The religious right have stated, and shown by their actions, that they’re giving the Felon a mulligan on everything he does wrong. Corruption? Rape? Collusion with Russia? Attempted coup? They ain’t sayin’ nothing, and as noted at the link, don’t think they should be judged for it. Of course they don’t — the one thing they can’t stand is being criticized by people they imagine are their moral inferiors (I’ve often thought part of the FOTUS’ appeal for them is that he whines about persecution as much as they do).
The rationale they’ve given is that even if the Felon is a bad man, God can work through bad men to achieve divine ends. Look at King David: a flawed man who sent Uriah off to die in battle so that he could bang his wife Bathsheba. Didn’t God use David to achieve greatness just the same? Cyrus the Great, the Persian emperor who restored the Jews to Israel also gets held up as the same sort of monarch.
The first problem with this, as right-wing misogynist Matt Walsh once said (possibly the only time I will ever agree with him on anything), is that the prophets of Israel did not give David a mulligan. They called him out on his sins, demanded he repent and warned him there would be a price to pay. The religious right won’t call the Felon out on anything; I’m sure they’re aware they’d lose their access and influence the first time they bruised his snowflake fee-fees. Nor will they ask him to repent (he claims he has nothing to repent for). And he’d go ballistic if anyone, including God, suggested there would be consequences for anything he’d done.
Instead, the religious right tongue bathes and adores Trump for helping them punch down at LGBTQ people, women and POC. And I’m sure some of the billionaire megachurch preachers love the big tax cuts. They’re closer to the court prophets of Ahab (a baaad king) than servants of God. Plus some of them are outright frauds.
Second, Tony Perkins and the other court prophets are just restating an old, old principle of politics: it’s okay when our side does it. Scream like hell when the other party’s candidate is caught having an affair, get defensive when your side does it. It’s not a universal law — Democrats are more likely to crack down on sexual harassers in their party than Republicans are — but it’s not unique to the religious right.
The trouble is, they want it both ways: they should be given a pass on pragmatic politics because that’s how the game is played but they also demand everyone regard them as principled champions of moral principles. They used to call for having godly candidates in office, now they don’t care, but they still get pissy about being judged.
When I posted on Facebook about the first newspaper reports about the Southern Baptists turning a blind eye to predators in pulpits, a Catholic friend of mine exploded: how could this paper attack Christianity like that? Don’t they realize we are all sinners? I’ve seen other Christians play that card, but they never apply it to people on the opposite side of the political aisle. Nor do I fancy the Felon’s prophets would appreciate being told that as they’re no better than anyone else, they’re in no position to opine on morality.
The King David defense is not a good one. If the religious right wants to gain a kingdom of this world, they should expect to be judged accordingly.
