tag:theconversation.com,2011:/institutions/aquinas-institute-of-theology-4884/articlesAquinas Institute of Theology2020-11-13T13:40:50Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1496682020-11-13T13:40:50Z2020-11-13T13:40:50ZWhat’s next for American evangelicals after Trump leaves office?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368937/original/file-20201111-13-1rznlij.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C13%2C3000%2C2020&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many evangelical voters believe they found a protector in chief in Donald Trump. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/joel-perez-prays-during-the-evangelicals-for-trump-campaign-news-photo/1197349443?adppopup=true">Joe Raedle/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Donald Trump, by his own words and actions, does not appear to be the most religious person.</p>
<p>He has claimed he <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2015/07/18/politics/trump-has-never-sought-forgiveness/index.html">doesn’t seek forgiveness from God</a>, and he once tried to put <a href="https://religionnews.com/2016/02/01/trump-mistakenly-puts-money-on-the-communion-plate/">money in a Communion plate</a>. Apart from <a href="https://theconversation.com/trumps-photo-op-with-church-and-bible-was-offensive-but-not-new-140053">his controversial photo op</a> while holding up a Bible in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church, he doesn’t seem especially concerned with Christian symbolism. </p>
<p>And yet <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/11/03/us/elections/exit-polls-president.html?action=click&pgtype=Article&state=default&module=styln-elections-2020&region=TOP_BANNER&context=election_recirc">76% of white evangelical voters</a> supported him in the 2020 election. It’s clear American evangelicals value something other than his religious devotion. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.ai.edu/study-learn/faculty-profiles/dr-stewart-clem">Christian ethicist</a>, I’m especially interested in the ways Christians seek to gain and use political power. Why did so many Christians vote for Trump? And what are they afraid of losing when he leaves?</p>
<p>Many evangelical Christians are drawn to Trump’s <a href="https://www.deseret.com/indepth/2020/1/12/21058736/president-donald-trump-religious-freedom-evangelical-christianity-today-election">promises to protect religious liberty</a>. President-elect Biden, meanwhile, has also <a href="https://joebiden.com/safeguarding-americas-faith-based-communities/">promised to protect religious liberty</a>. But it might not be on evangelicals’ terms.</p>
<h2>Diminishing power?</h2>
<p>The power of <a href="http://bakerpublishinggroup.com/books/the-american-evangelical-story/223190">evangelical Christians in the U.S.</a> has never been officially state sanctioned. The <a href="https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/bill-of-rights-transcript">First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution</a> prohibits it. </p>
<p>For over 200 years, American evangelicals have relied on <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/religion-in-american-life-9780199832699?cc=us&lang=en&">Christianity’s cultural influence</a> to preserve their vision of public life. And that influence is not to be underestimated. </p>
<p>In his bestselling book, “<a href="https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/tom-holland/dominion/9780465093502/">Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World</a>,” Tom Holland explains, “To live in a Western country is to live in a society still utterly saturated by Christian concepts and assumptions.” </p>
<p>This is why so many refer to America as a “<a href="https://www.wjkbooks.com/Products/066426249X/was-america-founded-as-a-christian-nation-revised-edition.aspx">Christian nation</a>” even though it has never officially recognized Christianity as the state religion.</p>
<p>Conservative Christian political organizations have been buoyed by Christianity’s cultural capital. In the late 1970s and 1980s, for example, the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Moral-Majority">Moral Majority</a> formed a broad coalition of Christians to advance conservative social values across the nation. </p>
<p>But that cultural capital has declined as America becomes more diverse. Today, far <a href="https://www.pewforum.org/2019/10/17/in-u-s-decline-of-christianity-continues-at-rapid-pace/">fewer Americans identify as Christian</a> than 10 years ago, and only 1 in 4 Americans call themselves evangelical Christian.</p>
<h2>Why evangelicals love Trump</h2>
<p>American evangelicals, aware that their numbers and influence are in decline, have tried to <a href="https://www.nae.net/evangelicals-and-politics/">undercut that decline through political means</a>. Their highest priority is <a href="https://scholars.org/contribution/what-us-evangelical-voters-really-want-politics">electing leaders whose policies will allow evangelicalism to flourish</a>. </p>
<p>Typically, this means that evangelicals prefer to vote for evangelical candidates. As Christian conservative leader <a href="https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/8882#ftn6">Beverly LaHaye declared</a>, “Politicians who do not use the Bible to guide their public and private lives do not belong in government.” </p>
<p>But this is why President Trump has been such an anomaly. He has demonstrated a <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/04/trumps-bible-fail/478425/">lack of familiarity with the Bible and basic Christian teachings</a>. Yet, his religious supporters don’t seem to mind. Even among white evangelicals, only 12% believe he is “<a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/03/25/most-americans-dont-see-trump-as-religious/">very religious</a>.”</p>
<p>This suggests that <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/white-evangelicals-love-trump-aren-t-confused-about-why-no-ncna1046826">today’s evangelicals are unfazed</a> by Trump’s apparent lack of personal piety. They believe religious liberty is under threat, and they want <a href="https://www.baptiststandard.com/opinion/voices/donald-trump-is-protecting-religious-freedom-in-a-perilous-age/">a president who promises to protect that liberty</a>.</p>
<h2>A protector in chief</h2>
<p>Evangelical Protestants are more likely than any other large U.S. religious denomination to believe their religious freedom is under attack, according to a recent <a href="https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-religion-u-s-news-virus-outbreak-reinventing-faith-535624d93b8ce3d271019200e362b0cf">AP-NORC poll</a>.</p>
<p>Many people are puzzled by evangelicals’ anxiety over religious freedom. While it’s true that government restrictions on religion are <a href="https://www.pewforum.org/2020/11/10/in-2018-government-restrictions-on-religion-reach-highest-level-globally-in-more-than-a-decade/">rising across the globe</a>, this simply isn’t the case in the U.S. </p>
<p>As conservative Christian political commentator David French <a href="https://frenchpress.thedispatch.com/p/the-true-extent-of-religious-liberty">recently argued</a>, “People of faith in the United States of America enjoy more liberty and more real political power than any faith community in the developed world.” He argues that while religious liberty has always been under attack in the U.S., Christians have no reason to fear that it’s going away anytime soon.</p>
<p>But for many American evangelicals, the threat of attack is enough to create the need for a protector in chief. And President Trump has been happy to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/c8626c6bdbab4e3f8232ea1499a6954b">assume that role</a>. </p>
<p>In 2018, he signed an executive order that established the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-establishment-white-house-faith-opportunity-initiative/">White House Faith and Opportunity Initiative</a>. “This Initiative is working to remove barriers which have unfairly prevented faith based organizations from working with or receiving funding from the federal government,” <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/president-trumps-qa-religion-news-service/">he explained</a>. </p>
<h2>Biden and religious liberty</h2>
<p>President-elect Joe Biden has proposed <a href="https://joebiden.com/safeguarding-americas-faith-based-communities/">his own plan</a> for safeguarding religious freedom. It articulates a number of broad protections that most evangelicals would be likely to support, at least in theory. </p>
<p>But in Biden’s <a href="https://joebiden.com/lgbtq-policy/">plan to advance LGTBQ equality</a>, he proposes the very thing many American evangelicals fear:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Religious freedom is a fundamental American value. But states have inappropriately used broad exemptions to allow businesses, medical providers, social service agencies, state and local government officials, and others to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people … Biden will reverse Trump’s policies misusing these broad exemptions and fight so that no one is turned away from a business or refused service by a government official just because of who they are or who they love.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>In an essay written just before the election, Al Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, <a href="https://albertmohler.com/2020/10/26/christians-conscience-and-the-looming-2020-election">warned</a>, “The primary front of religious liberty controversy is likely to be related to LGBTQ issues, and both Biden and Harris are eager to advance the sexual revolution on every front.” Given what the incoming <a href="https://19thnews.org/2020/09/lgbtq-rights-biden-presidency/">president</a> and <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/white-evangelicals-love-trump-aren-t-confused-about-why-no-ncna1046826">vice president have said on the issue</a>, he is probably right.</p>
<p>American evangelicals’ political power is in decline, and that decline would likely continue with or without Trump in office. <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/white-evangelicals-supreme-court-makeup-solidifies-support-president/story?id=73153818">His Supreme Court appointments have made evangelicals happy</a> and will have a lasting impact. But changing demographics and a growing number of nonreligious voters mean that evangelicals will need to develop a strategy for the long game. In light of this, it may be wise for them not to direct all of their energy toward electing a protector in chief. </p>
<p>Perhaps instead they might seek to answer a <a href="https://www.eerdmans.com/Products/7640/christ-and-the-common-life.aspx">question posed by Christian ethicist Luke Bretherton</a>: “In loving my neighbor, how can I keep faith with my distinctive commitments while also forming a common life with neighbors who have a different vision of life than I do?”</p>
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<p>Unless evangelicals can manage some major political victories in the coming years, they may not have much choice.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stewart Clem does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When Trump leaves the White House in January, many American evangelicals will feel that they’ve lost their protector in chief.Stewart Clem, Assistant Professor of Moral Theology, Aquinas Institute of TheologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1487142020-10-28T12:26:22Z2020-10-28T12:26:22ZFor a growing number of evangelical Christians, Trump is no longer the lesser of two evils<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365630/original/file-20201026-15-p3z2w6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C17%2C3988%2C2640&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A moral minority of evangelicals are moving away from Trump.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/attendees-pray-together-before-president-donald-trump-news-photo/1191555698?adppopup=true">Scott McIntyre/For The Washington Post via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It has long been taken for granted that <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2020/04/06/why-trump-is-reliant-on-white-evangelicals/">the majority of evangelical Christians in the United States will vote for Donald Trump</a>.</p>
<p>That may well be the case. But there are recent signs that fewer evangelicals will support Trump this time around than in 2016. </p>
<p>In an <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/fox-news-poll-voters-pick-biden-yet-more-think-their-neighbors-back-trump">August 2020 poll for Fox News</a>, Trump registered a 38-point advantage over Joe Biden among among white evangelical voters. That is impressive, but it pales in comparison with his 61-point advantage over Hillary Clinton among evangelicals in the 2016 election. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, a Pew survey on Oct. 13 found that <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/10/13/white-christians-continue-to-favor-trump-over-biden-but-support-has-slipped/">white evangelical support for Trump had slipped</a> since August, from 83% to 78%.</p>
<h2>Moral motivation</h2>
<p>Among those who plan to vote to reelect the current president, “a majority are excited to get behind Trump, rather than being primarily motivated by a distaste for his opponent,” according to <a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2020/october/white-evangelical-voters-for-trump-pew-lifeway-survey.html">a write-up of the Pew survey</a> in the prominent evangelical publication Christianity Today.</p>
<p>To me, this suggests not so much a softening among evangelical voters an intensification of their feelings about Trump. I believe we are witnessing a growing divide between those who love him and those who increasingly question whether he is fit for office. Unlike in 2016, evangelical voters who cannot get excited about Trump are seemingly finding it more difficult to vote for him. </p>
<p>There hasn’t been a lot of research into what is behind this trend. But as a <a href="https://www.ai.edu/study-learn/faculty-profiles/dr-stewart-clem">moral theologian</a>, I’m interested in the moral reasoning that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/21/opinion/evangelicals-election-biden.html">some prominent evangelical Christians</a> have put forward in recent months explaining why they won’t be voting for Trump. It seems that at least some are reconsidering the relationship between leadership and character. </p>
<h2>Why the change of heart?</h2>
<p>When Trump was campaigning in 2016, many Christians conceded that while they didn’t approve of his crude personality or his “<a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/evangelical-magazine-calls-for-grossly-immoral-trump-to-be-removed-929733/">immoral</a>” lifestyle, they believed his policies – such as his promises to protect <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FECR_bfspS4">religious freedom</a> and his commitment to <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2016/10/19/trump-ill-appoint-supreme-court-justices-to-overturn-roe-v-wade-abortion-case.html">overturning Roe v. Wade</a> – were more in line with their religious beliefs than those of Hillary Clinton. </p>
<p>“<a href="https://www.npr.org/2016/01/31/465047357/i-m-not-electing-a-pastor-in-chief-how-iowa-s-evangelicals-are-deciding">We’re electing a president, not a pastor</a>,” was a common refrain.</p>
<p>Evangelical Christians in the U.S. are <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/11/09/how-the-faithful-voted-a-preliminary-2016-analysis/">not a monolithic voting bloc</a> that supports conservative candidates. There has always been a <a href="https://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/15015.html">politically progressive contingent</a> among evangelicalism. Jim Wallis, founder of the left-leaning evangelical magazine <a href="https://sojo.net">Sojourners</a>, for example, served as a member of <a href="https://www.pewforum.org/2009/08/18/president-obamas-advisory-council-on-faith-based-and-neighborhood-partnerships/">President Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Community Partnerships</a>. Unsurprisingly, progressive evangelical voters have been critical of the president’s character as well as his policies. </p>
<p>But what appears to have changed of late is that some politically conservative evangelicals – those who prioritize abortion restrictions, opposition to same-sex marriage and religious freedom – <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/21/opinion/evangelicals-election-biden.html">agree less than they did in 2016 that Trump deserves their vote</a>. </p>
<p>While President Trump may not be “pastor-in-chief,” many evangelical leaders are reminding their fellow Christians that they should not view the office of president as somehow exempt from what they perceive as biblical standards of leadership. As <a href="https://www.patheos.com/blogs/faithforward/2020/09/good-democrat-or-bad-republican/?fbclid=IwAR2Kk4Y4ORlIL9nQj9gyRc-SIiAYdbfL2W-gYugPH7fiiOcNQQupI_RteDg">Christian business leader Sid Jansma Jr. explained</a> in a recent article: “The Bible routinely associates good leadership anywhere with character, including such traits as justice, patience, compassion, humility, integrity, honesty, wisdom, courage and discipline.” Citing the Apostle Paul’s second letter to Timothy in the Bible, Jansma concludes, “On every Biblical count of leadership, all of the above, Trump fails.”</p>
<p>Prominent evangelical <a href="https://www.desiringgod.org/">pastor and author John Piper</a> has likewise <a href="https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/policies-persons-and-paths-to-ruin?fbclid=IwAR0F7hA8PKGSF5qCat6otovIpZ3BTS8VsODc9l_kWwA3CIx4qINhaJMfZ50">drawn on several biblical texts</a> when writing about the choice facing voters: “There is a character connection between rulers and subjects. When the Bible describes a king by saying, ‘He sinned and made Israel to sin’ … it does not mean he twisted their arm. It means his influence shaped the people. That’s the calling of a leader. Take the lead in giving shape to the character of your people. So it happens. For good or for ill.”</p>
<p>In this reading, the Bible does not have a category for a good leader with bad personal character. Nor does it seem to imagine that a nation can remain untainted by the perceived moral failures of its leaders. </p>
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<h2>The lesser of two evils?</h2>
<p>In 2016, a considerable number of evangelicals strongly disapproved of Trump’s behavior but could not imagine voting for a Democrat. For these voters, <a href="https://democrats.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2020/08/2020-Democratic-Party-Platform.pdf">the Democratic Party platform and its positions on abortion and LGBTQ rights</a> was sufficient to render Trump the lesser of two evils. </p>
<p>Explaining this position in 2016, Wayne Grudem, a popular evangelical author and seminary professor, <a href="https://www.christianpost.com/news/why-voting-for-donald-trump-is-a-morally-good-choice-part-1-167239/">conceded in The Christian Post</a> that the candidate was “egotistical, bombastic, and brash” but that he represented an “unusual opportunity” to defeat the “pro-abortion, pro-gender-confusion, anti-religious liberty, tax-and-spend, big government liberalism” that he associated with Hillary Clinton. </p>
<p>More recently, concern over Trump’s <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/01/there-no-christian-case-trump/605785/">perceived exploitation of Christianity</a> has been enough to change the minds of some voters. Some theologians have argued that <a href="https://livingchurch.org/covenant/2020/06/03/standing-at-the-doors-of-the-house-of-the-lord/">he appropriates Christianity</a> for purposes that are contrary to its teachings. Southern Methodist University’s D. Stephen Long went as far as to ponder in one article: “<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/religion/stephen-long-should-we-call-trump-antichrist/12335450">Should we call Donald Trump ‘antichrist’?</a>”</p>
<p>So even for Christian voters who rely on a lesser-of-two-evils calculus, it’s not obvious that Trump deserves their backing. As <a href="https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/policies-persons-and-paths-to-ruin?fbclid=IwAR0F7hA8PKGSF5qCat6otovIpZ3BTS8VsODc9l_kWwA3CIx4qINhaJMfZ50">Piper writes</a>, “I find it bewildering that Christians can be so sure that greater damage will be done by bad judges, bad laws and bad policies than is being done by the culture-infecting spread of the gangrene of sinful self-exaltation, and boasting and strife-stirring.” </p>
<p>Even from a conservative evangelical perspective, the gains of a Trump presidency are increasingly being weighed against the losses. As the editor in chief of Christianity Today <a href="https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2019/december-web-only/trump-should-be-removed-from-office.html">put it</a> in an article calling for Trump to be removed from office: “If we don’t reverse course now, will anyone take anything we say about justice and righteousness with any seriousness for decades to come?” </p>
<p>Despite reportedly <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/09/trump-secretly-mocks-his-christian-supporters/616522/">mocking Christians and their beliefs</a> behind closed doors, Trump is seen by many evangelicals as <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/03/12/about-a-third-in-u-s-see-gods-hand-in-presidential-elections-but-fewer-say-god-picks-winners-based-on-policies/">God’s chosen candidate</a>. The data, however, suggest a growing divide among evangelicals, with reluctant Trump voters becoming a thing of the past.</p>
<p>Most conservative evangelicals will vote for Trump and will do so enthusiastically. But a significant minority have seemingly concluded that he is in fact the worse of two evils, and they will either not vote or vote for a candidate who is not a Republican – perhaps for the first time in their lives.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stewart Clem does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Polls show that a majority of evangelicals back Trump. But that hides a growing divide between enthusiasts of the president and those who question his fitness for office, argues a moral theologian.Stewart Clem, Assistant Professor of Moral Theology, Aquinas Institute of TheologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1469652020-10-01T12:27:07Z2020-10-01T12:27:07ZWhat makes a ‘good’ patriot? Donald Trump may be surprised by an ethicist’s answer<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360893/original/file-20200930-20-1c3gdbw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=2%2C0%2C1830%2C1220&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Your country needs YOU to be a critical friend.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-donald-trump-speaks-during-a-daily-briefing-of-news-photo/1219059988?adppopup=true">Alex Wong/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When President Donald Trump talks about “patriots” – and <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/tariniparti/donald-trump-patriot-shutdown">he does, a lot</a> – he probably doesn’t have in mind a fictional Black American sailor sitting in a cafe in Wales, listening to locals sing folks songs. </p>
<p>But in Ralph Ellison’s short story “<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/46128/flying-home-by-ralph-ellison/">In a Strange Country</a>,” the protagonist, Mr. Parker, listens to Welsh songs that simultaneously express loyalty to the queen and defiance of England, and sees something of his own situation and conflicting feelings to the land of his birth. When the locals begin to sing “The Star Spangled Banner,” Mr. Parker finds himself singing along. Thousands of miles away from his homeland and fighting back tears, he sings his national anthem for the first time without irony. </p>
<p>It is a form of patriotism echoed by another Black American, this time the very nonfictional author and thinker James Baldwin. In 1963, <a href="https://journals.openedition.org/jsse/1052">Baldwin wrote</a>: “I love America more than any other country in the world, and exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.”</p>
<p>Trump sees patriotism differently. For him, it is unconditional. Even before coming to office, he was tweeting about the topic, on one occasion using the <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/85741-patriotism-is-supporting-your-country-all-the-time-and-your">Mark Twain adage</a>: “Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.”</p>
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<p>More recently, he has <a href="https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1300019849540886528?lang=en">bestowed the term on his supporters</a> and sought to cast them as being more patriotic than Black Lives Matter protesters.</p>
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<h2>Pitting 1776 against 1619</h2>
<p>In September, Trump <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/09/17/914127266/trump-announces-patriotic-education-commission-a-largely-political-move">announced plans</a> for a “patriotic” and “pro-American” curriculum in American public schools.</p>
<p>In unveiling a proposed “<a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/09/17/914127266/trump-announces-patriotic-education-commission-a-largely-political-move">1776 Commission</a>” to ensure that “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwnmxQulT3w">our youth will be taught to love America</a>,” Trump was seemingly responding to The New York Times’ Pulitzer Prize-winning <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/1619-america-slavery.html">1619 Project</a>. That <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/12/20/magazine/1619-intro.html">project aims to</a> “reframe the country’s history by placing the consequences of slavery and the contributions of black Americans at the very center of our national narrative.”</p>
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<p>Trump appears to imply that loving America is incompatible with acknowledging that the U.S. has oppressed certain people and groups on its path to glory.</p>
<h2>Deciphering the word ‘patriot’</h2>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.ai.edu/study-learn/faculty-profiles/dr-stewart-clem">moral theologian</a> and someone who frequently engages the writings of medieval thinkers, I can’t help but notice that this understanding of patriotism is relatively novel. The concept that a “good” patriot unquestionably loves his country unconditionally is not in keeping with how it has been viewed throughout history.</p>
<p>The word “patriot” comes from the ancient Greek “patrios,” translated as “of one’s fathers.” As such, in the original meaning a patriot is someone who belongs to one’s fatherland. No judgment was made as to how that person should view the fatherland. This came later.</p>
<p><a href="https://bartholomew.stanford.edu/scholasticism.html">The medieval scholastics</a> – a diverse group of thinkers including such luminaries as St. Bonaventure and St. Anselm of Canterbury – were known for reviving and developing ideas that originated in ancient Greek philosophy.</p>
<p>To belong to something, according to the scholastics, is not a mere observation of fact. It generates moral obligations, because we owe a debt to the things that give us life. As <a href="https://aquinas.cc/la/en/%7EST.II-II.Q101.A1.C">St. Thomas Aquinas wrote</a>, “The principles of our being and government are our parents and our country, which have given us birth and nourishment. Thus, a person is debtor chiefly to their parents and their country, after God.”</p>
<h2>The virtue of piety</h2>
<p>The scholastics had a name for this virtue: piety. The virtuous person honors and loves the things that have brought them into being, and this includes one’s homeland. “Piety,” <a href="https://aquinas.cc/la/en/%7EST.II-II.Q101.A3.Rep1">St. Thomas writes</a>, “is a declaration of the love we bear towards our parents and our country.” </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360915/original/file-20200930-16-6y0xjw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/360915/original/file-20200930-16-6y0xjw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=721&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360915/original/file-20200930-16-6y0xjw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=721&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360915/original/file-20200930-16-6y0xjw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=721&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360915/original/file-20200930-16-6y0xjw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=906&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360915/original/file-20200930-16-6y0xjw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=906&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/360915/original/file-20200930-16-6y0xjw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=906&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">13th-century depiction of St. Thomas Aquinas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/circa-1260-italian-philosopher-theologian-and-writer-st-news-photo/51246574?adppopup=true">Rischgitz/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>While perceived wrongdoing may lead us to denounce the actions of our country’s government, such criticism is compatible with – and, indeed, necessitated by – the virtue of piety, according to <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/justice-virtue/#CarJus">the scholastic understanding of the virtue of justice</a>.</p>
<p>What we can learn from the scholastics is that the heart of patriotism is not an unwavering commitment to the objective superiority of one’s country – rather, the heart of patriotism is love. </p>
<p>As such, we should study the shameful aspects of our nation’s past not only because it is fair and honest but also because it can can make us love our country more. In short, it can make us better patriots.</p>
<p>As the theologian and philospher <a href="https://www.pagebypagebooks.com/Gilbert_K_Chesterton/Orthodoxy/The_Flag_of_the_World_p2.html">G. K. Chesterton once quipped</a>, “Men did not love Rome because she was great. She was great because they loved her.”</p>
<p>A modern interpretation could be that an American patriot will always love America, but he or she may not always be pro-America. </p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>This is an interpretation that jars most with Americans on the political right. But there is also a lesson here for some Americans on the left that criticism of one’s own country should not spill out into contempt. Hatred or indifference toward one’s country is not a virtue, in the eyes of the scholastics.</p>
<p>So someone can be a “good American patriot” who ardently loves America while also lamenting its shortcomings – both past and present. If Trump’s proposed K-12 curriculum can maintain both of these virtues, then it would be truly patriotic. But if it leads to educators who insist that students be blindly pro-American, it would merely be propaganda.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stewart Clem does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>From medieval thinkers to James Baldwin, loving one’s country has never meant you can’t be critical of it too.Stewart Clem, Assistant Professor of Moral Theology, Aquinas Institute of TheologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.