{"id":22172,"date":"2024-05-10T10:16:33","date_gmt":"2024-05-10T14:16:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=22172"},"modified":"2024-05-11T20:33:53","modified_gmt":"2024-05-12T00:33:53","slug":"opinion-evangelicals-see-trumps-hedonism-as-godly-masculinity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/05\/opinion-evangelicals-see-trumps-hedonism-as-godly-masculinity","title":{"rendered":"Evangelicals See Trump\u2019s Hedonism as Godly \u2018Masculinity’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Gage Skidmore \/ Flickr<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For those looking for\u00a0salacious<\/a>\u00a0content,\u00a0Stormy Daniels<\/a>\u2019\u00a0testimony<\/a>\u00a0at\u00a0Donald Trump\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0New York criminal trial did not disappoint.<\/p>\n

Daniels testified that Trump answered the hotel door wearing \u201csilk or satin.\u201d She also said Trump told her, \u201cYou remind me of my daughter,\u201d and that she spanked him with a magazine\u2014among other prurient recollections.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll leave it to legal experts to debate whether this TMI could backfire by evoking sympathy for Trump, or even jeopardizing the trial. Personally, I\u2019m more interested in what the same conservatives who insisted that\u00a0Bill Clinton\u2019s character flaws made him unfit<\/a>\u00a0for the presidency will think about all this.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong, it is now both predictable and trite to say that these revelations won\u2019t cost Trump many votes. We have all been witness to everything from the\u00a0Access Hollywood<\/em><\/a>\u00a0scandal to Trump being found liable for sexually abusing\u00a0E. Jean Carroll<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Despite it all, a recent Pew Research Center survey showed that\u00a0two-thirds of white evangelical Protestants have a favorable view of Trump<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For years now, many\u00a0Christians have sought to justify supporting Trump<\/a>\u00a0using various rationalizations, including comparing him to\u00a0King David<\/a>, a flawed man who committed serious transgressions yet was used mightily by God.<\/p>\n

Never mind that\u00a0Trump never repented for his sins<\/a>\u00a0or even sought to change his ways; the gist was that God can use flawed vessels to accomplish His plans.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, though, this argument seems to have morphed (in some quarters, at least) into a more sinister theory: that sexual sin isn\u2019t just a stumbling block that can be overcome, it is\u00a0proof<\/em>\u00a0of a man\u2019s masculinity and even worthiness to be used by God.<\/p>\n

At least, that was my takeaway from a recent Politico interview with\u00a0Samuel L. Perry<\/a>, a sociologist of religion and author of the book\u00a0Addicted to Lust: Pornography in the Lives of Conservative Protestants.\u00a0<\/em>He contends that many evangelicals see Trump as a \u201crepresentative of a kind of masculinity that is so masculine that his sexual appetites cannot be contained. That\u2019s almost a good sign,\u201d Parry says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn other words,\u201d Perry continues, \u201c[Trump is] not\u00a0Mike Pence<\/a>\u2014a kind of asexual, Ned Flanders kind of Christian that is effete and ineffective. No, Trump is power personified. He is a warrior. And with that comes all of the temptations of being a warrior.\u201d<\/p>\n

Talk about creating a permission structure, not just for Christians to vote for Trump, but for Christian men to\u00a0act<\/em>\u00a0like Trump. Of course, we have seen something like this before, albeit from a more secular perspective.<\/p>\n

Back in 1998,\u00a0Slate<\/em>\u2019s Franklin Foer listed 17 reasons \u201cWhy Clinton Screws Around<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the reasons was this one: \u201cEvolutionary psychologists explain presidential philandering as an atavistic impulse left over from the early days of the human race. Natural selection rewarded men who clawed their way to positions of power with many sex partners (i.e., gave them many chances to reproduce their genes). Proponents of this theory recall ancient rulers such as the Pharaoh Ramses II and Aztec King Nezahualpilli, both of whom sired more than 100 children.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is to say that faithfulness and monogamy are for betas. Losers. Not for the real winners and conquerors who, frankly, are tempted constantly and cannot help themselves evolutionarily. Talk about a get-out-of-jail-free card. What a racket!<\/p>\n

And now, if this author is correct, some of Trump\u2019s defenders have taken this un-Christian rationalization and\u00a0baptized<\/em>\u00a0it.<\/p>\n

The whole point of civilization is about transcending our very nature\u2014our carnal appetites. Everyone wants to talk about how great nature is, but, among other things, nature is red in tooth and claw. In nature, the powerful dominate the weak.<\/p>\n

If anyone should understand the dangers of glamorizing the law of the jungle , it should be Christians, who advocate a radical rejection of man\u2019s sin nature (this language is quite explicitly used; the Apostle Paul refers to unsaved people as \u201cnatural<\/a>,\u201d and talks of being sinful as \u201ccarnal\u201d).<\/p>\n

The Bible advises that we \u201cnot fulfill the lust of the flesh<\/a>.\u201d This certainly includes sex, but it also transcends sex. When it comes to being a man, part of overcoming the flesh also involves other types of sacrifice and even suffering.<\/p>\n

The other day, I was in a restroom of a church. There, I witnessed a sacrificial act that is, no doubt, repeated often: a Christian father lifting his paraplegic son onto the toilet. My first thought was: This is a real man. This is a man who knows unspeakable suffering. I\u2019m not sure I\u2019m strong enough to handle what this man endures.<\/p>\n

My second thought\u2014and I hate that my mind turns to politics, but it\u2019s the truth\u2014was that Donald Trump probably sees these people as losers and suckers.<\/p>\n

The vast majority of Christians I know would still view this father as something of a hero. How\u00a0they can bestow that same hero status on Trump<\/a>\u00a0is something that I\u2019ll never understand.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on www.yahoonews.com.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For those looking for\u00a0salacious\u00a0content,\u00a0Stormy Daniels\u2019\u00a0testimony\u00a0at\u00a0Donald Trump\u2019s\u00a0New York criminal trial did not disappoint. Daniels testified that Trump answered the hotel door wearing \u201csilk or satin.\u201d She also said Trump told her, \u201cYou remind me of my daughter,\u201d and that she spanked him with a magazine\u2014among other prurient recollections. I\u2019ll leave it to legal experts to debate…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":22214,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nEvangelicals See Trump\u2019s Hedonism as Godly \u2018Masculinity'<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/05\/opinion-evangelicals-see-trumps-hedonism-as-godly-masculinity\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Evangelicals See Trump\u2019s Hedonism as Godly \u2018Masculinity'\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For those looking for\u00a0salacious\u00a0content,\u00a0Stormy Daniels\u2019\u00a0testimony\u00a0at\u00a0Donald Trump\u2019s\u00a0New York criminal trial did not disappoint. Daniels testified that Trump answered the hotel door wearing \u201csilk or satin.\u201d She also said Trump told her, \u201cYou remind me of my daughter,\u201d and that she spanked him with a magazine\u2014among other prurient recollections. I\u2019ll leave it to legal experts to debate…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/05\/opinion-evangelicals-see-trumps-hedonism-as-godly-masculinity\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-05-10T14:16:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-05-12T00:33:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2024\/05\/trump-godly-masculinity_credit-Gage-Skidemore-Flickr.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Matt Lewis\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Evangelicals See Trump\u2019s Hedonism as Godly \u2018Masculinity'","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/05\/opinion-evangelicals-see-trumps-hedonism-as-godly-masculinity","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Evangelicals See Trump\u2019s Hedonism as Godly \u2018Masculinity'","og_description":"For those looking for\u00a0salacious\u00a0content,\u00a0Stormy Daniels\u2019\u00a0testimony\u00a0at\u00a0Donald Trump\u2019s\u00a0New York criminal trial did not disappoint. Daniels testified that Trump answered the hotel door wearing \u201csilk or satin.\u201d She also said Trump told her, \u201cYou remind me of my daughter,\u201d and that she spanked him with a magazine\u2014among other prurient recollections. I\u2019ll leave it to legal experts to debate…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/05\/opinion-evangelicals-see-trumps-hedonism-as-godly-masculinity","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2024-05-10T14:16:33+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-05-12T00:33:53+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2024\/05\/trump-godly-masculinity_credit-Gage-Skidemore-Flickr.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Matt Lewis","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/05\/opinion-evangelicals-see-trumps-hedonism-as-godly-masculinity","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2024\/05\/opinion-evangelicals-see-trumps-hedonism-as-godly-masculinity","name":"Evangelicals See Trump\u2019s Hedonism as Godly 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