I have seen many young, millennial evangelicals on social media denounce Trump and shirk away from association with him, lest he tarnish the image of their brand of Jesus - a brand that they quietly peddle in workplaces, at coffee shops, at bars.
Jesus, they'll tell outsiders, is a love revolutionary who doesn't hate gay people. He believes in women's equality. He cares SO MUCH about immigrants. They're not here to judge, and they'll never tell you you're going to hell.
They make it sound almost alluring, like this faith system isn't bigoted, like maybe you didn't understand evangelical Christianity in the first place. They make you wonder if it could actually be for you. They make you want to learn more about it.
But dig a little deeper, go to church with them, ask the right questions, and you'll discover the nuance.
They don't hate gay people, but they DO think the act of homosexuality is a sin. (Aka, hate the sin, not the sinner.)
They believe in women's equality, but only if women submit to their husbands in marriage. (Because submitting to him doesn't mean you're UNEQUAL, it just means you're playing out your God ordained role!)
They care so much about immigrants, but only because God wants them to convert people from every tribe, tongue, and nation. (White colonialism of the spirit/mind/decision making process at play.)
They're not here to judge, because God is the ultimate judge. They'll never tell you that you're going to hell, because only God knows that. And they very much believe you will unless you accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
That's why they've lured you into this church, and they don't plan to tell you any of this until you're so deep in community, so deep in supportive, life-changing new friendships, that it would seemingly cost much more for you to walk away than give in.
So when it comes to young, millennial evangelicals denouncing the Trump administration, or Jerry Falwell, or Mark Driscoll, or any of the white cis-hetero male Pastor leaders they've loved all their lives but they now claim are disappointing them, I'm not buying it.
They can say that these people are not representative of them, they can step aside as much as they want and try to save the face of their bigotry, but bigotry is bigotry no matter how you brand it - no matter what cool haircut you give it, what tattoo you put on its arm.
I'm sick of seeing it around Brooklyn, seeing the New York Times give it a platform (often in the face of Tim Keller), seeing it get away with representing itself as something innocuous when it is anything but.
Mostly, I want to see ex-evangelicals engaged in these conversations with evangelical Christian leaders. Not Nikolas Kristoff. Not reporter X. I want to see people like @KEBrightbill or @Ashadahya or @C_Stroop or @hannahpaasch asking the questions.
Because ex-evangelicals know the questions to expose evangelical Christianity for what it really is.
