Why Do Trump Supporters Hate Traditional Christian Values So Much?

Source: Wikipedia

Last week, the NFL finally came around to supporting Colin Kapernick and his political cause.

Sorry, that was a typo.

I meant Harrison Butker.

Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker announced he’s starting a political PAC to push his misogyny and bigotry, again my apologies I meant “traditional Christian values,” and the Chiefs owner subsequently announced he fully supports Butker and other players “using their platform to make a difference.”

I imagine even today Colin Kapernick is still recovering from the eyeroll that announcement induced.

But this isn’t a post about the obvious racist hypocrisy of the NFL.

It’s about Butker and his “traditional Christian values.”

If you’re not familiar with the Chiefs kicker, earlier this year Butker went from relative anonymity outside of Kansas City to national MAGA adoration when he used a commencement address to tell women their place is in the kitchen.

When faced with backlash, Butker claimed he was being persecuted for his “traditional Christian values.”

Of course, Butker is far from the only Christian Chicken Little these days. The flock is massive and eager to clutch their pearls, hide behind claims of faith, and cry persecution the moment anyone raises the possibility that maybe women should have control over their own bodies or that LGBT people maybe possibly shouldn’t be treated as second class citizens sent by Satan to corrupt the youths.

Sure, it sounds bad when you put it that way, but these are traditional Christian values! Butker is just trying to be more like Jesus! Disagree with him and you might as well be punching Jesus in the face. I mean, really. How do you not have shame questioning the people who have been called by God to man the gates of heaven and make sure woke riffraff don’t sneak in.

After all these are traditional Christian values, essential, foundational tenets of the faith that can’t be compromised on lest we all be sent to hell to burn forever.

Except they’re not.

That’s not to say there isn’t a long history of misogyny and bigotry in the Church. There most definitely is. Christians have been using the Bible to silence women and oppress minorities for centuries.

But a history of people doing things in Jesus’ name doesn’t make those things the way of Jesus and it’s that essential nature that Harrison Butker along with conservative Christians both Catholic and Protestant alike are claiming they’re following when they invoke “traditional Christian values” to silence women and control their bodies or demonize LGBT people as spawns of Satan.

Jesus never said a word about abortion, never talked about LGBT people, and when it came to women he made them so central to his movement it was women, not men who Jesus ordained as the first people entrusted with preaching the good news of the resurrection.

Which makes the claim that being anti-abortion, anti-LGBT, anti-feminism are traditional Christian values...weird.

The way of Jesus, or you might say traditional Christlike values, is founded on loving your neighbor, welcoming the stranger, and caring for the least of these.

That’s not liberal revisionism.

It’s the gospel.

Matthew 22 and 25 to be exact. 

Again, that’s not to say there isn’t a history of misogyny and bigotry in the Church. There 100% is, but if “traditional Christian values” is going to be a stand in for “essential parts of the Christian faith that can’t be compromised on” then we should at least run those “traditional Christian values” past the guy doing the actual gate keeping in heaven to see how essential those values might be and if they even fit with the way of Jesus at all.

When we do that, when we turn to the actual teachings of Jesus like his declaration in Matthew 22 that everything begins and ends with loving your neighbor and a life lived caring for the poor, healing the sick, welcoming the stranger, and rejecting the power of the empire and then keep on going to the end of the story when in Matthew 25 Jesus stands at the gates of heaven and declares once again that the most essential component of the way of Jesus is caring for the least of these, then what we’ve been told are traditional, essential Christian values are conspicuously nowhere to be found.

When we look at the actual life and teachings of Jesus instead of getting the bullet points from Fox News, we see a Christian tradition which self-professed Christians like Harrison Butker seem to hate.

Which is why all of this is so weird and confusing.

For being so passionate about defending Christianity, Trump supporters seem to really hate traditional Christian values.

Jesus lifted up the poor. Trump supporters want them to fend for themselves.

Jesus fed the hungry. Trump supporters get angry when schools provide free lunch.

Jesus empowered women. Trump supporters want to silence women and control their bodies.

Jesus welcomed the stranger. Trump supporters want to deport immigrants.

Jesus was radically inclusive. Trump supporters demonize and attack anyone who is different.

Jesus liberated the oppressed. Trump supporters take pride in oppressing others.

Jesus loved his neighbor. Trump supporters seem to only love themselves and people exactly like them.

Which is probably why they hate actual traditional Christian values so much. The way of Jesus is a way of self-denial, a way of caring for others, a way of making sure other people’s needs are met and not just our own even when those people might be your “enemies.”

But that way of life is hard.

Replacing those values with culture wars and political wedges is much easier. Plus culture wars and political wedges come with the added benefit of being able to use “faith” as a shield against criticism and self-reflection. There’s no need to listen to criticism and reflect on the possibility you could be wrong when there’s a war to win.

I admit that way of life can be very appealing. I lived it for a long time. Growing up in conservative evangelicalism made the world simple. It was clear who my enemies were and comforting to know I was going to heaven because I was right and everyone else was wrong. I didn’t need to listen to criticism or do any self-reflection because questions can lead to doubt and doubt leads to hell or worse: humility. 

But humility is incompatible with the way of Trump. It’s anathema, scorned as a virtue of the weak and the woke, an obstacle to overcome in the pursuit of making America great again. 

Which makes things super awkward for Trump supporters who claim they support traditional Christian values because the foundation of the Christian tradition is Jesus and Jesus was humility incarnate. It’s how an infinite God was able to put on finite flesh and dwell among us. God so loved the world that Jesus, who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be take advantage of; instead, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant humbling himself by becoming obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross!

It was the kind of life Trump supporters would ridicule and condemn as “woke.”

Which is why in the end, it’s not just traditional Christian values Trump supporters hate. 

It’s Jesus too.