OPINION: Preaching politics and sowing division

Oct. 11--American evangelicals have a persecution complex. They are constantly being attacked from all sides, they say. Now, with Donald Trump in the White House, these are the people in power, and they are using their power to fight back against all those ungodly persecutors who seek to destroy their traditional values. Specifically, all those women and gay people, all those liberals.

On the big religious right issues of the last several decades -- contraceptive coverage, abortion rights, a general acceptance of gay people's right to live as they are -- evangelicals in Congress and the White House are acting fast now. On Friday, the Trump administration battled hard against the forces of progress.

First, Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued legal guidance that upends existing protections for LGBT people. Under the new policy, a claim of a violation of religious freedom would be enough to override federal anti-discrimination protections for LGBT Americans. When President Trump laid the groundwork for Friday's guidance back in May, he said, "We will not allow people of faith to be targeted, bullied, or silenced anymore, and we will never ever stand for religious discrimination."

Also on Friday, the Department of Health and Human Services rolled back contraceptive coverage for millions of women. The Supreme Court's Hobby Lobby decision in 2014 opened the door for closely held for-profits to omit contraception from their employees' insurance plans. The mandate announced Friday blew that door clean off. It will allow most employers in the country to refuse to offer birth control coverage as part of their insurance plans. They just have to cite a moral or religious reason. The rule rolls back a requirement that guaranteed contraceptive coverage at no cost to 62 million women and contributed to an all-time low in unintended pregnancies, and the lowest abortion rate in the U.S. since the procedure became legal in 1973.

From the always terrific New York Times columnist Gail Collins: "How can you fight against both abortion and contraception?"

Christians in other parts of the world (such as North Korea and many Muslim-governed countries) are truly, horrifically persecuted for their faith, risking imprisonment and death for following Jesus. But in America in 2017, to be a Christian is to belong to the ruling class, the mainstream. The religious right's candidate is in the White House. (Eighty percent of white evangelicals voted for Trump in the general election. They own him. The vile things he says, the hurt and division he sows, this is their legacy.) But still, the victim narrative persists, on Fox News, talk radio, and in Sunday sermons. Why? Because it rallies the foot soldiers of the culture wars -- the congregation and the GOP base.

And now these are the people running the government. So of course we get the contraception rule, and the ongoing attempts in Congress to restrict abortion access based on bunk science and horror stories. We get the Justice Department intervening, without invitation, in a private employment lawsuit over the summer, arguing that federal law does not protect employees from discrimination based on sexual orientation. We get a surprise tweet from the president announcing a ban on transgender people serving in the military. We get mixed messages from the education secretary about the rights of transgender students. Take that, persecutors.

The president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission recently spoke to Christianity Today about the "explicit hostility toward Christians in some sectors of power -- that is real and not imagined."

As a progressive, Christian woman, I have no hostility toward my brothers and sisters who attend evangelical churches, places they find comfort, communion and fellowship, and where they glorify God. I am, however, hostile to church leaders and their disciples in D.C., who espouse views that do real harm, that nurture shame and fear, all in the name of God. They are dragging this country backwards, and they are now in power. For those same people to then claim they are victims, persecuted against by society, well, it's just too much to take.

Kelli Scott's column appears Wednesday through Friday. Reach her at (509) 661-5205 or kscottwenatcheeworld.com.

Reach Kelli Scott at 509-661-5205 or [email protected].

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