Politics as a religion is a trend that has been long in the  making. Amplified by the internet, social media, and the faux doctrines of many religious people, and especially many fundamentalists and evangelicals, who would naturally believe in conspiracy theories (ie, a poor foundation of Biblical knowledge and reality). Add a worldwide pandemic and it has been a "perfect storm."
     The political replacing religion as the single most important motivating factor in many people’s lives as a worldview or even basic theology has been widespread and devastating. However, if we asked most Christians which was more important to them: God, or their political identity?.....the majority would say, “God.” This is the deceiving nature of idols. A person is rarely, if ever, aware what they worship is an idol. On some level, conscious or not, they can mistake a whole lot of nonsense for a "God" or the highest end.
     The Israelites who worshipped the golden calf did not blindly believe they were worshipping an inanimate object. They wanted something they could see since God and Moses were out of sight for a duration of time. When Aaron saw this calf, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord." (Ex 32:5). So the people even got a major religious leader to bless them. There's fuel for the fire. God then told Moses that the people have "sinned against Me." And He punished them with a plague. This was, also, after Moses interceded on their behalf...and plead their case....so the plague was apparently merciful because God's initial reaction was to "destroy" them all.
     The American evangelicals and fundamentalists have subscribed to the notion that God established America for His glory..a glory they can share....because, as they say, countries do not grow and governments cannot be established without God's approval? Right? Not right....the prophet Hosea would disagree:
"They made kings, but not through me. They set up princes, but I knew it not. With their silver and gold, they made idols for their own destruction. -Hosea 8:4".
     It was because of this religious zeal that these early settlers of this country believed they were simply "doing Gods will" by killing native Americans and coraling them on reservations so the white man could fulfill his God-given destiny to own all of what is now the United States. It was this same religious zeal that made the white men believe slavery was a God-given right and one that they would fight for (and they did). As did the Israelites, the current right wing fringe embrace golden calves and political whims to give themselves a sense of security. Which is something they apparently could not get with the true God who is there and, instead, sought out a "God" they want to be there. Yes, it is idolatry. It's believing a big lie. The devastatingly horrible thing about it, though, is that whatever their golden calf or political ideology is...it is that the lies are what they truly think is the "truth" and they accept and perceive it all as very very real (in spite of evidence showing otherwise).

March 5, 2022:
  Pastor Cary Gordon (Sioux City, Iowa; Cornerstone World Outreach) has an article posted at "The Gatekeepers" titled "Destruction of liberty must continue in America until we repent for how we elect our leaders." In it he lists 9 bullet points which describes how a person should be picked as President. He used Deuteronomy 17 as his framework. His first point is that the leader "Must be chosen by God (Vs. 15) through God's delegated ecclesiastical authority, not by lawless populism." and it goes on in a way any Christian Nationalist would be quite proud of. It does more than erode Democracy but destroys it completely..which may be insight as to why the GOP nationalists dont seem bothers by their anti democratic efforts. I would be curious if Trump is still the one "chosen by God" or many of the other Republican congressmen and governors who seem to be making effort to usurp America as it is and create their own government. His article ends with "American antinomianism has usurped every single one of these immutable and wise plumb-line standards for office-holders. Destruction of liberty must continue in America until we repent for costuming our political and legal foolishness with counterfeit grace arguments to justify disobedience."  Though in his mind it is clear he means something else but he is essentially a gospel of fascism. ​

​  As the end draws closer it'll become harder to discern, in some respects, the real Christian vs the illusionary Christian. The real will live on the foundation that it is God who sent and His son who redeems. The Christian who lives the illusionary life will be aware of that, but still try and gain heaven by their own virtue and effort. I use the word "illusionary" because even the one who has fallen victim may not realize what they are doing, and why many on that day will very boldly go before the Lord and attempt to claim what is their inheritance...but will hear the words "Go from me, I never knew you." I have no intention of meeting God with any arrogant proclamation of God to fulfill His promise of what He owes me. For if I ask for what I am owed, then I will burn in the fires of hell. I will seek rather His mercy and pray He remembers this fragile frame and that He remembers those whom He knows.
"Go from me, I never knew you." is forever.

      I came across this quote this morning by TD Jakes: "You face your greatest opposition when you're closet to you biggest miracle."
​     It was in a meme and placed prominently above a Christian News Stream. I suppose it is intended to inspire and touches the emotions, I guess, but is it really true? There really is no Biblical foundation for this idiom to work. Maybe once or twice...but the circumstances around it would have be the right place in the right time.  Christianese is a often a strange language with strange unfounded foundations for facing hard times. The remedy doesnt always work. Best method for hard times is to seek the God who is there..and not the one we want to be there who is always quick to dole out an emotionally charged platitude.  ​

      Looking a bit like we may be coming to the end of the pandemic..Not totally yet..but almost over.
      Almost two years now.
     Without a doubt, however, the thing that kept it going was the former guys disinformation initially and then by his uneducated minions who live and breath off every word the former guy says. And the evangelical right wingers who believed the ramblings of grifting prophets ("Will prophecy for tithes and offerings"). who claimed Trump was going to be another Cyrus The Great. Cyrus was a king..not a president and had there been an internet back in 600 BC he would have not had "The Great" attached to his name except on a primitive "Tweet" called carving words in a rock to be unearthed centuries later.
     Had Trump NOT been President when the pandemic started I think America could have been a bright shining light for the world as an example. The Biden administration did get a lot of vaccine sent out to a lot of countries world wide. I shudder to think what would have happened if Trump had been re-elected.
The future of America and democracy will depend a lot on what happens in November as the Trump/GOP coup is still ongoing.