World Views Colliding on the Right

You Wanted a Savior From the Left and You Got Saul

“Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (1 Ti 4:1–2). (2016). Crossway Bibles.

Susanna Gibson is a candidate for the Virginia State Senate. She seemed to be the perfect candidate. She is a married mom and nurse. But, she also, with her husband, had been on a website called Chaturbate live streaming explicit sex acts with her husband for money from thousands watching. It now appears she also once bragged about roping unwitting hotel staff into her sexual depravity.

She claimed, with the help of some progressive reporters, that exposing her exposure was “revenge porn.” Others on the left claimed she had done nothing wrong and had nothing to be ashamed of. The contradictions between attacking those who exposed her deviancy and claiming there was nothing wrong suggests, in the voters minds, there very much is something wrong when a married woman, for money, performs sexually explicitly acts for the pleasure of others, even when doing those acts with her husband.

Morality matters or it does not.

Far more attention has been given to Lauren Boebert giving her boyfriend a rub with her hands in a dark theater while he massaged her breasts. People on the right are screaming that those of us concerned with Boebert’s behavior should just be quiet because, after all, the left and media has largely given Susanna Gibson a pass on her behavior.

First, that argument ignores what actually happened with Boebert.

Boebert was accused of vaping in a theater full of people, including in front of a pregnant woman who asked her not to. She was then accused of being belligerent with a theater employee and pulling the “don’t you know who I am” card.

Boebert, unlike Gibson, denied it all.

Only after Boebert’s denial did we get the video. For those screaming how indecent it is that this video of a public act in a theater was released, they ignore that the video only came out after Boebert denied any bad behavior and the theater released the video to prove they were not lying.

Gibson has not apologized for her depravity. Boebert only apologized after being exposed as a liar.

Boebert, too, you need to realize, barely won her re-election in 2022. She is on the ballot in 2024 against the same opponent who barely lost, and she has drawn far more attention for her toxic personal behavior than her constituent service. You can defend her all the way into a Democrat victory in that district in 2024 or prod her to get out of Congress, take care of herself and her family, and maybe let a Republican who is not on video giving a handjob to a boyfriend in a public theater have a chance at keeping the district from the Democrats.

Do you want to double down with Handsy Boobert, who barely won in an off-year and now heads into a year with a Biden ground game helping the Democrat, or do you want to go with someone else who, by not giving hand jobs in public theaters after leaving their spouse, might have a better chance of defending a GOP seat?

Many people on the right think we should all just keep quiet about our side. These same people, coincidentally, are convinced the country has collapsed and is in spiritual decline. I wonder if there could be more here than just a coincidence. They attack those of us concerned about the morals of candidates while taking to social media to rail against the depravity of the left and this nation going to hell in a handbasket.

I’ll tell you exactly and explicitly what I think because I wrote as much in 2016.

In 2016, I wrote that Christians siding with Trump should not be surprised to see that Trump not only does not save them from the left but that things get worse. If God’s people decide to pick a political savior to save them from spiritual problems, expect the spiritual problems only to get worse as God cajoles His people back to Him. That’s a recurring theme in Scripture. You want a king when you have the King of Kings? Hello Saul. You want Trump when you have Christ? Hello world. You claim you are not seeking a priest, just a President? You don’t care about his morals, just his fight? Hello exile.

I’ll say now something else — the problem with too many on the right is that they want someone to save them from the left when they really need someone to save them from the world. The things of the world — and a three-time serial adulterer who cheated on his third wife with a porn star and who definitionally is not a Christian because he has said repeatedly he has never had the need to repent of anything is definitionally a thing of the world¹ — cannot save you from the world.

I do not think it is a coincidence at all that after so many evangelicals decided they needed Trump to save them from the left they got Roe v Wade repealed and…and…and? We got drag queen story hour even into the military. We got abortion referenda in multiple states that not only passed but expanded abortion until birth. We got protections for transgenderism enshrined in the Constitution by judicial fiat led by a Trump-appointed Supreme Court Justice. That savior from the left has now waffled on whether men can become women, has declared Democrats will be happy with his abortion compromise that amounts to abortion on demand, has criticized fetal heartbeat bans, and his son has defended Anheuser Busch while, it turns out, the political savior owned a massive pile of stock in the company. But, even now, excuses will be made for his antics, behaviors, and outcomes.

Those who want a savior from the left, instead of a savior from the world, will get the left in just a different package because the left is of the world, and their worldly savior is also.

I want a savior from the world itself and I already have Him.

So you’ll excuse me if I call out the degenerates on my purported side, just as I do on the left. And you’ll excuse me for being vocal about the sins of my side because I expect my side to do better and want my side held to a higher standard.

You think you need a winner, and that means some sort of necessary compromise with the world? I’ve already read the final pages of the Good Book. I know I’ve already won. So I don’t need someone just to save me from the left.

I think that to beat the left, we have to provide an alternative and be willing to hold our side accountable for staking out moral and political positions our side then falls short of. We need to model Christ to our neighbor, which requires us to hold our political side to a higher standard, particularly as our side claims to be a party of faith and family.

A party of faith and family that elevates adulterers and sexual deviants is less desirable for much of the voting public than a side that abandons all moral truths and moral behaviors. The former is hypocritical. The latter allows others to be comfortable with their sin as it defines deviancy down.

Likewise, I think if you have decided to align with the pagans, do not expect more than paganism in return. When you align with a philandering liar who is backed by adulterers, clowns, white nationalists, and Caitlyn Jenner, you have devoted yourself to deceitful spirits and you will get all the calamities you have sought to stop. Again, I would not be surprised that some of you about to head to the comments to disagree vocally are the same people who think we need to stand by and defend our side’s behaviors (or just be quiet about them) and also, concurrently, think the nation is in decline. I’d suggest the two are related.

“But Erick,” you say, “I’m a Christian and I know we’re all sinners, and a person’s moral failings do not disqualify them from office. Everyone in Washington would have to pack up and go home if we couldn’t elect sinners.”

I’ve gotten really used to American Christians trying to rationalize supporting Republican politicians who commit adultery and behave badly in public with that argument. But good luck explaining that to voters to whom you claim your party supports families and traditional values, and then you circle the wagons around the adulterers, philanderers, cheats, and more.

If you aren’t going to expect better from your politicians, stop fretting about the decline of the nation. You have, after all, no clean hands in the matter. And please spare me your outrage over Susanna Gibson being a Democrat candidate. After all, she’s stayed with her husband and hasn’t cheated on him.

If all this offends your sensibilities, you can cancel your subscription.

1. Now, some Trump supporters want to play a weird game. They say either Trump isn’t a Christian and we need a Cyrus and “thou shalt not judge,” or they say Trump is really a baby Christian and we should be understanding, never mind that Paul said not to put new Christians in leadership positions. Either way, it is excuse-making to avoid grappling with reality. In the last 48 hours, he has denounced pro-life legislation, refused to say men cannot become women, promised to appease Democrats with an abortion compromise, etc. All the people who will mutter, “Well, you were Never Trump,” have never not made an excuse to carry the man’s water, no matter what he does. Everyone who says the rest of us are always critical of Trump have, in fact, never criticized the man but defended him at all times, in all ways, and embraced every lie in the name of truth. There are even readers here who claim we should be understanding of the man for cheating on his wife with a porn star or who denied it ever happened.