No False Christian

Viktor Orbán, Prime Minister of Hungary: Don't worry. A Christian politician cannot be racist. So we should never hesitate to heavily challenge our opponents on these issues. Be sure Christian values protect us from going too far.

David Folkenflik, Media Correspondent, NPR News: It was as though he was dismissing the idea that he could be criticized on such grounds simply because he professed to be, and may well be, a practicing Christian.
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Sigh. And people on the Left wonder why conservative Christians see them as hostile.

Prime Minister Orbán's comment is quite simple, really. Christian values don't allow for racism. Therefore, a Christian cannot be racist. The Prime Minister is a Christian. Accordingly, he is not racist. And the same goes for any other Christian politician. QED.

I've spoken with any number of Christians over the years who have deployed this sort of reasoning in a debate. It's simple self-righteousness, although it looks a lot like a No True Scotsman argument. While No True Scotsman is considered a logical fallacy, for many Christians, holding to certain virtues is seen as a requirement for being Christ-like. So the problem isn't the No True Scotsman's problem of assigning (or denying) a trait that is unrelated to being a Scotsman (or in this case, a Christian), but rather the assumption of the right to determine for oneself that they (or another person) are a proper Christian, and therefore free of vices that only attach to non-Christians. In other words, rather than defining a set of behaviors, and then using adherence to said behaviors to determine one's practice of their faith, Christians like Prime Minister Orbán declare that those whom they believe appropriately are necessarily adhering to certain behaviors.

This isn't a particularly rare outlook on the world. It's common for (conservative) Christians to believe that they're competent to determine whether another person is or is not being correctly Christian, and therefore what they are, or are not ready, willing and able to do. It's something that comes up often in conversations where the topic of Christian moral or ethical superiority is at issue. And that's why I'm surprised that David Folkenflik seems to be unfamiliar with this particular train of thought. Has he genuinely never had this sort of conversation with someone before? That's unexpected, from such an experienced journalist.