OPINION:
When the Hebrew prophet Nathan confronted King David over his adultery with Bathsheba and his murder of Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah the Hittite, he cleverly used a parable to trick David into condemning his own actions. And with David momentarily off balance, he sprang his trap with the famous line “You are the man!” and then made clear that God would punish David for his sin.
That was 3,000 years ago. Today, in a more enlightened age, Liberty University’s evangelical Christian president, Jerry Falwell Jr., not only does not rebuke Donald Trump for his immoral behavior and abuse of power, but instead honors him by endorsing him to be president of the United States of America.
Mr. Falwell justifies his solicitous treatment of Mr. Trump by quoting Jesus’ well-known saying, “Judge not that you be not judged.” He insists that “only God knows people’s hearts” and excuses himself for not taking a closer look at Mr. Trump’s shady past. But Mr. Falwell’s interpretation of Jesus’ dictum blinds him to the obvious truth that the whole point of presidential primaries is to make sound judgments about the qualifications of competing candidates. On the surface, his approach appears to be generous and nondiscriminatory, but more likely it is instead an example of what the late Sen. Patrick Moynihan described as “defining deviancy down.”
When we take a closer look at Donald Trump, we see traits that are not admired by most morally serious Americans. I refer to his purported womanizing, his irresponsible manipulation of people’s fears and anger, his hypocritical labor practices at his elite club at Mar-a-Lago, and his crude and dishonest attacks on Sens. Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and others.
Part of the problem is that far too many Americans have refused to treat Donald Trump as an equal. To relate to a person as an equal is to hold that person accountable. We do not generally hold children, the senile or the mentally ill accountable. But we do hold our equals accountable for their speech and their actions. Mr. Trump’s bullying behavior and outrageous off-the-cuff comments may be acceptable for reality TV, but they are already wearing thin, and they would not wear well at all were he to become president.
Perhaps Americans can be excused for tolerating the early months of Mr. Trump’s campaign as entertainment, as a chance to see how Donald Trump the celebrity behaves. Television and other media quickly learned that giving Mr. Trump hugely more airtime than his competitors provided not only a new kind of amusement, it was also an easy way to increase profits. But now that we realize that we might have to put up with Mr. Trump’s crazy behavior for four or even eight years, it’s past time for us to begin to think like adults. To be sure, the fact that many in the media and many politicians have put their own power and privilege ahead of the national welfare has made many Americans both angry and fearful. But it would be a big mistake to let this fact drown out our common sense and our historical memory of the dangers of social disintegration and tyranny when the rule of law, personal integrity and good character are ignored.
Ironically, in spite of all his criticisms of America’s political elites, Mr. Trump has spent most of his life as a quintessential insider among the politically and financially powerful, an insider who is enormously skillful at making deals and who knows how to use both Republicans and Democrats for his own self-serving purposes.
Given who Mr. Trump is, Mr. Falwell and other evangelical leaders in America owe it to fellow citizens either to justify their support for him more convincingly or else retract their endorsements altogether, for it is no longer politically and morally responsible to pretend Mr. Trump’s negatives do not exist. It may also be time to ask Mr. Falwell and other Trump supporters whether there have been any side agreements made with Mr. Trump about which the public should be informed. We deserve to know the truth.
Several centuries after Nathan confronted King David with his adultery and his refusal to treat Uriah justly as a resident alien protected by Israel’s covenant with God, another Hebrew prophet, Jeremiah, uttered equally harsh words: “Everyone deceives his neighbor, and no one speaks the truth . [T]hey commit iniquity, and are too weary to repent” (Jeremiah 9:5). Jeremiah’s social commentary is not hard for 21st century Americans to understand, for it almost literally describes America’s current unfolding presidential primaries with their pervasive distortions, dishonesty and lack of integrity and civility. It reminds us that we, too, are experiencing a degree of uncertainty and exhaustion that makes change — which is what repentance really is all about — extraordinarily difficult.
Mr. Falwell has explained that it was as a private individual that he supported Donald Trump and not as president of Liberty University. But this caveat seems close to being a “distinction without a difference,” for as president of Liberty he inevitably has substantial influence on the thinking of conservative Christians.
It will take more than a little courage for Mr. Falwell and other evangelicals to reassess their endorsements of Mr. Trump at this late date. But we are at a tipping point in the primary season, a moment when bold action on their part could prove critically important if we are to prevent the train wreck that a Trump victory in November — or perhaps even worse, a defeat — could mean for America.
• Richard A. Baer Jr. is professor emeritus of environmental ethics at Cornell University.
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