I’m a genuine admirer of David French. He’s one of the very, very few conservative Evangelical Christians (in fact, I can’t think of another) who stayed true to his principles in the Trump era, and he and his family paid a steep price.
www.nytimes.com/2024/06/09/o...
I’ve been waiting for him to address an issue that many other writers, on the left or historians, have explored: that Trump didn’t change the nature of White Evangelicalism, he revealed it.
Here, he writes about how his fellow church members reacted to his adoption of a child from Ethiopia with unhinged racism. And that was when Trump was still a game show host, the most irrelevant occupation known to man.
It’s easy to others to say, Dude, they were what they are now all that time. But you should also note his experience of fellowship and support from those same people before he adopted his child. That was real. It was just predicated on him staying within a boundary he had no idea existed… yet.
I agree that his willingness to stand against Trump is admirable but he seems to have been remarkably incurious about the church he was eagerly joining. It split in 1973 and is headquartered in the South, it’s pretty obvious who makes up this church.
The question about all these “conservative Protestant” factions is “did they split over Blacks or queers” and you just have to look at the split date to figure it out.
He was incurious—and he acknowledges that. He’s already criticized himself for most of the stuff people on the left criticize him for having done.
He’s still wrong about some stuff, but he’s persuadable, and he’s not trying to inflict pain on those who disagree with him.
I agree that he acknowledges it in passing but it’s not like it was a mystery in 2004 why these sorts of churches had split. And calling it a “small, theologically conservative denomination” is eliding the point.
My man, French is not some apolitical rube, but a well-connected conservative activist for decades. Do you think he didn’t know that white Christian conservatives are racist? He was fine with it until it hit him.
I would add, which is implicit in what you say, but he operates in good faith. A huge part of the issue with the right in this country now is they are overwhelmingly liars and bad faith actors, and its impossible to run a democracy with that type
he was senior counsel for the ACLJ and Alliance Defending Freedom
he’s already caused so much damage and pain.
and he was still being a queerphobic bigot as recent as 2017 when he signed onto the Nashville Statement
and he’s still “morally opposed” to gay people
It's a false worldview that people are better than they are but sometimes good people have this view. It doesn't necessarily make you bad to not assume all around you are rotten to the core. Maybe too charitable but a lot of dark things came out of people that they hadn't previously revealed.
I grew up in an evangelical church before it went off the rails. Family members still attend. Congregationally, these churchgoers are kind, helpful and generous to one another & their community. It's inspiring.
They're also all Trumpers. I'll never understand how they meld the Gospels with Trump.
The closest I could come was when a friend was briefly caught up in a Christian cult-like organization. Its leader claimed the Bible's "Do unto others...", "Love your neighbor...", 10 commandments, etc applied ONLY AMONGST believers.
Non-believers were entitled to no expectation of moral behavior.
Ok but French certainly knew his church was ferociously anti-gay, for starters. This was extremely well known in the neighborhood.
And they taught creationism in the preschool, which my mother learned the hard way.
This is what he specifically chose.
The inextricable linkage of religious and political beliefs is hardly a new phenomenon, but it has taken on a rancid partisanship in recent years not seen since churches split over slavery in the 1850’s.
Very thought-provoking thread. My question: what crystallized the boundary? Perhaps the election of a black president? No one talks about “Obama Derangement Syndrome” any more, but it needs to be honestly addressed.
I wonder if he would’ve discovered it in the same era if he chose a wife of a different race. If his wife was African American, would he get the same support for deploying?
We need all the allies we can, but I find it hard to trust people who are blind until it affects them personally.
The thing he still has in common with his former church -- the belief in eternal torment for those uncleansed of sin -- is the throughline. That belief, even more than racism or patriarchy, places a pretty low ceiling on how decent or compassionate one can be.
That tension always existed within the evangelical community. Trump tipped the balance and gave implicit permission for a lot of people to express themselves in ways that were... not unheard of, but socially distasteful.
his white saviorism is racist AF
Signed,
A transracial adoptee raised by white jesus people in white jesuslandia (except for five years spent in their Nigerian mission field trying to say, well, you know...)
Yes but sane/moderate(?) conservatives still keep writing: 1) The GOP is crazy and dangerous. 2)My church is crazy and dangerous and then 3)The liberals are still "worse." They just can't take that last, most important step. So what's the point of the first 2 steps?
My parents' Presbyterian church split about 20 years ago over the issue of accepting LGBTQ members. A group of intolerant bigots left and built their own church (led by a young, wealthy lawyer). It was heartbreaking, but they carried on.
I grew up one state over from where he is. This kind of racism, sexism, etc. It's always been like this. He's just become aware of it. Federalism, states rights, conservatism, moral criticism of Clinton. These were always positions of convenience that were easily shed when they became inconvenient.
Trump's greatest sin (or, depending on your perspective, greatest selling point) is he made a lot of people less ashamed about telling everybody what they REALLY think.
Straight white people really do love to find ways to pretend that their bigoted friends really aren't like, "those bad ones" they pretend are any different
This is painting an entire movement with an entirely too broad stroke here. "It has always been like this" is very reductive. "It has always had elements like this" is closer to the truth. Over time those elements have become the majority/leadership, as others have left, like David here.
Probably a no true Scotsman fallacy. If you were shown even one White Evangelical who wasn't a Trumpist, you would likely say they weren't really Evangelical then, right?
David French is still evangelical even tho he’s not into Trump. He’s still a piece of shit for the homophobia and racism tho
bro, i grew up in this shit. the cruelty is at the heart of it.
