Paul Sancya/AP Photo
People bow their heads during prayers before Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump attends a campaign rally in Waterford Township, Michigan, February 17, 2024.
One of the creepier aspects of the Trump campaign this year is his overt embrace of evangelical Christianity. As Michael C. Bender reports at The New York Times, his rallies now have a sermon-style conclusion: “In this moment, Mr. Trump’s audience is his congregation, and the former president their pastor as he delivers a roughly 15-minute finale that evokes an evangelical altar call, the emotional tradition that concludes some Christian services in which attendees come forward to commit to their savior.”
Now, I am not a Christian believer myself. But growing up as an annoying teenage atheist (a position I have thankfully softened on), I have read the Bible several times so as to argue with my evangelical friends back then. And the contrast between the contents of that text—especially the doctrines and teachings of Jesus Christ—and the behavior of the Trump cult is increasingly jarring. If I were a believer, I might call them a pack of blasphemous heretics.
If you leaf through the New Testament, the basic thrust of Christian doctrine is relatively easy to understand, though doctrinal disputes continue to this day. In brief, Jesus was the son of God, born to a virgin mother. He was crucified and died for the sins of humanity, and was resurrected after three days. As far as Jesus’s moral teachings, the main thing to do is help people who are in trouble and suffering—the poor, the hungry, the homeless, and so on. He’s all about humility, ministering to the needy, giving all your money to charity, and so on.
Indeed, in one of my favorite verses, Jesus says not only do you go to Hell if you do not care for the hungry or sick, welcome the stranger, and visit people in prison. He further says that if you do those things for “the least of these brothers and sisters of mine” you are doing them to Jesus Himself. It’s a profoundly egalitarian sentiment—not only does God instruct Christians to help the worst-off in society, He identifies Himself with the worst-off.
After all, this was Nietzsche’s whole problem with Christianity. In his view, it replaced the aristocratic “master morality” celebrating power and domination with an egalitarian “slave morality” in which it is wrong to oppress the weak.
So how do Trump-supporting evangelicals square their supposed belief in the literal truth of every word of the Bible with Trump’s monstrous behavior and policies? This is a guy found liable in civil court for sexual assault, and credibly accused of similar behavior by 15 other women. A guy who has been married three times. A guy who has been charged with 91 felonies. A guy who is about to go on trial for allegedly illegally covering up a $130,000 hush money payment to a porn star he committed adultery with four months after his current wife gave birth to their son. A guy who rather than displaying Christian humility and charity, compulsively boasts about himself with every other word out of his mouth, and positively wallows in the personal excesses of wealth. A guy whose policy agenda would snatch health insurance from tens of millions, viciously punish unauthorized immigrants, cut taxes on the rich, and on and on.
On his podcast, Chris Hayes interviewed Doug Pagitt, a pastor and activist who attempts to talk evangelicals out of supporting Trump. Pagitt has actually had some modest success at this. But the overwhelming majority of evangelicals still support Trump, and Pagitt says it is because “Donald Trump came along and said, vote for me and I’ll give you power.” Most obviously, of course, Trump’s appointments to the Supreme Court tipped the balance in favor of repealing Roe v. Wade, allowing Republican states to ban abortion.
There are problems with this justification. First, Protestant evangelical support for anti-abortion extremism is quite recent. Up until the 1970s, it was Catholics, not evangelicals, who were fervently against abortion. The Bible does not really have much to say on the subject. Abortion itself is not mentioned anywhere, and as Michael Luo pointed out in an article some years ago, the verses evangelicals point to as justification are vaguely related at best. Anyway, even if the Bible did contain a categorical prohibition on abortion, that wouldn’t negate the entire rest of Jesus’s teachings.
More importantly, as Hayes points out, this practical access-to-power basis for evangelicals’ romance with Trump bears an eerie similarity to part of the Jesus story; namely, how He was taken to the wilderness by the Spirit of God for three days to be tempted. Atop a high mountain, the Devil showed Him the kingdoms of the world. “All this I will give you,” Satan said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” Jesus replied: “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’” This would seem to be an important lesson.
Indeed, I can’t be the first to point out that Trump bears more than a little resemblance to Nicolae Carpathia, the wealthy, silver-tongued businessman who is also the Antichrist in the cornball evangelical series Left Behind.
Perhaps this explains why Trump’s followers routinely compare him to biblical figures with apparently no awareness of biblical admonitions against pride, idol worship, or anointing yourself or others as chosen by God, even as he flogs a literal golden sneaker to fund his massive legal expenses. “They’ve crucified him worse than Jesus,” one Trumper told the Times. (Personally, I’d rather be Trump than nailed to a cross, but I guess views differ.) “He’s definitely been chosen by God,” said another.
Who knows, they might be right! According to 2 Thessalonians, Jesus cannot return for the End Times until the “man of lawlessness is revealed,” who “will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped.” This lawless man will “use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie.” But ultimately the man and his followers will be destroyed: “all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.”
Just sayin’, saith the Lord.
