Almost every political conversation with white evangelicals today eventually comes down to their fear of saying anything positive about LGBTQ people.
If you have empathy, they’ll warn it’s a slippery slope toward affirming LGBTQ people.
If you suggest women can preach, they’ll accuse you of flirting with affirming LGBTQ people.
If a public school teacher mentions something vague about everyone belonging, they’ll claim Christians are being persecuted over their beliefs about LGBTQ people.
If you attempt to have a conversation about same-sex relationships in light of Scripture, they always ask, “But what about Romans 1?”
“God gave them over to an unfit mind to do things that should not be done,” the author of Romans says. “They not only do them but even applaud others who practice them.”
This single passage is always wielded as a conversation stopper to condemn LGBTQ people and anyone who affirms them.
John MacArthur preaches at Grace Community Church on Sunday, Aug. 16, in defiance of a court order on public health.
“Homosexuals are experiencing the judgment of God, and thus they are very, very sad,” John MacArthur claims. “‘Gay’ is a preposterous term for describing those who have given themselves over to homosexual sin. They’re anything but gay. It’s a lifestyle of hopelessness and loneliness, expended in a perpetual, fruitless effort to bury their massive guilt under a campaign of self-justification. It’s one endless attempt to silence the cries of conscience in pursuit of evil pleasures that cannot satisfy.”
Thus, MacArthur concludes, “When people reject God and suppress the truth of his existence, he gives them up to homosexuality, then he gives them up to a reprobate mind. A reprobate mind means you don’t even function. People go from a sexual revolution to homosexuality and finally to insanity.”
This used to be the theology I espoused. But through the 20 years I spent in the cleaning industry, the LGBTQ people I met in retail stores I cleaned demonstrated through their loving concern for me that these white evangelical scripts about them are complete nonsense.
To the contrary, I began to realize as a white evangelical how my theology was leaving me hopeless and lonely and was burying my guilt in self-justification and silencing the cries of my inner humanity. My characterization of the LGBTQ community was all projection.
So what if we considered Romans 1 not as a critique of LGBTQ people, but of white evangelicals, who applaud the foolishness, heartlessness and ruthlessness of the Trump administration? What if white evangelicals are the ones God has given over to an unfit mind to do things that shouldn’t be done?
White evangelical cruelty revealed in polling data
“The white evangelicals, right?” historian Kristin Du Mez asked on the latest episode of “The Convocation Unscripted” podcast. “Without fail, topping the charts on all … the worst things that this administration is doing. White evangelicals are not just tolerating this, they are not holding their noses here for the umpteenth time … . They are enthusiastically supporting all of these measures, and this is exactly what they voted for. … Seeing those numbers in this survey, it was devastating. It was sickening to see that, just in black and white there.”
Du Mez was referring to the latest findings from Public Religion Research Institute on how Americans feel about Trump’s first 100 days in office. According to the PRRI, 76% of white evangelical Protestants approve of Trump’s job performance in comparison to “one-third or fewer of other religious Americans.”
Regarding Trump’s handling of immigration specifically, his approval ratings among white Christians are:
- White evangelicals — 78%
- Latter-day Saints — 65%
- Mainline Protestants — 64%
- White Catholics — 63%
When we read these numbers, it’s important to consider them in light of the people Trump’s policies are affecting. Reuters recently reported about a mother who was taken away from her 1-year-old daughter, who was still breastfeeding.
“They told me to call my husband, that our daughter had to stay and that I would go,” the woman told Reuters. “My daughter got nervous and agitated and began to ask for milk, but it didn’t matter to them.” According to Reuters, “Under Biden, ICE officials were instructed to consider the impact of enforcement action on families. Trump rescinded that guidance.”
According to CNN, one week earlier the Trump administration deported three children who are U.S. citizens with their mothers. One of the children is a 4-year-old cancer patient.
Baptist News Global reported the Trump administration is forcing young migrant children to stand before judges with no legal representation or interpreters. U.S. Sens. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, wrote in a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: “Terminating legal representation for these children means that toddlers will now face a courtroom and judge with no adult to advocate on their behalf. Children will be asked to make decisions about their legal rights well beyond their comprehension, with life-altering consequences.”
“While white Republicans claim they’re simply following the law, they’re actually being driven by a measurable fear of being replaced.”
While white Republicans claim they’re simply following the law, they’re actually being driven by a measurable fear of being replaced by nonwhite people. PRRI asked respondents whether they agreed with the statement, “Immigrants are invading our country and replacing our cultural and ethnic background.” Thankfully, 64% of Americans said they disagree, while just 33% agree. But breaking the numbers down by party reveals a disturbing skeleton in the GOP’s closet. While only 12% of Democrats agree with the statement, 60% of Republicans agree.
And ultimately, that racist fear is leading to a measurable celebration, not only of the many cruel stories we’ve heard in the news, but of rounding up immigrants and putting them in military-guarded internment camps. Again, 61% of Americans disagree that the Trump administration should do this action that would be reminiscent of the Nazi concentration camps, while 33% agree with the idea. But again, while only 15% of Democrats agree with the idea, 62% of Republicans agree.
Approving cruelty in social media posts
One of the most disturbing features of the Trump administration and its supporters has been their flaunting of cruelty on social media. Of course, we’re used to Trump calling people names in his posts and telling them to go to hell. But the official White House social media account is now cruel as well.
White House social media post
In March, they posted a cartoon version of Dominican woman crying while being deported. Of course, they justified it by saying she was dealing fentanyl. But whatever she’s done, turning her into a crying cartoon is unprofessional and cruel.
Earlier in April, they posted video of white officers deporting handcuffed immigrants while playing the 1969 song by Steam, “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye.”
Just a few days ago, they posted a status mocking Diversity Equity and Inclusion, while saying, “The only DEI we support: Deport Every Illegal.”
After Pope Francis died, the White House account posted an image of Trump as pope. But Catholics, who are in mourning over the death of Pope Francis and who are concerned about the future leadership of their church, didn’t find it very humorous.
One reporter asked Trump: “The fact that it was put out on the White House account, even though it was AI generated, it was a joke, it was a meme, does it at all diminish the substance of the official White House account to have it go out on that particular channel?”
“Give me a break,” Trump mocked. “You’re just. It was just. Somebody did it in fun. It’s fine. Have to have a little fun, don’t you?”
Trump also falsely claimed, “Catholics loved it” and blamed any pushback on “the fake news.”
White evangelicals are not simply coming together to support Trump, but to support blatant racism among themselves as well. Someone released a video of a woman named Shiloh repeatedly calling a Black child the n-word. But rather than apologizing, the woman started a fundraiser for herself. As of the time of this writing, she has raised more than $700,000. And many of the comments include reflections of the white supremacist fear of the Great Replacement that PRRI measured.
Alcatraz Island in San Francisco (123rf.com)
The beautiful horror of ‘Hellcatraz’
The most recent example of MAGA’s cruelty is in Trump’s desire to restore and reopen Alcatraz. “It represents something very strong, very powerful in terms of law and order,” he explained. “Our country needs law and order. Alcatraz is, I would say, the ultimate.”
Alcatraz was considered an escape-proof prison at the turn of the 20th century. Inmates referred to it as “Hellcatraz.” Even if an inmate were to escape the island, he would have to survive the shark-infested waters.
When Trump described one prisoner who attempted to escape, he said, “They found his clothing rather badly ripped up. And it was a lot of shark bites, a lot of problems.” But Trump reminisced fondly, “It sort of represents something that’s both horrible and beautiful and strong and miserable, weak. It’s got a lot of qualities that are interesting.”
“They love a beauty that brings horror to others and a strength that causes misery to others.”
The policies Trump and his white evangelical supporters are promoting are cruel. They love a beauty that brings horror to others and a strength that causes misery to others. They think that’s “interesting.”
They can get away with their violent delights because they claim they’re simply being violent toward lawbreakers who deserve it. And when innocent people get caught in the violence without due process, they’re considered the collateral cost of doing business.
Thus, white evangelical Trump supporters are the uniquely violent ones wielding their cruel, harsh justice at the top of a white supremacist empire.
Who is Romans 1 really talking about?
The ultimate lawbreakers, according to many white evangelicals, are LGBTQ people. As MacArthur said, he considers homosexuality not simply one of many sins someone can commit, but a judgment sentence of God on an individual where God hands them over to insanity.
But the description of aberrant sexuality in terms of what is “unnatural” and “shameful” in Romans 1 has to be understood within the context of ancient empire. In their book, Reading Romans Right: Correcting Common Misreadings, Restoring Paul’s Original Intent, Keith Giles and Matthew Distefano explain: “In the ancient world, what must be understood is that often, male-male sex happened in the context of power, dominance, coercion, control and religious ritualistic worship. One might call this idolatry. Put simply: Well-to-do older Roman men are known to have raped younger, poorer boys, often as a religious rite to whatever god/s they worshipped. Hence, the rules for their sexual engagements are skewed toward one party at the expense of the other, all in the name of the divine.”
“The problem was with the violent ones at the top of the empire sacralizing their violent power.”
In other words, the problem wasn’t with those on the underside of power who were loving one another in mutual, co-equal relationships. The problem was with the violent ones at the top of the empire sacralizing their violent power over those they believed must submit below.
Similarly, the problem today isn’t the friendly retail store manager I cleaned for who treated me with kindness and respect and then went home at the end of the day to spend time with a gay partner.
The problem today is with the violent ones at the top of the empire, and with the ones who approve of them.
Romans 1 describes the violent ones as people who are “filled with every kind of injustice, evil, covetousness, malice. Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, craftiness, they are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, rebellious toward parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.”
Given their embrace and celebration of justice as violent cruelty over those they deem to be beneath them as demonstrated by their policies, polling data and social media posts, I can’t think of anyone who fits that description in the United States today more than Trump and the white evangelicals. In the self-projecting words of MacArthur, white evangelicals are the ones who are pursuing “one endless attempt to silence the cries of conscience in pursuit of evil pleasures that cannot satisfy.”
Rick Pidcock
Rick Pidcock is a 2004 graduate of Bob Jones University, with a bachelor of arts degree in Bible. He’s a freelance writer based in South Carolina and a former Clemons Fellow with BNG. He completed a master of arts degree in worship from Northern Seminary. He is a stay-at-home father of five children and produces music under the artist name Provoke Wonder. Follow his blog at www.rickpidcock.com.
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