Proto-Protestantism: New Calvinism, Evangelicalism, and Trump Era Schisms (Part II)

04 December 2021

New Calvinism, Evangelicalism, and Trump Era Schisms (Part II)

The recent World Magazine rift seems to be also rooted in a Trumpian schism. Marvin Olasky, a right-wing figure who was loosely associated with the George W Bush presidency is enough of a principled intellectual and in possession of enough historical sense to realize he could not endorse Trump for president in 2016.

This was not an endorsement of Clinton but as the American audience has been trained to think in terms of the duopoly – the two party dominant paradigm, such outside the box thinking is not allowed. A refusal to support to Trump was viewed as tantamount to supporting Clinton. It's a fallacy deeply rooted in American political thought and one supported by the ruling parties.

Olasky's star has been falling ever since and now he's been forced out. The faction that forced him out wants to convert World from the type of 'fact based' journalism it produced into an opinion driven model – in keeping with the transformation seen all across mainstream media. Networks like FOX no longer attempt to report news. They provide metanarrative-driven activist commentary. The same is true with CNN and MSNBC, and yet less so with some of the other mainstream networks which more than anything else focus on entertainment, celebrity, consumerism, and human interest stories. The American news market is terrible. Anyone serious about news, let alone global news will have to look outside the US market. The Establishment friendly papers, The New York Times, and Washington Post are about the only options left, and they're not very appealing either. They're solid when it comes to certain topics but absolutely deceitful when it comes to others. They are liberal in terms of social issues but they rabidly defend Wall Street and the Empire when it comes to geopolitics and while a hundred times more informative than mainstream television news – they cannot be trusted.

Olasky's World was no better. It was simply the Evangelical attempt at producing serious news coverage, its answer to Time magazine. It's biased, misinformed at points, and at other times misleading to the point of deceit. While it antedates New Calvinism-proper (as does MacArthur, Sproul, Piper, and others associated with the movement) it was part of its ethos, or rather part of the ethos that helped to birth the movement. I've never been a fan of the magazine and yet this development is interesting – and yet once again, complicated. Was his ouster simply the result of a Trumpist faction forcing him out? No, but the spectre of Trump overshadows everything that has happened over the past six years.

The commentary-driven faction that has forced Olasky out is in part led by or connected to SBC seminary president and popular commentator Albert Mohler. Mohler was initially dubious about Trump as well, but eventually jumped on the Trump train because the alternative was (to him) unthinkable. Many might agree that Clinton and Biden are unthinkable options for Christian support. But sounder thinkers will also insist that Trump is just as 'unthinkable' – all the more when his character, deplorable conduct, and policies are associated with the Evangelical movement.

In fact the Evangelical movement's support for him has destroyed what little credibility they still possessed. Mohler was revealed once more as an intellectual lightweight when he failed to understand that the embrace of Trump was the death knell of the Evangelical movement. The culture war the movement had waged for almost forty years evaporated when they got behind Trump who in many respects epitomized the type of leader and politicking they had always claimed to oppose. The movement's scathing criticisms of Bill Clinton were negated by their support for Trump. All the arguments about character in political leaders and morality and decency in the public sphere literally went out the window. The quest for raw power won out. Mohler had apparently never reflected on the foundational ideas of the movement even though he has associated himself with it and risen into its upper echelons.

His associate Russell Moore did reflect on these points, acted accordingly, and was blacklisted as a result. It needs to be stated that to his credit, Mohler did denounce the January 6 incident at the Capitol, but it's also clear that he has not understood those events nor their roots.

And yet in the Evangelical and New Calvinist spheres, many of the Far Right factions despise Mohler and some have even denounced him as a Marxist because he has at the very least entertained the possibility that American society might have some problems with race and he's sought to address them by means of dialogue – as if that had anything to do with Marxism anyway. This is the maddening state of things. A Right-wing Protestant theological conservative is denounced as being a Leftist, Marxist, and theological liberal. There's much to criticise when it comes to Mohler, but these accusations are baseless.

So on the one hand, Mohler is part of what might be called a quasi-Trumpite faction that has forced (or at least played a part in forcing) Olasky out of the leadership at World Magazine. But on the other hand many might look to Mohler as a voice of moderation and restraint when it comes to the Trumpite movement and its ideology – an ideology that is deeply fascistic, though Mohler is incapable of recognising or understanding this. His historical commentaries while far from being Left-wing, frequently display and parade Americo-centric Right-wing ignorance of historical realities. The confusion over the threat of fascism has a long history in the Evangelical movement. Hoodwinked and deceived by its own partisan-motivated intelligentsia, the movement stands primed to embark on the fascist path and indeed some already have – many of whom are the Trumpites leading the charge against Mohler, Moore, Olasky, and others.

Trump is not the direct cause of these schisms but they would not be taking place (as they are) apart from the Anti-Obama/Trumpian context and the polarisation it has engendered. The embrace of Far-Right ideology and its projection into the realm of theology are a cause for great concern. And it's all rooted in the Evangelical movement's embrace of Dominionist thinking – something Mohler, Moore, and Olasky have all helped to promote. That's one of the great ironies of the moment.

And what a moment! Who would have thought that figures like Albert Mohler, Russell Moore, and the Theonomist, Marvin Olasky would represent voices of moderation! It only shows how far things have moved to the Right – literally off the scale, which is into the realm of fascism. And a new theology and ethic is being developed to go along with it. Dominion Theology laid the groundwork for a new epistemology, not Scripture or the Bible alone but a new model – BibleFOX, the syncretism that now dominates the Christian Right. Scripture is at best only a part (and an increasingly selective part) of this movement's epistemology, hermeneutics, and ethics. At this point in time Tucker Carlson and Mark Levine are probably just as (if not more) influential than their favourite theologians. The Mohlers and Olaskys would rightly decry this but in their own ways, they've played a part in bringing things to this moment.

If the New Calvinist movement collapses and World Magazine folds, New Testament Christians will not weep but we must watch as it's critical to understand what is happening and take heed as things are starting to move along at a quicker pace. If we're not paying attention we and those we care about are going to get swept up and railroaded into some very bad things. It's already happening and there will be social, ecclesiastical, and eternal repercussions.