Donald Trump, Bob Jones University, and Fundamentalist-styled Historical Revisionism

by John Ellis

Earlier today, I published a short, anti-Trump diatribe (anti-totalitarianism diatribe, to be fair) in response to the White House’s letter to the Smithsonian Institute. The letter informs the Smithsonian that the White House will be reviewing exhibits, materials, and programs to ensure that they conform to President Trump’s definition of American exceptionalism while promoting his definition of American idealism.[1] I’ve been loudly banging the anti-Trump drum for a decade now, and it has been incredibly frustrating watching the embrace of a man who believes that this country (and world) would be best served if he has absolute power.[2] This afternoon, though, as I thought about my earlier article, I realized that I had missed an opportunity to point out the parallels between Donald Trump’s revisionist history and the way “Christian” fundamentalism views and teaches history and, importantly, how this syncretism is far more widespread in white evangelicalism than most realize. In some ways, this story is a continuation of my “A Godless Fundamentalist” memoir series.[3]

After becoming a Christian during the summer of 2004, I was confronted with confusion created by the contradictions and ignorance suddenly around me. Since at the time the only Christianity I was familiar with was fundamentalism, I joined a fundamentalist church. Like all good fundamentalist churches, this one was dispensationalist, condemned rock music and alcohol in no uncertain terms, and viewed American culture as a back-slidden betrayal of the Christian values the founding fathers used as the foundation, walls, windows, doors, furniture, and decorations for the new nation they were building. God and country IS the religion of “Christian” fundamentalism. Growing up, the worship of America (as the founding fathers created/envisioned it according to fundamentalists) was inseparable from the worship of God. What’s more, while the Republican Party of the 80s and 90s was compromised according to my authority figures, GOP policies and talking points were viewed and taught as reflecting God’s will for this country. To not be a “conservative” (a Republican) was anti-Christian. By 2004, though, I had learned too much American and world history and had seen too much oppression and suffering to buy into the fundamentalist program. The God and country religion of my new church rubbed my soul raw during the year I spent assuming that being a good Christian meant being a good fundamentalist.[4]

New friends expressed shock and dismay whenever I would contradict the received religion of God and country.[5] The fact that a Christian would dare challenge the belief that America was founded as a Christian nation was largely outside of their paradigm. The thing was, after leaving fundamentalism a year later (or so I thought), my new conservative evangelical church wasn’t much different. When I announced in 2008 on Facebook that I had voted for Obama, several church members either messaged me or confronted me in person about my vote. They were concerned and some appalled that a professing Christian would dare vote for a Democrat.[6]

The year prior to that election, I had returned to Bob Jones University as a student. As a new Christian still trying to unpack and offload the fundamentalist nonsense that had been drilled into me during my youth as being the only true Christianity, I was conflicted about my career as a theatre actor. I wondered if I should limit myself to so-called Christian movies and Christian theatre. The problem with that was that my knowledge of acting, theatre, and aesthetics made the thought of acting in “Christian” movies and plays nauseating. I didn’t know what to do.

During early summer of 2007, and owing to some circumstances outside my control, I lost most of my teaching contracts. That is a long-ish story in and of itself. While I won’t tell it here, what’s important to know is that I was riding high in my theatre career up to that point. Looking back, I’m still not sure why it happened. I mean I know why; I just don’t know why. Having the rug pulled out from under me through no fault of my own left me dismayed, scared, and rudderless. In a nutshell, that’s why I decided to return to BJU. I felt like it was my only option.

Returning to BJU ended up being a terrible mistake and, predictably, my time there ended badly in the fall of 2009. I did meet some people whose friendships I still cherish and value, though.  

Narrowing my focus to what’s relevant for this article, in the fall of 2008 I took a Bible class on the book of Galatians. The class was taught by Dr. Richard Hand.[7] This was the same Richard Hand that had started and spread malicious, racist rumors about John and Cindy McCain during the Republican primaries for the 2000 presidential election. Some have argued that Hand’s lies are what handed Bush South Carolina, effectively tanking McCain’s campaign. My point is that truth seemingly only mattered to Dr. Hand as long as it didn’t interfere with his preferred program. This was made explicit to me by him one day after class.

During that class or a previous class, I can’t remember, it had been mentioned (by me) that I was an actor. As I packed up my books, I noticed Dr. Hand hovering over me. After catching my eye, he asked me about my integration of my Christianity with my acting. By that point I had gotten over most of my confusion about what it means to be a Christian and an actor but didn’t feel comfortable telling one of the most bojiest of professors my thoughts on the subject. I responded with platitudes vague enough to satisfy him but without feeling like I was compromising myself. He took that as agreement with him, meaning that I did compromise myself, and then proceeded to encourage me to use my talents and skills in the service of both God and country. Surprisingly, even to this day, he then brought up the recently released HBO miniseries John Adams.

I had yet to watch it but knew enough about it to know that BJU would not look kindly on students (or faculty) watching it. While it wasn’t a trap, it felt like one on his part at the time and so I was thankful that I could truthfully reply that I had not seen it. “I don’t even have HBO,” I threw in for good measure. 

“It’s mostly good,” he told me. “It’s historically accurate and well written. Except in one episode, they show the colonists tarring and feathering some of the King’s agents. While things like that did happen, I don’t believe that it should be shown.”

I assumed that he had in mind some well-intentioned protection of our eyes and souls from being exposed to that sort of violence. Nope. I was wrong.

Continuing, and becoming very animated, he revealed that he believed that it was unhelpful for Americans to learn the bad things the founders of this country did. “People should only believe the best about the founding of this country,” he asserted. “Learning about things like the tar and feathering in John Adams will only encourage people to have a negative view of the founding fathers. It only serves to undermine Christianity.”

He then got to his main point.

“This is why we need Christian actors like you to present and tell stories in ways that encourage people to believe the best about God and this country’s history,” he finished.

I was stunned.

I mean, I was aware that BJU and fundamentalists in general embraced a revisionist view of history, especially American history. I had read their history books and taken their classes, after all. I was just unprepared for the naked honesty of Dr. Hand. Here was a BJU professor openly calling for a revisionist history that could be aptly titled “purposely deceitful history.”[8]

While this wasn’t the sole event that opened my eyes, that conversation played an important role in helping me realize that fundamentalism wasn’t just a quirky system that was mostly harmless. I began to realize that fundamentalism is dangerous and actively works to manipulate and control people in order to protect their own power and agenda. What I had yet to learn in 2008 is that fundamentalism is a far bigger tent than my IFB pastor father and BJU had led me to believe. Just because someone drinks beer and listens to rock music doesn’t mean they’re not a fundamentalist. What is referred to as conservative evangelicalism is just as fundamentalist as BJU and they embrace as deceitful a revisionist history as both BJU and Donald Trump. The idolatry of God and country, even in its better branded versions (see below), and narcistic power trip of Donald Trump go together hand in glove. The Christian nationalist movement is far broader than the explicit calls for it by Douglas Wilson. And the revisionist history used in the service of Christian nationalism is far more widespread than BJU Press and Abeka Books. It’s likely in the blogs you read, the podcasts you download, and the sermons you listen to on Sundays.

There is a soft Christian nationalism that eschews claims that this country was founded as a Christian nation and instead offers the seemingly nuanced and more sophisticated claim that it was founded on Judeo-Christian values. Extending this teaching to the West at large, this version of Christian nationalism believes that the West (and its accompanying worldview) was used by God to bless the world by spreading science and human rights that were, according to them, invented by Christendom.[9] I believe that the soft Christian nationalism of the likes of The Gospel Coalition poses a greater threat to Christians than the overt Christian nationalism of Douglas Wilson, the Heritage Foundation, and William Wolfe’s Center for Baptist Leadership. This soft version pretends to have an intellectual gravitas that it doesn’t have a right to claim. Likewise, it sets itself up as the champion of equal rights when the reality is that their version of Christian nationalism, even as they denounce that tag, will terminate in power, dominance, and oppression. I mean, look at Christendom. And they love praising Christendom. Except Christendom’s program was and remains power and not the gospel.

Whether it’s done by overt Christian nationalists or the soft Christian nationalism of the Neocalvinists, revisionist history in the service of power is anti-gospel. I don’t know how to say it any clearer. Christians should be at the forefront of denouncing it. Yet sadly, most of the torchbearers for the revisionist history of Donald Trump claim the name of Christ. As Jesus pointed out, there are a lot of tares out here. And if you want to know what the future of America might look like, look no further than fundamentalism and Bob Jones University.[10] One of the great historical ironies may be that a deeply immoral, profane man like Donald Trump may be the very instrument used to usher in fundamentalist’s dream society.[11]

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[1] How that doesn’t sound Orwellian to Republicans is beyond me. Maybe it does and they don’t care or, worse, they embrace it and own it. Which, I guess, is kinda the point of this present article.

[2] Whether that absolute power will be more Christian nationalist or more Peter Thiel/Curtis Yarvin “tech bro” libertarianism that owes a debt to Murray Rothbard’s belief that democracy is a hindrance to capitalism remains to be seen. At the moment, the cultural war stuff that gets the Heritage Foundation, Federalist Society, and Christian nationalists in general all giddy and tingly is dominating the news cycle.

[3] If you read “A Godless Fundamentalist,” please make sure to read the article titled “A Godless Fundamentalist Revisited 10 Years Later.” It provides some necessary context for the series.

[4] That tension almost wrecked my faith.

[5] To be fair, several of them did listen. I did have conversations with friends who, while being somewhat confused, didn’t reject what I said offhand.

[6] I would say more about my vote for Obama, but I don’t want to deny Republicans the self-righteous joy of dismissing me offhand and with prejudice based on how I voted almost 2 decades ago.

[7] If I remember correctly, his doctorate was a JD. He was (had been) a lawyer. Technically, I guess, he was (is) a doctor but I know lots of lawyers and not a single one of them have ever insisted on being referred to as Dr. so-and-so. Maybe Dr. Hand did so because he was a professor. Although it should be noted that his was a professor in the Bible department (although I think he also taught some criminal justice classes, to be fair).

[8] There will be those who will dismiss this article as relying on one unverifiable anecdote. The thing is, it won’t matter if scores upon scores of ex-fundamentalists list example after example in the comments of the white-washing and historical revisionism rampant in fundamentalist churches, schools, and colleges. I’ve written other articles that can be found on this blog that detail how the God and country view of American history is false. Those articles won’t matter either. As Dr. Hand revealed to me, truth is the enemy if it gets in the way of the agenda.

[9] That’s ahistorical nonsense, for the record. And racist. For example, Genghis Khan would be quite upset to hear that white European “Christians” invented religious liberty. And the professors at Nalanda University would be surprised to hear that white European Christians gifted the world universities and colleges. Or ask the females in Norway during the 12^th and 13^th centuries. They would be confused about the claims that Christendom brought them value and freedom. I could go on. The list is long … really long.

[10] I tried watching The Handmaid’s Tale but could only get through two and a half episodes. The show is produced very well, there’s no denying that. That’s not the problem. My problem with it is that it’s too scary and too real. While I acknowledge that the majority of Christian nationalists would currently disavow the central conceit of handmaids, I have no doubt that in the right circumstances (that of the book and show) they would. Even that aside, the world at large in the show is exactly like what Christian nationalists (and BJU and TGC) want. It’s a scary show because it’s true.

[11] To be clear, while that future is on the table, I don’t believe it’s the most likely outcome. It may happen, but I suspect that the citizenry at large will have a say in the matter. Fundamentalists (both BJU fundamentalists and TGC fundamentalists) comprise a tiny percentage of the population. My concern, my reason for writing these types of articles, is to call fellow Christians to speak up and take a stand. Don’t allow Trump, BJU, TGC, etc. to coopt our faith.