“We’ve turned the other cheek,” Trump said. “And I understand. I understand sort of the biblical reference. I understand the mentality. But it’s gotten us nothing, okay? It’s gotten us nothing.”
“Enough is enough, because decency is out the window,” Trump later said.
Trump’s words stand in contrast to the longstanding values of many evangelical conservatives in America, but are nevertheless indicative of a marked shift in tactics brought on by Trump-era politics.
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In a 2019 article, Jack Goodyear, who is the dean of the Gary Cook School of Leadership at Dallas Baptist University, observed this trend, writing, “Why have Christians abandoned Christ-likeness for gutter politics? Perhaps we’ve abandoned understanding opposing points of view to embrace ‘fighting back.’ Perhaps we’ve abandoned humility and embraced ‘owning the other side.’”
“Or maybe we’ve abandoned moral leadership for transactional politics and political gain. Maybe we’ve abandoned the eternal values of the gospel for temporary political expediency at any cost. And in the process, we’ve ceased practicing civility in our engagements with the culture in order to ‘win the argument,’” Goodyear continued. “We must return to civility.”
