When it comes to MAGA, there’s always another document to sign, another loyalty oath, another pledge of allegiance.
Declaring MAGA purity underscores the anxiety always present in the movement. Sen. Josh Hawley, the latest MAGA darling, offers a Declaration of Life. The document offers no new information but is another anti-abortion diatribe.
Rodney Kennedy
Hawley and MAGA represent what Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, in Tyranny of the Minority, call “the retreat from democracy.” Loyalty oaths are for insiders only. They are attempts to maintain power, root out all dissidents and exercise control. The usual suspects signed immediately: Family Research Council, Sean Feucht and Tony Perkins.
Perkins endorses the Declaration for Life with an emotional plea: “Pastors and the faith community must ‘speak unequivocally on the sanctity of human life and hold our elected officials accountable.’”
“How many anti-abortion documents must one sign before loyalty is assured?”
How many anti-abortion documents must one sign before loyalty is assured?
Soren Kierkegaard recognized this tedious practice. He wrote, “There is always something one has to look into first of all, and it always seems to know one had first of all to have the doctrine in perfect form before one can begin to live — that is to say, one never begins.”
The MAGA evangelical obsession with signing documents and declaring loyalty oaths can be explored as a metaphorical framework — MAGA has religious hypochondria (an anxiety disorder). The phobia around social issues afflicts many people, compromises quality of life, inflicts financial costs and is “feared by many.”
This is not just a political program with Donald Trump’s base but also a problem within the Calvinistic-influence world of conservative evangelicalism. Professors at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, a Southern Baptist school in North Carolina, are required to sign two doctrinal statements and affirm two others.
Among the signs of evangelical hypochromia:
- Excessive worrying about social issues and fear of abortion and gay rights destroying the nation
- Distressing concerns over personal and private matters having no bearing on communal life
- Misinterpretation of the political realities of a diverse society
- Abnormal thoughts, feelings and behaviors of outrage and authoritarianism related to social issues
A Declaration of Life is a loyalty oath by another name. Loyalty has surpassed all other attributes among MAGA evangelicals. And President Trump is the leader of the band.
“Loyalty has surpassed all other attributes among MAGA evangelicals.”
Trump left no doubt about the role of loyalty at his Republican Midterm Convention in Dallas. In his speech, he told the adoring crowd: “Please raise your right hand. ‘I pledge to the greatest president in the history of the United States, we swear that on Nov. 3 we are going to go out and vote.”
Trump has made a new Pledge of Allegiance to himself. Now, we are supposed to be “one nation under Trump.”
I believe MAGA will do anything, and I mean anything, to keep Trump in office and Republicans in charge of the House and Senate. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has indicated he may refuse to seat Democratic congressional winners if the Democrats win a majority.
MAGA’s primary quality is loyalty. They value not democracy, freedom, truth, honor or even money, but simply Trump.
Trump has created the ultimate loyalty test. He refuses to acknowledge truths everyone else sees. His lies are transparent; he does not expect MAGA to believe them, but he insists MAGA display loyalty by affirming them.
Jeffrey R. Wilson, in Shakespeare and Trump, says: “He demands loyalty but shows none, wants total obedience and devotion, must be loved, or else. Supporters must see the world as he does. He relishes the power he has over them. Commonwealth is a bizarre concept to him; he wants dictatorship.”
And where does this madness for loyalty lead? To more madness.
MAGA never will tire of signing documents of loyalty, pledging allegiance to Trump or expressing their undying love. I will always remember Robert Jeffress, when asked if there was anything Trump could do to make him walk away, saying: “He’s my friend. I will never walk away.”
Rodney W. Kennedy is a pastor and writer. He is the author of 11 books, including his latest, Dancing with Metaphors in the Pulpit.