FSTDT

Hardly a day goes by without a huge amount of negative media coverage surrounding President Trump. Yet many evangelicals are continuing to back the President. The informal spokesperson for those evangelicals who advise the Trump administration, Rev Johnnie Moore explains why

On my regular visits to Europe, I am often asked about the support of American evangelicals for President Donald Trump. I certainly understand the curiosity given Mr Trump's well-documented reputation prior to his presidency, his unfiltered stream-of-consciousness approach to social media, and his unconventional foreign policy - to put it mildly.

Yet, many American evangelicals are so close to the administration that the President and First Lady invited them to the equivalent of a state dinner last week “celebrating evangelical leadership.” At a certain point during the evening an open microphone prompted nearly two dozen of the dinner’s 100 guests to thank the administration.

Here are some of the reasons why evangelicals said they are grateful for the policies of the Trump administration, even when they are sometimes offended by the President's sensibilities:

1. He prioritises religious freedom
The Obama administration held court over the most significant threats to America's sacrosanct first amendment as have been witnessed in modern, American history. The most egregious example was when the administration attempted to require religious Catholics, including nuns, to provide contraception against their sincerely held religious beliefs.

When the Trump administration began their term, there were more than 50 active lawsuits against the Department of Justice for similar incidences. The Trump administration prioritised religious freedom in domestic and foreign policy by immediately auditing the entire federal government to identify incidences where administration policies violated the first amendment, and they corrected them, including by settling dozens of the active, aforementioned courts cases.

On the international front, the administration began reorienting humanitarian programs to assist persecuted religious minorities which had been overlooked in countries like Iraq by United Nations’ programs, and just a few months ago the State Department hosted a global symposium on international religious freedom that brought together senior government officials from more than 70 countries.

An entire book could be written on the way the Trump administration supports religious freedom, but one of the more recent examples is their use of severe sanctions against Turkey in response to their ongoing and unjust imprisonment of an American pastor, Andrew Brunson.

2. He protects the unborn
Without question, the Trump administration is more obviously pro-life than any previous administration since abortion became legal in the United States, and at a time when public opinion has moved rapidly against abortion, even among Democrats despite the party leaderships’ near-total unwillingness to accommodate pro-life Democrats.

The head of the Susan B. Anthony List, a noted pro-life organisation, didn't initially support candidate Trump but has since come to deem him "the most Pro-life president in American history" because of numerous policies he has introduced.

During the 2016 campaign, many evangelicals were deeply moved by hearing Trump's own story as to why he changed his opinion on abortion and one of the most profound moments of the election was in the final presidential debate when Secretary Clinton startlingly voiced her ongoing support for late-term abortion, despite the grotesque practice being banned by both the US Congress and the United States Supreme Court. Trump has fulfilled his promise to greatly strengthen pro-life policies.

3. He's addressing judicial over-reach
In many ways, the 2016 election was an election not made by Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump but by the sudden death of the reliably conservative Supreme Court Justice, Antonin Scalia, putting the long conservative balance of the court in jeopardy.

President Trump's successful appointment of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court as Scalia's replacement represented the fulfillment of his single most important promise to the evangelicals who put him in office.

This week, his second nominee to the Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh, will begin his confirmation process and he is equally regarded as a trusted conservative, whose confirmation could guarantee a conservative Supreme Court for at least a generation. This is another fulfilled promise.

4. He's advancing criminal justice reform
While not an issue he campaigned in support of, President Trump has become a surprising advocate for criminal justice reform in the United States, a policy concern long advocated for by evangelicals whose passion for prisoners finds its roots in the New Testament itself.

The President’s son-in-law and senior advisor, Jared Kushner, came into the White House with his own unrelenting passion for prison reform and has found in the evangelical community a natural and effective ally.

Because of it all, the United States’ Congress is on the verge of passing the first significant reform to America’s widely criticised prison system in over 30 years. The President’s evolution on the issue is largely considered the result of his evangelical advisors as has been the case with the President’s evolution on certain immigration issues, such as providing his support for undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States by their parents when they were children.

5. He's addressing the opioid epidemic
The abuse of opioids in the United States is the nation's most significant drug problem, directly or indirectly affecting millions of Americans. The administration has forcefully taken on this addiction crisis, even when it meant taking substantial measures against large American companies despite opposition from the President's own party.

Evangelical pastors, who walk through addiction with members of their congregations, have been on the frontline of this developing crisis for years. The Trump administration has acted with the full force of the federal government, and it has already saved many lives.

6. He's strengthening the family
The administration's widely supported tax cuts, which were passed by the Republican-controlled Congress, under the direction of the President, included the doubling of the standard tax credit given to parents for their children, and the administration is now well on its way to finally introducing to American life a meaningful program to support "paid family leave."

The United States is far behind Europe in these types of social programs, but the Trump administration appears to have found an approach that would be considered fiscally responsible by Republicans even while meeting a long-term policy priority of Democrats.

7. The economy is thriving
The administration's economic policies - from deregulation to workforce development - have resulted in nearly 3 million Americans being taken off of government assisted food programs, over 5 trillion dollars being added the United States' economy, and the lowest ever unemployment numbers among African Americans, Hispanic Americans, young people, and women.

The overall unemployment number is at its lowest since 1969. In 2017, Americans were also more generous than ever before donating at least $410 billion to charity, the highest number on record.

Taking our seat at the table
Those are some of the reasons why President Trump enjoys the highest approval rating any Republican president has ever received from the Republican Party.

Obviously, these highlights only represent part of an always-imperfect picture, but we mustn't deceive ourselves into thinking there aren't logical reasons to support this unconventional president.

Earlier this year, when liberal American Bishop Michael Curry decided to parlay the gift of newfound fame into a candlelit march on the White House just two days after he was entrusted with preaching at the Royal Wedding, I was asked by CNN what I thought of the opinions of Christians like Curry who so ardently oppose the Trump administration.

Here was my answer, "many of them are my friends, too, and we happen to mainly agree on the challenges facing our country and our world. We just sometimes disagree on the solutions."

One might disagree with the merits of the administration’s policies or the by-product of their approach, but one must acknowledge that many reasonable people support the administration’s policies on the basis of facts, not ideology.

As for evangelicals, I’ve personally seen the constructive work of many in our community precisely because we’ve taken our seat at the table, very often serving as the reasonable center building bridges between polarised extremes.

Rev. Johnnie Moore is an author, religious freedom advocate and the founder of The KAIROS Company, one of the world’s leading, boutique public relations consultancies. Moore is often referred to as the informal spokesperson for those evangelicals who advise the Trump administration.

One of the most evil aspects of Nazi ideology was the dehumanization of its opponents: the Jews, communists, Poles, Gypsies, gays and so forth. It was a necessary precondition, psychologically, for what ultimately became mass murder.

But it takes other forms, too, that are harder to spot. We may use them ourselves occasionally in considering political opponents and not even realize it. The effect, though, is no less dehumanizing.

A very recent example of the dehumanization of conservatives came against Sen. Ted Cruz, who was confronted by activist Tammy Talpas over his support for repealing Obamacare, “If you force me into a high-risk pool, you will either bankrupt me or kill me. I take these threats of medical aggression personally and seriously, and I can assure you I’m not the only Texan who does. My question is: Will you pledge to submit to a DNA test to prove that you’re human?”

The implication, of course, is that if you support repealing Obamacare, you lack human compassion. You’re less than human.

This is a rather mild form, yet still pretty common, of dehumanization tactics by the left.

It has also been used to legitimize forms of political violence. U.S. Senator Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), said to be a serious contender for the Democratic nomination in 2020, when asked a silly question by Ellen DeGeneres on television of who she’d rather be stuck in an elevator with, President Trump, Attorney General Jeff Sessions or Vice President Mike Pence, joked, “Does one of us have to come out alive?”

Now potential political violence against the President and those in his administration has become a punchline on daytime talk shows.

Last year, other forms of political violence described against the President included portraying the assassination of President Donald Trump in Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar,” or Kathy Griffin’s depicted decapitation of Trump.

President Trump himself has been repeatedly portrayed as a modern-day Hitler. If you support him, you must be a Nazi. “Dilbert” creator Scott Adams has written often on the dangers of this Hitlerization of our politics.

The “punch a Nazi” campaign itself was a somewhat ironic twist of history, insofar as the dehumanizing tactic since World War II has become to portray one’s opponents as Nazi monsters, in this case Trump supporters, who are similarly bereft of the right to live without fear of violence.

To be clear, neither Trump nor his supporters are Nazis. They are being portrayed as Nazis by the left, which makes it easier, psychologically, to deck one on the street.

Ask yourself: Do you own a “Make America Great Again” hat? Would you think twice before putting it on and walking down a city street today? If you answer the latter in the affirmative, congratulations, you too are a victim of political intimidation.

There is little wonder why this demonization led to violent riots in San Jose and Chicago during the election campaign with Trump supporters being physically assaulted. Then there was the attempted assassination of U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, Sen. Rand Paul and other Republicans at a Congressional baseball game practice in June 2017 by James Hodgkinson, a radicalized nut who thought President Trump colluded with the Russians to steal the election.

This dehumanization also legitimizes using the color of law to prosecute one’s political opponents, for example with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s prosecution of Trump campaign officials as somehow being foreign agents in league with Russia.

In a recent Saturday Night Live skit portraying Mueller, Becca K. played by Cecily Strong, representing Democrats, is devastated to learn that President Donald Trump might not be prosecuted by Mueller. But, Kate McKinnon, depicting Mueller, offers a consolation prize: “If it makes you feel any better, the Kush is cooked,” referring to the President’s son-in-law Jared Kushner as potentially being the target of prosecution.

In short, they might not be able to get the President, but destroying the First Family will have to do. That’ll show him and everyone else what the consequences of opposition are.

Similarly, any communication by Trump with Russia — principal among the President’s Article II constitutional power to conduct foreign affairs — is viewed as tantamount to treason. This has manifested itself even at the White House, where almost every diplomatic visit or call with Russia instantly leaks and then is criminalized by media outlets.

Most recently President Trump’s conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin calling for talks on preventing another nuclear arms race — you know, which might prevent a nuclear war — was leaked and again used to portray the President as a foreign agent. This, despite a long history of American presidents since John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev installed the red telephone after the Cuban Missile Crisis, who engaged with talks with Russia first on strategic arms limitations and then eventually, reductions.

Elsewhere, this dehumanization has resulted in opponents of gun control measures — which really amount to gun confiscation — by the March for our Lives movement being accused of complicity in the murdering of children by Nikolas Cruz. Surviving Parkland student Cameron Kasky told Sen. Marco Rubio, at the CNN forum on Feb. 21, “Senator Rubio, it’s hard to look at you and not look down the barrel of an AR-15 and not look at Nikolas Cruz.” Disagree with them, and you support mass murder. You’re an accomplice.

The dehumanization of the opposition can even be used to delegitimize reasonable discourse itself. There was the push to “unfriend” Trump supporters on Facebook. Actor Robert De Niro’s reaction to the success of the new Roseanne show, said to be pro-Trump (perhaps insofar as it’s not anti-Trump), was to suggest it wasn’t worth discussing, “We’re at a point — where it’s beyond trying to see another person’s point of view.”

In 2016, De Niro blatantly used the dehumanizing tactic, calling Trump a “dog” who he’d like to “punch in the face.”

Mind you, this is not merely about the animalization of the opposition, portraying opponents in the guise of animals or other creatures, often quite common for example in political cartoons. That’s not what we’re talking about here.

When combined with some of the other elements described above, fed by a genuine belief that the opponent truly is less than human, then yes, the animalization of political enemies — which was absolutely used by the Nazis — can become a potent weapon. Couple it with, say, a call to violence or use it to portray entire groups or races of people as subhuman, and you’ve probably crossed that line.

That’s plenty of examples. They are by no means exhaustive. And dehumanization is not merely the province of the left, but recently it has become increasingly prevalent with gathering support in the mainstream.

It should be alarming.

But it isn’t.

The Ted Cruz story where he’s supposed to take a DNA test to prove he’s human was shared tens of thousands of times as it was reported across media outlets almost as an afterthought. Maybe you saw it on your Facebook feed this week. It’s just a joke, right?

The question perhaps we should ask is what impact this might be having on the nation at large? Because it appears that it is really beginning to take its toll.

Recall, not only can dehumanization be used to legitimize political violence, in its most extreme form, in Germany, after years of endless state-run propaganda, it was channeled toward the destruction of millions of people.

Right now, we’re clearly not there yet in this country. But when one half of the nation starts to believe the other half is no longer worthy of rights or even basic respect, the country is in trouble.

There are consequences for this tactic, which on the surface may appear to simply serve a partisan agenda. Something to agitate supporters in preparation of the next round of elections. But underneath, it seems to bear all the hallmarks of pure hatred. This is not how you win elections. It’s how you create social discord.

The real danger is that this demonization of Trump, his supporters, conservatives and others is that it could be generating true believers, who no longer see their opponents as fellow Americans — and perhaps not even from the same species.