False Idol

December 13, 2019 10:02 AM

Why the Christian Right Worships Donald Trump. Ex-evangelical journalist Alex Morris writes for Rolling Stone about the merging of American Christian conservatism with the militant white nationalism that animates Trump's base. It's also a deeply personal essay in which she describes her own journey away from that militancy while her family embraces it. (CW: Lots of quotes from anti-LGBT and anti-abortion people about how much they hate those things)
posted by treepour (35 comments total)

The Christian right has always been primarily about white supremacy (secondarily about patriarchy) so it isn't really a mystery.
posted by Reyturner at 10:08 AM on December 13, 2019 [46 favorites]

Events since 2016 have been very instructive. We've seen just how many self-called "Christians" are fakers and pharisees. How many are authoritarian conspirators-in-waiting. How many have sat down, thought about it, and decided that the harm to themselves is an acceptable price to pay for those they dislike to suffer even more. I've been fairly aggressive about excising people from my life who have revealed themselves to delight in cruelty.
posted by tclark at 10:09 AM on December 13, 2019 [15 favorites]

He hates the same people they do.
posted by The Notorious SRD at 10:18 AM on December 13, 2019 [23 favorites]

fakers and pharisees

Just a reminder that the Pharisees ended up being the foundation of modern rabbinic Judaism so maybe don't use that word as an insult.
posted by OverlappingElvis at 10:20 AM on December 13, 2019 [50 favorites]

This ties in to startlingly prescient and intuitive power moves by Putin over the last decade. He began making a turn to courting the new Christ as Conqueror cults that have organized and gathered power around the world in the last few decades. Also disturbing, Barr's recent speeches have aped Putin's.
Michelle Goldberg's Kingdom Coming is a great primer on the christo-ethno-nationalist movement in america.
posted by Harry Caul at 10:22 AM on December 13, 2019 [14 favorites]

Just a reminder that the Pharisees ended up being the foundation of modern rabbinic Judaism so maybe don't use that word as an insult.

I was unaware of that. I will refrain from using it in the future.
posted by tclark at 10:26 AM on December 13, 2019 [27 favorites]

It goes back to the Civil War and the KKK is basically called the NRA now, and they are "using" Putin to win back their power as a traditionalist oligarchy, without caring how he is using them. Their short-term goal is to divide America at the bottom, along racial lines. It should be remembered that power is its own reward as a luxury, and they don't need another reason for it. And all those beliefs that fundamentalist Christians think they hold are not old ones that came with the old religion, but put there for political convenience. They don't even bother to fund the kids they force to be born, because the sentiment didn't evolve from concern, but from obedience to power.
posted by Brian B. at 10:40 AM on December 13, 2019 [7 favorites]

"WWJD" indeed. The craziness across the conservative religious spectrum is, I think, a sign of desperate struggle to survive. Most of the largest denominations are shrinking year-over-year, not growing. Even Catholicism is basically flat, largely thanks to immigrant populations continuing to flood in. There are almost as many religiously-unaffiliated ("the so-called 'Nones'") as there are Evangelical Protestants. I say that to opine this: the pendulum's going to swing, but it's going to get weirder before it gets better. Demographically, it's hard to see anything else.

BTW - I mention GetReligion frequently; if you're all interested in the intersection of religion and journalism/media, I highly recommend it.
posted by jquinby at 10:40 AM on December 13, 2019 [6 favorites]

Just a reminder that the Pharisees ended up being the foundation of modern rabbinic Judaism so maybe don't use that word as an insult.

I had no idea, thank you!

... We can still dunk on the Sadducees, though, right?
posted by solotoro at 10:44 AM on December 13, 2019 [13 favorites]

Just watched the "Hail Satan" doc on Netflix last night and I TOTALLY GET how people would end up aligning with the Satanic Temple in the face of the enormous hypocrisy and hatred exhibited by so many so-called Christian churches in the US. Even a year ago this was off my radar but in light of events, it's like.. the only sane option for many people in many parts of the US. And I get how being 'atheist' is also turning into an empty gesture, if by 'atheist' a person simply takes potshots at organized religion.

It's the behaviours and the actions that matter now. And if you are not resisting, you are part of the problem.
posted by elkevelvet at 11:02 AM on December 13, 2019 [4 favorites]

Today I went to my local rural country dentist and the waiting area had a full spread of evangelical Literal Trump Cult literature, all arranged around a central copy of The Trump Prophecy.

Anyway, then I entrusted the care of my only teeth to the kindly insane fascist.

Settler-colonialism, alongside and including racial chattel slavery, is the foundational sin of America and is why any future redemptive state must have no resemblance to the USA as we know it.
posted by Rust Moranis at 11:27 AM on December 13, 2019 [25 favorites]

This ties right in with the latest episode of Citations Needed. The first half is mostly just dunking on terrible Christian movies but the second part is a good interview with a son of an well-known evangelical leader.

Citations Needed: Episode 96: The Christian Cinema-GOP Persecution Complex
posted by ropeladder at 11:50 AM on December 13, 2019 [5 favorites]

Mod note: One comment removed, let's not actually dig in on the whole Pharisees thing in here.
posted by cortex (staff) at 12:20 PM on December 13, 2019 [7 favorites]

Frank Amedia, the Trump campaign’s “liaison for Christian policy,” who once claimed to have raised an ant from the dead

I need to know more. Did he raise it from squished?
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 12:29 PM on December 13, 2019 [12 favorites]

... We can still dunk on the Sadducees, though, right?

Only Sampson the Strangler.
posted by BrashTech at 12:50 PM on December 13, 2019 [4 favorites]

The 29-year-old daughter of my wife's cousin--from the Evangelical Christian branch of the family--is living with us. She told my wife that her stepfather used pretty harsh corporal punishment on her and her brother when they were kids--which didn't surprise my wife given their culture. She also said he sometimes beat them out of anger--which my wife (rightly) found out of bounds.

Over Thanksgiving, I had the opportunity to chat with her brother. Our conversation:

Me: [Your sister] says that [your stepfather] used pretty harsh corporal punishment on y'all.

Him: Yeah

Me: She also says [your stepfather] sometimes beat you out of anger.

Him: [pause and thoughtful look] You know, I don't really see any value in trying to distinguish the two.

Good point.
posted by tippiedog at 1:00 PM on December 13, 2019 [48 favorites]

It's funny, I've been very interested in cults since I was in junior high (when I read Martin Gardner's Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science, FWIW), and back in the 20th Century I thought a lot about what a frightening and awful harbinger Jonestown was for the future of the US and the world, but until this thread I hadn't considered the Trump presidency in that light.
posted by jamjam at 1:54 PM on December 13, 2019 [4 favorites]

I was raised in the Roman Catholic church and while there are many details and particulars that are different, I recognize the author’s dilemma and experience as remarkably similar to my own story.
posted by Big Al 8000 at 2:19 PM on December 13, 2019 [3 favorites]

Interesting and nuanced article, thanks.
posted by frumiousb at 3:37 PM on December 13, 2019 [1 favorite]

who once claimed to have raised an ant from the dead

This has got to be the “my girlfriend goes to another school, you don’t know her” of crazy Christian bragging
posted by schadenfrau at 4:34 PM on December 13, 2019 [14 favorites]

Paula White, Trump's Christian advisor, speaks in tongues

As someone who grew up adjacent to rural evangelicals, and was completely freaked out by revival-season when the weirdos would show up to speak in tongues and dance, this disturbs me a great deal
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 8:12 PM on December 13, 2019 [2 favorites]

Because they get all the judges, and I can see why they are happy with that
posted by knoyers at 8:18 PM on December 13, 2019 [1 favorite]

Because they would be stupid not to do so? Trump, despite an evident lack of personal affinity for the Evangelical theology/ideology, has been better for their issues than any President since the secular/libertine movement began to develop 60 years ago.

It’s not like they wouldn’t prefer a Pence or Cruz, who probably have that affinity and don’t have Trump’s messy history with women, but they aren’t options at the moment — and they also must appreciate that Trump is choosing to give them his support rather than feeling obliged to do so as would a Pence or a Cruz.

There’s an interesting place in the history of a Christian thinking for virtuous pagans, and that’s where in their minds Trump sits.
posted by MattD at 5:25 AM on December 14, 2019 [3 favorites]

her stepfather used pretty harsh corporal punishment on her and her brother when they were kids

If most of Trump's supporters were physically and emotionally punished as a method of accepting parental authority (by using fear and conditioning to conform to arbitrary rules instead of impossible persuasion), then it would explain Trump's persistent popularity as he verbally abuses his rivals and enemies (versus those who recovered from their childhood or were never treated that way).
posted by Brian B. at 7:58 AM on December 14, 2019 [4 favorites]

Facebook has allowed me to discover that people who used to bully me are now Trump supporters. They recognize one of their own.
posted by LindsayIrene at 8:29 AM on December 14, 2019 [7 favorites]

Because they would be stupid not to do so? Trump, despite an evident lack of personal affinity for the Evangelical theology/ideology, has been better for their issues than any President since the secular/libertine movement began to develop 60 years ago.

The conclusion that "their issues" have nothing at all to do with the actual teachings of Jesus is left as an exercise for the reader.
posted by hydropsyche at 10:23 AM on December 14, 2019 [9 favorites]

Paula White, Trump's Christian advisor, speaks in tongues

As someone who grew up adjacent to rural evangelicals, and was completely freaked out by revival-season when the weirdos would show up to speak in tongues and dance, this disturbs me a great deal

I grew up inside an Evangelical church, where Glossolalia was extremely common. Hell, I did it a few times myself. It's weird as hell, no doubt, but I don't think it's inherently disturbing.

Now, the part where every now and then, while everyone in the congregation was speaking in tongues, some random person would start shouting, in English, a prophetic message from God Himself? Yeah, THAT was disturbing.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 6:45 PM on December 14, 2019 [3 favorites]

Most of the largest denominations are shrinking year-over-year, not growing.

Millennials Are Leaving Religion And Not Coming Back ("Evangelical Christians")

The conclusion that "their issues" have nothing at all to do with the actual teachings of Jesus is left as an exercise for the reader.

In God's country: Evangelicals view Trump as their protector. Will they stand by him in 2020? - "Conservatives for decades have felt bullied by the left, and the default response was to roll over and take it."
posted by kliuless at 9:56 AM on December 15, 2019

"Conservatives for decades have felt bullied by the left, and the default response was to roll over and take it."

This is an example of the Evangelical narrative known for its persecution complex. This may also show the appeal of Trump, as a crass and crude example of someone whom God loves by giving him money and power, giving hope for themselves. Hence the fight over his tax returns.
posted by Brian B. at 10:59 AM on December 15, 2019 [7 favorites]

The Evangelical Mind, Adam Kotsko - "I suggest that we should use the same tried-and-true method for identifying evangelicals as evangelical insiders do: “I know it when I see it.” I was raised in a conservative evangelical home, by parents who were in many ways at the vanguard of the movement. The more I have reflected on my experience in the evangelical movement, the more I realize that my evangelical upbringing planted the seeds of its own undoing."
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:51 AM on December 16, 2019 [2 favorites]

Yeah, it’s really amazing that the people who control 2.5 branches of government and use their powers for such fun things as making sure gay people can be fired for it, forcing people to be pregnant against their will, violating free practice of religion for everyone that’s not them, taking away healthcare from poor people, and oppressing immigrants including literally prosecuting people for giving them food and water can still feel persecuted because someone said something mean about their president on the internet.
posted by hydropsyche at 10:05 AM on December 16, 2019 [3 favorites]

A recent poll from Politico/Morning Consult found that 43% of evangelical voters would approve of President Trump being removed from office. That doesn't match up with this "worship" narrative peddled by the media.
posted by republican at 2:34 PM on January 4, 2020

That's almost certainly because they're including black evangelicals and not because of support for removal among anglo evangelicals.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 2:49 PM on January 4, 2020 [5 favorites]

"That's almost certainly because they're including black evangelicals and not because of support for removal among anglo evangelicals."

The poll doesn't have that in the crosstabs but it does show that 39% of evangelicals plan to vote in the Democrat primary.
posted by republican at 7:18 PM on January 4, 2020

Democratic primary
posted by hydropsyche at 5:07 AM on January 5, 2020 [2 favorites]