Crossroads: God, Providence and the Trump bullet

The New York Times spots a religion ghost and runs away from a serious discussion

I don’t have solid poll data backing me up on the following.

But, in my experience, if you walk up to church-going, scripture-quoting evangelical Protestants and Pentecostals and say that you are trying to think of a Bible verse defined by “6:11” many, if not most, will say, “You mean Ephesians 6:11?”

That would be the following (and I have included verses 12-13, as well):

Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

There is no mention, however, of brave believers shaking their fists and shouting, “Fight! Fight! Fight!”

That said, glance through these Google search results — “Trump,” “assassination,” “Ephesians” — and read some of the chatter about Americans who truly believe they saw the hand of God in this dramatic event. Needless to say, connections of this kind showed up in this week’s “Crossroads” podcast.

Yes, the term “conspiracy theory” pops up in that Google search. I guess that’s what happens when people believe God has the ability to affect what happens in real life.

Here is one statement of this thesis. A veteran, and very media-savvy, evangelical pastor that I know (from a blue zip code) sent me an email after my Rational Sheep post about the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump and the niche-news business models that shaped the news coverage. This pastor responded with:

Last Saturday, 6:11 PM. What happened?

To really know what happened, read Ephesians 6:11. 

I also received emails and “forwards” from readers who thought they saw religious symbolism in the shape of the flag flying above the Trump rally, when it was briefly tangled up by the wind.

What do you think they thought that they saw in this popular social-media image?

Now, it’s safe to say that these reactions are precisely what the New York Times political desk was thinking about in the post-shooting story with this dramatic double-decker headline:

After Saturday, Trump’s Devotees See ‘God’s Protection’

Some of Donald J. Trump’s followers had long viewed him as handpicked by God. The attempted assassination has only increased such quasi-religious devotion and rhetoric.

Here is the overture:

For Donald J. Trump’s most devoted supporters, the bullet that nicked his ear and came within inches of ending his life was only further proof that a higher power is looking out for him.

“I don’t see this as luck,” said the Rev. Nathaniel Thomas, a Republican National Convention delegate and a pastor from the Washington, D.C., area. “I see this as God’s protection.”

Here is another comment of this kind from a generic Christian believer. Other than one reference to a quote from a Catholic, the Times team didn’t see any need to identify the doctrinal traditions of the various people being interviewed (or expressing themselves in social media).

“Something’s got to be at play,” said Michael Thompson, the Republican chairman in Lee County, Fla., while looking toward the sky as if to invoke the heavens. “I don’t think the average person could withstand a tenth of what he has gone through. So yeah, I think he’s probably chosen at the right time in our country’s history.”

What about Trump himself, who was raised as a liberal mainline Protestant and now is rather church-free? The Times summed up his perspective with this paraphrased language:

In the aftermath of the shooting, Mr. Trump has described the near-miss both in terms of luck and divine intervention. In an interview with The Washington Examiner, he credited himself for turning his head to look at an immigration chart on a rally screen and avoiding the bullet hitting his skull.

“Credited himself”? That’s a rather aggressive reading of the former president’s take (yes, I added the bold type):

“The most incredible thing was that I happened to not only turn but to turn at the exact right time and in just the right amount,” Mr. Trump said.

Was Trump giving himself the credit? Later, there was this:

On his social media website, Mr. Trump said, “it was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening.”

The key is that this feature in the world’s Newspaper Of Record failed to include a single sentence from anyone — lots of seminaries have websites and faculty lists — who could seriously discuss the complex, mysterious theological issues involved in an event of this kind.

During the 20-year run of GetReligion, I frequently noted that journalists have a tendency to overlook “theodicy” themes in human tragedies and natural disasters. This theological term was, for millions of readers, defined by Rabbi Harold Kushner in the title of his 1981 bestseller “When Bad Things Happen to Good People.”

In this case, many wags and cynics are, in effect, suggesting that the equation here might be “when good things happen to bad people,” or even “orange people.”

However, there is no way around the fact that serious doctrinal issues are in play when anyone wrestles with this kind of event. The key term is “Providence.”

Consider this commentary from a podcast by a Southern Baptist intellectual — of the Calvinist school — who probably would have received a telephone call if a veteran religion writer had been involved in writing this Times feature. This is Southern Theological Seminary President Albert Mohler:

Was this just an accident? Was it luck? Was it fate?

Here’s where Christians understand that we have nowhere to go, but the Doctrine of Providence, and that’s because it is a part of the theological house that we occupy. It is a part of biblical Christianity. It is essential to our Christian understanding of the world. Our understanding of the world begins with a self-existent, sovereign, omnipotent, omniscient God who created the entire cosmos and fills it with his glory and rules over it as sovereign Lord.

You either believe that or you don’t. But if you do believe it, then you have nowhere to go in this theological house other than the affirmation of the providence of God. That is not to say, by the way, that there’s no distinction between good and evil, because God himself makes that very clear, and he is the author of good. He knows no evil.

But in his providential care over the entire universe, he rules through all of these things in such a way that we are left with a worldview that tells us nothing happens by accident, nothing is mere luck, nothing is mere chance. The universe is not an accident. We are not just animated dust.

This is not, of course, the only relevant theological point of view when discussing this kind of event. But it is a serious stance that — in a story quoting many evangelicals — needed to be addressed and explained.

Why? Well, because religion is a serious, complex subject that is worthy of accurate, informed, balanced coverage. This Times feature failed to do that.

It was something like covering a U.S. Supreme Court decision on First Amendment law with a story packed with quotes from people on sidewalks — but ZERO input from veteran legal scholars on the left and right (and maybe in the middle). Or how about covering a controversial goal that ended a World Cup championship with a feature built on voices shouting in the stands, but no quotes from veteran coaches or superstars who could explain the complex rules that shaped what happened?

Let me conclude with these blunt, but complex, questions that I offered in the podcast.

(1) Did God save Donald Trump?

(2) Did God doom Corey Comperatore, the brave firefighter at the rally who threw himself over his wife and daughters and took a bullet that instantly ended his life?

Serious questions deserve serious reporting.

Enjoy the podcast and, please, pass it along to others.