Trump the awesome Christian

Jan 7th, 2020 | By
Category: Notes and Comment Blog
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It doesn’t get much more phony than this:

They came to pray with their president, though in truth many came just to worship him. Donald Trump’s Friday launch of his so-called “coalition of evangelicals”, an attempt to shore up the support of the religious right ahead of November’s election, had the feel of any other campaign rally, except this time with gospel music.

An estimated 7,000 “supporters of faith” packed the King Jesus international ministry megachurch in Miami to hear the word of the president, and decided that it was good. The Maga hat-wearing faithful cheered Trump’s comments on issues calculated to resonate with his churchgoing audience, including abortion, freedoms of speech and religion, and what he claimed was a “crusade” from Democrats against religious tolerance.

So never mind the cruelty, the bullying, the greed, the self-dealing, the endless lies, the trashy insults, the egotism, the cynicism, the corruption, the racism, the hatred and contempt for most people and nearly all women. Never mind the absence of kindness, generosity, compassion, empathy, dedication, discipline, effort, responsibility, humility, honesty.

Religions make large claims about being beacons of morality for poor weak struggling humans. A religion that sees Donald Trump as someone to cheer and support and help get elected to the top US job is a religion that’s just plain admitting it doesn’t give a rat’s ass about any of that.

It was exactly what evangelical Christians in the audience wanted to hear. Some, like Michael David Layne, a 62-year-old US army veteran who regularly attends the King Jesus church, marries what he sees as Trump’s “strong leadership” with “solid Christian values”, which he said the president showed in Thursday’s military strike. “We can get anybody, anywhere, anytime, anywhere there is terrorism,” he said.

I’m not seeing the Christian values. I’m seeing the self-defense values, but those are universal and inherently self-regarding, as opposed to Christian or religious or self-abnegating.

Layne acknowledges that Trump’s life – which includes three marriages, adultery and alleged affairs with porn stars – might appear less than pious, but is able to overlook it. “He might be a little rough around the edges for some people, but he says it like it is, and if some of the things he says or the actions he takes upset some people it doesn’t make him less of a man of God.”

Well that’s shit framing. The sex and cheating branch of Trump’s shit behavior is a very minor branch; the active cruelty and bullying is much more significant. You can see that Mr Layne knows that, since he calls Trump “rough around the edges” and admits he “upsets” people when he “says it like it is” – i.e. insults and bullies and threatens anyone who annoys him.

The moral poverty of this kind of thing is nauseating.

Others who came to hear Trump preach were similarly unfazed by the president’s questionable religious credentials.

“I believe he has moral character and that he is a man of God,” said Steven Johnson, 65, from New Jersey. “I also believe that he believes people have to pick up the banner and do what’s right. If you don’t pick up the banner then are you really Christian?

On the basis of what? On the basis of what does he believe that Trump has “moral character”? And what “banner” is it that people have to pick up? The one with “Jesus rocks!!” on it in BIG LETTERS?

“It sickens me the people that say they’re Christian, and they’re praying for people, but they’re stabbing them in the back. It’s a shame. We need a revival in this country and get back to common sense, moral values. We’ve gone way off the deep end.”

And so for common sense and moral values we look to Donald Trump? At the shallow end?

“In 2016 evangelical Christians went out and helped us in numbers never seen before. We’re going to blow those numbers away in 2020,” Trump said. “I really believe we have God on our side.”

For Rose Ann Farrell, 74, from Florida, the claim rang true. “I really believe he was sent to us,” she said. “From one to ten, he’s a ten. He lives in a Christian world and we needed a strong Christian, somebody who is not afraid. He speaks for us, has the guts and courage to speak what we want to say. His actions, his intentions, are Christian.”

So much the worse for Christian values.

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