Expect to see more of this from evangelicals who have been mildly critical of Trump from now leading up to the election. I especially ask those of you who thought a more moderate D candidate would peel off "Never Trumpers" to pay attention. A thread /1 https://twitter.com/KSPrior/status/1250462163900272640

There are several common themes in this stance that seem indicative of the evangelical's political nihilism. While Jeffress, Graham, and Falwell, Jr embrace an omnipotent deity who sways elections and raises up crude leaders for a "divine" purpose /2

Prior offers a softer, kinder nihilism that highlights the supreme importance of the integrity of the individual act to the degradation of any sense of communal impact or responsibility. Individualism reigns supreme here as it does with the evangelical MAGA crowd. /3

In American white evangelicalism, the foundational drama is between an individual and God (who mistakenly is viewed as another discrete individual, albeit bigger and more powerful) This individualism is neither biblical nor coherent /4

But it is crucial to the evangelical's conceit. "*I* have decided to follow Jesus...though none go with me..." The solitary sojourner who stands against the swelling hordes of wickedness is the guiding myth. /5

Thus, the oversized importance of Daniel or Stephen in evangelicalism in contrast to other biblical characters along with Bunyan's "Pilgrim" and the desire, a la Eric Metaxas, to baptize Bonhoeffer as an Americanized evangelical /6

Note how she offers a preemptive strike to cushion the readings of such an act from a consequentialist reading. She expresses her confidence in a "win" in terms that aren't worldly (After all, Trump may win reelection and America may go up in flames) /6

But in an "eternal" victory where, one assumes, God rewards the integrity of the individual and makes up for the worldly hell endured by the masses with an eventual reward. That is, providing they maintain individual integrity also /7

In this theology (which has a vision of politics) the individual "chooses" relation and is not a priori radically interrelated. There is no pressing concern for the impacts of our decisions on the vast web of relations in which we find ourselves enmeshed /8

Because *this* isn't the context in which they occur. They are judged in terms of "eternity" which unsurprisingly is an ahistorical milieu which feeds casual indifference to our shared bonds for... "this world is not my home, I'm just a passin' through" /9

This, of course, is easier to support when - like my own self - one's privilege acts as a shield from the consequences of one's action/inaction /10

Perhaps Dr. Prior and those who support her statement have worked diligently since Nov 2016 to do the grass roots development necessary to build a viable 3rd party alternative and these proclamations are in step with such praxis /11

Or perhaps they have spent those years hoping for an intervention, either from within the party or divinely from "without". In the absence of either of those two, compromise reemerges as a dirty word and the integrity of the mythic individual reasserts itself /12

This is not the only religious world view or even the only Christian worldview (one thinks of @DavidDark 's discussion of the "chother" or of the beloved community) but it is prevalent and it is consequential. /end