Most of us have had to experience occasions when another person has, in the course of an argument, manipulated our words through some verbal trickery.  Here I want to mention just two of these techniques.  The first is the false dichotomy.  This is a way of arguing that that says because statement A is provably wrong, it follows that statement B must be correct.  The person who argues in this way has probably been coached along certain tramlines of thinking.  It is an argument used by proponents of creationism against Darwinism.  Because there are apparent gaps in the fossil record, it follows, according to these apologists, that the Genesis account of creation needs to be considered seriously as a scientific account of the origins of the Universe.  Ideas of paradox or lateral thinking are probably not part of the mental processing of those who argue in this way.  The alternative to statement A might be statement C or perhaps there needs to be a complete reworking of the argument.

Another form of verbal trickery is a failure to see that many words or ideas exist along a continuum of meaning.  A single word or idea can mean a variety of things.  It will depend on where along a continuum of meaning the person using the word wishes to place it.  To take one word as an example, one that comes up from time to time on these posts, let us consider the term evangelical. I hesitate, usually, to use this word because it is one of these continuum words. The meanings at each end of the continuum will probably have very little in common with one another.  The word could be used to describe the beliefs of a group of racist survivalists in the States who believe that God’s law supports the supremacy of the white race and that we have no obligation to care about anyone except our ‘tribe’.  Those who are poor are believed to be under some kind of curse from God.   At the other end of the continuum of meaning we may find evangelical individuals who owe their distinct spirituality and outlook to a biblically informed upbringing.  That earlier nurture now may co-exist with other traditions of Christian prayer and theology which have been encountered along the path of their Christian journey.  It is said of the bishops of the Church of England that the majority today are evangelical. If we think of our continuum to be a line going from left to right, these bishops belong in a very different place from the racist survivalists.  They would be found well to the left of centre. They have virtually nothing in common with the extremities of the racially intolerant and those who wish to introduce the death sentence for homosexuals and adulterers.  The only thing they share is this word evangelical.

In emphasising my contention that we need to be careful how we use words, I would like to draw attention to a recent interview with Jerry Falwell Jr. which appeared in the Washington Post. In many ways Falwell can be said to represent the political/religious Right in America.  This group has decided, for good and ill, to throw their lot in with President Trump. The interview is interesting because it helps us to see what many self-identified American evangelicals are thinking. As a noted Christian leader and the president of a Christian university, Falwell is able to use words effectively.   Many of us are curious, to put it mildly, to see how Christian evangelical arguments are marshalled to support such an outrageous president.

I am not expecting anyone reading this post to agree with anything that Falwell says.  Although he claims to be an evangelical and a Christian, it does not follow that others cannot use these words of self-description while utterly rejecting Falwell’s sentiments.   Both words need to be reclaimed by others who occupy a markedly different place on the continuum.   Few evangelical Christians would want to join Falwell in the place he has marked out for himself and many others who think like him.

The first, extraordinary some would say, claim made by Falwell is that the commands of Jesus to love and respect others has nothing to do with political life. Jesus, according to Falwell, was only interested in a heavenly kingdom. The earthly kingdom is given over to Caesar. It is not clear what Falwell is actually referring to when he talks about the heavenly kingdom. Is it a private inner world where Christians live beyond any political or social responsibility? But whatever it does means it allows Falwell and other Christian Right leaders to exonerate Trump from his indifference to the suffering of the needy and the poor.

 Falwell then declares himself to be proud of the values of the American people as he sees them. He speaks about ‘free enterprise, freedom, ingenuity, entrepreneurialism and wealth’. While one can see that a political case can be made for such values, they become decidedly less wholesome when combined with an indifference towards the poor.  According to Falwell, ‘a poor person never gave anyone a job; a poor person never gave anybody charity, not of any real volume’. Such words about the poor are at best patronising; at worst they demonstrate an utter contempt for fellow human beings.

It is hard to imagine anyone calling themselves a Christian evangelical in the UK wanting to be identified with the political and religious attitudes of Jerry Falwell Jr.  It will be interesting to see whether the students at his Liberty University will eventually see through this extraordinary uncompassionate attitude towards a huge swathe of the American population and demand a change. The approach that also says, ‘I support Trump, right or wrong’, is hopefully an attitude that will not remain unchallenged over the next few months. Although Trump claims that the Christian faith is an inspiration for his presidency, his despising attitude towards many of his fellow citizens is a reality and something that must be fraying the nerves of many of his current supporters.

Jerry Falwell is proud to call himself an evangelical. But, so that the word does not become debased by this association, we must assert that Falwell’s self-description belongs at one end of the continuum of meaning for the word. We must not allow him or anyone else to thoroughly degrade and debase a perfectly respectable concept.  With Falwell and other members of the Trumpian Right, the word evangelical is clearly being dishonoured.   Even though I do not in any sense regard myself as an evangelical, I still want to respect those who also claim this label as part of their self-identification. They possess, in using this word, an honourable spirituality as well as being followers of a distinguished form of Christian theology.  Nothing that can be said by the far Right in the States can take away their right to be honoured by other Christians.