The Overview (Monday, October 19)
Evangelical Christians' bargain with Donald Trump, weighing legal and cultural strategies for strengthening religious liberty, and how QAnon is affecting American politics
It is perhaps the understatement of all understatements to say that 2020 has given us its share of challenges. Thankfully for baseball fans, there appears to be some good left in the world after all, as the Houston Astros will not be playing for the 2020 World Series title.
The Astros had reached the World Series twice in the last three seasons, including winning the Series in 2017. But after last season, the team was exposed for a sophisticated system of cheating — namely, they stole the pitching signals from their opponents and banged trash cans to signal to their hitters the incoming pitches.
Most non-Astros fans were therefore ecstatic when Houston was eliminated in a thrilling American League Championship Series at the hands of the Tampa Bay Rays, who will be returning to the World Series for the first time since 2008. In a year marked by disappointments, there was some justice in professional baseball after all.
With that, here’s the Monday, October 19 edition of The Overview:
1) The Atlantic’s Peter Wehner argues that the bargain evangelical Christians made with Donald Trump—their support in exchange for friendly policies and supportive judges—was a bad one. This isn’t to say that Trump hasn’t delivered on his end of the deal: as I wrote for Religion and Politics following the Kavanaugh nomination in 2018, “For Christian conservatives, with the Court on the verge of a solid conservative majority and poised to render favorable judgments on religious liberty and abortion, this deal is increasingly looking like a good one.” However, Wehner weighs these gains against what has been lost, namely, “the power [evangelicals] have achieved is coming at the expense of the faith they proclaim.”
2) Salon’s Erin Prophet writes that some charismatic Christians view Donald Trump’s election as president in 2016—and his bid for reelection this year—as the fulfillment of prophecy. Prophet (yes, her last name is not lost on me) suggests that these Christians rely on speaking what their followers perceive as truth to maintain their authority, which has allowed fringe theories (including QAnon, discussed further below) to take prominence in some of these communities.
3) Consider two recent articles from Christianity Today, each touching on a similar theme. First, Bonnie Kristian (wow, the coincidental names continue, huh?) argues that while conservative Christians aren’t wrong to desire a friendly U.S. Supreme Court to protect religious liberty, the future of this issue (and related ones) will be determined by cultural rather than legal developments. “If the cultural shift away from faith in America continues,” Kristian writes, “it will do so with or without a Justice Barrett.”
And second, Shirley Hoogstra—who serves as president of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, of which my university is a member institution—says Christians should be careful not to take solace solely in favorable legal decisions. Instead, their political strategy must also include legislative efforts: “By electing officials—both Republicans and Democrats—who will push for religious liberty legislation and stronger regulations in federal agencies, we can protect the right to live our faith in the public square.”
4) The Washington Post’s Stephanie McCrummen gives a tremendous account of the power of QAnon to shape electoral outcomes in 2020. In this instance, a political novice decides to run for Congress. In just 31 days his campaign was over, a victim of an insane and disturbing conspiracy theory movement taking hold of certain elements of American politics.
5) Finally, on Friday I had the opportunity to contribute to a panel sponsored by Neighborly Faith, in which several evangelicals discussed a recent poll of American Muslims on a variety of issues, including Islamophobia in America, a desire for political coalitions on religious liberty and abortion, and more.