How Marthin Luther Paved The Way For Donald Trump

Source: The Nation, 14h May 2018. By Michael Massing

To understand why evangelicals support the president, look to the founder of Protestantism

About 80% of white evangelicals voted for Donald Trump in 2016.
Peter Wehner (a former speechwriter for George W. Bush), took to the op-ed pages of The New York Times in December 2017 to explain "Why I Can No Longer Call Myself an Evangelical Republican."

Throughout his life, he had identified with evangelicalism and the Republican Party, but Trump and the alleged sexual abuser Roy Moore, were causing him to reconsider his affiliations: "Not because my attachment to convervatism and Christianity has weakened, but rather the opposite. I consider Mr. Trump's Republican Party to be a threat to conservatism, and I have concluded that term evangelical -- despite its rich history of proclaiming the 'good news' of Christ to a broken world -- has been so distorted that it is now undermining the Christian witness."

The death of Rev. Billy Graham last year set off a new round of chiding. Stephen Prothero (a professor of religion at Boston University) wrote that "to chart the troubled recent course of American evangelicalism -- its powerful rise after WWII and its surprisingly quick demise in recent years" -- one need look no further than the differences between Graham and his eldest son, Franklin, who took over his empire.  Where the father was a powerful evangelist who turned evangelicalism in to the dominant spiritual impulse in modern America, his son is a political hack who is rapidly rebranding evangelicalism as a belief system marked not by faith, hope, and love, but by fear of Muslims and homophobia."

The alarm over the evangelical embrace of Trump reached a crescendo with Michael Gerson's cover story in The Atlantic in April "How Evangelicals Lost Their Way (and Got Hooked by Donald Trump)." He stated that "Trump's background and beliefs could hardly be more incompatible with traditional Christian models of life and leadership." The president's "unapologetic materialism" is a negation of Christian teaching; his tribalis and hatred for "the other" stand in direct opposition to Jesus's radical ethic of neighbor love; his worship of strength and contempt for losers smack more of Nietzche than of Christ. Gerson declared "is love of neighbor, or it has lost its way. And this sets an urgent task for evangelicals: to rescue their faith from its worst leaders."

It is the Christianity of the Sermon on The Mount, in which Jesus blesses the meek, disdains the rich, welcomes the stranger, counsels humility, and ecnourages charity. But, there is another. In Matthew, Jesus says "Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace but a sword" -- to "set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law." In John, Jesus declares, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me" -- a statement to declare Christianity the one true path to salvation. The Book of Revelation describes with apocaliptic fury the locusts, scorpions, hail, fire, and other plagues that God will visit upon the earth to wipe out the unbelievers and prepare the way for the Messiah.

From the earliest days of the faith, this millitant strand has coexisted with the more pacific one. it was the former that stirred the founder of Protestantism, Marthin Luther. In his fierce ideas, vehement language, and combative intellectual style, Luther prefigured modern-day evangelicalism, a look back that can explain why so many evanglicals support Trump today.

In defending the cause of Christ, Luther was uncompromising. He wrote, no one should think that the Gospel can be advanced without tumult, offense and sedition. The Word of God is a sword, it is war and ruin and offense and perdition and poison. In Luther's famous dispute with Erasmus of Rotterdam over free will and predestination, the renowned Dutch humanist suggested that the two of them debate the matter civilly, given that both were God fearing Christians and that the Bible was far from clear on the subject. Exploding in fury, Luther insisted that predestination was a core Christian doctrine on which he could not yield and that Erasmus' idea that they agree to disagree showed he was not a true Christian.

In his later years, Luther produced venomous attacks on groups he considered enemies. In his notorious On the Jews and Their Lies, he denounced the Jews as boastful, arrogant rascals, real liars and bloodhounds, and the vilest whores and rogues under the sun. In Against the Roman Papacy, an Institution of the Devil, he called the pope "a true werewolf", "a farting ass" and "a brother-keeper over all brother-keepers." 

When in 1542 a Basel printer was preparing to bring out the first printed Latin version of the Quran, Luther contributed a preface explaining why he supported publication. It was not to promote interfaith understanding. By reading the Quran, he wrote, Christians could become familiar with the pernicious belefs of Muhammad and more readily grasp the insanity and wiles of the Muslims. (The learned must read the writings of the enemy in order to refute them more keenly, to cut them to pieces and to overturn them).

Luther arrived at his interpretation of the Gospel after expereincing years of debilitating doubt as an Ausgustinian friar. The prescirbed rituals and sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church -- desinged to offer a clear path to salvation -- provided little relef. No matter how often he went to confession and fervently prayed the Psalter, Luther felt underserving of God's grace. Around 1515, while lecturing on Paul's Epistle to the Romans, Luther had his great intellectual breakthrough: Salvation comes not from doing good works but through faith in Christ. Upon discovering this truth, Luther later wrote " I was altogether born again" and "entered paradise itself through open gates". Luther provided a model for later Protestatns seeking smilar renewal. Being born again is one of the defining characteristics of evangelicalism.

Another key feature of evangelicalism is the central place of the Bible, where Luther provided the foudnation. In his view, neither popes nor councils nor theologians have the authority to define the faith -- the Bible alone is supreme. In his famous To The Christian Nobility of the German Nation concerning the Reform of the Chritian Estate of 1520, Luther described his world-altering concept of the priesthood of all believers: Every lay Christian, no matter how humble, has a much right to interpret the Bibpe as any pope or priest. Luther was thus shifting the locus of authority from credentialed elites to ordinary believers, empowering them to define their own faith.

In Europe, these populist ideas were quickly snuffed out. Kings and princes toeghter with bishops and abbots cracked down on all who sought to apply them. During German peasnts' War 1524-25 when farmers and laborers inspired by Luther's tracts, rose up against their secular and spiritual overlords. They were put down in a savage bloddletting that left more than 100,000 dead. Luther himself endorsed the slaughter in a pamphlet titled Against the Robbing and Murdering Hordes of Peasants, "Let everyone who can, smite, slay, and stab the peasants,  he wrote, "It is jsut as when one must kill a mad dog: if you do not strike him, he will strike you, and a whole land with you."

Although the killings had started before Luther's pamphlet, he was strongly urged to retract his screed. he reluctantly prepared An Open Letter on the Harsh Book Against the Peasants, but, rather than disavow his position, he restate it in even starker term. To thow who said he was being unmerciful, he wrote, "this is not a question of mercy, we are talking of God's word." Luther was incapable of apologizing.

Luther took as his watchword Romans 13 "Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities". It was the individual who had to be reformed, not society. Luther also believed in the concept of the two kingdoms, the secular and the spiritual, which had to be kept rigorously apart. Christ's gospel was to apply only in the spiritual realm; i the secular, the government's role was to maintain order and punish eviders, not to show compassion and mercy. The Lutheran churches in Germany and Scandinavia, like most established churches in Europe as a whole, became arms of the state, developing a top-heavy bureaucracy that bred complacency, discouraged innovation, and caused widespread disaffection.

Not so in America, with no established churches to confont and freedom of worship guaranteed by the Constitution, American Christians have been free to create their own spiritual pathways. Overtime, Luther's core principles of faith in Christ, the authority of Scripture, and the priesthood of all believers became pillars of American Protestantism especially of the evangelical variety. 

Southern Baptists, with more than 15 million members and 47,000 churhces, is the largest Protestant denomination in U.S., that has profoundly affected American social, cultural, and political life. The Southern Baptists' various statements of belief bear Luther's stamp throughout. The starting point they declare, is each individual's personal faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord of their lives. Under the doctrine of "soul competency", they affirm the accountability of each person before God, as a plianspoken version of Luther's doctrine of sola fide (by faith alone). The Bible is the supreme standard by which all human conduct and religious opinion must be measured, a restatement of Luther's principle of sola scriptura (by Scripture alone). Finally, they explicitly embrace the idea of the priesthood of all believers, asserting that laypersons have the same right as ordained minister to communicate with God, interpret Scripture, and minister in Christ's name. 

Needless to say, there are some significant differences between the beliefs of Southern Baptists and those of Luther. The Southern Baptists practice adult baptism which Luther vigorously opposed. 

Billy Graham himself was deeply affected by Luther. From 1949 until the 1980s, Graham was the face of evangelical Christianity in Amerika. Invoking the Bible as his sole authority, he offerd a simple message centered on Christ's atoning death on the cross for humankind's sins and his resurrection from the dead for its salvation. In Just as I am, his autobiography, he wrote, "No matter who we are or what we have done, we are saved only because of what Christ has done for us. I will not go to Heavn because I have preached to great crowds. i will go to Heaven for one reason: Jesus Christ died for me, and I am trusting Him alone for my salvation."

In the recent eulogizing of Graham, there has been a tendency to gloss over his aggressive early evangelism. He was a strident anticommunist, a tireless critic of pornography, and a fawning supporter of presidents.  While he insisted on integrating his crusades, he shunned the broader campaign for civil rights. He refused to participate in 1963 March on Washington and dismissed Martin Luther King Jr.'s conviction that political protests could create a "beloved community". Graham declared that only when Christ comes again will the little white children of Alabama walk hand in hadn with little black children. In both his obsequiousness toward the powerful and his opposition to social change, Graham was very much Luther's heir.

Luther's impact on American life is most apparent when looking at the place of the Bible in it. Nearly nine in ten American households own a Bible, and nearly half of all adult Americans say that the Bible is the inspired Word of God. Bible-study groups have proliferated in schools, workplaces, locker rooms, and government offices, including the White House under Democratic and Republical prsidents alike.

Many evangelicals are animated by the same type of faith, and Bible-based individualism that Luther espoused. This outlook can be seen in the motivational sermons of Joel Osteen, the purpose-driven appeals of Rick Warren, and the defiant statements of Kim Davis, the Kentucky country clerk who in 2015 refused to issue marriage licesnses to same-sex couples and went to jail for it. She said:
I never imagined a day like this would come, where I would be asked to violate a central teaching of Scripture and of Jesus Himself regarding marriage. To issue a marriage licesne which conflicts with God's definition of marriage, with my name affixed to the certificate, would violate my conscience. It is not a light issue for me. It is a Heaven or hell decision... I have no animosity toward anyone and harbor no ill will. To me this has never been a gay or lesbian issue. It is about marriage and God's Word. 

These remarks recall Luther's concluding statement at the Diet of Worms of 1521. Ordered by a representative of the Holy Roman yEmperor Charles V to recant his writings, Luther resisted:
Unless I am convinced by the testiony of the Scriptures or by clearn reason... I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted, and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. i cannot and I will not retract anything since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience.
Luther's bold defense of his religious conscience has become a hallmark of the Protestant tradition.

The message from evangelical pulpits is overwhelmingly one of self-relaice, personal responsibility, individual renewal, scriptural authority, and forging a personal relationship with God and Christ.
American envangelicalism has further assumed the populist stance of the young Luther. His rebellion was directed at the dominant institution of his day - the Roman Catholic Church. Protestanism arose as a revolt against the elites. Luther's rebeliiousness was, however, paradoxically joined to an opposition to real-world change. While rousing the masses, he refused to endorse measures that would concretely address their needs. The combination of incitement and passivity is apparent in contemporaty American evangelicalism. In accord with Luther's doctirne of the two kingdoms, many evangelicals see the proper role of the governmetn to be imposing order, not showing mercy.Trump's insults and mocking tweets against enemies perceived seem a long way from the Sermon on the Mount, but they very much mirror the inflmmatory language of the first Protestant.