Superficially, one of the great conundrums of the Trump era appears to be how purported Christian evangelicals can overwhelmingly support a man whose personal history and self presentation have been so, to put it charitably, Un-Christian.
Literally dozens of sexual assault allegations, three marriages sprinkled amidst a lifetime of "grabbing them by the pussy," four thousand lawsuits to squeeze every dollar out of every transaction. The man has suggested the main thing he and his daughter have in common is sex, and he strongly suggested Howard Stern would enjoy dating his daughter. He's built a wall so the meek don't inherit the United States. Not exactly a Matthew 19:14 proponent, he locked up children at the border.
Yet, of white evangelicals who voted in 2016, 81% voted for Donald Trump. And the projections are in the same ballpark this time around. How can one reconcile the evangelical support for Trump with Trump's lifelong behaviors? The man doesn't really go to church. During his infamous church poseur moment, he looked as familiar with a bible as he might look holding a SAT exam.
From whence the white Christian support for this president? The man, after all, is known both for being in the eye of the storm and in the thighs of a Stormy. And forget about getting a camel through the eye of a needle (Matthew 19: 24). How could this guy possibly get into heaven? It seems superficially preposterous that American white evangelicals would get their mental knickers all twisted trying to support Donald Trump.
But I disagree with those who find evangelical support for the president mysterious. White evangelicals, I argue, are uniquely suited to be ardent Trump supporters.
First off, let's not forget the adjective "white" in front of that "81% white evangelical" phrase. White goes a long way in the United States. It's my reason for choosing to be reincarnated as a U.S. white dude.
Second, let's face it. Christianity is not the most logical, scientific, or humane belief system on the planet. If you spend most of your waking hours swearing fealty to a belief system featuring virgin births, various people coming back from the dead, angels of death slaughtering first borns, fiery tongues entering people, floods wiping out everything except what's on a big boat, and oh yeah, everlasting life...well, I hate to break it to them, but the entire Christian cultural/psychological milieu is a big lie. You're basically living life with a delusion as, at the least, a backdrop that you rarely question. At worst, you're making real world decisions while incorporating fairy tales as rationales for those decisions. And much of the arguments for doing so are "God said this" or "Jesus said that." Authoritarianism to the extreme.
Skip forward a thousand years from the Middle Ages, and here we are. If you can compartmentalize all the Christian lies and nonsense and still function, you're not going to have much of a problem finding ways to compartmentalize everything distasteful or ridiculous about Donald Trump. As a Christian, you've accepted conflicting stories (heck, the gospels have at least two very different storylines), you have been trained for obeisance to canon, and you've learned to keep science off in its corner for huge chunks of your conscious life. It's great training for Trumpism.
An evangelical gung-ho white Christian is primed to be an ardent Trump supporter. All the science-avoiding and logic-evading muscles have been honed. You've swallowed so much evangelical grape Kool-Aid that Trump's lies taste no stronger than plain seltzer.
As far as resisting disconfirmation, evangelical Christians are notoriously good at it. I mean, when was the last time somebody rose from the dead? It's a couple billion humans ago, if the New Testament or Osiris are to be believed. Not much in the way of fiery tongues or angels of death, either. Yet Christian faith hangs in there.
Given the far out claims of Christianity, it's really impressive that fervent Christians have few issues maintaining their faith. A tad nuts, but impressive nonetheless. Compared to the challenges of Christian belief, it's probably a mere bagatelle for the evangelicals to maintain loyalty to the president. Loyalty is a toned-down version of faith, not requiring as much mental contortionism. All things considered, white evangelical Christians are perfect vessels for the Trump Kool Aid. "Onward Q-Anon Soldiers, Marching Off to War" has a historical ring to it.
When irrational belief systems form the backbone of a culture's mores, then rationality or consistency or meaningful results are not required to hijack the reins of power. You just have to mimic the belief systems. In a sense, you get bonus points for being authoritarian, for being irrational, for requiring faith.
Trump as egg-laying cuckoo in Christianity's nest was an obvious possibility. As long as no Christians asked "Who would Jesus vote for?" the nest was his for the taking.
Bob Dietz
September 16, 2020
