===donald trump===
Donald Trump went to Sunday school and was confirmed in 1959 at the First Presbyterian Church in Jamaica, Queens. In the 1970s, his parents joined the Marble Collegiate Church in Manhattan, which belongs to the Reformed Church in America. The pastor at Marble, Norman Vincent Peale, ministered to the family until his death in 1993. Trump has described him as a mentor. In 2015, the church stated that Trump was not an active member. In 2019, he appointed his personal pastor, televangelist Paula White, to the White House Office of Public Liaison. In 2020, he said he identified as a non-denominational Christian.
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The church and Donald Trump Amid the rising international tensions and overwhelming flood of executive orders under the new Trump administration, it is the duty of Anglicans in Canada to speak up for the marginalized and vulnerable, says Canon Maggie Helwig, rector of St. Stephen-in-the-Fields Church in Toronto. In a phone interview she took while multitasking on preparations for the church’s homeless drop-in program, Helwig told the Anglican Journal her goal was to bring that message to her parish. “We need to keep speaking so that people understand that welcoming the stranger is a fundamental Christian value, so that people understand that vulnerable people—including trans people, who are being heavily targeted—are the people the church is most called to value and protect,” she says. Helwig is one of many Anglicans in Canada who are deeply concerned about the effects Trump’s presidency will have both in the United States and Canada. Like Helwig, Archbishop Anne Germond, acting primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, encourages Anglicans to speak up on behalf of marginalized people. Asked by the Journal what she thought Anglicans should bear in mind during the Trump administration’s early days, she encouraged those suffering and struggling to remember God has not abandoned them. (Anglican Journal 3/4/25) READ MORE>>>> US evangelical groups urge Trump to spare HIV/Aids program from aid cuts Christian evangelical organizations instrumental in creating the US program that has saved millions of lives from HIV/Aids are pressing the Trump administration to rescue the scheme from crushing cuts to foreign assistance. The state department has said that the two-decade-old President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar), which is estimated to have prevented 25m early deaths, is exempt from the cancellation of most US overseas aid. But the program is heavily reliant on logistical support from the US Agency for International Development (USAid), which has seen most of its projects killed off. (The Guardian 3/17/25) READ MORE>>>>> ED NOTE: If they were so concerned they should not have voted for and campaigned for Donald Trump. Rationalizing Trump Evangelical support for Donald Trump in the face of his many well-documented personal failings can no longer come as a surprise. Despite—or, in at least some cases, one suspects, because of—his numerous criminal indictments and thirty-four felony convictions in New York, exit polls found that around 82 percent of white evangelicals voted for the Trump/Vance ticket. This was in line with the roughly 80 percent who backed Trump in 2016 and 2020. A few commentators still cling to the argument that this support is not enthusiastic and that many evangelicals “hold their noses” when they cast their ballots for Trump. Still, when given the option of supporting bona fide evangelical Mike Pence in the 2024 Republican primary, they preferred Trump. And empirical research has cast doubt on the idea of the reluctant evangelical Trump voter. Political scientist Paul A. Djupe surveyed voters in 2016 and found that “evangelical feelings toward their standard bearer are statistically no different than others.... Evangelicals who voted for Trump felt the same warmth toward him as did other Trump voters.” (Commonweal 2/18/25) READ MORE>>>>> Trump’s “Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias” Executive Order: “Pro-Christian” Bias or Defense of Religious Liberty? President Trump’s executive order of February 6, 2024, ostensibly aims at cancelling discriminations and persecutions toward American Christians under the First Amendment to the Constitution.Under Amendment 1 to the federal Constitution, the US establishes freedom of religion, creed, or belief (FoRB) as the first political human right. Liberty of religion is in fact not only freedom to a private faith, but also—and with no mediation—the right to its public expression in all forms that do not violate positive and natural law. For this reason, the federal state cannot interfere in any form with religion. It cannot establish a federal state religion, it cannot favor one religious group (or a few) at the expense of others, it cannot curtail or deny the personal and public religious liberty of any member and any group, and it cannot violate its equidistance to all faiths. (Bitter Winter 2/14/25) READ MORE>>>>> Given Christianity’s dominance in US, Trump raises eyebrows with anti-Christian bias initiative Christianity is by far the largest faith in America, and Christian conservatives have a strong grip on the levers of government. That dominance is leaving many to question why President Donald Trump’s new task force on eradicating anti-Christian bias is needed. Critics see the task force initiative as unnecessary and pandering to Trump’s base. But some Christian supporters said it is overdue, claiming the Biden administration had discriminated against them through actions and inactions. The two-year task force, chaired by Attorney General Pam Bondi and composed of Cabinet and other government representatives, is assigned to review and “identify any unlawful anti-Christian” actions under the Biden administration, change any objectionable policies and recommend steps to rectify any past failures. (Winnepeg Press 2/13/25) READ MORE>>>>> Fraudster Takes Credit for Franklin Graham’s Hurricane Relief Convoy If Franklin Graham appears to be giving the old side eye to ex-resident dotard in the photo above, it may be because drumpf loudly took credit for Graham’s charitable organization, Samaritan’s Purse, rolling truckloads of Hurricane relief supplies into town during their appearance in Valdosta, Georgia yesterday. In addition to slandering President Biden by accusing him of not doing his utmost to provide relief, Trump first stated that he brought the truckloads of supplies himself, while camera were rolling, before later in his statement credited Graham with doing so. Of course right wing news sources amplified Trump’s original claim while ignoring his later demurral: Just a few days ago, Trump started using the aftermath of Hurricane Helene to hold political events and attack his political opponents. In a press release on Sunday, the Trump campaign stated Trump would be visiting Valdosta, Georgia to “facilitate the distribution of relief supplies.” (Politi-zoom; 10/1/24) READ MORE>>>>> Evangelicals’ reason for backing Trump 'just collapsed': columnist Donald Trump — the former president responsible for the end of Roe v. Wade — last week claimed in a post published to Truth Social that if he wins the White House in November, he will turn into a reproductive rights advocate. "My Administration will be great for women and their reproductive rights," he wrote, worrying staunch pro-life Republicans, like Trump's former Vice President Mike Pence. NPR noted that the ex-MAGA official "called Trump’s comments 'concerning,'" and, "In a statement to the National Review, Pence said, 'The former President’s use of the language of the Left, pledging that his administration would be ‘great for women and their reproductive rights’ should be concerning for millions of pro-life Americans.'" (AlterNet 8/27/24) READ MORE>>>>>  Mckay Coppins
To understand the evolving psychology and beliefs of Trump’s religious supporters, I attempted to review every prayer offered at his campaign events since he announced in November 2022 that he would run again. Working with a researcher, I compiled 58 in total, the most recent from June 2024. The resulting document—at just over 17,000 words—makes for a strange, revealing religious text: benign in some places, blasphemous in others; contradictory and poignant and frightening and sad and, perhaps most of all, begging for exegesis.
There are many ways to parse the text. You could compare the number of times Trump’s name is mentioned (87) versus Jesus Christ’s (61). You could break down the demographics of the people leading the prayers: 45 men and 13 women; overwhelmingly evangelical, with disproportionate representation from Pentecostalism, a charismatic branch of Christianity that emphasizes supernatural faith healing and speaking in tongues. One might also be tempted to catalog the most comically incendiary lines (“Oh Lord, our Lord, we want to be awake and not woke”). But the most interesting way to look at these prayers is to examine the theological motifs that run through them. The scripture verse that’s cited most frequently in the prayers comes from 2 Chronicles. “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” Ryan Burge, a Baptist minister and political scientist I asked to review the prayers, told me that this verse—which is quoted 10 times—is regularly cited by evangelicals to advance a popular conservative-Christian narrative: that America, like ancient Israel before it, has broken its special covenant with God and is suffering the consequences. “The Old Testament prophets they’re quoting talk about sin collectively instead of individually—the nation has fallen into wickedness and needs healing,” Burge said. “The way they use this verse presupposes that we’re spiraling down the tubes.” -McKay Coppins; The Atlantic; The Most Revealing Moment of a Trump Rally; September 2024 No, Trump Is Not the Antichrist (Neither Is Anyone Else) People are asking—Does Trump’s wounded head mark him as the Antichrist? The answer is no. And nobody else is the Antichrist, either.I don’t take apocalyptic literature in the Bible literally (I do, however, take it seriously). If I did take it literally, I might be persuaded that Trump is the Antichrist. When I was young, my parents raised me to interpret the events of the Book of Revelation as a literal prediction of future events. I must admit that occasionally my Fundamentalist side rears up and causes me to think that Trump is the perfect candidate for the Antichrist. (Breathing Space 7/24/24) READ MORE>>>>> Trump's Bible endorsement draws mixed reactions from Christians: 'Syncretistic expression' Former President Donald Trump's promotion during Holy Week of the leather-bound "God Bless the USA" Bible has prompted mixed reactions from Christian scholars and activists, drawing accusations he is inappropriately mixing politics and religion. In a statement posted to Truth Social on Tuesday, Trump displayed the Bible he's promoting with musician Lee Greenwood, whose song "God Bless the USA" often features during Trump's rallies. The Bible, which costs $59.99, features the King James Version and contains the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, the Pledge of Allegiance and the handwritten chorus to Greenwood's song. (Christian Post 3/30/24) READ MORE>>>>> Trump idolatry is a real thing. And it must stop Christ is worthy of His Bride, the Church. And Christians, those who comprise the Church, owe our Groom an unapologetic and uncompromised commitment to His Word. This biblical worldview should be the blueprint of our lives, including our political postures — both in policy and messaging. A Christian vote for Trump is easily justified. In 2016, a large majority of Christians, myself included, voted for Trump as a means to an end. Considering the impending Supreme Court vacancies and Hillary Clinton as the alternative, Christians’ support for Trump was largely about the issues, not the person. (Christianity Today 1/25/24) READ MORE>>>>> ‘You gotta be tough’: White evangelicals remain enthusiastic about Donald Trump White evangelical Christians show no signs of backing away from Donald Trump. That appears to be one takeaway from Iowa's Republican caucuses, where the former president won a decisive victory over several challengers. In 2016, there was a lot of head-scratching about evangelical support for Trump - given his divorces, allegations of both extramarital affairs and sexual assault, and his insults toward women, immigrants, and others. (Sarah McCammom/OBD 1/21/24) READ MORE>>>>>
Iowa Republicans Double Down on Support for Trump in 2024 Caucuses, Evangelical Voters Key Former President Donald Trump received overwhelming support from Iowa Republicans in the nation’s first primary, solidifying his grip on the party despite facing numerous lawsuits and felony charges. Young Republican voters also showed increased support for Trump in 2024 compared to 2016. Since 2016, Trump has consolidated support among evangelical Christian voters, with evangelicals making up 53% of his supporters in the 2024 Iowa caucuses. This support can be attributed to a deal struck between church leaders and Trump in 2016, granting evangelicals institutional power in his administration in exchange for their support and endorsements. (Tobias Everhart/BollyInside 1/17/24) READ MORE>>>>> Lincoln Project’s Setmayer: Evangelicals ‘Failed this Country’ by Following Their ‘Golden Orange God’ The Lincoln Project’s Tara Setmayer said Tuesday on MSNBC’s “The ReidOut” that Evangelicals “failed this country” by “following their golden orange god,” referring to former President Donald Trump. Discussing a new anti-Trump ad released by her group, Setmayer said, “The target audience is actually everyone, because I think that at this point a lot of people are not paying attention. It’s not necessarily the MAGAs who are in the death cult, the religious Christian nationalists death cult, because obviously they’re unmovable.” (Pam Key/Breitbart 1/16/24) READ MORE>>>>>
What Christian moral theology has to say about Trump’s eligibility for office (RNS) — The current dispute over former President Donald Trump’s eligibility to run for office poses a moral as well as a legal and political dilemma. While the Constitution, our sacred rulebook, indicates that he may have disqualified himself with his actions on and around Jan. 6, 2021, there’s a powerful sense that, in a democratic republic, it should be up to the voters to decide whether he did or not, or whether they want him for president anyway. At issue is Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which bars from public office anyone who, having taken an oath to support the Constitution, “shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.” (Mark Silk/Religion News Service 1/2/24) READ MORE>>>>> DeSantis, Trump court Iowa's evangelical voters, promising Christian-focused policy In November, Republican presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis netted what seemed to be a key evangelical endorsement in the run-up to the Iowa caucuses -- now just less than three weeks away. Bob Vander Plaats, president of the FAMiLY Leader organization and a major evangelical figure in the Hawkeye State, endorsed the governor in an interview on Fox News, calling DeSantis a "bold and courageous leader." (Oren Oppenheim/ABC News/12/28/23) READ MORE>>>>>
Trump isn't the real threat to democracy. Christian nationalism is Less than a year away from what is surely the most fateful presidential election in American history, warnings about the threats to democracy associated with right-wing extremism and Trumpist authoritarianism dominate media’s attention. Meanwhile, at the local level, a related movement, Christian nationalism, constitutes an equally serious creeping threat to democracy, pluralism and diversity. Its driving force is the National Association of Christian Lawmakers. (Herb Paine/AzCentral 12/26/23) READ MORE>>>>>  Martyn Percy
It was Franklin Graham who told millions of America’s evangelicals in 2016 that they could vote for Trump with a clean conscience, since Trump was comparable to the ancient Persian ruler Cyrus from the Old Testament. Cyrus the Great was an all-conquering Persian king. Around 550BC he overthrew the tyrannical Babylonians who had persecuted the Jews, driving them into captivity and stripping them of their freedoms and customs.
Having conquered the Babylonians, Cyrus released all their captives. Moreover, he respected the traditions and religions of the lands he captured. His regime offered liberation and devolved government to former captives of Babylon. Cyrus also ruled with a lean, decentralised administration. For American evangelicals and fundamentalists, the government of Cyrus, 2,500 years ago, was one that worked to the advantage of all its subjects—and especially God’s chosen people. Cyrus is the only foreign ruler referred to as “Messiah” (literally “His anointed one”) in the Old Testament (see Isaiah 45:1), and is the only non-Jewish figure in the Bible to be given this accolade. In claiming Trump is Cyrus, Franklin Graham was saying that Evangelicals and fundamentalists could now rid themselves of a once dominant, centralising liberal hegemony and reclaim their religious freedoms. They could do this by voting for someone who doesn’t share their evangelical faith and values. Trump is presented as simultaneously pagan and the messiah-ruler. Washington DC is often portrayed in evangelical press and social media as a simulacra of a centralising Babylon. And you don’t need to be a genius to work out that Trump is the Cyrus who delivers all God-fearing Americans from that awful prospect of the Whore of Babylon (Book of Revelation, chapters 17 and 18) living in the White House. “Drain the swamp” and “lock her up” were implicit religious rallying calls, not just injudicious hate-speech. These were the chants of the self-proclaimed righteous—chants that swung across the bandwidth of rage, hate and exuberant joy. --Martyn Percy; Prospect: The Roots of Trumps Religion; 12/23/23 The roots of Trump’s religion It is feasible Trump will be back in the Oval Office in less than year. Yet when I mention to colleagues that I have been researching Trump’s religious faith, reactions vary from mild scoffing (“I thought he was his own religion?”) to bafflement and surprise. But Trump has a faith. Let us start with Trump’s inauguration. Not many people will have heard of Pastor Paula White, but she was one of the clergy nominated to pray for Trump at his inauguration in 2017. Pastor White is a leading exponent of the (so-called) “health, wealth and prosperity” movement. She preaches the “prosperity gospel” which teaches that God wants people to be rich, and that he makes them wealthy as a blessing. Conspicuous wealth is evidence of God’s personal reward for those with faith. (Martyn Percy/Prospect 12/23/23) READ MORE>>>>>  David Gushee
“If evangelical gatekeepers can swallow keeping children in cages, mocking the Sermon on the Mount, and following leaders in thrall to Trumpist bigotry, why would anyone respect their discernment, value their praise, or fear their critique?” ― David P. Gushee, After Evangelicalism: The Path to a New Christianity Pastor At Iowa Rally Threatens ‘Judgment,’ ‘Retribution’ When Donald Trump ‘Becomes The 47th President’ Here’s un-closeted white supremacist Nick Fuentes—a friend of the GOP who has literally called for a “white uprising” to get Trump back in office—saying that when conservatives are back in control of the country, atheists, “devil worshipers,” many people from the “Jewish community,” and anyone else who doesn’t support a Christian theocracy in America should be put to death, and that the act would even be more important than stopping “non-white people” from migrating here. (Zack Linley/Newsone 12/14/23) Read More>>>>> Top evangelical leader says he doesn’t believe poll showing strong Trump support in Iowa Bob Vander Plaats, an influential Iowa evangelical leader, said he doesn’t believe recent polling that shows evangelical voters still support former President Trump. “I don’t believe them, and there’s a reason I don’t believe them – because it does not match up at all to what I’m hearing on the ground,” Vander Plaats told The Washington Post on Thursday. (Lauren Irwin/Yahoo 12/15/23) READ MORE>>>>> Donald Trump Accuses Key Evangelical Leader of 'Scamming' Former President Donald Trump called evangelical leader Bob Vander Plaats a "scammer" on Saturday after he announced his endorsement of Ron DeSantis, noting payments the leader had received from the Florida governor's 2024 presidential campaign and its associates. Vander Plaats is an influential evangelical leader among Republican voters in Iowa, the first state to hold a race in the GOP primary cycle and a key target for aspiring candidates. On Tuesday, Vander Plaats became the latest notable Iowa public figure to endorse DeSantis for president over Trump, though the impact of the decision has been debated. (Thomas Kika/Newsweek 11/25/23) Read More>>>>> Trump Called Evangelicals 'So-Called Christians,' Talked 'Conspiracy': Book In the heat of the Republican primary of 2016, then-White House hopeful Donald Trump called Iowa evangelical supporters of Senator Ted Cruz "so-called Christians" and began to believe there was a "conspiracy among powerful evangelicals," a new book says. The Guardian published excerpts from Atlantic reporter Tim Alberta's upcoming book, The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in a Time of Extremism, on Thursday that provided a behind-the-scenes look at Trump's response to the criticism he received nearly eight years ago when he named "Two Corinthians" as his favorite Bible verse instead of "Second Corinthians." (Katharine Fung/Newsweek 11/24/23) Read More>>>>> Evangelicals are 'betraying their humanity' by supporting Trump: conservative Former President Donald Trump's support among Christians is by no means universal in the United States, where he has plenty of opponents who identify as Catholic or Mainline Protestant. Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Georgia) and the Rev. Al Sharpton are Protestant ministers and scathing Trump critics; President Joe Biden and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) are practicing Catholics who have nothing good to say about the 2024 GOP presidential frontrunner. Yet Trump remains popular among a particular group within Christianity: far-right white evangelicals. If he wins the Republican presidential nomination next year, he will do it with a lot of help from that demographic. (Alex Henderson/ Raw Story 11/24/23) Read More>>>>>  Peter Wehner
"He demanded that the parent company of MSNBC and NBC be investigated for 'treason' over what he described as 'one-sided and vicious coverage'…. 'We pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical-left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country — that lie and steal and cheat on elections,' Trump said toward the end of his speech in Claremont, New Hampshire. 'They’ll do anything, whether legally or illegally, to destroy America and to destroy the American Dream......Trump's white evangelicals supporters remain loyal to him. "Trump's support among white evangelicals is still extremely high: 81 percent hold a favorable view of him, according to a poll taken in June — after Trump was indicted for a second time," "The evangelical movement in America has been reshaped by the sensibilities of Trump and MAGA World…. It is a rather remarkable indictment of those who claim to be followers of Jesus that they would continue to show fealty to a man whose cruel ethic has always been antithetical to Jesus' and becomes more so every day…. Far too many Christians in America are not only betraying their humanity; they are betraying the Lord they claim to love and serve."
-Peter Wehner; Have You Listened Lately to What Trump Is Saying? The Atlantic 11/22/23 Trump campaign touts evangelical support in Iowa as faith leaders endorse him "As a pastor in Iowa, I believe President Trump has demonstrated a profound understanding of the issues that are crucial to us," Crossroads Church Senior Pastor Joseph Hall said. More than 150 faith leaders in Iowa have thrown their support behind former President Donald Trump ahead of the state's primary contest, potentially helping him to shore up a key voting bloc in Hawkeye State. (Ben Wedon/Just The News 11/21/23) READ MORE>>>>> Republican candidates kiss the Christian nationalist ring GOP presidential candidates' appearance at a “Thanksgiving family forum” hosted by a Christian conservative group signals the far-right’s power — and more specifically, Christian nationalists’ power — over today’s Republican Party. Vivek Ramaswamy, Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis agreed to appear at the Family Leader's roundtable discussion Friday in Iowa. Donald Trump was invited but did not attend. The reason for the front-runner's absence is unclear, though one possible motivation could be that Family Leader President Bob Vander Plaats has said it's time for someone to replace Trump as the party's de facto leader. (Ja Han Jones/MSNBC 11/20/23) READ MORE>>>>> Over 12K Sign Christian Petition Condemning 'False Prophet' Mike Johnson In response to Mike Johnson recently becoming the new House speaker, over 12,000 people have signed a Christian petition condemning the congressman as a "false prophet" among other Republican Party members. Faithful America, an online Christian group that supports social justice causes, released their second-annual "False Prophets Don't Speak for Me" campaign featuring a list of top Christian-nationalist leaders in both church and politics along with a petition on Tuesday. The list, which in addition to Johnson, identifies former President Donald Trump, pastor Mark Burns, self-proclaimed prophet affiliated with the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) Julie Green, Fox News host Laura Ingraham, Ohio Representative Jim Jordan, conservative activist and radio talk show host Charlie Kirk, pastor Jackson Lahmeyer, Texas' Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, Archbishop Carlo Viganò, self-proclaimed prophet affiliated with NAR Lance Wallnau, and co-founder of Moms for Liberty and school board chair in Sarasota, Florida, Bridget Ziegler as "false prophets." (Natalie Venegas/Newsweek 11/4/23) Read More>>>>> How the Strident Support of Evangelical Christians to Israel Undermines the Palestine Cause In 2017, when the US moved its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Donald Trump openly declared that it was done for Christian evangelists. “And we moved the capital of Israel to Jerusalem. That’s for the evangelicals. You know, it’s amazing with that — the evangelicals are more excited by that than Jewish people. That’s right, it’s incredible,” Trump announced in August 2018. Although Israel considers Jerusalem as its capital, the world, however, treats it as an international city according to the UN Partition Plan. (Vikram Mukka/The Wire 10/29/23) Read More>>>>> White Evangelicals More Open to Political Violence Than Non-Christians Earlier this month, political analyst Brian Klass, a frequent Trump critic, warned that a "small subset" of the ex-president's supporters were "highly likely" to attempt to kill others before the 2024 presidential election. During an MSNBC appearance, Klass lamented the "normalcy and routine of Trump saying things that could get people killed." (Alisa Slisco/Newsweek 10/26/23) Read More>>>>> Inside the anti-LGBTQ effort to put Christianity back in schools “School prayer is banned, but drag shows are allowed to permeate the whole place,” former President Donald Trump said at the Conservative Political Action Conference last year. “You can’t teach the Bible, but you can teach children that America is evil and that men are able to get pregnant.” In another speech this spring in North Carolina, Trump — the front-runner in polls for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination — marveled at the power of this new talking point to rile up supporters. “I talk about transgender,” he said, “everyone goes crazy.” Trump, like other GOP politicians, is tapping into an ascendent evangelical movement that rejects church-state separation as a false doctrine and views LGBTQ acceptance as a threat to America. (Mike Hixenbaugh and Antonia Hylton/NBC News 10/4/23) Read More>>>>>  David Gushee
“I don’t think that—in the United States today—there is any other single figure who poses as big a threat to democracy and who has anything like the hold on people’s loyalty that we see in Donald Trump,” said Gushee in an interview this week about his new book. “Donald Trump will be a threat to American democracy for as long as he is alive. I think at this point he could be sent to prison and, even in his jail cell, millions of his followers would continue to support him...........That fine-tuning of the terminology used to describe this danger is one of the major points in Gushee’s new book that is intended to further develop warnings found in books by sociologists of religion that include:
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May 1, 2023: Raw Story reported: Allies of former President Donald Trump, including Roger Stone and Michael Flynn, are backing a far-right Christian group designed to keep evangelicals in the former president's camp for 2024 — but more mainstream Christian denominations are standing up and fighting back, reported
The Guardian on Monday. The group, Pastors for Trump, is drawing sharp rebukes from mainstream Christian leaders for being extremist, distorting Christian teachings and endangering American democracy, by fueling the spread of Christian nationalism," reported Peter Stone. "The Tulsa, Oklahoma-based evangelical pastor and businessman Jackson Lahmeyer leads the fledgling Pastors for Trump organization. Lahmeyer told the Guardian it boasts over 7,000 pastors as members and that he will unveil details about its plans on 11 May at the Trump National Doral in Miami, an event Trump will be invited to attend." May 11, 2023: CBN reported: Jordan Peterson has backed Donald Trump to secure election success, but admits he is not his “preferred” candidate. The former US President is surging in the polls when it comes to the Republican nomination, but whether he is more popular than the incumbent remains to be seen.
 Terry Amann
“If he can extract himself from the legal morass that he's in, he'll be a force to be reckoned with. But it just remains to be seen how that's all going to go.............I would say they've learned from the first and second go-around. I'd say they're very highly organized and structured, and I think they'll be impressive.” --Pastor Terry Amann on Donald Trump & his campaign in Iowa 7.7.23 
Now if you are a QAnon believer, this all fits together: America is controlled by the pedophile satanists of the Democratic Party. Trump will liberate their victims (presumably in chains awaiting their destruction by blood-drinking global cabalists) and with them their country. And the 45th president has never lifted a finger to disabuse these people of their dangerous and psychotic delusions.
But even among the uninitiated, the Trump-trafficking nexus can be seductive. Human trafficking has been a major preoccupation of conservative evangelicals in recent years, perhaps as an undeniably worthy target of those whose all-purpose sexual puritanism is no longer fashionable. So Trump’s identification of trafficking with lax Democratic policies and promises to save children resonate, making this cruel man a liberating “Moses” figure. Before Trump and his conservative evangelical fans get too comfortable with this idea, they might want to read their Bibles (or in Trump’s case, have someone read to him from their Bibles) and recall Moses’s ultimate fate. After leading the Israelites out of the bondage of Egypt, Moses was barred from entering the Promised Land because of his willful defiance of an edict from God. Instead a younger successor, Joshua, took over leadership of his people. Lord knows Trump is a willful defier of every godly law, and right now younger MAGA conservatives (e.g., the 44-year-old Ron DeSantis and the 37-year-old Vivek Ramaswamy) are bidding to succeed him. Maybe King Cyrus is a safer role model for the former president after all. --Ed Kilgore; Intelligencer; ‘New Moses’ Is the Latest Sign of the Christian Right’s Trump Confusion Trump used to be their unwitting agent of God. Now he’s a religious leader? 7.23.23  Donald Trump
“I will implement strong ideological screening of all immigrants. If you hate America, if you want to abolish Israel, if you don’t like our religion (which a lot of them don’t), if you sympathize with jihadists, then we don’t want you in our country and you are not getting in.”
-Donald Trump at New Hampshire Rally 8/28/23  David Conde
The four indictments of Trump is encouraging the notions of his potential role as the Antichrist that many believe is a prominent element of the last days. This is because, as the threat of conviction and imprisonment become a probability, the authoritarian style he exhibits requires his followers to carry out acts of loyalty and exaggerated devotion to his persona.
Many Evangelical Christians believe that this practice is idol worship and a person-centered cult mentality. It convinces some that Christ is being replaced by Donald Trump. During my childhood practice of Evangelical Christianity I was taught that the every individual in the congregation needed to develop a personal relationship with God. This relationship was expressed in testimony before the membership in church services. The relationship was not to be interrupted by outside influences because they could lead a person away from the covenant. In this regard, it is ironic that Evangelical church leaders are exposing believers to outside guidance that can lead to potential alternatives to Christ. A major consequence of this is the exposure to people that seek to substitute themselves in place of what one holds most sacred. In this sense Donald Trump can be a criminal, go to jail and be considered a martyr. Question for Trump Evangelicals. Where is Jesus in this? -David Conde; LaVoz Colorado; Evangelicals new take on inmate #PO1135809 8/30/23 September 21, 2023: MSNBC reported: At this year’s edition of Pray Vote Stand, the Christian right’s most influential political gathering, activists previewed their campaign to further cement Trump’s Christianization of the federal bench. The Center for Judicial Renewal, which is run by the political arm of the far-right American Family Association, presented a list of lawyers and judges who it says adhere to “Christian faith” and a “biblical worldview,” according to a report by Peter Montgomery at People For the American Way’s Right Wing Watch. The list includes Kristen Waggoner, Supreme Court litigator and president of the Christian right legal powerhouse Alliance Defending Freedom; current federal appellate judges James Ho, Kyle Duncan and Lawrence VanDyke; and current and former deans of the nation’s top evangelical law schools at Regent University and Liberty University. If Republicans regain the White House and the Senate in 2024, they will have additional opportunities to further one of Trump’s top achievements in the eyes of his loyal evangelical base: stacking
the federal courts with Christian nationalist ideologues  Scot Loyd
Donald Trump once famously claimed that even if he shot someone on Fifth Avenue in New York City, his supporters wouldn’t abandon him. A recent survey by CBS News suggests he might be right. The survey, conducted during the week of August 16th, 2023, focused on people likely to vote for Trump in the Republican Presidential Primaries. It found that these voters trust Trump’s words more than other sources like conservative media, religious leaders, or even their own friends and family. This strong support for Trump doesn’t surprise me anymore, but it still disappoints me that many American evangelicals continue to back him in his third run for the Presidency.
Like 2016 and 2020, when about 80% of evangelicals reportedly voted for Trump, it appears that a significant number of them are again planning to support him in 2024. And now as Trump takes a commanding lead in the GOP Primary polls, even among four criminal indictments to date, I’m reminded of a question an ancient leader asked Jesus: “What is truth?” Jesus, the embodiment of truth, was asked this by Pontius Pilate, and unlike some American Christians and most politicians today who claim to follow him, Jesus didn’t feel the need to defend himself. The disposition of Jesus contrasts sharply with the behavior of many of his supposed followers in American evangelicalism. For instance, Russell Moore of Christianity Today recently spoke with NPR and expressed his frustration with the current state of GOP politics that are so closely aligned with evangelicalism. Moore reported that many pastors citing the Sermon on the Mount in their sermons would then have those messages dismissed by some parishioners as “liberal talking points.” Considering this admission and the CBS News Poll results, it seems that many Trump supporters trust Trump’s words more than they do the teachings and example of Jesus. I believe most of the people who support Trump mean well, but they’ve been influenced by years of fear-driven messages. These messages have convinced them that their faith, status, and safety are under threat. These perceived threats are often categorized as an “attack on religious liberty,” which politicians use to rally support for themselves or their policies. This is true for Trump and those who share his views. They tap into the fears of white majorities who feel their power is diminishing amidst changing American demographics. -Scot Loyd Sept 2023 
Some of Donald Trump 's top rivals for the Republican presidential nomination addressed a large gathering of influential Iowa evangelical Christians on Saturday night, hoping to woo them away from the former president at an event he is skipping.
Former Vice President Mike Pence was attending the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition's annual banquet and town hall in Des Moines along with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. Also speaking were Nikki Haley, a former South Carolina governor who served as Trump's ambassador to the United Nations, as well as Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and former Texas Rep. Will Hurd.“Once again it starts in Iowa and it depends on you,” Republican Iowa Gov. Reynolds told the crowd. “Are you ready to take our country back?” The crowd of more than 1,000 also heard Iowa Republican Congresswoman Ashley Hinson play “Amazing Grace” on her violin with many singing along. It featured many devout and well-connected social conservatives whose ranks are large enough to play a decisive role in Iowa's first-in-the-nation Republican caucuses in January. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz used strong appeals to evangelical Republicans to win the GOP's 2016 caucuses.This time, however, Trump's rivals face a much tougher task as he has built a large early GOP primary lead. That's despite his skipping the event and many of the gatherings that attract most of the other candidates. He's also remained popular with evangelical Christians and social conservatives in Iowa and elsewhere who were delighted to see his three picks for the U.S. Supreme Court vote to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision last year and erase a federally guaranteed right to abortion. “No president has ever fought for Christians as hard as I have, and I will keep fighting for Christians as hard as I can for four more years in the White House,” Trump said at the Family Research Council’s annual Pray Vote Stand conference in Washington on Friday night. He added, "Every promise I made to Christians as a candidate, I delivered.” --News-Press Now; Trump skips Iowa gathering of evangelical Christians. His rivals hope for a chance to gain ground 9.16.23 October 30, 2022: Texas Tribune reported: Despite the agency’s limited enforcement, Trump promised shortly after he took office that he would “totally destroy the Johnson Amendment and allow our representatives of faith to speak freely and without fear of retribution.” As president, Trump tried unsuccessfully to remove the restrictions on church politicking through a 2017 executive order. The move was largely symbolic because it simply ordered the government not to punish churches differently than it would any other nonprofit, according to a legal filing by the Justice Department. Eliminating the Johnson Amendment would require congressional or judicial action.  Earl Chappell
In preparing for a Bible study lesson recently, I was referred to Proverbs 6:16-19. Within the six things that God hates, two involve “a lying tongue” and “a false witness who utters lies.” Fully one-third of a human’s traits that God hates involves human lies. Why are my fellow Christians who are attached to Trump willing to ignore God? Shouldn’t we “hate” what God hates? -Earl Chappell; Baptist news Global; Reading BNG’s news this year made me think of the Antichrist 12.28.21
 Rob Grayson
America is an empire, which means the biblical forebear with which it should rightly be most closely associated is not Israel but Babylon. Such is the contention of Missouri-based pastor and author Brian Zahnd in his most recent book Postcards from Babylon: The Church in American Exile, released January 2019. Postcards is also an undeniably political book. I don’t, of course, mean Zahnd advocates for any particular party or policy line; rather, he calls those who profess to follow Jesus to let their politics be shaped first and foremost by the politics of Jesus, otherwise known as the kingdom of God. It is to this, rather than to any nation or flag, that our undiluted allegiance must be pledged. So that there might be no doubt, the book even includes a chapter titled “Trumped”, in which Zahnd spells out just how diametrically opposed the forty-fifth president is to all that Christ and his reign stand for. To be so outspoken about Trump might well draw fire from some quarters of US evangelicalism, but someone has to do it; and here again, Zahnd’s priority is to summon a church that has become enamoured with power and influence at any cost back to faithfulness rather than simply to berate a divisive and dangerous political leader. All in all, Postcards from Babylon is a bold and timely book delivering a call to faithfulness that is as concerned and compassionate as it is clear and uncompromising. Although, as its subtitle indicates, it is squarely and unashamedly aimed at American believers, readers from other countries will also find plenty to inspire and challenge. Let the one who has ears to hear, hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches!
--Rob Grayson; Faith Meets World: Book review: Postcards from Babylon by Brian Zahnd 2.10.19  Dr O Wesley Allen Jr
Differences in religious, physical, psychological, social, and political contexts call for different sorts of homiletical analogies and/or applications. I argue that such a radical shift in our socio-political situation as has occurred with the election of someone whose campaign included a degree of bigotry and hate speech we have not witnessed in a presidential run since the likes of George Wallace requires that preachers must strive to shape new analogies and applications of the gospel in their sermons or fail to serve the full relevance of the gospel.
Second, there is also a sense in which I agree with that element of logic that I presume to be behind the comment that it is appropriate to preach the gospel in every era—that is, that the gospel is eternal and unchanging regardless of the historical circumstances. I would certainly argue that at the core of the gospel is an ethic of love of neighbor that should be preached in every era. Had it been preached fully and forcefully in the era leading up to the 2015-16 election cycle, then there would have been no way so many churchgoers could have played such a large role in putting into the White House a candidate and his staff who use such vile and hateful language in service to racism, homophobia, ableism, Islamophobia, and sexism! The Christian ethic goes far beyond the weak standards of political correctness in its demands on the way we view and treat others, and Christians should strive to elect leaders whose speech and actions most reflect that ethic. Notice, I am not making an argument that Christians must be Democrats or Republicans, conservatives or progressives. I am not concerned, in this instance, with whether the federal government should be larger or smaller. I certainly recognize that Christians can come down on different sides of policy debates specifically because of their Christian faith. But I struggle to understand how those who claim to embrace the radical ethic of the Christian faith—the gospel ethic of caring for the disenfranchised, marginalized, and oppressed “others” of society—can claim to have voted for Trump out of Christian values when there were other Republican and Democratic candidates from whom to pick. Voters are used to choosing between “the lesser of evils,” but there is no serious Christian standard by which Trump can be argued to be that choice. I certainly believe that books promoting the proclamation of the gospel in relation to any age defined by different forces would be appropriate. Perhaps every four years we should get scholars on different sides of the theo-political spectrum to write such books. But scholars and preachers across the whole range of theo-political positions should be on the same page when it comes to responding to the person in the most powerful office in the world making fun of the disabled, stereotyping Mexican immigrants as rapists and drug dealers, appointing advisors who have published hate speech against African Americans and homosexuals, and feeling he has the right to assault women simply because he is a celebrity. --Dr O. Wesley Allen Jr; Faith Forward; Preaching in the Era of Trump 2.27.17 |
November 9, 2016: The Tennessean reported: Now is the time for humility — not brazen celebration from Donald Trump and his supporters — if there is any chance for healing the deep division in the country exacerbated by this fraught election season, says one Nashville pastor........Jedidiah Coppenger, lead pastor of the Redemption City Church in Franklin, said the election highlighted areas the church needs to work on, including better understanding the pain people are going through on either side of the ideological divide. But he thinks the church is poised to be a voice of hope and reconciliation by following Jesus' lead. "He listens to them and hears them and speaks to what they're really wrestling with, whether they agree or disagree," Coppenger said.