Evangelical Narratives about Trump and Haley

A couple of weeks ago while listening to the BBC, an American Evangelical leader attempted to explain his faction's overwhelming allegiance to Trump. He suggested that all things considered, Trump is the best prospect. All the emphasis was on beating Biden.

He was playing the bait-and-switch self-deception game that many Evangelicals engage in. They consistently defend Trump and take up his cause whenever he falls under criticism. The devotion on their part is palpable. But then when it's put in plain terms, they retreat and argue they're not that keen on him. It's more a question of pragmatics – at which point they usually launch into the bit about electing a president not a pastor and so forth.

But this narrative is false and it should be called out at every opportunity.

At this point in time the polls indicate that Nikki Haley would be able beat Biden – while Trump stands a very good chance of losing to him as he did in 2020.

While Haley is certainly not the Evangelical ideal – would they say that Trump is the ideal? They consistently argue he's not and yet Haley is hardly some Leftist and far more of a conventional candidate – certainly conservative by the modern definition of the term.

So if they want to win – why not go with Haley?

They don't want to, and here's the ugly part – because their allegiance to Trump is something far more than pragmatic. It's religious. It's idolatrous. In some cases it's messianic. It's an expression of apostasy and an abandonment of basic Christian values – the degenerate result of decades of Evangelical activism and Dominionist thought having gone to seed.

I'm not telling anyone to vote for Haley or Biden. I would counsel Christians to reconsider the very premise of voting at all.

But to vote for Trump? That's unthinkable. That's a rejection of the New Testament and the ethics and calling of the Kingdom. He's an unrepentant convicted criminal, adulterer, rapist, thief, and much else. He is a patently immoral person and those that endorse him – endorse what he is. To embrace him is at the very least a devil's bargain. It's akin to the temptation of power offered to Christ in the wilderness – but in this case the apostate Church embraces it. They take the offer.

And it needs to be pointed out to these people at every opportunity.

The Evangelical on the BBC was either lying or severely deluded – the sad truth is that it's probably a bit of both. One cannot help but think of the language of strong delusion and the real spiritual threat represented by someone like Trump – and the thoroughly unorthodox cult that follows him.