On Sunday we covered David French’s New York Times piece on getting canceled–literally canceled–by his former church, the Presbyterian Church in America. In that piece, we included some survey data I collected back in 2020 about how Trump, politics generally, race, and COVID-19 has divided evangelical congregations.
French’s piece triggered a firestorm on social media that, sadly, reveals the current state of American conservative Christianity.
Over on Threads, French was overwhelmed by the positive response to his column. He wrote:
I’m absolutely overwhelmed by the response to this piece. To the people sending notes of encouragement, thank you. To the people sharing your own stories of betrayal and heartbreak, I’m so very sorry. A sickness is sweeping through the church.To those saying, “It’s always been this way,” I don’t deny the seeds were there. I should have seen them. At the same time, something has changed. Things are different. A radical, malicious movement has been unleashed.
Many evangelicals support French and his family. They are standing by them in solidarity after learning more about what happened to them in the Presbyterian Church in America:
Jemar Tisby: “The PCA was my old church, too.”
But Trump’s column also triggered stuff like this:
Over at the Federalist, writer Hugo Schwyzer suggests that David French has left evangelicalism. He devotes an entire column to lecturing readers on the proper way to leave a movement. It’s a really strange piece because I don’t think French has ever said he was leaving evangelicalism. Another Federalist piece, written by a graduate of Maranatha Baptist University, takes a blame Obama, not Trump, approach to racism in the church.
Sociologist Ruth Braunstein is on to something here:
This Christian nationalist vs. evangelical pluralism divide was evident in this David French-Al Mohler dustup in 2022.
I noticed that none of these David French haters concern themselves with the racism his family experienced from church members. They do not deal with the way the French’s were treated for having a different political opinion. They seem to be ok with all of that. Nancy French’s book puts their agony at how they were treated in even more detail.
Great points, Ron. I agree. I haven’t read Nancy French’s book, but should probably take a look at it.
All this over -Never Trump- rending the more conservative Church population. The main question is–
Between Trump and Biden, who is the less of two-Evils. Well, after Three and a Half years of Biden, if
people like Fea and French, still think Trump is Worse, it doesn’t matter how you brand yourself, your
TDS, is untreatable.
I do not understand the ire directed at David French, nor his family. If you read Nancy French’s memoir, you see how deeply troubling the attacks on his family have been, but/and to claim that French (like Beth Moore, or Russell Moore) is no longer Christian is flabbergasting, especially since some of the same people are seeing Trump as The Chosen One. (Note that at one point you say “Trump’s column” though I think you mean “French’s column.” The idea that Trump could write a column is in itself amusing.)
The lesser of two evils is still evil, isn’t it? Republicans cannot claim that they did not have a choice. They did earlier this year and nevertheless chose to reject the alternatives.
The notion that white evangelicals only cozied to Trump because a binary choice forced them too is exaggerated; Liberty U. conferred an honorary doctorate on him in 2012.
Whether you tend to agree with David French or not, it’s disturbing—but sadly not surprising—to see how mean-spirited and blatantly slanderous is much of the opposition to him. It’s helpful to remember that the vitriolic opposition to Jesus came mostly from the “conservative” religious leaders he was closest to in many ways, not from atheists or pagans. It makes sense the same would be true of his followers. Throughout history, Christians grasping for political power have invariably come to the point of persecuting other Christians. We’re seeing the development of the latest iteration of this in real time.