Politics and Religion in One Post

What can Trump teach us about religious movements?

During my PhD research days, I spent a lot of time reading Marxists. It was not that I was sympathetic to Marxism, but my area of study was focused on movements, and I found that Marxists were the primary authors in the field of movements. You may have heard of Cloward and Piven who sought to raise up militant anti-poverty activists within the Democratic Party. There are others as well. There are different types of movements, and political movements have some stark differences from religious movements. But they also have some stark similarities.

With the assassination attempt on former (and most likely, future) President Trump, I was reminded of the ingredients that make up a movement. You may love it or hate it, but we are witnessing a rising political movement right now. There is a fundamental transformation in US politics being led by an unlikely movement leader, Donald Trump.

I am aware that many folks in missiology have written books on movements. The ingredients I am about to share, however, are not drawn from missiological research. These come from secular sources. Yet, as we shall see, they have religious roots. They continue to be relevant to not only politics but also the church.

Here is an easy-to-remember acronym, ACORNS, about the drivers behind movements drawn from secular movement studies:

Affinity Group Recruitment – Most movements spread virally, through human contact. Yes, media does help. But not as much as a friend telling you something which you then tell others. The affinity can be familial, demographic, generational, racial, or any other common attribute. A challenge for any movement that wants to grow is to start within a specific affinity but to broaden that appeal. You saw the RNC convention attempt to do this with the diverse speaker platform, something they have not done well in past conventions.

Common Acts of Commitment – Whether it is baptism or wearing a red MAGA hat, people identify with the movement. Often, these acts of commitment come with a cost.

Oppression, Real or Perceived – Oppression is movement fuel. The Trump assassination attempt gives moral clarity to the MAGA cause. The fact that Trump survived a real attack that could have easily killed him cements his credibility. People calling him Orange Hiter last week are clamoring to say political violence is wrong this week. It goes hand in hand with his court cases and legal challenges. He is persecuted and this creates an aura around him.

Retro-Revolutionary Ideology – The message must appeal to the context of the person hearing it (we call this contextualization in missiology) yet must offer something revolutionary or different. This is the beauty of the MAGA mantra. Make America (as we used to know it – this is the retro) Great Again (this is the future – an overthrow or revolution against the status quo).

Network Structure – This one is not so obvious in a political campaign, but modern political movements are decentralized. From donor groups to state conventions, nobody controls the entirety of a movement. Loose structures make it possible for many leaders to influence others.

Set of Favorable Circumstances – A movement needs fertile ground to take root. The current drivers for Trump include inflation, immigration concerns, and Biden’s apparent dementia. The timing of this movement coincides with a hunger to see these and other issues changed in American society.

I used to ask students who were studying movements, “How can a handful of nuts turn into a mighty forest? Through ACORNS, of course!” This is a funny play on words, but history tells us that a small group of dedicated people can foment something much bigger.

ACORNS is not limited to politics. The two most important researchers in the early days of movements were Gerlach and Hines, sociologists from the University of Minnesota. In 1968, they published seminal research about movements. Of the six attributes I listed above, five of them come straight from Gerlach and Hines. The only one I added from additional research sources was a “Set of Favorable Circumstances,” based on numerous other studies.

Can this apply to religious movements? It turns out that Gerlach and Hines had studied the flourishing Pentecostal movement happening within mainline churches in Minneapolis and Saint Paul. Methodist churches were holding healing events, Anglican churches were awash in tongue speakers, and Lutheran churches were embracing prophetic voices during their Sunday services. This led to a backlash by the denominational leadership and an underground movement of Pentecostal influence grew.

As we see this new Trumpian movement unfolding before us we can turn to movement studies to understand it. We can also look to movement studies to better grasp what is happening with religious movements.

It is ironic to me that the basal research by these secular sociologists was drawn from a religious movement. As I read this paper for the first time while studying in the library at the University of Central Florida, it dawned on me that my own mother had been influenced by this movement in the 1970s through a church called North Heights Lutheran Church.