Today (May 15) is the 57th birthday of Michael Gerson, the well-known columnist for The Washington Post. Happy Birthday, Mr. Gerson! And thank you for being an evangelical Christian with integrity.
Michael Gerson, the Evangelical
As I have noted a number of times, there has been, and continues to be, considerable criticism of white evangelical Christians (WECs)—and for good reason. But, as I often have said to my “old codger” friends, not all WECs are the same. We must acknowledge significant differences among them.
There is
little question but that Michael Gerson has been a lifelong evangelical
Christian. As he himself explained in “The Last Temptation,” an April 2018 article in The
Atlantic, he “was raised in an evangelical home, went to an evangelical church
and high school, and began following Christ as a teen.”
In that same
article, included in full in a 2020 book titled The American Crisis,
Gerson states that his experiences as a Christian through the years make him “hesitant
to abandon the word evangelical. They also make seeing the defilement of
that word all the more painful” (p. 258).
Gerson was named by Time magazine in 2005 as
one of “The 25 Most Influential Evangelicals In America.”
Michael Gerson, the Writer
Although he has done other things, Gerson is chiefly
known as a writer. For example, he was a speechwriter for Bob Dole and a ghostwriter
for Charles Colson. Then from Inauguration Day in 2001 to June 2006, he was the
White House Director of Speechwriting. As such, he helped write the second
inaugural address of Pres. George W. Bush.
After leaving the White House, Gerson wrote
for Newsweek magazine for a time, and then in May 2007 he began his tenure as a
columnist for The Washington Post.
In 2010, Gerson also was the co-author of the
book City of Man: Religion and Politics in a New Era. The Foreword was written
by Timothy Keller, the well-known evangelical pastor, and it was issued by
Moody Publishers.**
Michael Gerson, a Man of Integrity
In his opinion pieces for The Washington Post,
it seems quite clear that Gerson writes as a man of integrity. Here are
examples of what I mean.
On October 28, 2019, Gerson’s WaPo opinion
piece was titled, “White
evangelical Protestants are fully disrobed. And it is an embarrassing sight.” In that article, he writes, “Rather than shaping
President Trump’s agenda in Christian ways, they [=WECs] have been reshaped
into the image of Trump himself.”***
Gerson’s opinion piece for January 7 of this
year, the very next day after the ill-fated events of Jan. 6, Gerson’s piece
was titled, “Trump’s evangelicals were complicit in the
desecration of our democracy.”
He pointed out in
that piece, “As white nationalists, conspiracy theorists, misogynists,
anarchists, criminals and terrorists took hold of the Republican Party, many
evangelicals blessed it under the banner ‘Jesus Saves.’” Further on in that
article, Gerson wrote,
It is tempting to call unforgivable the equation of Christian truth with malice, cruelty, deception, bigotry and sedition. But that statement is itself contradicted by Christian truth, which places no one beyond forgiveness and affirms that everyone needs grace in different ways. There is a perfectly good set of Christian tools to deal with situations such as these: remorse, repentance, forgiveness, reformation.
And then on May 3, Gerson’s opinion piece was
“Elected
Republicans are lying with open eyes. Their excuses are disgraceful.” (More
about this later.)
And please note: Gerson still is listed as a Republican, so he not only is
an evangelical Christian with integrity but also a Republican with integrity. This
country badly needs more WECs and more Republicans like Michael Gerson.
_____
** A good
reminder in a May 7 tweet by Tim
Keller: “Less than 2/3 of evangelicals in the US are white and less than 10% of
evangelicals in the world are American. (And not all white US evangelicals are
the same). So, when you say, 'evangelicals have done this' or 'claim
this'--keep this variety in mind.”
*** For those who
cannot access The Washington Post articles by Gerson because of a paywall, click
here to see those opinion pieces by Gerson. (If you don’t have time to read
all three, at least see the first one, which was posted on May 3.)
Quite frankly, Leroy, I've come to believe that evangelical Christianity is inherently authoritarian, so in a sense it's no wonder that white conservative Protestants (my phrase for evangelicals) are easy prey for political conservatism which, in the USA, has always carried major elements of political reaction, American exceptionalism, and white racism. The belief that something outside human experience and reason (the Bible and extrapolated doctrines) trumps all human experience and reason is itself authoritarian. More charitably, one could say it contains the seeds of authoritarianism. And for the last thirty to forty years the Republican Party has been characterized by complicity with neoclassical economics, unjustified warfare, and white racism. Too, it has manifested attitudes and policies that are anti-universal health care, anti-labor, anti-poor, and anti-immigrant. I'm sorry; I don't see much in Republicanism during this time that Gerson served the Republican Party that is consistent with the teachings of Jesus. That Gerson is an honest person and unwilling to go over the cliff to trump and company’s white fascism are good things, no doubt. But I can't agree that his Christianity and political conservatism are examples of Christian or human integrity.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments, Anton, and I largely agree with you about the problems of conservative evangelicals—and I think there are some Catholics who hold to the same sort of conservativism, so I don’t want to confine that to only Protestants. And certainly I agree with your description/criticism of the Republican Party, especially since 1980 (or 1964). Yesterday’s “letter” by Heather Cox Richardson spelled out again the grave faults of Republicans over the past decades. But I don’t think she would criticize Gerson for his recent opinion pieces.
DeleteWhile I certainly don’t agree with everything Gerson writes—and I especially don’t agree with much he wrote in the early 2000s (the naughts)—surely you see a great difference between him and, say, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, who is also a conservative evangelical. I wasn’t saying that Gerson is a paragon of exemplary Christianity. I was, though, saying that he is an example of a conservative evangelical Christian who manifests integrity far superior to so many of the “court evangelicals” during Trump’s time in the White House and the many (mostly Republican) WECs who still wield so much political power. So, I still maintain that the country needs more evangelical Christians and Republicans like Gerson.
Yes, Leroy, I thought about Catholicism, too, while writing that response earlier but decided I was saying enough. To my knowledge the Catholic Church has never fully endorsed democracy. Do you know? I would think it would be quite difficult for an authoritarian church to endorse democracy without exposing itself to calls for the same. I believe Vatican II had some things about democracy, but I no longer have a copy of the Vatican II papers.
DeleteThanks for writing again, and raising the question about the RCC and democracy, Anton. Especially before Vatican II, I think there were legitimate concerns about Catholic views about democracy--and that was perhaps one of the reasons that some were opposed to JFK's election in 1960. I did only a little research on this subject, and I think you are correct in suggesting that the RCC took a much more positive view toward democracy after 1965. But, as you know, there are still some Catholics who are not fully in agreement with the change in the Church because of Vatican II and there are Catholics today that are in full agreement with conservative evangelical Protestants on a number of social issues.
DeleteThinking Friend Glenn Hinson in Kentucky sent the following comment by email this morning:
ReplyDelete"It is nice to see an evangelical with integrity, but integrity sometimes requires distancing from a group largely responsible for giving us Donald Trump, as Congresswoman Cheney has done."
Dr. Hinson, it was good to hear from you again.
DeleteWell, Rep. Cheney is still a Republican and at this point and still is hoping to be re-elected as a Republican in the mid-term election next year. If Gerson can maintain his integrity, he probably will have more positive on Republicans by remaining identified as a Republican than by leaving it--but certainly he has distanced himself from the Trumpists.
And just after noon I received the following comments from Thinking Friend Thomas Howell, a retired history professor who now lives in his home state of Louisiana:
ReplyDelete"A white evangelical Republican with integrity, a rare and very endangered species, probably dying. And to think I was for quite some time a white evangelical Republican. It now seems so long ago. The White evangelical Republicans remind me of the story of Faust for evident reasons. And while Faust eventually came to a hellish end it is worth remembering—and scary—that in the short run he got exactly what he wanted. I fear that I will not be able to outlive this short run."
Thanks, Dr. Howell, for your comments. They remind me again that for everyone the important thing is not what views/positions they used to hold but rather how they have grown and developed new and better ideas. We always need to evaluate others, and ourselves, by the present rather than the past.
DeleteAbout an hour ago Thinking Friend Eric Dollard of Chicago sent these comments:
ReplyDelete"Thanks, Leroy, for your comments about Michael Gerson. I too hope he has an enjoyable birthday with his family.
I have read a few of Mr. Gerson's writings, but certainly not on a weekly or biweekly basis. Although my political views are more liberal, I find him to be a reasonable conservative and, as you say, a man of integrity, who has called out Mr. Trump and his supporters for the "Big Lie" about the 2020 election. I also wish there were more conservatives of the ilk of Mr. Gerson as America needs a responsible conservative party to keep our politics more balanced.
Another conservative whom I respect is David Brooks, who with Jonathan Capehart, provides political commentary on Friday evenings on the PBS Newshour. I try not to miss their commentaries.
Thanks for your comments, Eric, and for mentioning David Brooks. I never listen to the PBS Newshour, so I haven't heard him there. But I recently watched / listened to a video discussion by him and Miroslav Volf, and several years ago I read, and was impressed by, his book "The Road to Character." So, yes, I wish there were more conservatives such as him as well as Gerson.
DeleteAnd then shortly after 3 p.m. I was happy to get the following comments from local Thinking Friend Will Adams, also a retired professor of William Jewell College as Dr. Howell, whose comments are posted above.
ReplyDelete"The fact that evangelicals like Michael Gerson exist gives a bit of hope to those of us who are discouraged by recent political events in the U.S. It is a shame that the loudest evangelical leaders are willing to endorse Trump in exchange for him holding a Bible upside down--a Bible I doubt he ever reads. More precisely, I suspect they endorse Trump because he says he opposes abortion. (He didn't always.) Talk about making a deal with the devil!!!
"I worry whether American democracy can survive the morphing of the Republican Party into a fascist party, although I hope our traditions and our Constitution are strong enough to do so. I remember the panic that some felt at the 'threat' of Communism, but that was nothing compared to a party based on lies and worshiping an 'infallible' leader."
Thanks, Dr. Adams, for your comments. In my next blog post, I am writing about Liz Cheney and her efforts to combat "the big lie" about the 2020 election. Yes, I think the future of the country depends on whether or not our government leaders are committed to truth.
DeleteFocusing on the likes of Michael Gerson and Liz Cheney is roughly like looking at two trees oddly spared by a devastating forest fire. We ought to be looking into why the fire was so devastating, and how to prevent the next fire from being so bad. Much of America is in denial about the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, just as it is with the war crimes currently occurring in Israel. The truth has a hard time being spoken, let alone understood.
ReplyDeleteHow many news outlets have analyzed Senator Bernie Sanders' editorial in the New York Times opposing Israel's recent actions? The powerful have blown so much smoke on so many issues it is hard to see what reality really is. Even PBS Newshour has been mostly fake news on this one, no doubt worrying about large donors. For an alternate view, read here: https://inthesetimes.com/article/israel-settlements-in-palestine-threaten-world-peace
Thanks for your comments, Craig, and for bringing up the current situation in Israel/Gaza. My position is the same as it was in 2015, when I posted the blog article titled "The Plight of the Palestinians"
Delete(https://theviewfromthisseat.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-plight-of-palestinians.html),
and I do think that much more attention needs to be given to Bernie's ideas about the situation.
Yesterday I received the following comment from Thinking Friend Truett Baker, a retired Baptist pastor who now lives in Arizona:
ReplyDelete"It's refreshing to hear that there are evangelical Republicans who are honest and have integrity."