On Sunday's AM Joy show, MSNBC host Joy Reid gave frequent guest Frank Schaeffer a forum to rant against conservative Christians for supporting President Donald Trump during the pandemic. The longtime liberal activist who often bashes the Christian right slammed President Trump as a "moronic monster" and a "pro-death" President.
He also went on to declare that conservative Christians are "in love with the gospel of hatred" because they did not stop supporting the NRA in the aftermath of church shootings.
After host Reid set up the segment by recounting some recent reactions of prominent conservative Christians to the pandemic, followed by clips of President Trump talking up the possibility of allowing people to attend Easter services, the MSNBC host went to her guest for his response.
Schaeffer began by declaring that "We're at a time now where the naked lickspittle enablement of Donald Trump by his evangelical followers is more horribly obvious than ever."
He took a shot at "the magical thinking for evangelicals that allows them to deny climate change," and then complained about their "moral bankruptcy." Here's Schaeffer:
FRANK SCHAEFFER: And the other is the utter moral bankruptcy of evangelicals -- the white evangelical voter -- having rented out Jesus to this moronic monster who, in this time of crisis, far from being our Winston Churchill leading us to freedom against the Axis in Germany and others, basically tells people my age, those pushing their seventies, they might as well do what the Jews did in World War II, what the Nazis told them to do: "Put on a yellow star, identify yourself as old, forget care to you guys, we're not going to make more respirators, especially not for governors that we don't like. Just go off and die so the stock exchange numbers go up, and I look good."
After adding that "that's not an exaggeration," he further decried Trump and the Christian right:
SCHAEFFER: Instead of evangelicals standing up and saying, "Wait a minute -- we bought into your candidacy because you're supposed to be the quote, unquote, 'pro-life' President, we now have a pro-death President who would rather have his economic numbers go up chasing a 2020 reelection rather than save lives." And the evangelicals are going along with it and giving him cover.
Host Reid then bolstered him by reading from the New York Times:
JOY REID: There is a New York Times piece that says that the "religious right's hostility to science is crippling our coronavirus response." It reads: "The hard core of climate deniers is concentrated among people who identify as religiously conservative Republicans. This denial of science and critical thinking among religious ultraconservatives now haunts the American response to the coronavirus crisis."
After Reid asked if evangelicals would turn on Trump if many of their members died from the pandemic, Schaeffer responded by attacking them for supporting Second Amendment rights:
SCHAEFFER: Think of all the churches that were shot up by gun-toting fools recently -- even one in Texas -- where gun laws are so permissive that you're surprised people don't give you a gun at birth. Did the evangelical majority say, "Wait a minute -- they're shooting up the churches now -- maybe we won't support the NRA anymore"? No, they did not. They are so in love with the gospel of hatred -- gun ownership, protect yourself against your neighbor, keep the foreigners out, lock babies in cages. They have denied the Lord Jesus Christ and his teachings to the point where there is no redemption for the hardest of the hard core.
Below is a transcript of relevant portions of the Sunday, March 29, AM Joy on MSNBC:
AM Joy
3/29/2020
11:24 a.m. Eastern
FRANK SCHAEFFER: We're at a time now where the naked lickspittle enablement of Donald Trump by his evangelical followers is more horribly obvious than ever. Franklin Graham -- his big supporter -- told him to call a national day of prayer. But, of course, we know Trump would never do this by himself. We have all the pieces that you played of people trying to cash in on this, to push their anti-gay homophobia.
And we also see that the magical thinking for evangelicals that allows them to deny climate change, to deny scientific evidence on gay people being born that way, to deny so many things we know from any common sense point of view, let alone a scientific point of view, are true. They have been nurtured from birth to accept alternative facts. They're perfect dupes for someone who calls everything "fake news" that he doesn't agree with. So when we come to this time of COVID-19 overtaking the country, and a literal life and death issue, we see two things very clearly, Joy.
One is the moral bankruptcy of this leader who pits himself against governors trying to save their people, as you had in your last segment. And the other is the utter moral bankruptcy of evangelicals -- the white evangelical voter -- having rented out Jesus to this moronic monster who, in this time of crisis, far from being our Winston Churchill leading us to freedom against the Axis in Germany and others, basically tells people my age, those pushing their seventies, they might as well do what the Jews did in World War II, what the Nazis told them to do: "Put on a yellow star, identify yourself as old, forget care to you guys, we're not going to make more respirators, especially not for governors that we don't like. Just go off and die so the stock exchange numbers go up, and I look good."
And the fact of the matter is, that is not an exaggeration. We have Republican governors -- we have people who are in positions of power, and Donald Trump trying to push a business as usual agenda. And instead of evangelicals standing up and saying, "Wait a minute -- we bought into your candidacy because you're supposed to be the quote, unquote, 'pro-life' President, we now have a pro-death President who would rather have his economic numbers go up chasing a 2020 reelection rather than save lives." And the evangelicals are going along with it and giving him cover. This whole Easter nonsense was just simply more currying favor with that base.
JOY REID: Before one thinks that this is simply one man's opinion, there is a New York Times piece that says that the "religious right's hostility to science is crippling our coronavirus response." It reads: "The hard core of climate deniers is concentrated among people who identify as religiously conservative Republicans. This denial of science and critical thinking among religious ultraconservatives now haunts the American response to the coronavirus crisis."
(…)
SCHAEFFER: Think of all the churches that were shot up by gun-toting fools recently -- even one in Texas -- where gun laws are so permissive that you're surprised people don't give you a gun at birth. Did the evangelical majority say, "Wait a minute -- they're shooting up the churches now -- maybe we won't support the NRA anymore"? No, they did not. They are so in love with the gospel of hatred -- gun ownership, protect yourself against your neighbor, keep the foreigners out, lock babies in cages. They have denied the Lord Jesus Christ and his teachings to the point where there is no redemption for the hardest of the hard core.
Now, does that mean that individuals won't peel away? Yes. And I appeal to my Christian brothers and sisters -- rethink your support for a man who would dangle respirators over a governor who disagrees with him, and turn back to the teachings of Jesus away from this man.
REID: Yeah, and the teachings are very clear. The poor are the least of these, the foreigner we should be protecting.
