WaPo: ‘White evangelicals’ blindly defend Trump and pastors accused of sexual misconduct
A Washington Post report takes a swipe at both “white evangelicals” and President Donald Trump, saying that the two groups have something in common.
“As white evangelicals have been some of President Donald Trump’s staunchest defenders, a handful of their leaders find themselves contending with a problem all too familiar to the commander in chief: a sex scandal,” the Post reported, referring to allegations of Trump’s affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels.
In recent months, at least four leaders in the evangelical move have been “accused of violating the tenets of their faith, from adultery to sexual abuse,” the report stated.
It’s happening at a time when the #MeToo movement is shining a spotlight on allegations of sexual abuse and harassment in the workplace. And that might mean the spirit of the #MeToo movement is hitting home where some people would say is the most unlikely of places: churches.
Is he setting a bad example?
Peter Wehner, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, told the Post: “(Trump’s supporters) seem enthralled to his approach to life. They seem completely untroubled by the…women who accused Trump of harassment or assault. For some large number of white evangelical men, there seems to be an attitude toward women that’s disturbing and not biblical.”
“A lot of people are going to think it’s laced with hypocrisy,” he added. “They say one thing and do another. And that the faith is not transformative, faith is just a proxy for political tribalism. It doesn’t transform lives in the way it should.”
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