David French get oh-so close...

On Thursday, I got a notification from the NY Times, announcing the latest Subscriber-Only newsletter from one of their conservative (and Evangelical) opinion writers, David French.

Before I get into this take by Mr. French, here's the gifted link.

I was planning on a weekend wrap-up of what caught my eye this week, snippets and my personal hot-takes, but this one deserves to stand on its own. Don't worry, I will still do that wrap up.

French starts with what he should be excited about, an increase in engagement in religion by Americans. And that seems to be the truth that the polls are telling that people identifying as Christian is increasing, reversing a declining trend since at least the 1990's.

At this point it’s almost beyond debate that something important is stirring in American religion. There is too much data — and too many anecdotes — to ignore. The steady decline of Christianity in America seems to have slowed, perhaps even paused. There’s evidence that Gen Z men in particular are returning to church and younger generations of Americans are now attending church slightly more regularly than older generations.

And of course, Mr. French would like this to be indicative that the youngs are getting faith, finding the Lord, and accepting Jesus as their savior.

He does hint that this might not be a revival, but more of a revolution, but in the usual French fashion, he seems to want to believe that it is about this "spiritual awakening", and he provides some anec-data:

I can sense the change myself. When I speak on college campuses, students seem more curious about faith than they were even five years ago. When I write about faith, I get a larger — and more personal — response than I get when I write about any other topic. My inbox fills with heartfelt personal testimonies, including stories about how people both found and lost God.

As a Christian who has long lamented the decline of church attendance in the United States, I should be very happy about all these developments. After all, if people feel a God-shaped hole in their lives, shouldn’t we rejoice when they find, in the words of scripture, the “peace of God, which surpasses all understanding”?

Gee, that sounds like a helluva lot of hopium.

He then goes on to how uplifting his experience at a 50,000 strong revival event at Wilmore, Kentucky.

This revival had filled the students there with zeal, but that zeal manifested itself in humility and compassion. It was inspiring. It made me search my own heart to see more clearly my own faults and failings.

Yet, he finally begins to realize that this zeal isn't all the love of Christ and fellowship. No, it seems to be a lot darker:

But that is hardly the universal experience people are having with America’s religious surge. There is darkness right alongside the light. Christians stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Christians have believed and applauded dark prophecies that compare Donald Trump to Jehu, a murderous Old Testament king who commanded the slaughter of the previous queen, Jezebel, and had the severed heads of the previous king’s sons brought to him in baskets.

Incredibly, Christians are attacking what they call the “sin of empathy,” warning fellow believers against identifying too much with, say, illegal immigrants, gay people or women who seek abortions. Empathy, in this formulation, can block moral and theological clarity. What’s wrong is wrong, and too much empathy will cloud your soul.

And this tracks. The revival seems to be hinging upon the complete swallowing of Trumpism, deep throated by the Evangelical Christians.

Ahem:

“Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them.”
― Barry Goldwater

Yet, the rise of the New Right in the mid to late 1970's coincided with the realization that the Evangelicals had real political power. This first manifested itself in the proliferation of "Christian Academies" throughout the nation that were for the express use of keeping Black students away from their children, an effect of the forced busing and integration of schools. In the 1970's the IRS was beginning to clamp down on tax exemptions for these academies, as they were blatantly formed to prevent their precious white children from having to "mix" with the Black students.[1][2]

This is the Evangelical church that French is so enamored with, and while he doesn't apologize for their excesses of his tribe. I mean for fuck's sake, he can't even be mad that they kicked him out of his congregation when he and his wife adopted a black refugee child.[3]

One would think that this would cause a rational person to rethink their priors, but not French.

He goes on to offer this rather spot on analysis:

There was the ReAwaken America tour that crisscrossed America during Joe Biden’s presidency, during which angry Christians called for vengeance at sold-out venues from coast to coast. And, as I wrote last month, the Kirk memorial itself mixed calls for love (most notably Erika Kirk’s decision to forgive her husband’s killer) with the Trump administration’s explicit hate.

Trump — to the laughter and cheers of the crowd — said that he hated his opponents. Stephen Miller, the president’s top domestic policy adviser, declared that his perceived political enemies were “nothing.”

“You are nothing,” he said, “You are wickedness. You are jealousy. You are envy. You are hatred.”

Is that what a revival looks like? And if our nation isn’t yet experiencing a genuine national revival — something like the Second Great Awakening, which swept through the United States in the early 19th century — then what is actually going on?

Uh, Mr. French, this is what the church is. It is what it has been for a long time. No, not all evangelicals walk this path, but the reason that they turned so readily to Trump was not merely the Abortion issue, but that their whole worldview is tuned to look to authority figures, and just looking at the fallen pastors in that ecosystem, the sex scandals in the Southern Baptists[4].

David French comes so close to getting the point, but his faith is now 100% all in on the rising Christian Nationalism, and his writings help carry their water. Like the Republican Party, the Evangelicals need to be blown up and if there remains anything worthwhile to resurrect, it will require a lot of reflection before it should get near power.

Alas, I doubt that either the Republicans or the Christian Nationalist Evangelist movement will be practicing any self reflection and rebuilding anytime soon.

David French gets oh so close, but can't realize that he's neck deep in the cult.

1 - I recommend reading Talia Lavin's outstanding "Wild Faith" for a wild ride (noun intended) through the Evangelical family structure and how they raise their children. I also recommend following Andra Watkins and Anna Wick on Substack, two refugee's from the Evangelical indoctrination of their youth, as they discuss what was done to them, and how they escaped.

2 - Rick Perlstein's "Reaganland" chronicles the rise of the New Right, and is a must read along with all of his other books.

3 - I bag on French, a lot, but at least he truly tries to live the tenets of his faith. What fucking bugs me is how much he will excuse the atrocious behavior of his tribe, and try to justify their excesses as just "exuberance".

4 - Then there's the whole Southern Baptists phenomenon, created to ensure that slaves remained in their place, using the good book to rationalize and justify their slavery, and later the Jim Crow south. Fuck those people sideways with rusty chainsaws