The November 2022 midterm elections in the United States provide the latest evidence about the priorities of white voters who call themselves evangelical Christian conservatives. In Georgia, those voters are the primary constituency supporting Herschel Walker’s candidacy to defeat Raphael Warnock’s bid for reelection to the U.S. Senate.
In Arkansas (where I live), those voters supported Sarah Huckabee Sanders in her successful candidacy to defeat Chris Jones and become the next governor.
Wendell Griffen
In both states, white evangelical Christian conservatives supported candidates known for dishonesty. Sanders was press secretary during Donald Trump’s presidency of serial lies. Walker, whom Trump recruited to run for the Senate, has lied about his academic record at the University of Georgia, his marital history and his views on abortion.
Why?
Because white evangelical Christian conservatives are determined to seize and wield power to maintain white supremacy, pride and prejudice, not democracy, justice and peace.
That is why they supported Trump’s candidacy for the Republican nomination in 2016.
That is why they voted for Trump overwhelmingly to become U.S. president in 2016.
That is why they continued to support Trump as he lied about the number of people who attended his 2017 inauguration, the danger people faced from COVID-19, and countless other things.
That is why they supported Trump in 2020, supported Trump-endorsed candidates in 2022, and will continue supporting Trump and candidates he favors.
“The principle that motivates white evangelical Christian conservatives is power, not democracy, justice or peace.”
The principle that motivates white evangelical Christian conservatives is power, not democracy, justice or peace. White evangelical Christian conservatives worship white supremacist power. White patriarchal power. White capitalist power. White militarist power. White homicidal and genocidal power.
White evangelical Christian conservatives fear democracy. That is why they oppose voting rights for people of color, immigrants and other marginalized persons.
White evangelical Christian conservatives fear human diversity. That is why they mistreat gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and other persons.
White evangelical Christian conservatives fear truth. That is why they censor educators, defund public schools and libraries.
White evangelical Christian conservatives fear democracy, equity and justice. That is why they want to ban women from deciding when and whether to bear children.
White evangelical Christian conservatives are not driven by faith in God, democracy or justice. They are driven by fear of losing the power of white supremacy, patriarchy and authoritarianism.
We should not expect white evangelical pastors to teach, preach or counsel white evangelical conservatives away from those fears. White evangelical pastors always have worshiped at the altar of white supremacy, validated accepted white hypocrisy and lies, and embraced white supremacy, patriarchy and authoritarianism as necessary for their personal and professional success.
White evangelical pastors embrace white supremacy, patriarchy and authoritarianism to survive.
“The future of democracy in the U.S. depends on the rest of us.”
Hence, the future of democracy in the U.S. depends on the rest of us. The fate of democracy depends on white people who have disavowed white evangelical Christianity and depends on white people who never embraced it in the first place. And the future of democracy depends on whether decolonized indigenous, Black, Latinx, Asia, and other people of color, decolonized white men, women and girls, decolonized LGBTQ persons, and decolonized immigrants will resist the fascism of white supremacy, patriarchy and authoritarianism together.
The future of democracy in the United States does not depend on white evangelical Christian voters. It depends on whether the rest of us are willing to teach, campaign, struggle, play, live and hope together for democracy, justice and peace.
Together, we can embrace prophetic dissent and protest in the face of fascist white supremacy, hypocrisy and authoritarianism. Together, we can reject the lying, fearmongering and bullying tactics of white evangelical Christian conservatives.
Together, we can determine the future of democracy in the United States. Together, we can save the world from the fascist white supremacy, patriarchy and authoritarianism of evangelical Christian conservatives.
Let’s do it.
Wendell Griffen is an Arkansas circuit judge and pastor of New Millennium Church in Little Rock, Ark.
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