Robert P. Jones tells Joy-Ann Reid that his new book focuses on the apostasy of the Christian right under Trump:
"This whole situation we're in right now is unprecedented democratic backsliding in the political realm that is aided and abetted along by a Christian apostasy. ...
Trump knows a few religiousy words and he'll just kind of move them around and like literally throw them up there and see what sticks."
"What you then have is a fascistic, militaristic, white supremacist, patriarchal, religious movement that is, fundamentally, a death cult at the end of American empire.
The GOP will not moderate. Already we see stirrings within the party among younger people and certain anti-semitic / neo-fascistic interests that have been calling for a theocratic U.S. that embraces Christian Nationalism as a whole."
(continued from /18)
"but that they are surrounded by supernatural evil that both schemes for their soul and works in partnership with their neighbors, coworkers, culture at large, and sinister governments to subvert their efforts and to throw the world into literal Hell. To this end, they are not only right in trying to destroy these people and their organizations, but they have a spiritual obligation to do so."
"Trump and MAGA’s appeal has always been an appeal to people who want to behave worse and more selfishly but also need to be told repeatedly that they’re actually doing what is right and what is good. Evangelicalism in America has always worked on this principle. The message is that believers are backed by a God who wants them to succeed financially and personally and politically" (continued in /19)
"The truth is that this hypocrisy was always cover for a larger game. Rather than having the Christian faith guide these churches and their members, the service the grifters, and later Trump, were offering was something else. Something much more valuable.
Permission. Or, more specifically, permission to gain wealth and power over others. It was, at its root, a perversion of the Christian faith by the wealthy and the powerful."
"And it wasn’t enough to simply place Trump as a “divine agent” who carried out the will of God. He was embraced as “the chosen one” meant to save the United States of America and, by proxy, the world. His messianic glazing was also key in creating an entire cottage industry of some of the most heretical products ever produced…."
"The past decade has made several things abundantly clear for those willing to recognize them. Among them is the rampant hypocrisy, hatred, and extremism that defines the American evangelical community. …
Because Trump was willing to give evangelicals 'wins,' including the overturning of Roe V. Wade, and because Trump paid lipservice to the ringleaders and charlatans who lead the movement, Trump was not only tolerated but venerated."
(continued from 13)
"and were often found to engage in absolutely sadistic and unspeakable abuses against their parishioners, including children. Trump is familiar to them. Comforting, even. His tenure as a the leader of a death cult was made possible by decades of other death cult leaders and he will be far from the last one.
In fact, what we are witnessing right now is a story that has been in the works for a long time."
Noting that he was raised evangelical and is now exvangelical, Jared Yates Sexton says that nothing will pry the bulk of Trump's white evangelical followers from him because,
"Evangelicals exist in a reality where they have been taken advantage of by one grifter after another who placed themselves as stand-ins for Christ as they stole their money, preached obvious heresies," (continued in /14)
#Trump #WhiteEvangelicals #WhiteChristianNationalism
/13
https://jaredyatessexton.substack.com/p/the-christian-nationalist-schism
"Mainstream media has colluded by continuing to cover the parts as though they were truly symmetrical (which often requires blowing up some minor democratic misdemeanor as though it were the equivalent of a Republican felony or just playing down the corruption and harm of the latter party)."
#Republicans #Trump #WhiteSupremacy #WhiteChristianNationalism #racism #misogyny #democracy
/4
William Lindsey 
