Endangered

Decades ago, we had the "if you don't love it, leave it" crowd, as reflected in the unfortunately good country song "The Fightin' Side of Me."  We no longer hear those exact words but we have their descendants, the "shut up and think as we tell you" crowd.

On Twiiter/X, yhey may have "HOOD CONSERVATIVE" (Lavern Spicer) in their bio. Or "MAGA.". Or "America First" or "Patriot." Or a biblical verse. However, the rude, bellicose sentiment always is the same.

“It brings up mixed emotions to represent the U.S. right now… Just because I wear the flag doesn't mean I represent everything that's going on in the U.S.”
- Team USA Olympic Skier Hunter Hess

The anti-ICE, liberal athletes are already insufferable at the Olympics…

If… pic.twitter.com/yn7ruEHbFr

— Jon Root (@JonnyRoot_) February 7, 2026

Hunter Hess, identified as Team USA freestyle skater, states

I have mixed emotions to represent the USA now, I think. It's a little hard. There's obviously a lot going on I'm not the biggest fan of and I think a lot of people aren't...

If it aligns with my moral values, I feel like I'm representing it. Just because I wear the flag, doesn't mean I represent evetything that's going on in the U.S.  I want to do it for my friends, my family, the people that supported me getting here.

The critics of such athletes have sunk to an even lower level than the "if you don't love it, leave it" crowd of yore. The old timers believed that individuals who criticize the country should get out. These folks believe if an individuals criticize a man- a human being, the President- they are not worthy of participating in the Olympics (so much for the  advocates of "merit"). As one of them put it, "take your uniform off" and "stay in Italy."

Even more disturbing to some of us is the frequent reference to God and/or Christian symbolism in the bios. One refers to Christ and 1 Peter 3:15.  Another is "MAGA Christian."  They all are exclusionary and, less obviously, elitist.

Unsurprisingly, that echoes President Trump. Christian Peter Wehner recently wrote in The Atlantic

In a rambling, 75-minute speech at the Prayer Breakfast yesterday, we saw the quintessential Trump. His comments were grievance-filled, narcissistic, conspiratorial, factually false, divisive, and insulting. He referred to his critics as “lunatics.” He engaged in projection, comparing them to “dictators” and “the gestapo.” He labeled Republican Representative Thomas Massie a “moron” because he won’t cast legislative votes the way Trump wants. Joe Biden is “Crooked Joe,” while Jacob Frey is “the horrible fake mayor” of Minneapolis. Trump praised El Salvador’s authoritarian President Nayib Bukele—Bukele has referred to himself as “the world’s coolest dictator”—for his “very strong prisons.” (The prison that Trump celebrates, Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, known as CECOT, is notorious for its cruel and inhumane conditions.) Trump emphasized that Bukele—who also spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast—is “one of my favorite people.”

And yet, in the very same speech in which his critics were labeled “lunatics” and “moron” and “Gestapo,” President

Trump took credit for churches “coming back stronger than ever” and for religion being “hotter than ever.” He claimed he has “done more for religion than any other president”—apparently, before the age of Trump, Christians couldn’t say “Merry Christmas” in public—and argued that his predecessors in the White House “bailed out” on religion. “I don’t know how a person of faith can vote for a Democrat. I really don’t,” he said, adding, “They cheat.”

The President invoked the term "religion" twenty times, though his most brazen and transparently phony probably was "all of these good things I'm doing, including for religion. You know, religion is back now hotter than ever."  He added "but I said even though I did that and so many other things, I named things, I said I won't qualify. I'm not going to make it to heaven."

When evangelicals mention "religion," they're invariably doing so in a neutral matter or- more frequently- as a negative (source: Gemini- but accurate).  They usually view religion as a pejorative to describe non-man-made efforts to earn salvation. a non-denominational, evangelical and Protestant site explains

Christianity is not about signing up for a religion.... God eants us to know Him, to draw near to Him, to pray to Him, and love Him above everything.  That is not religion; that is a relationship.

Nonetheless, in what is no more surprising than hypocritical, Wehner notes "the audience of some 3,500- the great majority of whom undoubtedly claim to be followers of Jesus- responded to Trump's remarks with a standing ovation." In an article written a couple of weeks earlier, he had observed that the Trump Administration "has welcomed Christians into a theological twilight zone, where the beatitudes are invoked on behalf of a political movement with authoritarian tendencies."

This applies to many MAGA tweeters, whose allegiance to the political movement clearly outweighs their devotion to God, Scripure, of the Christian faith. This attempt to merge Christianity with personality-driven, far-right politics, imperils the future of Christianity, or what, the President wishes to have us believe, he means by "religion." 

So, too, is there a connection when Wehner argues persuasively

Unless you've spent time in the evangelical world, fully appreciating the level of antipathy that exists toward Democrats and progressives is difficult. The only thing that exceeds it is the loathing reserved for the Christians and conservatives who broke with trump because their commitment to their faith, and to cherished moral truths, required them to speak ou against him.

Though Wehner was speaking primarily about theologians and members of the clergy, his criticism applies also to many MAGA tweeters, whose allegiance to a personality-driven, far right political movement clearly outweighs whatever their devotion to God, Scripture, or the Christian faith. The Olympic skater maintained, referring to what evidently are his cherished moral truths, "if it aligns with my moral values, I feel like I'm representing it."  

Enraged, the Trump disciples lashed out at Hess. Speaking not specifically about such individuals but more generally

Huge numbers of American fundamentalists and evangelicals—not just cultural Christians, but also those who faithfully attend church and Bible-study sessions and prayer gatherings—prefer the MAGA Jesus to the real Jesus. Few of them would say so explicitly, though, because the cognitive dissonance would be too unsettling. And so they have worked hard to construct rationalizations. It’s rather remarkable, really, to see tens of millions of Christians validate, to themselves and to one another, a political movement led by a malignant narcissist—who is driven by hate and bent on revenge, who mocks the dead, and who delights in inflicting pain on the powerless. The wreckage to the Christian faith is incalculable, yet most evangelicals will never break with him. They have invested too much of themselves and their identity in Trump and what he stands for.

They will never acknowledge that damage: subtle, persistent, and immeasurable.

 

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