Trump: The Evangelical Plague

Katherine Steward had a piece in the New York Times on the role of the religious Right and it’s negative impact on our response to the pandemic. I think she is partially correct but not entirely. She claims, “Donald Trump rose to power with the determined assistance of a movement that denies science, bashes government and prioritized loyalty over professional expertise. In the current crisis, we are all reaping what that movement has sown.”

To say the religious Right “bashes government” is correct and incorrect — it’s one of those matters more complex than acknowledged. The Religious Right loves big government, depending on what it is doing. If it is out punishing sinners, banning abortions, arresting gays, executing people, etc., they are so in love with the state they almost get orgasmic. A government that nationalizes every uterus and polices every bedroom isn’t “small, limited government.” It’s the sort of state a Bernie Sanders could drool over — he would just prefer it doing things according to his own Marxist religion instead.

Steward even goes as far as saying these people “have lined up with the anti-government agenda.” But she proves her own theory wrong when she acknowledges, “Limited government, according to this line of thinking is ‘godly government.’”