The Sacral Nature of Evangelical Support for Trump

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/22/trump-christians-president-religion

This article is already outdated and if anything the realities expressed here have been sharply amplified by the assassination attempt and the way in which the Christian Right has cast these events in theological terms. The event has been turned into a kind of epoch or watershed, a marker in American redemptive-history, an episode in the passion of Trump as it were. None of this is thought out or made explicit as it quickly strays into blatant heresy. But even its restrained and nuanced forms already are guilty of such doctrinal crimes and aberrations.

The quotes in this article reveal the sacral nature of this project. America is being claimed and covenantalized. This is why they want the Ten Commandments placed on school walls and 'In God We Trust' chiseled on to buildings. This is to mark them - baptize them as it were, declaring them part of the holy domain of Christ's Kingdom. And yet their Christ is not the Christ of Scripture and the kingdom they promote is a counterfeit and thus far more insidious and dangerous than the overt expressions of rejection as seen in the sodomite banners and the like.

It does not require a degree in sociology to understand that American society is in crisis and at a breaking point. This misguided faction placed their hopes in Reagan and were let down. They thought George W Bush was their guy and he disappointed. For many of them Obama represented an unprecedented Marxist threat - how soon they forgot that they once said the same about Clinton but instead under his watch the economy boomed. And like Clinton, Obama was a friend and advocate for Wall Street and the empire.

But with Trump the scenario changed. The fear, anger, and desperation had grown so great that by the end of Obama's second term they were looking for not just an executive but an iconoclast and authoritarian, a leader - a messiah. The Evangelical movement sold its soul back in the 1950's when it signed on with American nationalism and so-called social conservatism - even though the 1950's were more revolutionary than conservative. By the end of the 1970's, the economic differences were resolved and the movement coalesced around the Republican party. Endless compromises have worn down the Christian elements within this movement. The Christians within it have embraced divorce, feminism, and psychology, alongside the nationalism, mammon-driven market capitalism, militarism, and other ideologies. Christianity took a back seat to these other ideals and commitments and as such the old lines of doctrinal division were erased bringing together Protestants, Catholics, Mormons, and Jews. Many within today's Christian Right have abandoned the Liberalism of the Founders, have replaced conservatism with libertarianism, and every day more and more are turning to authoritarianism and fascism. I thought of this while watching Ted Cruz speak at the RNC. If you had replaced 'illegal immigrants' with 'Jews' the speech would have been quite at home in 1930's Germany. The messianic devotion to the fuhrer is very much akin to what we're seeing with the Evangelical fervor expressed for Trump.

'The enemy within' is in the Church - and it's these people that have replaced Zion with America and Christ with an nationalist idol wielding an AR-15 and a dollar sign.

They decry the assassination attempt against Trump and blame Biden for the culture of violence and yet it is Trump and his movement - and these very Evangelicals that are to blame. Their statements (in concert with the FOX channel) generate endless rounds of fear and anger and it's no surprise that volatile elements within their larger movement are beginning to break. The only surprise about the assassination attempt was that it took so long and that there haven't been more.

Truth is dispensed with and myths are embraced - the myths of McCarthyism and his inquisition and the mythological America represented by the godless hypocrite John Wayne.

And contrary to Crowley, it was the Deep State that was exposed with the fall of Nixon and it was the Deep State that protected Reagan. I will grant that the Deep State did turn against McCarthy because his buffoonery was beginning to tear apart the country and there were fears of a growing fascist movement. It's part of a larger story that includes figures such as Douglas MacArthur but such complicated history does not interest the demagogues of the Christian Right as they do not further their sacralist cause - to put a cross on top of the American Tower of Babel.

Rather than condemn Trump for his attempts at comparing his trials to those of Christ, his followers seem to affirm this framing and language. No matter what he does, what is revealed - they revere him all the more. Kari Lake's language equating getting back to God as being equivalent to getting back to Trump is telling and condemning.

This is not a political movement, or even religious activism. This is a cult. It's an American Sacralist cult and Trump is their prophet and messiah. This needs to be understood and taught. It will empty the churches - let them go. Faithful Christians will be attacked and likely killed by these Christ-haters who come in the name of a made-up Christ-idol. Give God the praise and glory.
Church leaders who miss this moment and fail to shepherd the flock will answer for it as described in 1 Corinthians 3.

This faction is committed to violence and social upheaval. Many are eager for civil war, others wish to unleash violence against illegal immigrants. As already stated, the parallels to the race-baiting hatred of 1930's Germany is palpable but these folks are the last people on Earth that will see or understand this as their false shepherds have taught them that fascism was a Left-wing movement and thus its contemporary equivalent is found in the likes of Biden, Pelosi, and AOC. And as such, they're marching right down the same path as 1930's Germany, Spain, Italy, Romania, France and Croatia. And it needs to be remembered that in France, Romania, Croatia, Slovakia, and Spain, fascism took on a Christian gloss. And even in the cases of Italy and Germany where this was less the case, nevertheless these parties and leaders received tremendous support from the churches.

In addition to the hatred expressed for illegal immigrants - many of which are trying to escape chaos and violence that American policy has generated, the Great Replacement Theory being promoted by these Evangelicals is deeply rooted in Anti-Semitism and this is why the various factions that are openly racist, such as the KKK and the Neo-Nazi movement also align with Trumpism. The cult's ecumenicity is broad to say the least.

When I read the statements by these Evangelicals asserting that Trump tells the truth and that he's a Christian - one can only weep for these people. They are deceived and their statements reveal that the gospel is apparently alien to them and the truth is no longer something they are able to discern. This is a tragic time for Christianity in America - a new dark age.