendered":"Grazing In \u2018Political Dumpsters\u2019: Why Gerson\u2019s Attack On Trump Evangelicals Is All Wrong"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fgrazing-in-political-dumpsters-why-gersons-attack-on-trump-evangelicals-is-all-wrong%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1637090&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Michael Gerson, former George W. Bush speechwriter and angry Never Trumper, penned a viral <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/2022\/09\/01\/michael-gerson-evangelical-christian-maga-democracy\/\">op-ed for the Washington Post<\/a>\u00a0wrongly labeling white evangelical Christian supporters of Donald Trump and the MAGA agenda as anti-Christian.<\/p>\n<p>The essay was the most popular piece on the Post\u2019s website for days, setting hearts aflutter of leftists who believe Christianity is a mere sociological construct and the Bible a mythology. But Gerson\u2019s dishonest piece is really nothing new, simply a regurgitation of the same Beltway screeds and talking points we\u2019ve witnessed since Trump\u2019s 2015 escalator moment. Gerson\u2019s 4,300 words are snarky, judgmental, and myopic.<\/p>\n<p>His main thesis boils down to MAGA as \u201ca serious, unfolding threat to liberal democracy.\u201d He ignores that Trump was democratically elected in 2016, and that violence around the Jan. 6 Capitol riots by a group of violent people was universally condemned by tens of millions of MAGA supporters. Gerson is silent about how if Democrats actually believed MAGA was a true democratic threat, they wouldn\u2019t pump tens of millions of dollars to support MAGA primary candidates and pray for big general election wins.<\/p>\n<p>While listing a series of easily-debunked, straw-man claims, Gerson asserts \u201cConservative evangelicalism has, in many ways, become the kind of religious tradition against which followers of Jesus were initially called to rebel.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In truth, Gerson ironically misses that just like Jesus of backwater, rural Nazarene (e.g. not from a wealthy or religiously elite, urban Jerusalem family) the America First Movement did not arise from elite Beltway think tanks and university temples. It arose from We The People, including those from rural, working class backwaters. Just like the early Christians scattered throughout the dominant Roman empire, today\u2019s conservative evangelical base is counterculture in a liberal Hollywood, media and academia-led culture that embraces abortion-on-demand, destruction of poor families through an expansive welfare state, and rogue (semi-facist?) executive powers like President Biden\u2019s various regulatory overreaches.<\/p>\n<p>Gerson is a modern-day Pharisee casting stones at unsophisticated Trump supporters, ignoring the plank in his own eye while screeching about MAGA\u2019s mote. Take one of his ridiculous and non-enlightening phrases: \u201cIt is difficult for me to understand why so many believers have turned down a wedding feast to graze in political dumpsters.\u201d Labeling a significant political movement of his fellow Americans, headed by a former leader of the Free World, a \u201cdumpster\u201d is unserious, childish, and unpersuasive.<\/p>\n<p>Even Gerson\u2019s framing headline, \u201cTrump should fill Christians with rage,\u201d is anti-Christian. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Ephesians%204%3A31&amp;version=NIV\">Ephesians<\/a> says the polar opposite: \u201cGet rid of all bitterness, rage, and anger.\u201d The Bible says a fruit of the spirit is \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gcu.edu\/blog\/spiritual-life\/weekly-devotional-fruit-spirit-self-control\">self-control<\/a>,\u201d\u2013 the opposite of rage.<\/p>\n<p>Jesus repeatedly said His kingdom is not on earth, so we Christians need caution around mixing political and religious fervor. Urging Christian rage against Trump is a toxic cocktail of church and state. Trump doesn\u2019t claim to be a spiritual leader. American voters choose a commander-in-chief, not a pastor-in-chief.<\/p>\n<p>In his falsehoods about Trump voters backing \u201cwhite authoritarian populism,\u201d Gerson ignores Trump fared better than various GOP predecessors (including Gerson\u2019s former boss, Bush, who Gerson wouldn\u2019t dare label a \u201cwhite nationalist\u201d) among non-white voters and Trump <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-us-canada-54972389\">grew his margins<\/a> with black, Latino and Asian voters in 2020 over 2016. In 2020, for example, Trump gained 6% among black men, 5% among Hispanic women, and 4% among <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/asian-america\/asian-americans-voted-biden-63-31-reality-more-complex-n1247171\">Asian-Americans<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Gerson also ignores white working-class, two-time Barack Obama voters who voted for Trump. Not racially aggrieved, they\u2019re philosophically aggrieved with Obama\u2019s fruit: dividing the country, enacting a far-left agenda. They\u2019d be thrilled to vote for Ben Carson as second African-American POTUS.<\/p>\n<p>Just like Carson was revered as Black Royalty (portrayed in hagiographic book and film for his groundbreaking surgeon career) before becoming an outspoken conservative, Trump was embraced by African-American leaders like Jesse Jackson, Jr. and Al Sharpton. Immediately after both became Republican leaders, they were transparently attacked by liberal \u201cjournalists.\u201d That\u2019s why it\u2019s hard to believe media lies about MAGA and race thrown around by people like Gerson.<\/p>\n<p>Gerson says of Jesus: \u201cDefying most historical practice and precedent, He sought to reform human affairs in ways that privilege the poor, the prisoner, the blind, the oppressed. He wanted to put the joy, freedom and healing of outcasts at the center of a new era.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In many ways, that\u2019s what Trump did, reorienting the GOP toward the working class and embracing social outcasts \u2013 the forgotten man and woman. Before COVID, women, African-Americans, Hispanics, and Asian-Americans made record income gains and saw historic <a href=\"https:\/\/justthenews.com\/nation\/economy\/trump-touts-record-low-poverty-rate-all-us-households-including-african-american-and\">low poverty<\/a> under Trump.<\/p>\n<p>Trump first employed a female manager of a successful presidential campaign, first working mother as White House spokeswoman, and first openly gay Director of National Intelligence and cabinet member (Ric Grennell). Worldwide, Trump\u2019s administration fought to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2019\/02\/23\/opinions\/trump-admin-lgbti-opinion-sheffield\">decriminalize<\/a> LGBTI people.<\/p>\n<p>Trump signed into law a significant prison reform law, The Next Step Act, giving prisoners mercy. By appointing pro-life judges, Trump protected the oppressed unborn. Defying China, Trump designated Muslim<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Michael Gerson, former George W. Bush speechwriter and angry Never Trumper, penned a viral op-ed for the Washington Post\u00a0wrongly labeling white evangelical Christian supporters of Donald Trump and the MAGA agenda as anti-Christian. The essay was the most popular piece on the Post\u2019s website for days, setting hearts aflutter of leftists who believe Christianity is &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1637092,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1637090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1637090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1637090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1637090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1637092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1637090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1637090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1637090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}