Was Jesus woke.
I'm S.E. Cupp.
This is unfiltered.
I'm old enough to remember
when the conservative movement
was focused primarily on fiscal
and social issues. National defense.
The debt, the deficit. Taxes.
Limited government. Family values.
The right had yet to tap
into that gold mine.
That is the so-called culture wars,
which has become
the main event in modern right
wing politics.
It's replaced
fiscal, moral and security concerns.
It dominates the right wing
media landscape,
and it's made celebrities
of countless
enterprising outrage peddlers.
The right's
singular obsession with the culture wars,
owning the libs and woke ism
has become its North Star.
And the effects have not been good
for the country or the Republican Party.
Abandoning principles in favor of cheap
calorie culture wars
helped lead the party to lose the House,
the Senate
and the White House in just four years.
And we have one guy to thank for that
Donald J.
Trump,
the former president and current
presidential candidate
ushered divisive culture wars
into prominence,
all too happy
to pit Americans
against each other
in the name of patriotism.
And, of course,
as a way of measuring loyalty to him,
after all, it's so much easier
to focus on the evils of Mr.
Potato Head, the green Eminem
kneeling for the national anthem
and drag queen story hour
than it is to say, balance the budget,
secure our borders
and the opioid crisis,
and lower poverty rates
Well,
it seems the right's infatuation
with Woke
ism has not only infected conservatism,
but Christianity, too.
This week, Christianity
Today editor
Russell Moore spoke to NPR's
All Things Considered,
and what he had to say was alarming.
He said that
Christianity in
the United States is in crisis
and he blamed it
squarely on the tribalism
animating conservative circles.
He said that multiple pastors
had told him that
after they'd preach
Christian values
like turning the other cheek,
parishioners would complain
that those were liberal talking points.
When the pastor would point out
that he was literally quoting
Jesus Christ.
The parishioner would reply,
That doesn't work anymore.
That's weak.
So Jesus is now to work
for conservative evangelicals.
Now, this is lamentable,
but hardly surprising
as the right mix culture wars.
Their entire personality
Things like compassion
and empathy have become dirty words.
Compassion is now synonymous
with woke ism,
empathy, and things
like social safety nets
have become synonymous with socialism,
caring about how punitive policies
may hurt people.
Well, that's for the libs.
This is the deleterious effect
of Trumpism
co-opting conservative politics.
Trumpism has infected
and corrupted myriad institutions
once integral to conservatism.
Conservative principles are now
whatever Trump decides they should be.
Much of conservative journalism
has jettisoned
journalism in favor of Trump propaganda,
support for law enforcement,
the military,
the intelligence community,
the justice system,
separation of powers,
even American democracy itself.
All subjected to whether or not
it helps or hurts Trump
like everything else he touched.
Trump has essentially
broken Christianity.
Like,
he broke conservatism to the point
where even the Bible is too woke.
For evangelicals, Trump has trumped Jesus
because in the cult of Trump, it's
not enough just to like him.
You have to become him.
Even if that means abandoning
everything you once stood for.
That's it for me. See you next week.