ğŸ§BLLSHT: Understanding MAGA Christianism's Truthfulness Problem
In loving truth, we love God.
A recent conversation with my friend Derek Woodard-Lehman about our current political climate led me back to philosopher Harry Frankfurt's work. Derek recommended I revisit Frankfurt's dual essays on love and bllsht (bovine excrement)—insights that have taken on new urgency in our present moment.
These reflections were sharpened when I heard about someone who, while abusing his wife, casually dismissed truth-telling with the chilling pragmatism: "It doesn't matter if you lie if it works."
This statement—horrifying in its naked instrumentalism—reveals the philosophical underpinnings of what we've both observed in certain strains of MAGA Christianism. It's not merely political posturing; it's a fundamental disordering of love that merits theological examination.
The Disordered Love at the Heart of Untruthfulness
Frankfurt argues in "The Reasons of Love" that love creates a particular necessity in our lives—it establishes what we value and shapes our identity. Authentic love involves "disinterested concern for the existence of what is loved, and for what is good for it." When properly ordered, love binds us to truth because we care deeply about the reality of what we love.
But what happens when love becomes disordered?
The Christian tradition has long understood that the love of God is inseparable from the love of truth, as Christ himself claimed to be "the way, the truth, and the life." Yet what we witness in MAGA Christianism reflects what Stanley Hauerwas identified in his critique of Reinhold Niebuhr—a fundamental commitment not to Christian truth, but to philosophical pragmatism.
This pragmatic turn wasn't accidental. It represents the second mutation we've identified in our syntopical analysis: practical atheism, where Jesus as exemplar is replaced by pragmatic politics disconnected from Christ's example. In this distortion, effectiveness becomes the primary criterion, and truth becomes a dispensable commodity valued only insofar as it serves predetermined ends.
Bllsht: The Language of Disordered Love
Frankfurt's analysis of bllsht provides the perfect companion to understanding this phenomenon. The bllshtter, unlike the liar, has no real concern for truth or falsehood. As Frankfurt writes: "The bllshtter...does not reject the authority of the truth, as the liar does, and oppose himself to it. He pays no attention to it at all."
This indifference to truth characterizes much of what passes for discourse in MAGA Christianism. Consider how easily biblical verses are ripped from context (primitive biblicism), how theological concepts are repurposed for political ends, how easily verifiable falsehoods are circulated without correction. The speaking isn't constrained by fidelity to what is true, but shaped entirely by what advances the movement's aims.
Like the abuser who justifies lying because "it works," this approach reveals not just tactical dishonesty but a profound spiritual disorder—a turning away from participation in God's truth toward the idolatry of effectiveness.
The Retreat to Sincerity as Bllsht
Perhaps most insightfully, Frankfurt notes how in our skeptical age, many have "retreated from the discipline required by dedication to the ideal of correctness to a quite different sort of discipline, which is imposed by pursuit of an alternative ideal of sincerity."
We see this constantly in religious-political discourse—the defense of falsehoods with appeals to authentic feeling or sincere belief. "He speaks what's in his heart" becomes the shield against criticism of factual inaccuracies. But as Frankfurt devastatingly concludes: "insofar as this is the case, sincerity itself is bllsht."
Derek and I discussed how this retreat to sincerity has become particularly pronounced in an era where "alternative facts" and "speaking your truth" have replaced the more rigorous standard of objective reality. The problem isn't just that people lie—it's that entire communities have become indifferent to the distinction between truth and falsehood as long as the speaker seems authentic.
Truth as Participation Rather Than Correspondence
What makes this particularly tragic from a theological perspective is how it misunderstands truth itself. Christian tradition understands truth not merely as correspondence between statement and reality, but as participation in divine life. As Augustine famously noted, all truth is God's truth. Being truthful isn't just about accuracy—it's a mode of participation in God's own being.
This participatory understanding of truth stands in direct opposition to MAGA Christianism's instrumental approach. When we understand truth as participation, we recognize that "It doesn't matter if you lie if it works" isn't merely ethically problematic—it represents a fundamental turning away from God, a refusal to participate in divine reality.
The binary apocalypticism we've identified as another mutation in MAGA Christianism exacerbates this problem. By dividing the world into absolute good and evil, friends and enemies, it creates a framework where truth becomes subordinated to tribal loyalty. Statements are evaluated not by their truthfulness but by whether they serve the cause against perceived enemies.
The Necessity of Reordering Love
The antidote to this disordered state isn't simply better fact-checking or more rigorous honesty (though these are needed). It requires a fundamental reordering of love.
When we love God properly, we cannot be indifferent to truth, for they are inseparable. When we love our neighbors genuinely, we cannot be casual about deception, for authentic love creates a necessity to speak truthfully. As Frankfurt notes, love "creates the reasons by which his acts of loving concern and devotion are inspired."
MAGA Christianism's truthfulness problem isn't just a moral failing; it's evidence of a profound theological disorder—a turning from the God who is Truth toward the idol of what works. The statement "it doesn't matter if you lie if it works" could never be uttered by someone whose love is properly ordered toward God and neighbor.
For Christians concerned about this movement's trajectory, the challenge isn't merely political but deeply spiritual. It calls us to reexamine not just what we believe, but what—and how—we love. For in the end, our relationship with truth reveals not just our politics, but the true object of our worship.
When we participate in truthful community, we aren't simply adhering to abstract principles; we're participating in the divine life itself. We're resisting the fragmentation that occurs when love is disordered and embracing the wholeness that comes from loving truth not because it serves us, but because in loving truth, we love God.
This essay was inspired by conversations with Derek Woodard-Lehman and reflections on Harry Frankfurt's works "On Bllsht" and "The Reasons of Love," which provide philosophical frameworks for understanding the relationship between love, truth, and the human tendency toward indifference to both.