by William Trollinger

Over the past three decades, I have had the great privilege of teaching M.A./Ph.D. seminars on American evangelicalism/fundamentalism in the Religious Studies Department here at the University of Dayton. The students have been terrific, and it has not been difficult to convince them that this topic matters in contemporary America, given the ascendancy of the Religious Right, and given (much of) white evangelicalism’s obsequious devotion to Donald Trump. In light of all this, the question keeps coming up in seminar: Does the Bible and theology still matter to evangelicals and fundamentalists, or is it all simply right-wing politics? 

Well, it turns out that there is evidence that there are indeed fundamentalists whose commitment to the Bible places limits on their allegiance to the Trump regime. And some of this evidence comes from an unlikely quarter: Answers in Genesis (AiG).

Roger Patterson – who has his B.S. Ed. in Biology from Montana State University – is AiG’s Education Specialist.  In his AiG video, “Trump Isn’t Jesus,” he responds to the now infamous meme put out by the President. Rejecting Trump’s ridiculous after-the-fact claim that the image actually depicts him as a Red Cross doctor, Patterson observes that he “wasn’t really surprised” by the meme: “Why? Because it matches the character of President Trump and the people he has surrounded himself with.” 

Patterson’s particular target is White House “faith advisor” Paula White, who has compared Trump’s political travails to what Jesus went through on the way to the Cross, and who assured the President that “’Because of his resurrection, you rose up. Because he was victorious, you were victorious. And I believe that the Lord said to tell you [that] because of his victory, you will be victorious in all you put your hands to.’”

Patterson responds: 

This is nothing but prosperity gospel garbage, and blasphemy that should make any Christian cringe. . . . Despite Paula White’s claims, God is not interested in promoting the proud and making all they do to prosper. How do I know that? God’s Word makes this very clear. In James 4 we read . . . “God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble.” That’s the message President Trump needs to hear from Paula White. No one has paid the price Jesus has paid, and no one gets to claim the glory that he alone deserves.

This is a striking rebuke from AiG. Of course, none of this is coming from the mouth of Ken Ham. More importantly, AiG has ignored and continues to ignore what has been a decade of Trump blaspheny; see, for example, the fact that – after years promoting the QAnon notion that liberal secularists promoted and engaged in pedophilia – Ham and company have been absolutely silent about the Epstein files and Trump’s connection to this predatory pedophile.

Obviously, much more could be said about Ham’s and AiG’s fealty to the Trump regime. Still, Roger Patterson’s video is a heartening sign that there remain fundamentalists who, in the end, are more identified with the Gospel of Jesus Christ than to the reign of Donald Trump.