Donald Trump Surrounds Himself With Culture Warriors

Michele Bachmann, a member of Trump's fundie advisory board (image courtesy David Shankbone, available under a Creative Commons-Attribution license)
Michele Bachmann, a member of Trump’s fundie advisory board (image courtesy David Shankbone, available under a Creative Commons-Attribution license)

We already knew that Donald Trump isn’t even trying to pivot back to the center after completing his hostile takeover of the GOP. Well, we got more evidence today. He threw a truckload of red meat to the religious right by appointing an “advisory board” chock full of unreconstructed culture warriors.

After a closed-door meeting with some 400 fundie leaders, Trump announced the appointment of an “Evangelical Executive Advisory Board” that will advise him on “issues important to Evangelicals and other people of faith.” It will serve as the top tier of a larger “Faith and Advisory Committee” that will be rolled out by the end of the month.

Looking at the board members, it’s hard not to wonder if Trump has taken a time warp to the worst days of the culture war. Most of the board members are veteran culture warriors. One of the highest-profile names on the list is James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family. Also on the list are former congresswoman and fundie heroine Michele Bachmann, former Christian Coalition executive director Ralph Reed. James Robison, one of the loudest culture warriors from the 1980s, is on the board as well after returning to the battlefield with a vengeance four years ago.

The Donald is obviously making a play for black fundies as well. Harry Jackson, the leader of the effort to derail marriage equality in the District of Columbia, is on the board, as is Brooklyn megachurch pastor A. R. Bernard. Something tells me that we may see a repeat of Jackson’s declaration in 2013, on the eve of Obama being sworn in for a second term. He warned that God would strike down black Christians–like yours truly–who voted for Obama a few months earlier.

Looking further at the list, it looks like that Trump stayed in character. He seems to be scraping the bottom of the barrel. One of the board members, Baptist pastor Robert Jeffress, believes that First Amendment guarantees of religious freedom could bring the wrath of God on this nation, and that 9-11 was brought on by abortion. Also on the list is word of faith poobah Kenneth Copeland, who encouraged his followers to keep giving in the midst of a recession and believes he needs a private plane and a private airport to do God’s work.

Copeland and another board member, Paula White, were among the targets of a Senate investigation of ministries that played fast and loose with their followers’ money. Richard Land, former head of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Convention, made the cut even though he was busted for blatant plagiarism on the air.

The New Civil Rights Movement’s David Badash discovered that a number of the board members have criticized Trump in the past. Some examples, from Twitter.

But it seems that defeating Hillary Clinton, one of the religious right’s pet hates for two decades, has a way of closing gaps. And it also seems that many of these culture warriors are so desperate to stop Hillary that they’re willing to advise a guy who finds it acceptable to plaster private cell phone numbers on social media, mock the disabled, and condone out-and-out thuggery from his supporters.

One of my fellow charismatic/pentecostal Dems thinks that God has a warning for fundies flocking to Trump–there’s a high price to pay for seeking power at any cost. Something tells me these culture warriors are going to learn a hard lesson in November, and beyond.

Darrell is a 30-something graduate of the University of North Carolina who considers himself a journalist of the old school. An attempt to turn him into a member of the religious right in college only succeeded in turning him into the religious right's worst nightmare--a charismatic Christian who is an unapologetic liberal. His desire to stand up for those who have been scared into silence only increased when he survived an abusive three-year marriage. You may know him on Daily Kos as Christian Dem in NC. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook. Click here to buy Darrell a Mello Yello.