First Christo-Americanism, Now Christo-Trumpism

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx8tsompfiM

This disturbing video was released in late May and yet just a month later the context has dramatically changed. The Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade, ruled in favour of tax money being used for private and thus religious schools, thrown out gun restrictions, ruled in favour of the coal industry and restricted the EPA, and now the court has ruled in favour of an Evangelical football coach praying in connection to school events. More than ever the Christian-Right is energized and they believe their 'victories' are due to Donald Trump.

One need not agree with Hasan – and I don't. And generally speaking I don't care for him at all and his motives are to be questioned. But regardless of his commentary and it accuracies or inaccuracies, and even his ridiculous sanctioning of the theologically liberal chaplain corps, the video (with his contextualisation) needs to be seen and contemplated. Hasan does make some solid points along the way and his comments regarding Locke are noteworthy as is Hasan's point regarding the double standard and what the reaction would be if an imam were to preach a sermon along those lines.

Trump's Evangelical appeal is much broader than earlier presidents who also catered to that vote. Unlike his predecessors he has brought in the Charismatics as seen with Paula White – which also testifies to the shifting and frankly liberal nature of the larger Evangelical movement. Probably the most overtly godless, immoral, and certainly incompetent man to ever hold the office of president (and that's saying something!), Trump is treated as something akin to a messiah.

Trump is now secured as the great hero. His plots and schemes with Mitch McConnell have now seized the Supreme Court which increasingly is the hope of the American Right. No longer able to dominate society, no longer possessing the ability to shepherd a social consensus, the movement is turning to authoritarianism and the court is essential under this scheme. Authoritarian oligarchy is the functional goal and as such it's important to cloak these aims in a heavy fog of propaganda. It must be perceived as patriotic and in keeping with traditional American values and ideology – even though it's not. The country has always been subject to oligarchic control and democracy has always been something of a farce, but this is different. This is a real seizure of power by a virulent Right-wing faction. The Left will counter by tossing the filibuster or attempting to pack the court – and the Right will scream murder about it. This is a fight to the death.

It's also important to understand that Paula White's Charismatic-style prayer is not just an invocation, praise, or petition – it is something of a magic spell, words of power meant to conjure and command.

The fact that Christian symbolism and ritual are being combined with the actions of paramilitaries is particularly troubling. Visiting churches I am not at all reticent to relay my concerns and reasons for leaving our previous congregation. Trumpism has come to dominate, and there are people present who are actively promoting it and some were at the capitol on 6 January 2021. Some people I speak to (though FOX viewers themselves) understand the concern, but increasingly I encounter people who are perplexed and confounded by what I'm saying. They cannot understand where I'm coming from. Trump is a hero. He helped move America back toward being a Christian nation again. They buy into the 'stop the steal' narrative and in almost every case they defend and justify January 6 by juxtaposing it with the Portland protests and vague references to widespread Leftist violence across the country. Or they dismiss it as not important as people are worried about the economy and so therefore it's a waste of time.

Again, the January 6 episode was an insurrection, an attempted coup. It was premeditated, coordinated, and criminal. Earlier generations of conservatives would view Trump as a traitor and worthy of jail or worse. Watergate, Iran-Contra, and WMD were massive scandals but they are literally dwarfed by this. The only comparable events are the secessionist opening salvos of the Civil War and perhaps Burr's Conspiracy. This is huge and yet as we've already seen the Congressional hearings have no teeth. Some hope (I think) that if they can generate enough popular outrage it might translate into something more substantial but for the most part the Democrats simply hope it will stop the GOP from scoring a wave victory this fall. The Biden administration has already indicated it's not going to indict any of the major players. They're only going after the people on the ground. Unless there's a huge groundswell of popular outrage that calls for the prosecution of congressional collaborators and figures within the Trump administration, the committee members don't dare to press too hard as the country is already in danger of disintegration. They want it on the record but they're not interested in an actual legal fight.

The Right's accusations of the hearings being a 'kangaroo court' are ridiculous. The fact that there's no cross examination is their own doing. They have chosen to boycott the hearings. They're welcome to appear and cross examine any time they want to and they know it well. But such discrediting language plays well and the local Evangelical radio station has been pulling out quotes from the various pundits of the Right – that are either ignorant (which is likely enough) or are deliberately misrepresenting what's happening (which is also to be expected). But it's scoring points with their audiences and becoming an integral part of their counter-narrative.

For Christians that live in the United States we must watch these events and understand them. But in particular we need to take note of the Christian participation in them. These people you're seeing in the video – you cannot commune with them. You can't be part of a congregation where they are present. They are in sin and are bringing judgment on the Church. They are heretics and this is why we left our congregation. The lines are being drawn. I'm thankful for it even though it's leaving us in a lonely wilderness.

Some Christians will watch these clips and rightly deem these prayers to be sacrilegious – for they are. And yet like it or not the gulf that separates these extremists and their blatantly confused and counterfeit expressions of Christianity from the Evangelical mainstream is getting pretty narrow and it has been bridged in multiple places.

Even a lost person like Hasan can see there's been a shift and the Evangelical sphere of the Bush era is not the same as what we're seeing under Trump. But the Evangelicals themselves cannot seem to see this! My wife and I are frequently astonished by our conversations with people in churches who seem to have forgotten the hallmarks of their movement and their own attitudes from ten, fifteen, and twenty years ago – let alone the attitudes and ideas expressed in the1980's and 1990's. During those decades Evangelicals would have been appalled at the notion of a low-life like Donald Trump being president and apoplectic at the notion that he would be associated with their movement.

It's as if FOX has fried their brains, poisoned their souls, seared the consciences – and wiped clean their memories. This is judgment, serious judgment of the type that makes you tremble to behold it.

Hasan quotes Sarah Posner who despite being a lost person has considerable insight and her research is of value. I think the quote exposes a terrible truth. Evangelicals decried the messianism associated with Obama but they have outdone this many times over with their adulation of Trump – literally idolising him.

God, Guns and Trump kind of says it all. It's not a Christian sentiment and by making idols out of the latter two elements of that sacrilegious triad, it becomes painfully clear that the god being referenced is not the God of Scripture but an idol, a component of the unholy religion and blasphemous counterfeit we need to rightly identify as Christo-Americanism. And yet increasingly it's becoming Christo-Trumpism, a fascistic expression that crosses all lines of toleration and charity.

New Testament Christians – flee American Evangelicalism. It is increasingly apostate, under judgment and it's under Scriptural condemnation. Like it or not we're going to suffer with it. If your church is tolerating this kind of thinking, rhetoric, and conduct – get out. Church leaders cannot sit on the fence which is what a lot of them are trying to do and in doing so are surrendering the field to this dangerous permutation of Dominionism.

As a Christian living in Pennsylvania I am particularly alarmed by the rise of Doug Mastriano, his promotion of heresy and his blatant twisting of Scripture. He's tickling the ears of Christians across the state and has overwhelming support. They seem him as a godly leader. To evoke Locke, I see Mastriano as an agent of Satan masquerading as an angel of light. Watching these clips of him I literally feel like I'm a kid watching some kind of Thief in the Night Tribulational-Dystopia movie. He's got the lingo down pat and yet if he's not a wolf in sheep's clothing I don't know what is.

It's hard to persevere when almost no one is interested in the truth. I put tracts out as I always have. No one picks them up anymore. People have shut down. They're in their groove, in their camp. And yet I cannot despair. The Holy Spirit saved me and pulled me out of the Right-wing Christo-American path that I had been on. But it wasn't easy and in my case, my circumstances were extreme – I was in a crisis and I'm thankful for it. I hope more and more people will face that crisis and God will save them. We cannot be sure where this is all going but increasingly I take comfort in reading of lonely prophets in the Old Testament and the remnant bodies of the Middle Ages. Increasingly it's a lonely time. Like these forebears we are surrounded by not just false religion but counterfeit religion in the form of a functional apostasy. It makes the battle that much harder but God be praised this is our lot and this is our fight and He is glorified even when a handful of lonely voices speak out and condemn what's happening.

By way of analogy today we too have the counterfeit religion of Dan and Bethel with all of its syncretism, along with the heresy, worldliness, and apostasy of Judah – the tribe that at least was (mostly or sometimes) faithful in terms of outward forms. And then this is all within the context of an external threat – the paganism, might, and false religions of Assyria, Babylon, and Egypt. And yet this larger threat is the least thing to worry about and the prophets also express this. Jeremiah wasn't worried about Babylon. He was worried about the apostasy within Judah.

This is not 'our' country. We are exiles in an unholy land surrounded by collaborators, traitors, and followers of the false prophets.