To say that I was baptized in the movement known as the Religious Right - while accurate in a literal sense - would fall well short as a metaphor. As the child of two Baptist Sunday school teachers and attendee of a Christian elementary, middle and high school, I would say the more appropriate term to describe my experience would be submersion.
It was not until I was an adult, however, that I truly began to appreciate and take seriously the teachings of Jesus. That, coupled with the growing understanding of how our political system worked, caused me to become far more progressive and quite frustrated with my fellow Christians who's only involvement in the politics was to simply look for as many Rs as they could find to check off when they stepped into the ballot box.
Although I have not been a part of the Christian faith for a few years now, it still disgusts me to see countless politicians - who's lives in no way, shape, or form mirror the life of Jesus - pander to people of faith for votes. It is also extremely discouraging when they are allowed to get away with it, which has gone on - relatively unchallenged - for a few decades now.
That is until this year...
Enter Donald Trump. A half-witted con artist that saw an opportunity to seize power and jumped at it. His targeted audience - under-educated, working-class whites who have legitimate frustrations about the current state of the country - has embraced him completely. The evangelical portion of the Republican Party, many of whom do not fall into the aforementioned demographic, has been somewhat less gung-ho, however.
To be clear, I do not see Donald Trump's rhetoric as being anything new. Unfortunately, the Republican Party and far too many evangelicals have been spouting the same things for quite some time now. What differentiates Trump from everyone else is mostly the abrasive and unapologetic manner in which he delivers said message. That, along with his celebrity status, has caused a sizable percentage of the evangelical community to take notice and run in the opposite direction.
A recent poll conducted by Christianity Today reports that less than half of evangelicals have plans to vote for Trump. This was a demographic that - just four years ago - overwhelmingly voted for Mitt Romney. According to the Christian Post, they did so at nearly a four to one ratio. That is an unprecedented change of heart.
While some may claim that Trump does not represent the party as a whole and that evangelicals will fall back in line with a different candidate next election cycle, I am not as convinced. That may be true for a number of folks, but let us not underestimate the amount of damage that has been done during this campaign cycle. It is also worth noting that the rest of the Republican Party has had multiple opportunities to refute Trump's bigotry and misogyny for a year and a half now and has rarely decided to do so. I doubt this will be forgotten.
So where do evangelicals go from here? That is really up to them. As a former affiliate, I would hope that they stay involved in the political process, but recognize that - like Trump - the majority of politicians only offer lip service to the causes they are passionate about. As Jesus once put it in Matthew 7:15-16a, "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits." I would also hope that the political dialog among that community could be broadened to include more issues than simply abortion and gay marriage, which far too often overshadow every other issue.
As for the rest of us, my wish is that we could work with those we may not always see eye-to-eye with on everything. Most people, after all, truly believe in fundamental values such as justice and equality. We have merely been divided by politicians in their quest for power and unfortunately end up fighting each other instead of our oppressors because of it. I do not know that I would go as far as to say that I have hope, but I do believe that Donald Trump has been a wake-up call for all of us. It is now up to us to choose to use our new found awakening to work together for the betterment of our world.
