By Cliff Kincaid
February 12, 2025
In his book, Stockholm Syndrome Christianity, Dr. John West wonders if American culture is collapsing because “many leading Christians identify more with secular elites than with their fellow believers.” He calls this “Stockholm syndrome,” where hostages come to accept their captivity and even accept the authority of their kidnappers. He says Christian leaders are siding with their anti-Christian cultural captors “on everything from biblical authority and science to sex, race, and religious liberty.”
That’s a fascinating take on current events, raising a host of concerns on many issues and even Trump nominations that have come to the forefront during the first few weeks of the new Trump Administration. In the latest controversy, as federal courts are trying to stop the Trump agenda, Christians are faced with a quandary. Will they support Trump if he defies the courts?
So far, Christians have mostly been AWOL on key issues and nominations.
For example:
- How could Christians support a member of a New Age Hindu cult, Tulsi Gabbard, as Director of National Intelligence?
- Why did Christians support the nomination of Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense, when he has a history of adultery and even sexual assault, not to mention heavy drinking?
- Why is Trump hanging around with people like Tucker Carlson, a lackey of Russia accused of anti-Semitism by Evangelical Christian leader Laurie Cardoza-Moore?
- Why have most Christian leaders remained silent on Trump’s backpedaling on social issues like abortion and homosexuality?
- Why has Trump appointed open homosexual activists like Ric Grenell, Scott Bessent, and lesbian Fox News host Tammy Baldwin to top positions in his administration?
Of all these controversies, his pandering to the abortion lobby, gays, and stoners (by supporting marijuana legalization on a state-by-state basis), was very disconcerting to many Christians because they involve cultural collapse.
New Age expert Constance Cumbey is more alarmed by the general direction of the Trump Administration on domestic and foreign policy. Adopting what she claims is the Biblical prophecy view of things, she thinks Trump’s second term is an example of the Biblical passage about the Beast that was dead that has come back to life and that he will use technology to implement the “ominous prophecies of Revelation 13 regarding the mark of the Beast” through his sidekick and “enforcer” Elon Musk. She thinks Trump is in hock to Musk, who she regards as a sinister figure with investments in AI and brain transplants, because of his immense wealth.
Of course, there is another point of view on all this, and that is that Trump is implementing his “America First” agenda and shaking up Washington and the world, and that Musk’s super intelligence is absolutely essential in this vast undertaking.
Cumbey is currently concerned about Trump’s apparent defiance of court orders against his cost- cutting and agency closing.
VP Vance contends that “Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.”
The fake news media are up in arms, with Bloomberg calling the conflict a “dangerous legal game” and asserting that Trump’s “unprecedented order” that suspended the bulk of government expenditures “is widely considered by constitutional law scholars to be an unlawful power grab.”
That’s just Bloomberg’s liberal opinion, based on one liberal “expert” by the name of Noah Feldman writing in another Bloomberg outlet, Bloomberg Opinion.
Cumbey accepts the liberal view, lamenting the fact that Trump may be following the lead of his favorite president, Andrew Jackson. When the Supreme Court ruled against him in a famous case involving American Indians, Jackson was quoted as saying that Chief Justice “John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it.” He openly defied the Court.
The fact is that the courts lack any real power to enforce their decisions, and that the executive branch is entitled to its own interpretation of the Constitution. This is the reality.
“Democracy in America is being destroyed by judicial coup,” Musk declared, citing judicial obstruction. You don’t have to have a law degree to accept that view.
So what is the Christian position on that?
Remaining silent as a “constitutional crisis” emerges is not a correct course of action.
Bloomberg dredged up someone named Jennifer Hillman, identified as “co-director of the Center on Inclusive Trade and Development,” as saying that Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminum are “not legal” under U.S. and international law.
So we can expect the courts to rule against Trump on this one.
Fox located a contrary opinion from Jed Rubenfeld, a Yale Law School professor, lawyer, and constitutional scholar, who said he agreed with Vance that judges cannot “constitutionally interfere” with executive branch decisions.
Many Americans would welcome defiance of the Court.
Millions of lives could have been saved if the President and Congress had defied the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion on demand.
When the Supreme Court ruled in favor of gay marriage, Justice Antonin Scalia said we were experiencing a “judicial Putsch,” or secret power grab. Like the abortion ruling, Scalia said this was not only the creation of a “right” that does not exist, but a decision that depends on public ignorance about what is really taking place. It is our system of checks and balances and self-rule that has been undermined, he said.
The Court has been destroying the Christian foundations of our culture.
President Trump is far from a dictator. In 2020, when the election was stolen from him through mail-in voting shenanigans, he could have invoked limited martial law to allow the U.S. Military to oversee a new free and fair federal election. That was the option when legislators, courts and the Congress did not follow the Constitution and gave control over elections to unelected courts in the various states. Instead, he vacated the office.
I think Christians would and should support defiance of the courts, even the Supreme Court. It’s time for a constitutional confrontation.
© 2025 Cliff Kincaid – All Rights Reserved
E-Mail Cliff Kincaid: kincaid@comcast.net
Cliff Kincaid is president of America’s Survival, Inc. www.usasurvival.org
