WHY WHITE EVANGELICALS LOVE TRUMP

Evangelicals, like the rest of the Republicans have had to come up with some rationale for supporting the most vulgar, sexist, moronic, pathologically lying, racist, immoral, biblically illiterate, vindictive thug conceivably on the planet, but definitely to occupy the White House.  They say that while they are uncomfortable with his crude childish boorish behavior, they support him because of his policies.  Apparently, they claim that his policies are in line with Christian values, even of his pussy grabbing isn’t. 

                One has to wonder which policies are so much in line with those of Christ that these truly righteous people can not only overlook Trump’s copious moral lapses, including drooling over his own daughter, but in some cases even deify him.  Could it be his rescinding of environmental safeguards and regulations that protect our water and air?  Perhaps it was his policy of snatching children from their mothers at the border.  Maybe it was his rolling back of regulations to restrict banks from gambling with taxpayer dollars.  Sound Christian?

                I found out why white Evangelicals would support a Trump candidate/president long before Trump entered politics when I lectured on spirituality at a Chicago area Christian college decades ago. I began my lecture with seemingly innocuous statements: The first law of spirituality is that we are all more alike than we are different.  The second law of spiritualty is that our religious persuasions are largely an accident of birth.  Most Muslims are Muslims because they were born into a Muslim society.  Most Christians are Christians because they were born into a Christian society.  Easy-Peasy.  Piece of cake, or so I thought.

                I always left plenty of time following my lectures for discussion, because that was where the real action was.  Yet as I looked out at the classroom all I saw were arms folded, lips pursed, jaws clenched, and I could have sworn, wisps of smoke emanating from their ears.  With some coaxing from their instructor they finally began to express their frustration and anger with me which started as a drizzle but escalated into a downpour.   One young man protested that my message wasn’t true because he had been a Presbyterian, a Methodist, and a Catholic.  I responded that I had not heard Hindu or Muslim, but different branches from the tree of Christianity.  Eventually I came to understand their ire. 

                By saying we were all the same, I was inadvertently attacking the central tenet of their religion; that they were the Chosen People. From the Old Testament in which God orders genocide,  through the Inquisition to the priests who accompanied the vicious New World explorers such as Francisco Pizzaro,  to Manifest Destiny the motif of Chosen People has given cover and justification  to all manner of mayhem.  Furthermore, the Chosen People didn’t get that way by accident.  As the name states, they were chosen.

The longer the class went on, the more the tables were turned as I learned all about them, but they were too invested in their belief system to learn anything from me.  I learned that unlike the sweet, paschal lamb that had been fed to minorities to keep them docile, their Jesus was a rough-and-tumble, take no stuff, tough guy.  And an American.  I knick-named him G. I. Jesus.  I was also curious as to how a class on spirituality could have found my message so foreign.  When I asked what they had been reading, they held up their texts, which were titled, “Fighting Satan.”  Their idea of spirituality was to fight evil spirits.  I realized they would rather curse the darkness than light a candle. 

Chosen people are nothing, by definition, if not tribal.  Who exalts tribalism better than Trump? Religion without spirituality is the religion of exclusion. Trump likes building walls.     Wheaton College just outside Chicago, fired a tenured professor for practicing religious tolerance!  Trump presents himself as their messiah.  Jesus said, “None come to the father but through me.”  Trump says,” I alone can fix it.”

Ultimately, whether Trump is religious or not is irrelevant.  The religion of these white Evangelicals is founded, not on morality, but on identity.  As long as he affirms that identity as the Chosen People (to paraphrase Richard Nixon, if they do it, it isn’t wrong) who must remain pure, he will never lose their support.

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