Critics of the Christian right often point out how hypocritical the Rev. Franklin Graham, Liberty University’s Jerry Falwell, Jr., the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins and other far-right white evangelicals are for supporting President Donald Trump despite his history of adultery and the fact that he been through two divorces. But the Rev. William Barber, in an October 8 op-ed for The Guardian, emphasizes that selfishly using religion for political gain hardly started with Trump — and that political opportunists have been exploiting religion without shame for generations.
Slamming the Evangelicals for Trump Coalition, Barber (a Protestant minister known for his work in the NAACP) writes, “I am troubled anytime I see Christianity used to justify the injustice, deception, violence and oppression that God hates. Even if Donald Trump had a perfect personal moral résumé, his policy agenda is an affront to God’s agenda to lift the poor and bless the marginalized. The distorted moral narrative these so-called Evangelicals for Trump have embraced is contrary to God’s politics, which have nothing to do with being a Democrat or Republican.”
Barber quickly adds, “But this misuse of religion is not new. It has a long history in the American story.” Continue reading.