Mark Galli, editor-in-chief of American religious magazine Christianity Today, wrote last week that President Trump is “morally lost” and should be removed from the office (1). Trump lashed out at the magazine in his tweets (2):
“A far left magazine, or very ‘progressive,’ as some would call it, which has been doing poorly and hasn’t been involved with the Billy Graham family for many years, Christianity Today, knows nothing about reading a perfect transcript of a routine phone call and would rather have a Radical Left nonbeliever, who wants to take your religion & your guns, than Donald Trump as your President.”
During recent years right-wing populists and extremists have used Christianity to promote their own ideology and to justify their actions. For example, Hungarian far-right leader Viktor Orbán has used Christianity to strengthen his authoritarian control. Some years ago, Orbán wanted to build “an illiberal, a non-liberal state”, but recently he has called his country “a Christian democracy” (3, 4). Dutch far-right politician and infamous Islamophobe Geert Wilders has wanted to enshrine “the dominance of the Judeo-Christian tradition” in the Dutch constitution (5). Far-right groups and parties in many countries have organized anti-immigration and anti-Muslim demonstrations and political stunts on the pretext of defending Christianity or Judeo-Christian values. For example, German far-right anti-immigration and anti-Muslim movement PEGIDA has had religion-themed demonstrations in front of Frauenkirche in Dresden, British far-right group Britain First has organized “Christian Patrols”, French far-right party National Rally (former National Front) has organized commemoration march for their Catholic saint Joan of Arc, Italian far-right party Northern League had a political rally where their leader Matteo Salvini swore to “put the gospel into action” and Spanish far-right party Vox vowed to start a new “reconquista” (reference to the era when Christians defeated the Moors and “reconquered” Southern Spain). (6, 7, 8) In USA, among the myriad of right-wing populist and extremist groups there are also extreme anti-abortion, anti-government and even anti-taxation militias who find excuse for their violent actions from the Bible (9).
Steve Bannon, former chief strategist of President Trump, tried to get European far-right leaders to join his organization The Movement, but that operation hasn’t been as successful as he expected. However, Bannon also has another elaborate plan: he wants to educate next generation of far-right leaders, or “culture warriors”, at an “academy for the Judeo-Christian West” in Italy. The academy would be run by a right-wing Catholic think thank Dignitatis Humanae Institute which was founded by Bannon’s close associate Benjamin Harnwell. The academy would become a “school for gladiators” and it would offer instruction in theology, philosophy, history and politics but it also would “institutionalize the thoughts and political insights of Steve Bannon.” However, the project has run into difficulties with Italian government. (11, 12, 14) American Cardinal Raymond Burke, who was named honorary president of the Dignitatis Humanae Institute, resigned. In his resignation letter Cardinal Burke wrote (13):
“In recent times it (i.e. the institute) has become more and more identified with the political program of Mr Bannon. While I have urged the institute to return to its original purpose of promoting the respect of human dignity it has not done so… I have therefore, effective immediately, terminated any relationship with the Dignitatis Humanae Institute.”
Bannon has also tried to build opposition against Pope Francis. Bannon advised Italian far-right leader Matteo Salvini to attack the pope over the issue of migration and refugees. Pope Francis has made the plight of refugees important part of his papacy and he has asked for compassion towards migrants. Bannon sees Pope Francis as “enemy.” (14)
Also other people close to Trump have used Christianity in their endeavors. When Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gave his speech in Cairo, Egypt, in January, he said (15):
“In my office, I keep a Bible open on my desk to remind me of God and His Word, and The Truth.
And it’s the truth, lower-case “t,” that I’m here to talk about today. It is a truth that isn’t often spoken in this part of the world, but because I’m a military man by training, I’ll be very blunt and direct today: America is a force for good in the Middle East.”
Pompeo also believes that it is possible that President Trump could be a new “Queen Esther” who will save Jews from “the Iranian menace.” Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu thinks that evangelical Christians, such as Vice President Pence and Secretary of State Pompeo, are actually more reliable allies of Israel than liberal American Jews. (16) Trump’s lawyer Jay Sekulow and his family run many non-profit organizations, for example Christian Advocates Serving Evangelism (CASE). It has turned out that the Sekulow family has used tens of millions of dollars of the money that was donated to their organizations for their own vast salaries as well as unusual loans and property deals. (17, 18) Sekulow is the leader of Trump’s personal legal team and his son Jordan is also member of the team (19, 20).
Even though right-wing populists and extremists use Christianity in their political activities and propaganda, polls suggest that their supporters are actually disproportionately irreligious. Church attendance seems to be one of the strongest statistical predictors for voting against the populist far right. (6) Many Christian religious leaders have condemned the use of Christianity in the far-right propaganda and hate mongering (6, 7). There is also a lot of interfaith dialogue and cooperation organized by United Nations and many other international and national organizations, for example Parliament of the World’s Religions, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID) and National Forum for Cooperation of Religions in Finland (CORE Forum). (21, 22, 23, 24)
References:
1) “Calling Trump ‘Morally Lost’, ‘Christianity Today’ Editor Calls For His Removal” NPR 20.12.2019
2) “Trump attacks Christianity Today over bruising editorial” The Hill 20.12.2019
https://thehill.com/homenews/news/475445-trump-attacks-christianity-today-over-bruising-editorial
3) “Full text of Viktor Orbán’s speech at Băile Tuşnad (Tusnádfürdő) of 26 July 2014” The Budapest Beacon 29.7.2014
4) “Orbán deploys Christianity with a twist to tighten grip in Hungary” The Guardian 14.7.2019
5) “Can Geert Wilders be more than the Netherlands’ agitator-in-chief?” The Guardian 8.3.2017
6) “Defenders of faith: why right-wing populists are embracing religion” New Statesman 30.5.2018
https://www.newstatesman.com/2018/05/defenders-faith-0
7) “Britain First’s Bury Park ‘Christian Patrol’ In Luton Condemned As ‘Intimidating’ And ‘Inflaming Tensions'” Huffington Post 26.1.2016
8) “The rise of Spanish far-right party Vox shines light into the dark corners of the country’s politics” The National 5.1.2019
9) “Holy Hate: The Far Right’s Radicalization of Religion” Southern Poverty Law Center 10.2.2018
10) “Steve Bannon’s stuttering European adventure” Politico 19.4.2019
11) “Italy disrupts Steve Bannon’s plan for a right-wing academy in a monastery” The Washington Post 31.5.2019
12) “Culture ministry failed to vet right-wing religious group close to Steve Bannon” The Art Newspaper 27.11.2019
https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/culture-ministry-failed-to-vet-right-wing-group
13) “Cardinal Burke resigns from Dignitatis Humanae Institute” Independent Catholic News 27.6.2019
https://www.indcatholicnews.com/news/37362
14) “Steve Bannon ‘told Italy’s populist leader: Pope Francis is the enemy'” The Guardian 13.4.2019
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/apr/13/steve-bannon-matteo-salvini-pope-francis-is-the-enemy
15) “A Force for Good: America Reinvigorated in the Middle East” U.S. Virtual Embassy Iran 10.1.2019
https://ir.usembassy.gov/a-force-for-good-america-reinvigorated-in-the-middle-east/
16) “The Rapture and the Real World: Mike Pompeo Blends Beliefs and Policy” The New York Times 30.3.2019
17) “Trump lawyer’s firm steered millions in donations to family members, files show” The Guardian 27.6.2017
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jun/27/trump-lawyer-jay-sekulow-donations
18) “Who Is Jay Sekulow? Trump Attorney Funnels Millions to His Family Through Nonprofits” Right Wing Watch 7.3.2019
19) “Trump’s personal attorneys remain largely on the sidelines as the president contends with the impeachment inquiry” The Washington Post 3.12.2019
20) “Jordan Sekulow: President’s legal team working on two theories to bolster defense against impeachment” Fox News 21.12.2019
https://www.foxnews.com/media/jordan-sekulow-impeachment-legal-defense-president-trump-nancy-pelosi
21) World Interfaith Harmony Week United Nations
https://www.un.org/en/events/interfaithharmonyweek/index.shtml
22) Parliament of the World’s Religions
https://parliamentofreligions.org
23) KAICIID
24) CORE Forum
IDIS Observer 