Evangelicals' Unholy Alliance With Trump

One of the issues this blog has focused on since its outset is hypocrisy and few groups in America display breath taking hypocrisy is evangelical and "conservative" Christians. They wear their religion on their sleeve, but when it comes to living and truly supporting Christ's social gospel message, they are missing in action. Their true mission and goal is to force their beliefs - that all to often when stripped of all smoke screens come down to maintaining white Christian superiority - on the rest of the country making a mockery of claims that they support religious freedom.  That freedom is reserved to themselves alone, their attitude being "to hell with everyone else." They are blind to the reality that the are often mocked or viewed as hypocrites because of their own actions. A very long piece in the New York Times looks at what has perhaps best exposed the incredible hypocrisy of this element of American society: their allegiance to Donald Trump which ultimately comes down to a quest for power over others - something certainly not in keeping with Christ's message and more aligned with the actions of the biblical Pharisees - and a myth that Christians are subject to persecution when in fact the only change has been limits placed on their ability to persecute others.  In my view, if one supports Trump, any claims of being a true Christian are a total lie.  Here are some brief article excerpts:

He was the boastful, thrice-married, foul-mouthed star of “The Apprentice.” They were one of the most conservative Christian communities in the nation, with 19 churches in a town of about 7,500 people.

Christians make up the overwhelming majority of the country, he said. And then he slowed slightly to stress each next word: “And yet we don’t exert the power that we should have.”

If he were elected president, he promised, that would change. He raised a finger.

“Christianity will have power,” he said. “If I’m there, you’re going to have plenty of power, you don’t need anybody else. You’re going to have somebody representing you very, very well. Remember that.”

From the start it appeared an impossible contradiction. Evangelicals for years have defined themselves as the values voters, people who prized the Bible and sexual morality — and loving your neighbor as yourself — above all.

Donald Trump was the opposite. He bragged about assaulting women. He got divorced, twice. He built a career off gambling. He cozied up to bigots. He rarely went to church. He refused to ask for forgiveness.

It is a contradiction that has held for four years. They stood by him when he shut out Muslim refugees. When he separated children from their parents at the border. When he issued brash insults over social media. When he uttered falsehoods as if they were true. When he was impeached.

But beneath all this, there is another explanation. One that is more raw and fundamental.

Evangelicals did not support Mr. Trump in spite of who he is. They supported him because of who he is, and because of who they are. He is their protector, the bully who is on their side, the one who offered safety amid their fears that their country as they know it, and their place in it, is changing, and changing quickly. White straight married couples with children who go to church regularly are no longer the American mainstream. An entire way of life, one in which their values were dominant, could be headed for extinction. And Mr. Trump offered to restore them to power, as though they have not been in power all along.

Ultimately Mr. Trump recognized something, said Lisa Burg, a longtime resident of nearby Orange City. It is a reason she thinks people will still support him in November.

“The one group of people that people felt like they could dis and mock and put down had become the Christian. Just the middle-class, middle-American Christians,” Ms. Burg said. “That was the one group left that you could just totally put down and call deplorable. And he recognized that, You know what? Yeah, it’s OK that we have our set of values, too. I think people finally said, ‘Yes, we finally have somebody that’s willing to say we’re not bad, we need to have a voice too.’”

They want America to be a Christian nation for their children. “We started out as a Christian nation,” she said.

“You can’t make people do these things,” he said. “But you can try to protect what you’ve got, you might say.”

He thought about November, and felt confident Mr. Trump would win. He sees Trump flags all over as he drives. Something has shifted in the country, he said, and he is looking ahead to who might even come after Mr. Trump.

“I feel like we are safe for four more years,” he said. “You know. So that’s a good feeling.”

Throughout the article one thing remains missing: any desire to be a witness to Christ's message of how one treats others.  The motivation is all self-centered and about being superior to others of different faiths and different races.  As for Sioux Center, Iowa, I can just imagine young gays seeing suicide as their best option.  It's definitely NOT a place I would ever visit.