Christian Narcissism

How pride and the passion for empire poison the Evangelical imagination

As a long-time follower of politics, I was intrigued by the plea deals the Fulton County District Attorney’s office struck recently with some of the defendants in the 2020 Georgia election interference case. Jenna Ellis, an attorney who exceeded her allotted 15 minutes of fame as an election denier, stood out for her statement of remorse, which was not required as part of her deal. Reading her statement in court, she began by stating:

“As an attorney who is also a Christian, I take my responsibilities as a lawyer very seriously and I endeavor to be a person of sound moral and ethical character in all of my dealings.”

In an article about how she eventually decided to plead guilty, she was quoted months earlier regarding her disillusionment with Donald Trump:

“I simply can’t support him for elected office again...Why I have chosen to distance is because of that frankly malignant narcissistic tendency to simply say that he’s never done anything wrong.”

I’ve known of Ms. Ellis since she was associated with Liberty University in various roles. My recollection of her interactions on social media is that she was particularly judgmental and mean-spirited toward anyone who did not practice or endorse her combative style of evangelical Christianity. That said, her statement about Donald Trump revealed her awareness, however tardy, that other than Jesus Christ, no human being, past, present, or future, is without sin or error.

When King Solomon asks, “Who can say, ‘I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin’? (Proverbs 20:9),” he is declaring a fundamental tenet of a Biblical worldview, that man is inherently sinful and cannot stand undefiled before a perfect and holy God without the redemption of Christ. The apostle John made this clear in his epistle:

If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us. (1 John 1:8-10)

Contrast that with statements from Mr. Trump, who, when asked if he’d ever sought God’s forgiveness for anything he’d done, breezily stated:

I’m not sure I have. I just go on and try to do a better job from there. … I think if I do something wrong … I just try and make it right. I don’t bring God into that picture. I don’t.

When the question was posed to him again in a different forum, he fussed:

Why do I have to repent or ask for forgiveness, if I am not making mistakes? I work hard, I'm an honorable person.

In short, he doesn’t need to involve the Lord in determining whether he’s done right or wrong. He thinks he’s perfectly capable of working that out on his own.

However, I found Ms. Ellis’ declaration of Mr. Trump’s “malignant narcissistic tendency,” evidenced by his inability to admit wrongdoing, intriguing, given that her modus operandi in the public square resembled his more than anything reflecting the nature of Jesus Christ. A recent book by a dear friend, former colleague, and role model gave me some context into why this might be the case.

The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis, written by Dr. Karen Swallow Prior, is a deep and thoughtful look into the history and cultural trends that shaped evangelical Christianity and the literature and art that captured the characteristics and social imagination comprising this particular practice of the faith. It impressed me how much of what we call evangelicalism is based not on Scripture but folkways that accumulated over time and became integral to how we worship. I could write several articles on the moments of revelation I experienced while reading this book. I highly recommend it to anyone who has struggled to reconcile the Jesus of the Bible with the religion that bears His name.

I want to focus on a few of my observations about current events as I read this timely and essential work. The chapters on conversion and testimony are ironic, given that evangelical leaders who supported Mr. Trump, including Ms. Ellis, took great pains to ignore this unrepentant man’s words, replacing them with something that resembled the remorse, repentance, and acceptance of Jesus’ lordship inherent in the salvation experience, but which he never uttered.

However, what interested me more is the contradiction between conversion and testimony, which require humility, contrition, and surrender, and the desire for empire that Dr. Prior exposes in her book as another aspect of the evangelical imagination. The pursuit of empire is prideful and drives evangelical institutions to seek and wield power, give no quarter, admit no wrongdoing, and describe any criticism, whether from within or without the church, as persecution and, therefore, without merit.

Is this not malignant narcissism on an institutional level?

Moreover, empire-building converts opposition into opportunity. Dr. Prior writes of a particular ministry that “turned criticism into donations, and those donations turned his ministries into a multimillion-dollar empire.” It’s almost exactly the model we see in today’s political system, where impeachments and indictments are used to raise prodigious amounts of money from people who live from paycheck to paycheck but are somehow persuaded by wealthy, influential people that their way of life is in danger if they don’t give. As Dr. Prior succinctly states, “Opposition farming yields abundant crops.”

Aside from playing up opposition, real or imagined, to siphon money from their followers, many evangelical institutions have refused to accept responsibility for actual harm they’ve done to people who trusted them because they were supposed to care and look out for them like Jesus. Whether it’s fraud, financial corruption, or abuse in any form, we can’t deny the harm we’ve done to our own, which is worse than whatever damage we believe the culture has done to us because, unlike the culture, we are supposed to know better. We are supposed to be new creations in Christ with the Holy Spirit in our hearts. Instead, we behave as the world does because, like the world, we are overcome with pride that leads us to reject reproof and correction. We forget the Biblical truth that we are fallible creatures whose only saving grace comes from Jesus interceding for us.

The empire, by nature, is unreceptive to anyone questioning its credibility or integrity, and it reserves its most virulent attacks for those within its ranks who attempt to offer “life-giving correction” (Proverbs 15:31). There are evangelical scholars, writers, and influencers whose very names cause their fellow believers to lose their religion. Dr. Prior, whom I’ve known for 12 years, is one of the finest examples of Christian comportment I’ve ever met, and she has experienced this first-hand.

In truth, we are directed to speak out against the wrongs in the church. A passage of Scripture I cite often comes from Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth:

What business of mine is it to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked man from among you.” (1 Corinthians 5:12-13)

I want to be clear that I am not dismissing the great good that the church and Christian organizations have done in the world, nor do I paint all Christian institutions with the same brush. As Dr. Prior writes:

To be sure, institutional ministries have done good that only God in his omniscience can fully measure. But I’ve also seen up close the harm done when people are counted as less important than the institution. It would be impossible to calculate in human terms how much good it takes to offset the damage done when empires built in the name of Jesus put his kingdom second to their own.

In the book The Great Dechurching: Who’s Leaving, Why Are They Going, and What Will It Take to Bring Them Back?, authors Jim Davis, Michael Graham, and Ryan Burge document “the largest and fastest religious shift in US history.” They write, “More people have left the church in the last 25 years than all the new people who became Christians from the First Great Awakening, Second Great Awakening, and Billy Graham crusades combined.” This detailed study offers numerous and complex reasons for this massive shift, but among them is the rise of the “exvangelicals,” who suffered harm in churches and other Christian institutions and left organized religion or rejected Christianity altogether.

Pursuing power and influence has never been Jesus’ design for His church, although the church throughout history has been seduced by it time and again. How soon we forget the last temptation Satan set before Christ during his time in the desert:

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written,

“‘You shall worship the Lord your God

and him only shall you serve.’” (Matthew 4:8-10)

Because of cultural influences from antiquity to the present day, the evangelical church has inherited much that contradicts the Christ who implores us, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:29).

Ms. Ellis’ conversion from a cultural Christian firebrand to a remorseful and repentant defendant in a Georgia courthouse may be seen by some as a cynical ploy to avoid jail time and disbarment from practicing law. However, I hope it’s the beginning of a journey of self-awareness that will revive her Christian witness.

If she hasn’t read it already, I would recommend Dr. Prior’s book to her and to all who want to know how the evangelical mind and heart have formed over the centuries. Ms. Ellis has been publicly scornful toward my friend on social media, but like the Savior they both profess to serve, I know Dr. Prior to be slow to anger and quick to forgive. I pray the evangelical church learns what is of Jesus and what isn’t and is quick to dispose of the latter so the former may manifest itself and the church can heal and be a source of healing.

I’ll have more to say in a future article about the book in the context of my personal Christian journey, which is somewhat eclectic and unique. In the meantime, get the book.