Despite porn stars and Playboy models, white evangelicals arent rejecting Trump. This is why.

[Poiuyt]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/03/26/despite-porn-stars-and-playboy-models-white-evangelicals-arent-rejecting-trump-this-is-why/?utm_term=.22988d936d04&wpisrc=nl_politics&wpmm=1

snip-

Why are white Christians sticking so closely to Trump, despite these claims of sexual indiscretions? And why are religious individuals and groups that previously decried sexual impropriety among political leaders suddenly willing to give Trump a “mulligan” on his infidelity?

Our new study points to a different answer than others have offered. Voters’ religious tenets aren’t actually what’s behind Trump support; rather, it’s Christian nationalism — their view of the United States as a fundamentally Christian nation.

snip-

The more someone believed the United States is — and should be — a Christian nation, the more likely they were to vote for Trump

First, Americans who agreed with the various measures of Christian nationalism were much more likely to vote for Trump, even after controlling for a host of other influences, such as political ideology, political party, and other cultural factors proposed as possible explanations of Trump voting.

snip-

Antagonism toward Muslims was just as important as Christian nationalism

Finally, the various cultural explanations that other researchers have examined didn’t predict Trump support in our study, with one notable exception: anti-Muslim sentiment. How much a U.S. voter feared Muslims was as significant in predicting who voted for Trump as Christian nationalism. Overall the strongest predictors of Trump voting were the usual suspects of political identity and race, followed closely by Islamophobia and Christian nationalism.

What does this mean?

Many voters believed, and presumably still believe, that regardless of his personal piety (or lack thereof), President Trump would defend what they saw as the country’s Christian heritage — and would help move the nation toward a distinctly Christian future. Ironically, Christian nationalism is focused on preserving a perceived Christian identity for America irrespective of the means by which such a project would be achieved.

Hence many white Christians believe Trump may be an effective instrument in God’s plan for America, even if he is not particularly religious himself.

In the upcoming midterm elections, Trump and other politicians will keep emphasizing Christian nationalism. After all, it works.

[onecaliberal]

1. Their racist, bigoted, homophobic, lying, morally bankrupt assholes. Theyre NOT Christians.

[stopbush]

6. Sounds like Christians to me. Seriously.

[poboy2]

7. This reply is the Executive summary. -nt

[Mariana]

9. If they aren't Christians, what are they, exactly? nt.

[Martin Eden]

22. First and foremost, they are HYPOCRITES

Other monikers which apply include:
American Taliban
Christo-fascists

[Mariana]

23. One can be a hypocrite and a Christian at the same time.

Where is it written that bad people must be non-Christians?

[OliverQ]

29. Matthew 7

Jesus calls out the hypocrites, false prophets, and wolves in sheep's clothing. You can recognize followers of him by their fruits (deeds, works, behavior), but just because they flaunt being Christian doesn't mean they actually follow him.

[Mariana]

37. Only non-Christians can be hypocrites. nt.

[Martin Eden]

49. If I had written that bad people must be non-Christians ...

You wouldn't have had to ask that question because you would have seen that I wrote it.

Which, of course, I didn't. However, your inference is understandable.

This may be getting into semantics, but if one's behavior embodies a rejection of the teachings of Jesus Christ calling that person a Christian conflicts with a reasonable functional definition of what it means to be a Christian.

Consider a multiple choice with only one selection that does not include All the Above.

A self -professed Christian who attends church, and is a neonazi who has verbally and physically assaulted minorities is most accurately defined as a:
a) Christian
b) hypocrite
c) Christo-fascist
d) American Taliban

Same option for a Dominionist who wants to criminalize homosexuality and implement a government ruled by a Christian theocracy.

[Mariana]

55. A self-professed Christian who attends church

and is a neonazi who has verbally and physically assaulted minorities, and who has faith that Jesus was the son of God, born of a virgin, performed miracles, was crucified and resurrected and forgives sinners is a Christian. He may not be doing a very good job of being a Christian, but if he sincerely believes those things, how is he not a Christian?

[Martin Eden]

56. Someone who rejects Jesus by word and deed

... yet claims to be a Christian is more of a hypocrite than a Christian. Delusional doublethink is required to believe in Christ while embracing Nazi ideology.

I might believe myself to be a tightrope walker capable of walking across a line between tall buildings but I would fall to my death, thus proving that I was not a tightrope walker.

Many people who claim to be Christians routinely prove not to be, as far as I'm concerned.

But then, I'm agnostic and do not personally relate to the warped mind of the kind of person I described.

[John Fante]

30. Modern-day Pharisees.

[Mariana]

38. Jesus said to obey the Pharisees.

Matthew 23 : 1-3 NIV

Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: "The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.

[John Fante]

39. The last line is the most telling. Right-wing evangelicals

can rattle off Bible verses with the best of them, but their actions are the antithesis of everything Jesus Christ stood for.

[Mariana]

43. Jesus criticized the Pharisees' hypocrisy and their behavior

but he nevertheless said they must be obeyed.

[John Fante]

45. I don't want to nitpick a nearly 2000-year-old

(IMO) fictional story. The larger point (that right-wing evangelicals are, like the Pharisees before them, massive hypocrites) stands. If Jesus were around today he would condemn Bible-thumping Trumpers just as he condemned the Pharisees during his lifetime.

[Mariana]

46. Sorry about that. Being a non-Christian myself

It does bother me when someone says that hypocrites, liars, and bad people in general MUST be non-Christians, pretty much by definition.

[onecaliberal]

47. Religious himackers. Fakes. What ever you want to call it. Read the New Testament to see what a

Christian is. His name was Jesus.

[Martin Eden]

21. +1

It should be obvious the can not legitimately be called Christians.

Christo-fascists would be more accurate.

[Blue_true]

26. They vote strategically. We don't.

While we have people on our side that are willing to sit on their hands if they agree with 100% of what our people stand for, but disagree with the pace of policy change, that is insane and the reason why our superior numbers don't show up in the offices that our politicians hold.

[Beartracks]

31. This right here, people.

The party that would throw its fiercest warriors under the bus is at a strategic disadvantage against the party of hypocrites.

==========

[MyOwnPeace]

41. Beautiful, Bear!

Thinking in terms of a "baseball trade" - what did the Dems get back in exchange for their own "demonization" of Senator Al Franken?

HA!!!!

[Eliot Rosewater]

27. They are not Chirst like, but they are very much in tradition with probably at least 51% of

the American christian population or for that matter the worldwide population of Christians.

Having said that there are GREAT Christians.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

2. David Dennison is their ally in their war with modernity.

[haele]

3. As I suspected; Prosperity Gospel/End time Evangelicals will vote for the Anti-Christ...

...if their Profits, err..."leadership" tells them it will bring about the return of Christ's Kingdom.

Even though their own supposed rule book - the word of "their God" tells them that supporting the Anti-Christ will send them to their Hell for eternity.

Profits on earth are apparently more important to them than their promised "Heaven after death".
Just goes to prove they're mentally nothing more than emotionally unstable tweenagers trying to figure out ways to still get their allowance without doing the chores and are terrified of taking on the responsibility of being a grown up in a great big world.

Haele

[Me.]

4. At This Point Why Do WE Care

They're not going to change yet we keep focusing on them...how about looking forward and focusing on our agenda...if they want to stay behind let them, we'll all move on. There are more of us than them, how about we work with that.

[dembotoz]

5. rub their noses in it...which porn star would jesus hump??????call them the hypocrites that they are

pretty simple

[dalton99a]

8. Because he is a modern-day Cyrus, chosen by God:

https://www.vox.com/identities/2018/3/5/16796892/trump-cyrus-christian-right-bible-cbn-evangelical-propaganda
The biblical story the Christian right uses to defend Trump
Why evangelicals are calling Trump a “modern-day Cyrus.”
By Tara Isabella Burton @NotoriousTIB [e-mail] Mar 5, 2018, 9:20am EST


The Israeli Mikdash Educational Center minted a coin showing Trump and Cyrus side by side. Mikdash Educational Center

...
The comparison comes up frequently in the evangelical world. Many evangelical speakers and media outlets compare Trump to Cyrus, a historical Persian king who, in the sixth century BCE, conquered Babylon and ended the Babylonian captivity, a period during which Israelites had been forcibly resettled in exile. This allowed Jews to return to the area now known as Israel and build a temple in Jerusalem. Cyrus is referenced most prominently in the Old Testament book of Isaiah, in which he appears as a figure of deliverance.

While Cyrus is not Jewish and does not worship the God of Israel, he is nevertheless portrayed in Isaiah as an instrument of God — an unwitting conduit through which God effects his divine plan for history. Cyrus is, therefore, the archetype of the unlikely “vessel”: someone God has chosen for an important historical purpose, despite not looking like — or having the religious character of — an obvious man of God.

For believers who subscribe to this account, Cyrus is a perfect historical antecedent to explain Trump’s presidency: a nonbeliever who nevertheless served as a vessel for divine interest.

For these leaders, the biblical account of Cyrus allows them to develop a “vessel theology” around Donald Trump, one that allows them to reconcile his personal history of womanizing and alleged sexual assault with what they see as his divinely ordained purpose to restore a Christian America.

[dhill926]

19. hmmm...this actually explains a lot.....

[hunter]

24. All the trump supporters I encounter are evangelicals who believe this or some variation of it.

They heard that trump was somehow chosen and they believe it. They don't realize they're being played as fools.

Normally they'd be wary of big city grifters but their grifting church leaders told them trump is on their side.

[Corgigal]

33. Yeah, but you can then have fun.

Yeah, I know but he's a New Yorker, I have found this statement stops them and confusions their reaction. Play one bias against the other and watch their brain spin.

I say this as a New Yorker, who lives in the south surrounded by these deep thinkers.

[Lars39]

28. I have been calling their backing of Trump

the renewal of the belief of divine right of kings. I wasn't too far off it seems.

[dalton99a]

32. Yep. Authoritarianism is a central feature in that belief system

and they voted accordingly

[Exotica]

50. great post

[HipChick]

10. Is Trump even a Christian? He does even go to church...

I remember when they accused Obama of not going to church and called him all kinds of names....
Fucking racist Hypocrites..

[Blue_Adept]

11. I saw one of these evangelical leaders explaining it on the Sunday shows

I think it was Stephaopolous' show with Raddatz hosting. The guy was sitting next to Matthew Dowd who said he just can't understand, as a Christian himself, why they're getting away with the hypocrisy considering what they threw at Clinton in the 90's.

The evangelical guy basically said that it was part pushback over the marriage act and the other was that Lewinsky happened in the "here and now" at that time whereas all of Trumps indiscretions were in the past and were forgiven.

Dowd's eyes rolled pretty damn hard. It's all opportunism on the evangelical's side.

[Butterflylady]

34. How do they know all

his "indiscretions" were all in the past? Didn't Wolf imply in his book that he has a girlfriend in the Whitehouse? I remember folks at that time were trying to figure out who it was.

[Blue_Adept]

35. Blinders.

That's what they wear in order to grab at power. They only reference the know with what happened years ago.

[Stinky The Clown]

12. Interesting. So hyperchristians are bigots and nationalists?

No surprise there. I think it is a good thing to just call them out.

[forgotmylogin]

13. Pst - in evangelicals mind it doesn't count when it's a "red-blooded American White Male"

"sowing his wild oats". They secretly approve of this kind of sexual proclivity so long as you're white, male, head of household. They can support this in the Bible since many "holy men" had multiple wives. EG: Noah.

They feel they've earned access to a harem as well, despite polygamy not being legally permitted in most areas. So with 45 the response is "attaboy". and "MULLIGANZ" and "'grats for sticking it to those wanton, lustful whores who wanted it from such an influential man (whom I would gladly trade places with...)"

[Beaverhausen]

14. For them, its all about abortion and same sex marriage- which means Supreme Court picks who would...

...overturn both.

[SHRED]

15. Many Christians are unaware it's the same God

Muslims worship the same God as Christians. The God of Abraham. Same if your Jewish.

Tell that to them and watch their heads explode.

[Mosby]

44. that's only sort of true

Lots of Muslims and Christians disagree.

Muslims believe that Abraham, Jesus etc were Muslims.

There is also that Trinity thing, Muslims don't accept the idea of "God the father".

A tongue in cheek discussion of the differences:

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2013/09/01/do-christians-muslims-and-jews-worship-the-same-god/

[rusty fender]

16. The means justify the end

for these Christians

[C_U_L8R]

17. Trump knows

how easy it is to fool and manipulate fundies.

[maryellen99]

18. The main reason they still support him is that he is going to bring about End Times

Moving the embassy to Jerusalem and appointing John Bolton are the first steps.

[mn9driver]

20. They call themselves Christians. Christ would not recognize them.

The message of the gospels has nothing to do with what these people believe.

[Exotica]

51. Gandhi nailed it

[Mosby]

57. Gandhi is a mixed bag

Gandhi wrote to the British during the war, “This manslaughter must be stopped. You are losing; if you persist, it will only result in greater bloodshed. Hitler is not a bad man.”

“Hitler killed five million Jews. It is the greatest crime of our time. But the Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher’s knife. They should have thrown themselves into the sea from cliffs. As it is, they succumbed anyway in their millions.” He also said that had the Jews committed collective suicide, that would have been “heroism.”

If he had bothered to try and understand Judaism even a little, he would have known that suicide is abhorred in our tradition, but to him Jews were just some ethnic group trying to steal Arab land*.



http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Repudiating-Gandhian-pacifism-in-the-face-of-mass-murder-449885

* http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/lsquo-the-jews-rsquo-by-gandhi

[Blue_Tires]

25. Long story short: Racism

[DBoon]

36. an American Francisco Franco

A Christian nationalist intent at reviving a lost golden age before the Enlightenment brought secular liberalism

[Faux pas]

40. Kickin' with disgust

[Vinca]

42. I can't figure out why they think Trump is a Christian or gives a shit about the country's

"Christian heritage." Don knows zilch about history and wouldn't know if Benjamin Franklin was a Buddhist monk.

[bdjhawk]

48. Misogyny

These people - men AND women- absolutely hate women. Their perverted interpretation of the Bible provides cover for their beliefs and behavior and absolute fanaticism in insisting that women "submit" to men. tRump certainly sees women as nothing more than sex objects who should be seen and not heard.

[LuvLoogie]

52. How many articles analyzing why bigots vote for bigots

does the MSM gave to write before they have convinced us that they where not complicitous in inflicting this shit show nihilism upon us?

[DonCoquixote]

53. the real crux is

They can see Roe V wade dying, and know that the Southern Democrats will be all too happy to let it die.

[DonCoquixote]

54. it helps that

if trump dies, in comes pence, who will be the instrument of the Puritans.