Christianity and Straw Men

Monday, September 29, 2025

Yesterday I expressed my deep concern about the recent spate of actual physical attacks aimed at Christianity.  But we are being targeted by more than violence.  This morning the Washington Post carried an op-ed by an admitted Muslim, that seems mostly to say “Christianity is not all it is cracked up to be and Islam is not as bad as you say it is.”  But it is based on a straw man.

Here’s his issue:

Two of the speeches offered a stark contrast. Erika Kirk, the slain conservative activist’s widow, delivered the service’s most powerful moment. Standing before a crowd that included President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, she channeled Jesus’ words from the cross: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Then, she applied them directly to her husband’s killer. “That man — that young man — I forgive him. I forgive him because it was what Jesus did and is what Charlie would do.”

When Trump appeared onstage afterward, he looked out at that same crowd and rejected Erika Kirk’s Christian witness: “[Charlie] did not hate his opponents; he wanted the best for them. That’s where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponent, and I don’t want the best for them.

What’s the straw man there?  The idea that Donald J. Trump represents any sort of Christian thought – that’s what.  Yes, it is true, many Christians support Trump on a political level.  Many voted for him, many worked for his campaign.  A lot of Christians think a Trump presidency is good for the church and good for the faith.  But no one I have yet to encounter, especially in Christian leadership, on any level has attempted to say that Trump was a spokesperson for good Christian living or thinking.

I have read many articles praising Erika Kirk and her Christ-like stance.  I have heard no one endorse Trump’s speech at the Kirk memorial as some sort of exemplar of Christianity.  In point of fact every Christian I know thought Trump’s comments about hating his enemy as a clunker – we’re just too polite to point it out publicly, figuring our silence speaks loudly enough.

But apparently, if you want to take potshots at Christianity, you just have to do so, even if what you are shooting at isn’t really Christian.