This is a text I received from a prominent conservative Christian minutes after President Biden’s Inaugural Address: “I broke down sobbing. It’s been a long five-and-a-half years.”
Shortly after that, Scott Dudley, senior pastor at Bellevue Presbyterian Church in Bellevue, Wash., emailed me a note that said, “I never thought I would be moved to tears watching a Democratic president get sworn in, but I was. It just felt so good to hear someone who understands and loves this country and constitution, and is an honorable person, take the oath. I’m praying for healing.”
I’ve had conversations with others who tell similar stories.
I'm glad this conservative minister is happy about Biden's speech. I do sincerely hope that he's representative of many evangelical Christians who should have known better about who Trump was and that whatever the flaws and limitations of Liberal politicians like Joe Biden they are, especially in comparison to the kind of pols who make up the Freedom Caucus in the GOP, sane and decent human beings.
Maybe I'm being unfair to the Rev Dudley or reading too much into his comments above, but if not him there are others to whom what I want to say here applies. They disturb me because it's just as likely that they'll hear a speech by Josh Hawley about the Pelagian Left next week that will convince them that they were wrong about Biden, and that he is, in fact, a heretical spawn of Satan. It's not decency they lack, but sense.
They're not stupid, but they have no sense, no nose for the truth. They work in formulas and are easily manipulated by people who use language that use those formulas. And so for this reasons their Christian faith appears to provide more of an obstacle to good sense than a path toward getting some. If they hadn't enough sense to understand what an indecent monster Trump was in the first place, there's no reason to believe that they'll be able to see through the next demagogue who gives a nice speech using all the biblical dogwhistles.
It's deeply disturbing to me that the future of this country depends on the judgments of so many people like this, basically decent human beings, who haven't a lick of sense.