By Sid Schwab / Herald columnist
Obsessively pondering the mystery of Donald Trump supporters overlooking his abject amorality and monumental mendacity while claiming to be Christian has, finally, ignited an epiphany: They ignore Jesus’ lessons for life but still need to believe they believe. In Trump, they’ve found a way.
Among the thousands of deities available for selection, the most popular is Jesus. With good reason, His promise of life eternal and absolution of sins into which we were born because of Adam and Eve and a snake, have put Christianity on top. Aside from the occasional pogrom, holocaust, crusade, inquisition, suppression of science, and burning of witches, it’s served humanity well.
Now, however, a great discomfort — unspoken and unrecognized by them, but real — has arisen within the so-called Christians who’ve thrown in with Trump. Jesus, they’ve realized, was a liberal. Liberalism, God forbid, is the political embodiment of His teachings, the Sermon on the Mount put into practice. Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, welcome the stranger, love thy neighbor (which, since He never preached otherwise, includes LGBTQ+ people.) But the Foxotrumpified have been convinced to hate liberals. What are they to do?
Trump, lifelong breaker of each of the Ten Commandments, is Jesus’ antithesis. In lifestyle and policy, some would say the anti-Christ. So, how can MAGA Christians reconcile their professed love of both? Therein is the epiphany: By claiming that Jesus sent Trump to save us, that Trump is Jesus’ chosen one, making the two all but indistinguishable, ignoring His teachings and revering Trump becomes a manifestation of faith. In their equilateral genuflection, not living according to Jesus’ teachings is living according to His teachings. Gone is the uncomfortable dissonance; if Jesus chose Trump, it’s all OK. It’s like vegans idolizing Jeffrey Dahmer, but if it works it works.
Trump makes it easy to see. Avoiding churches except for photo-ops and AI-generated fakes (News.com.au: tinyurl.com/6fing4u), and though the last one he’d ever join would be a megachurch where he’d be a tiny presence in a huge crowd, he’s taken megachurch ministers’ methods as his own. Other than the fact that those ministers preach in complete sentences and stay on topic, Trump rallies are profane duplicates of megachurch services.
Humans need worship. If the word of Jesus is problematic for the MAGA-selfish, they meld Him with Trump who, like megachurch millionaires, gives them what they need. America is a hellhole, he tells them, promising salvation. “God bless the USA” plays as the congregants sing along, tearfully. I alone can save you, he intones, often speaking in tongues. Follow me or die. Send me your money, buy my merch, and be rewarded. I’ll rid you of the vermin/demons who’d do you harm, cleanse the land of your enemies, salve your fears, and make you great.
If you notice that I spend your money on private planes and lavish homes, that I sock away most for my own purposes, reneging on promises to use it charitably, you won’t care. Unless you’re a faithless infidel.
The analogy fits even better with faith healers, whose debunked fakery (ScienceAlert: tinyurl.com/randi4u) compares perfectly to Trump’s regularly disproved lies. Rigged healing brings the crowds and the money, and they keep on coming, eager to believe. It’s the same with Trump’s comforting lies, even as they get increasingly bizarre; people are pitching tents in airports, he claims, waiting four days for their flights. Who cares if it’s lies or delusions of a disassembling mind? It’s Trump! Throw away the crutches and send him money!
The J6 Committee destroyed all its records, he repeats. They didn’t; it’s all available online. Crime is rising, he preaches; under Biden, it’s falling. The election was stolen; no evidence says so. In fact, it proves the opposite. But, like faith-healing, his lies trick the mind, powerful enough to convince the willingly deceived.
Trump’s dishonesty has become so egregious that honest media are finally reporting without both-siding it (New Republic: tinyurl.com/30lies4u). By contrast, Trumpophilic media have taken to cutting away from rally coverage as he descends into incoherence, lest their viewers become heretics (YouTube: tinyurl.com/cutaway4u). To the loyalists, it wouldn’t matter. So strong is their faith that they believe what Eric Trump gaslightingly calls his daddy’s “unvarnished honesty.” MAGA is a misnomer. It’s MEGA.
Like the remarkable number of Trump’s inner circle convicted of crimes, along with Trump himself, so it is that we keep hearing of pastors — especially youth pastors — abusing those in their charge. In the latest example, Trump’s one-time “spiritual adviser” (what sort of people need one, and what do they do?) resigned from leading his megachurch after admitting to sexual abuse of a 13-year-old girl.
So now we understand the Trump/Jesus thing. What we may never unravel is why Trumpists, loving his plans to ruin the lives of the people they hate, can’t see that theirs will suffer the same (Axios: tinyurl.com/2Bworse4u).
Email Sid Schwab at columnsid@gmail.com.
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