For over six many years, the “non secular proper” in America was boomer “Christian nationalism,” straight out of The Handmaid’s Story. It was about “protecting God within the colleges” and the Nationwide Prayer Breakfast. It was traditionalist, aware of theology, and, nicely, theocratic, which is to say it wished to take the requirements of a non secular custom and apply them to the secular legislation. They wished the books of Scripture to switch the statute books.
However President Donald Trump is attempting to create a brand new non secular proper, one that’s not simply intolerant however basically totally different and opposed to conventional faith as we’ve recognized it. The religion of the MAGA motion will not be one wherein the state conforms to the church, however one wherein the church is bent to the desire of the unusual beast that’s American nationalism — the idea that the American mission is an train in freedom and prosperity just like the world has by no means recognized, but additionally the only possession of those that are white, heterosexual, and unquestioningly loyal to the nation.
It’s a mannequin of church-state relations that has much less in frequent with post-revolutionary Iran, the place an Islamic cleric generally known as the supreme chief and his council of non secular jurists preside over authorities, and extra in frequent with Soviet (and arguably up to date) Russia, the place the Russian Orthodox Church is topic to the whims of the Kremlin, appearing as all the things from propaganda instrument to spy middle.
That is the displacement of the trimmings of faith with America First alternate options. It’s not coherent in a non secular sense. It’s coherent in a political sense.
That is evident from the members and mission of Trump’s new Spiritual Liberty Fee, in addition to its three advisory our bodies of non secular leaders, authorized specialists, and lay leaders. The fee is tasked with getting ready a report on the historical past and present state of non secular liberty in America.
Against this, Trump’s three rapid predecessors maintained an Workplace of Religion-Primarily based and Neighborhood Partnerships to advise on how faith-based organizations and the federal government may collaborate on points like human trafficking, local weather change, or world poverty. Referred to as “Group Initiatives” beneath Bush, this mannequin mirrored the church coming to assistance from the state to handle points arising from the collective ethical failings of secular society.
Trump abolished this workplace at first of his second time period. His new plan — the fee charged with producing an “official account” of American non secular liberty previous and current — will not be solely unprecedented in American historical past; it’s the product of a really totally different view of the church-state relationship. On this formulation, religion will not be a balm for the ethical ills of a nation. Right here, the US, its historical past and establishments, is the means by which faith can maintain itself. And due to this fact non secular establishments prosper or fail in proportion to not their very own morality or faithfulness however to the extent to which America is “American” sufficient.
In one other period, it is perhaps doable to see this new mannequin of partaking non secular leaders as a mere accident and the fee as innocent pandering, a bone thrown to conservative non secular voters who end up election after election for Republican candidates. However it’s a lot more durable to see the fee and advisory boards as innocent pandering within the present political local weather, when the idea of “non secular liberty” has develop into more and more weaponized. “Spiritual liberty” has been utilized by bakers to disclaim marriage ceremony desserts to homosexual and lesbian couples, by pharmacists to disclaim girls the morning-after tablet, and by ER nurses to refuse a Covid-19 vaccine. In a change that started when segregationists invoked their non secular freedom as a protection in opposition to racial equality in the course of the civil rights motion, non secular liberty is now a canine whistle for opposition to social progress.
This technique was one of many founding techniques of the outdated non secular proper, a tactic it shares with this new non secular motion. However the MAGA non secular proper has taken this technique to a brand new stage. And this new motion is much extra advanced. If we consider that these ideological architects are merely “conservative Christians” and even “Christian nationalists” within the outdated vein, we’re basically misreading each the non secular character of the MAGA motion and its broader ideological and sensible goals. If, nonetheless, we understand and perceive the distinction, we’re significantly better located to fight the unconventional remaking not simply of American faith however of America itself.
The unusual make-up of the Spiritual Liberty Fee
Nothing makes this new non secular motion extra clear than a fast survey of whom Trump has appointed to serve. Of the 39 appointments made to the Spiritual Liberty Fee and its associated advisory boards, not a single mainline Protestant is amongst them.
As an alternative, the board is dominated by evangelicals. Evangelicals’ emphasis on private salvation, biblical literalism, and emotive worship made them far more standard amongst America’s least rich and least educated, in distinction to the extra theologically versatile mainline Protestants who as soon as dominated the nation’s political and cultural elite. These variations additionally made the evangelicals naturally extra politically conservative than their mainline counterparts. The evangelicals on the fee are joined by conservative Catholics, Orthodox Jews, the Greek Orthodox Archbishop of America, and Dr. Ben Carson, who’s a Seventh-Day Adventist. Considerably, two of the three Muslims appointed by Trump, are white, American converts to the religion.
These are each inclusions and omissions that will have been unthinkable a era in the past, when American civic faith — that’s, the collective and largely unstated non secular values of a nation — was dominated by the mainline denominations whereas Catholics, Jews and Muslims remained on the periphery. That’s to not say that this exclusion was a great factor. However who’s invited to the desk does are likely to reveal the values of the folks and nation doing the inviting. The reign of mainline Protestants and WASPs mirrored a sure set of rules about each faith and politics: moderation in faith and a separation of church and state in politics that not solely maintained the neutrality of the federal government but additionally the independence of the church buildings. Not surprisingly then, because the outdated non secular proper rose to energy, their enemies included not solely secular liberals but additionally the mainline church buildings by whom that they had lengthy felt belittled.
The easy rationalization for the omission of mainline Protestants now could be that these denominations and their members have develop into extra progressive and are just too liberal for Trump. They’re “victims” of the sensibility, good schooling, and pragmatism that outlined them for generations after which lured them leftward. However that is solely a part of the reality. Excessive-profile splits amongst Episcopalians and Methodists, in addition to the existence of deeply conservative mainline church buildings just like the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod and the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, display that there are nonetheless loads of socially and politically conservative mainline Protestants in America, even when they’re now a minority inside their very own custom (which could even be stated of politically conservative Jewish Individuals). These non secular and political conservatives would appear like pure allies to incorporate in a coalition fascinated with conventional faith and conventional society. Furthermore, the evangelical leaders of this new coalition may, in principle, be much more snug with a fellow Protestant Christian than with a Muslim, a Jew, or perhaps a Catholic. And but, they’ve been excluded.
The outdated American civic faith is lifeless. As an alternative, we’re confronted with a cross-faith coalition united not by theology, however by a shared sense of cultural siege. This coalition has manifested not solely within the Spiritual Liberty Fee, however on podcasts, in rallies, and in a rising variety of organizations. Trump even touted the alliance in his now-infamous Madison Sq. Backyard rally on the eve of the 2024 election. This isn’t to say that the traditions included are themselves devoid of theological content material or that each member of those traditions is a part of the brand new coalition. That’s clearly not true. However the people and establishments getting into this coalition are keen to place apart theological considerations, even subsume them utterly, within the curiosity of the coalition’s nation-building mission.
This mission, born from that shared sense of risk (largely round problems with gender, sexuality, and race), will not be, as they’d have you ever consider, a concerted effort to return society to some earlier state. Trump 2.0 has made clear that it’s searching for to reshape America in unprecedented methods. That’s the other of being conventional and conservative. The objective of the brand new motion is to radically rework American life and society.
How the brand new American faith works
Whereas the non secular proper of the Nineteen Eighties and Nineties was political due to their theology, it is a group doing the other: setting up a theology that matches their politics. Take, for instance, the protection by evangelical leaders of Trump’s sexual transgressions. Trump’s sins are excusable as a result of he’s a messianic determine, they are saying, despatched to not save our souls however America. It’s not coherent in a non secular sense. It’s coherent in a political sense.
One other glorious instance is Ismail Royer, one of many three Muslims Trump has appointed to do the fee’s work. To start with, Royer is perhaps the primary member of a presidential advisory board to have served jail time for crimes stemming from his connection to a terrorist group. That’s proper, Royer served over a bit over a decade in federal maximum-security jail after having been convicted of serving to folks journey to Pakistan to coach with Lashkar-e-Taiba, an Islamist militia that goals to unite the entire of Kashmir with Pakistan and has been designated as a terrorist group by the US authorities. He has actually turned over a brand new leaf since his launch.
You possibly can’t counter this sort of motion the identical approach you’ll extra conventional “believers.”
Right this moment, Royer works because the director of the Islam and Spiritual Freedom Motion Staff for the Spiritual Freedom Institute, a corporation that applies the American proper’s technique of invoking non secular liberty each at house and overseas. Royer has been an outspoken supporter of the plaintiffs in Mahmoud v. Taylor, a current Supreme Courtroom case that may determine if dad and mom can decide college students out of studying books with LGBTQ+ themes on the grounds of non secular freedom. The irony of a person who did jail time for recruiting younger folks to a terrorist group caring about children studying Heather Has Two Mommies apart, Royer has truly developed a reasonably fascinating view of the connection between faith and American politics, telling the Center East Discussion board, “America is a Christian nation. … It was based in Christian rules…I wish to see a restoration of these rules.” These are rules he infers from “classical civilization,” which has lengthy been code inside far-right circles for draconian views about race, gender, sexuality, and the like. This each provides us some perception into Royer’s which means and suggests none of those folks have truly learn any Catullus.
He additionally penned a 2018 op-ed for the Washington Put up titled “Muslims Like Me Don’t Have Theological Beef with Evangelicals. It’s the Prejudice In opposition to Us That’s the Downside” wherein he recounts how “at house” he and his spouse felt on the anti-abortion Washington March for Life amongst “fellow believers.” He additionally bemoans the higher welcome Muslims have acquired on the American left, arguing it has brought about American Muslims to desert hardline positions on points like sexuality. In fact, Royer ignores that, as a white man, he’s within the minority (in a approach that issues) amongst American Muslims.
However he’s additionally making a reasonably progressive argument: In claiming he needs to revive Christian rules and complaining in opposition to Muslims being welcomed by the left, he says theology doesn’t matter; solely politics does. As a result of ultimately, America (not God) — and particularly America as it’s imagined by the MAGA motion and Trump — is the supply of liberty and human flourishing. With respect to the issues that matter most to him, Royer does have extra in frequent with the evangelicals on the March for Life than he does with these Muslims whom he mourns being “secularized” by the tolerance of the left. It seems that Royer shares a political imaginative and prescient of America with these evangelicals and doesn’t care about sharing a theological imaginative and prescient with Muslims.
Royer may develop into quick pals with fellow fee member Eric Metaxas. Raised Greek Orthodox, Metaxas has existed in a type of denominational grey space for the entire of his grownup life. He attended an Episcopal Church in Manhattan (the place he served within the sacristy) and has written bestselling biographies of the 2 most well-known Lutherans ever: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Luther himself. However he’s now comfortably described as an “evangelical mental.” All suffice to say, Metaxas most likely doesn’t care all that a lot concerning the deep theological points which have divided Christendom. What he cares about is politics.
This motion seeks energy to not protect a non secular order or affect their very own or anyone else’s afterlife however to reshape society within the right here and now. That is the one world they actually care about. In actual fact, probably the most stunning variations between the outdated non secular proper and the MAGA non secular proper is how little the afterlife comes up. The place Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, and Pat Buchanan by no means ceased speaking about the specter of everlasting punishment, each for people and the nation, these new guys by no means convey it up. They’re, for all intents and functions, metaphysical atheists, sometimes invoking obscure theological language solely as a result of it nonetheless holds cultural sway.
What the brand new non secular proper has constructed has extra in frequent with the Roman Imperial Cult than the tent revivals of early America. Like the traditional pagan faith of the Roman state, the main target is on the ability and fertility of the nation, at the moment demonstrated by the prevalence of pronatalism within the MAGA motion. Take into consideration the considerations about medical remedy rendering trans children infertile. Now evaluate that to the non secular proper’s response to the AIDS disaster. Jerry Falwell referred to as AIDS “God’s punishment” for homosexual intercourse, however he didn’t body the issue with homosexual intercourse as its non-procreative nature. For Falwell, homosexual intercourse was incorrect as a result of it was unbiblical; the absence of copy wasn’t the difficulty. There may be much more stark a distinction after we take a look at abortion. Whereas the outdated non secular proper centered on condemning abortion as unnatural and murderous, components of MAGA seem like extra involved about how abortion entry may have an effect on beginning charges.
Lastly, there’s the seemingly countless celebrations of the state and its energy. Within the temporary time since he returned to workplace, Trump has deliberate a navy parade and established two new holidays. Now, with the fee, he has ordered a hagiographic recounting of the nation’s historical past, inserting the story of the nation inside a sacred narrative by official channels. That’s huge imperial cult vitality (and when you don’t consider me, learn the “Aeneid”). That is the displacement of the trimmings of faith with America First alternate options.
The outdated strategies of resistance gained’t work
All this could matter to anybody who needs to cease them. First, you may’t counter this sort of motion the identical approach you’ll extra conventional “believers.” Combating the non secular proper within the Nineteen Eighties, Nineties, and early 2000s was in some ways as easy as stating hypocrisy and holding leaders to the identical requirements they held others. And it labored. Most of the figures of the outdated non secular proper have merely been shamed from public life, making approach for his or her new, extra pernicious, replacements.
However MAGA is fairly impervious to disgrace. You possibly can’t simply attraction to theological humility or scriptural counterpoints. And you may’t depend on their very own sense of conscience. What animates them is political utility.
If we perceive how the MAGA non secular motion is totally different from the outdated Christian nationalists, those that want to fight Trump and his ilk may discover some new allies. All of these traditionalist conservative believers — the Latter-day Saints, the conservative mainline Protestants, Catholic bishops with out Instagram — is perhaps the important thing to taking down the Church of MAGA. This doesn’t imply that progressives need to agree on all the things or something and even like them. Nevertheless it does imply recognizing that the enemy of your enemy is perhaps your political frenemy, particularly when they’re alarmed for various however equally critical causes.
Many conventional conservative believers stay dedicated to some fundamental ethical structure, to guidelines that bind even their leaders, and to a God who in the end can’t be manipulated. The administration’s draconian immigration coverage is now disquieting some evangelicals, involved about co-religionists who’ve sought refuge in America from actual non secular persecution. And the Trump administration’s pronatalist advocacy for IVF has many conservative Christians, together with conservative Catholics, on edge. These teams might not just like the world as it’s, however they don’t just like the world MAGA’s new civic cult seeks to construct both. And on this mild, they could want to battle it out on the outdated phrases. If progressives could make the thought of the final struggle interesting, there may be hope for a viable coalition.
Trump and MAGA have declared a non secular struggle, not simply in opposition to secularism or progressive types of faith, but additionally in opposition to conventional faith that refuses to serve their radical imaginative and prescient for the world. This isn’t a theocracy within the making. This isn’t The Handmaid’s Story. It’s one thing newer, stranger, and far more tough to battle: faith of nation and id disguised within the trappings of acquainted faiths.
We gained’t defeat it with scripture or appeals to conscience. We’ll want to call it, unmask it, and forge surprising alliances with those that (no matter their doctrine) nonetheless consider in a better energy than Donald Trump.
