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On consecutive days two different articles ran at First Things. The key quotations from both articles illustrate the very real crossroads that conservatism has reached.
The quote on the left is from a piece about election fraud. The quote on the right is about trans ideology.
The quote on the left is from a piece about election fraud. The quote on the right is about trans ideology.
The article on voter fraud very clearly argues that we need to believe in significant voter fraud *simply because* many Americans believe in it, and dismissing their concerns is elitist and stokes (their) distrust in the system.
The article on trans ideology makes something very close to the opposite argument: no matter the impassioned pleas of trans activists and ideological teens, we need to believe the medical testimony about dysphoria and reject trans narratives about identity.
The point is not that gender dysphoria and election fraud are the same thing. The point is that, epistemologically, you have to maintain completely opposite assumptions in order to make both of these arguments. You have to engage the world in polar opposite ways.
Donald Trump's influence on the American conservative movement has made it more progressive, more existentialist, less tethered to norms and givenness. It's created a category of moral relativism among people who believe they are the traditional ones.
Politically, the solution to this is beyond most Christians' control. What happened in November is a good start.
But spiritually and pastorally, the implications of this are staggering.
But spiritually and pastorally, the implications of this are staggering.
A lot of pastors are going to hear their people talk about how the election was stolen from Donald Trump and be OK with it, because even if that's not how they feel, such a belief signals conservative, biblical beliefs, the correct tribal alignment.
But a stolen election narrative survives on the exact same diet that transgender narratives survive on. There's a limit to how much cognitive dissonance people can live with, and a parenting crisis—like gender identity—is going to expose that limit in a lot of "conservative" folk
