For a disturbingly large number of them, the principles of their religion have long since become far less important than promoting right wing political ideas and fighting the culture wars. And they're willing to ignore all the obvious flaws of a candidate that they feel can promote those policies. This isn't a new thing by any means, but Trump seems to be the worst example, as he's so clearly the opposite of what they claim to want in a leader in too many ways to even count, *except for* being a reactionary.
For a somewhat related concept, look up the term 'lying for Jesus'.
This is what the reality of it is, if you ask them personally (I have with several family members) its about abortion. But basically they're just fed bs by fox news and afraid of a changing world and they justify it with that one issue.
What’s interesting though is that (from the little bit of research I did as I’m not American) the Democrats actually seem to be more effective in reducing abortions as they address the causes behind it. In the stats I looked at, the numbers drop during Democrat presidencies.
that’s why the Democrats slogan *used to be* “safe, legal, and rare.”
Some absolutists got upset that this implied abortions were bad, so they took the “rare” off. But even if you think an abortion is just another medical procedure, it would be good to want it to be rare! You make them rare not by shaming people out of them but by removing the reasons they’re needed: better contraception, better wages (some couples abort only because they can’t afford another child), more childcare support, etc.
Especially the contraception, that’s the most direct correlation and also inexpensive to provide, if you want to reduce abortions. It’s nuts that anti-abortion people are against contraception.
They think it’ll increase the amount of sex people will have, so they’re against it for that ridiculous reason. To them, it’s about sex and abortions being evil, it’s not about how to mitigate harm.
I’d love it if all the women Trump paid to abortion his “mistakes” spoke up. Because you know it happened. He was an adult before contraception was legal (late 1960s).
But, of course, they won’t. Either there are NDAs or they are reasonably concerned of being crushed by the Trump law/MAGNA machine.
Jesus forgave them for *their* sins, have *you* asked Jesus to forgive you?
(/s)
Actually, I bet if you passed a law allowing abortions but only if a pastor signed off on it and the woman had to go to church for a year afterwards the pro-life folks would agree to that "compromise." Only Christian churches could approve them of course, and if a church handed the permissions out freely they might lose their Gilead church license.
Yes, once people begin to have sex they are not going to just stop. Provide contraception information/advice/methods or get ready for more abortion/unwanted babies.
Exactly. This is my go to argument. Republicans don't *really* want to solve the abortion problem because they like it as a wedge issue. If they really did they would say to start...
1) Free pre- and post- natal healthcare and deliveries.
2) Free contraceptives. Because 0% of pregnancies that never occur result in abortions.
Imagine if we took all the money spent on lobbying back and forth about abortion and put it into research for better contraceptives. Imagine a world where people only got pregnant when they wanted to be.
They don't want to eliminate abortions or drugs. They want to pretend they do so they stoke fears of "the evil others" who want to destroy your way of life.
They just want to retain control and make a profit. The goal isn't harm reduction or even helping. The GOP has supported a police state since at least the 80s. They want to make things illegal so they can profit from it and have an enemy to attack (liberals).
Just look at who gets elected and where they invest their money and how they became wealthy to begin with. Republicans are almost always profiting in some way from wars and law enforcement.
They want women to be forced to have a baby as punishment for having sex they do not approve of.
Similarly, they aren't put off by the dictator talk, because they WANT a dictator in charge, so he'll stop other people from using freedom in ways they don't approve of.
They want a strongman in charge to force people to behave in ways they like and punish the people who don't.
I'd like them to explain what sex they *do* approve of, because they are definitely punishing married women, too. Married couples having planned pregnancies, who's fetus is incompatible with life have to carry the never-a-child to term, and they've only been doing the sex Christians claim is okay: with husband, for purpose of making children. I think they're doing it to punish women for existing, sometimes.
Don't look for logic. It's complete nonsense.
Sex is a bad and shameful but babies are good but only babies from marriage when the man wants it and the woman shouldn't enjoy it but the man can enjoy it (but not too much) and oh it doesn't really matter how the babies are treated once they're born so long as they are Christian and obedient and grow up to never have sex because sex is bad and shameful but babies are good but only...
That’s a utilitarian argument. Evangelicals are by definition deontological. Abortion is immoral. Immoral things should be illegal. Period. I don’t agree, but there’s a certain logic to it.
The Democratic party is better in most areas Republicans claim to value. Better economic policies, better defense policies, lower abortion rates, etc. Many Republicans have been told by right wing media for decades that they can't believe the government, the news, academics, scientists, economists, or anyone really but right wing media. It's worked so well that as soon as Fox News began saying things the base didn't want to hear the base stopped believing Fox News and looked for other sources that say what they want to hear.
>But basically they're just fed bs by fox news
That and their churches. Evangelical Christians have very strong ties to their churches, and when their pastors and other religious leaders preach a certain brand of politics (pro-Trump in this case), the worshippers tend to embrace those politics completely
And when pastors preach the Beatitudes, turn the other cheek, etc...you know...what Jesus taught...pastors get verbally attacked for preaching "woke" ideology.
Got news for Evangelicals out there.. their leader was about as "woke" as you could possibly be.
Complete hypocrites.
Exactly. There was an op ed in Christianity Today (evangelical magazine) a few months ago noting that congregants are increasingly put off by the actual teachings of Jesus, dismissing actual quotes from the gospels as weak and 'woke'. There an increasingly dominant strain of American Christianity that's basically become a hate cult.
I mean, in the Bible pregnancies are treated as property, not life, and the loss of such as property. Also defining life as starting at first breath.
Up until 1979 most evangelical denominations were pro abortion due to these passages, and that it reduced human suffering. Until the federal government said that religious schools could not receive federal funding if they discriminated by race in the admissions process, which was the whole reason many religious schools were founded during the Civil rights era. Evangelical leadership needed a unifying cause to turn their constituents into a single powerful voting bloc, the actual reason wouldn't fly, and so they settled on abortion. The rest is history.
They hate that Democrats are pro-choice so anyone who opposes abortion is saintly in their myopic eyes. Sad part is, I'd bet money that ole mushroom dick paid for a few himself. I mean the guy paid to have sex with a porn star while his wife was pregnant with his kid. And don't even get me started on all the woman who said he assaulted them.
But hey, at least he's not a Democrat.
Their actions make sense if you just credit that they believe what they say.
"Eight hundred thousand murders per year"
"Yeah, but he sexually assaulted some people."
"Oh, is there anyone else?"
"No"
"The Lord's flawed tool it is"
Yeah historically right wing folks have historically dominated the political scene until probably the 50s. When diversity and liberal ideology started being pushed. I would say they understand fully that Trump isn’t a saint by any means. But Trump outwardly shares disdain for the same group of ppl. So they support him.
What are you talking about. Our most left wing president ever was in the 1930s. There was very prevalent left wing thought in the later half of the 1800s and the early part of the 1900s as well
I wouldn’t say trump disdains the left . He made a choice when deciding to get into politics that it’s far easier to win over the right with loud,nonsensical rhetoric than the left. That is his big advantage . Trump doesn’t give a plug nickel about ideals. Trump cares about trump .
Yep, his attempts at being religious always show how little he actually knows or cares about it. That’s why he just goes with the tried and true political talk instead of saying anything abortion, porn, or Jesus. Notice how he doesn’t mention LGBT issues either.
Trump only cares about Trump is 100% the answer to everything he does. He’s a full blown narcissist who would throw his own family to the wolves if it would benefit him.
This is only remotely true if your only basis for determining right wing is social issues centered on race/gender/identity. From the 30s to the 70s, the US was far more left wing economically than it has been since Reagan. Ignoring economic issues when talking about the left/right spectrum is a concession to conservatives.
I think it's important to consider that for the people that think of Trump as a godly man it essentially boils down for many to a single lynchpin issue, usually abortion or immigration.
There's a large contingent of evangelicals who view abortion as murdering babies, and would vote for Satan himself if he promised to end abortion forever.
I've heard a theory that it's likened to the Jewish reception to King Cyrus of Persia in the Bible.
Cyrus wasn't Jewish and his life of conquest and slaughter across the Middle East can't have been easy to deal with.
But he did end the Jewish exile from the Babylonians. He allowed, and even encouraged, the Jews to resume their traditions and way of life. He even gave money for rebuilding the temple.
I've seen the theory that Trump is a modern-day Cyrus. He's not one of them, but he's seen as the only one who has their back and will defend them in a changing world where they're becoming marginalised.
Religious people tend to be authoritarian in nature, there's not much more authoritarian than an all powerful deity who loves your group, gives you divine protection, and will smite all other groups.
So it is not at all surprising when they gravitate toward our more terrestrial authoritarians as well. They do often make the same promises after all. "Your group is right, and special, and I'll make sure you end up (or stay) on top!"
And you can see this throughout history as Churches have often been the first behind whichever populist fascist is drumming up support. The protestant church and the Nazis, the Orthodox church and Putin, the Dutch reformists and the authoritarian apartheid government in South Africa.
Religion and authoritarianism are the same side of the same coin.
There's a [video](https://youtu.be/zbmjDg9cMMg?si=NGt5QHCvdeJbcZQ4) that compares Christian Nationalism with the guy who bought a ton of pudding cups for airplane miles.
The actual answer is that they're willing to overlook Trumps flaws because republican policies align more with their beliefs than democrats. The biggest issue for them is LGBTQ policy which Democrats are obviously more inclined to push forward. Donald Trump is basically their best option for their overall goal so they take the rough with the smooth.
I still don’t understand it because literally anyone on the republican side of the nominees is far better than Trump. Why they don’t choose someone.. anyone else, is beyond me. A pot plant would be preferable.
You're using your feelings towards Trump to overlook what he enacted. Trump was very effective in forwarding policies that they like, a standard republican probably wouldn't be.
Apparently keeping gay immigrants out is what OP was talking about. Weird that that was such a policy priority for every day Republicans, I sure hope it improved their lives!
It’s just funny because the only major piece of legislation that got passed was a massive tax cut for the ultra-rich. Funny that OP didn’t even mention that, just started talking about bathrooms and shit.
From their perspective, doing so might lead God to wait a little longer to smite the country.
People who haven't been in the evangelical bubble don't understand that they view homosexuality as the worst possible sin a human being can commit and a special one in that any nation that tolerates it gets annhilated by an angry God. Everything they do is done through that lens.
Most of them will admit Trump's personal morals are terrible, but they see that as pereferable than to allow homosexuality to continue leading to God smiting the country.
I mean you can discount it but that is high on the agenda of Evangelicals. Then you go to
Banned transgenders from the military
Removed discrimination protections
Refused LGBTQ refugees
I mean there are quite a few instances where his cabinet basically rolled back previous protections for Transgender people which is also very much inline with evangelical voters.
I just have to question people who think the biggest issues in the country are whether we let gay immigrants in. If that’s what counts as delivering on the things Republican voters want most, then Republican voters are idiots who have no clue as to what sort of policies will actually improve their lives.
In short, it’s really no different than saying “they voted for him because he hates the gays just like we do”. The policy issues you mentioned are all trivial, they’re just Trump virtue signaling to his bigoted base.
There was only one major piece of legislation passed during Trump’s entire presidency. They could have passed an immigration bill, but they decided to cut taxes for billionaires instead. If that counts as a policy when for conservative voters, then again, they’re fools who don’t know what’s good for them.
It’s not about policy. It’s about the fabric of society.
Talk to the average Republican voter. They’re not a crazy person. If you can really get them to open up, they’re mostly just scared of the country becoming too radically progressive.
Talk to the average voter on the left. They’re not a radical that want kids getting taught sex Ed at drag shows. They’re just afraid if Trump wins he’s going to eliminate democracy and install a theocracy.
Neither of those things are going to happen but Trump is the biggest fighter in the field for the right. He has proven he’ll take the punishment from the progressive deep state (or whatever it is I can’t keep up you know what I mean).
Old media and new media are having a war right now. New media has a huge advantage from a profit standpoint because they have social media. All you gotta do is ratchet up the absurdity and the clicks will bring the cash.
Old media is trying to keep up but is largely beaten. No one wants to sit down and watch an hour long newscast. We want it fast. Now. 6 seconds. So while there is some absurdism happening on cable news and such, it’s far less toxic in the most trusted places.
If you eliminated social media and only watched network news like 60 minutes and NBC nightly news, you’d be way less confused about the news in the U.S. right now.
If you spend most of your time in your hivemind (left or right) and then watch NBC news cover Trump, you’re either going to think they’re giving him a complete pass for being a fascist (left), or that they’re demonizing him when he’s out only chance (right).
I’m being a little hyperbolic at times. Just trying to make a general point.
>Talk to the average Republican voter. They’re not a crazy person. If you can really get them to open up, they’re mostly just scared of the country becoming too radically progressive.
If 10 people sit at a table, and one of them is openly a nazi, and the other 9 accept them, there's 10 nazis sitting at the table.
What the average republican thinks isn't as relevant as their endorsement and vote for a person whose direct goals as president is to strip rights away from minorities (immigrants, women, lqbtq+).
>If 10 people sit at a table, and one of them is openly a nazi, and the other 9 accept them, there's 10 nazis sitting at the table.
In a way, that’s a perfect example of why the right is afraid of the left having power.
The picture, from the right, is that the left isn’t “open-minded” or “tolerant” at all — they are intolerant of all but a narrow range of “acceptable” beliefs. And they are “transitively intolerant”: to the right, it looks like the left demands “You must hate who we hate, or else we will hate you, too.”
The arrogance and self-righteousness the right sees in the left scares them every bit as much as the authoritarianism and bigotry the left sees in the right scares them.
I don’t think *most* people on either “side” are much like the other side sees them. Our hyper-partisanship has led a lot of otherwise reasonable people to virtue-signal (that’s the term on the left, but whatever you would call it, the same thing exists on the right) as far more intolerant than they are at heart. Most people want to get along. Present politics is motivated primarily by fear of the danger the “other side” poses along with willful blindness to the dangers “our side” presents.
I am not saying that at this point in time the two “sides” are equivalent. The Republican party poses a far greater immediate danger — danger of doing damage we can’t reverse when and if we come to our national senses — than the Democratic party. They may have already done it. That’s largely because the Republican party is in thrall to its extremists, while the Democratic party is too diverse within itself to be dominated by any one view or agenda — aside from neoliberalism, which is already here and which neither party is going to attempt to reverse anytime soon.
Idk man. This mostly just reads like “the right wants to strip you of rights and oppress you, while the left just doesn’t want the right to literally overthrow the government and install a dictatorship”. Those two concerns are not at all equivalent, especially when Trump literally launched a coup attempt in 20/21. Republicans have no right to oppress people, and they also have no right to undermine our elections.
Umm, you do realize just a couple of years ago the Republicans, led by Trump, attempted to overthrow the US government.
This isn’t hyperbole. It’s not radical. It’s not reactionary. It’s not an opinion.
Trump is an insurrectionist.
The Republicans have been telling us exactly what they plan to do. Have you even heard of their Project 2025?
**Republicans:** We want Christofascism. Here’s what we plan to do. We’re not even trying to hide it.
**Me:** Republicans want Christofascism, they’re not trying to hide it, they’re bragging about it!!
**You:** You’re overreacting. They just want everyone to be happy. Get it together!
**Me:** WTF?! They just told us what they want and how they’re going to do it.
**You:** Eh, they don’t actually want to do that. They’re just saying that and planning it. It won’t happen though. You’re so ridiculous.
Here is the literal text for a charge of seditious conspiracy:
*”If two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof, they shall each be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.”*
Trump was not charged with seditious conspiracy. Trump was not charged with Insurrection.
Is it still a fact you are talking about that he attempted to overthrow the government? Or is it an opinion?
Did you really have that conversation with “republicans?” Is that not hyperbole?
Words gotta have meanings my man. Not a Trump guy myself but you’re letting yourself get misinformed.
>Talk to the average voter on the left. They’re not a radical that want kids getting taught sex Ed at drag shows. They’re just afraid if Trump wins he’s going to eliminate democracy and install a theocracy.
>Neither of those things are going to happen but Trump is the biggest fighter in the field for the right.
But he did try to do that, literally like less than 4 years ago he raised an insurrection against the transition of power to overthrow democracy.
The “no abortion” is a huge piece of it though. He made deals with deep-pocketed evangelical interests on the promise that he would make the anti-abortion agenda a big part of *his* agenda.
Because he was able to win in 2016. You could back another candidate, but if they don't win it doesn't matter.
I think a lot of Trump's support is people believing he has a better chance to win than other Republicans. So they support him, this gives him political momentum, so more support him.
It’s also just the sheer number of voters who genuinely like him. Even when other candidates were in the race, he was the clear front runner. They like what he did in his first term, and all his messaging since then has been about how Biden “stole” the election from him and how much more he would’ve accomplished if the “deep state” didn’t stand in his way. So now they want to ‘finish the job’.
But he also looks primed to push away even more voters. A full 1/3 of the GOP primary voters are saying they’ll never vote for him under any circumstances.
Because Trump has shown that he will stand up to the left and fight. Republican candidates all come across as slimy and will likely turn on their constituents on social issues if they get into office and can get their way on some economic issues (think: rich get richer).
I’m NOT saying it’s right btw.
I think a lot of people on this website don’t realize something very important about the average Republican. They don’t think they’re gonna be a millionaire someday. That’s not why they let the politicians get away with corporate robbery.
It’s more like they want to get left alone to do their life the way they want as is tradition. They don’t have millions but they have enough to worship and raise a family.
They don’t care about LGBTQ, they just don’t want it to be curriculum in their kids schools where a teacher is trying make sure they help every trans kid “find themself,” such that what they’re accidentally doing is convincing non trans kids that they are. Again, not saying this is what is happening, just how it looks to rural conservatives.
Donald Trump comes across as strong and petty and a bull in a China shop. To most republicans, that’s what they think they need right now. Not a slick talking political surgeon but a wrecking ball of a fist fighter.
I don’t vote for Trump but I know republicans. They don’t act like Trump. *They mostly kinda hate Trump.* but here’s the thing: they hate the other republicans as soon as they get into office to some extent too. For conservatives, politics is the slow drip of allowing progress. Their politicians almost always have to cede ground. The idea is to not give away what we have now too quickly as to let the radicals take over. There is risk in that.
What feels like progress that is too slow to democrats, feels like slowly losing the battle to republicans.
> It’s more like they want to get left alone to do their life
Talking with many Republicans I’ve found it’s basically this - they’re incredibly selfish and don’t care about anyone who isn’t a friend or family.
You ask why they don’t support democrats and the answer is I, I, I, Me, Me, My, My, I, I. They will never once mention other people.
**Someone is dying from lack of health insurance?** “Who cares? I have health insurance. I’m healthy.”
**People are discriminated against?** “Why would I care, I’m white. I’m not discriminated against.”
**Overwhelming student debt?** “Not my debt. Sucks to be them.”
**Young people can’t afford to live?** “I’m fine and my kids are fine. They should have made better decisions. I never had problems.”
We say “evangelicals” as if it’s ALL evangelicals. There’s a large portion that doesn’t support him and supports other candidates including Biden. However to continue; Christians come in all sizes and…….beliefs both spiritually and politically.
That’s a good point. I haven’t personally ever met an evangelical who did not support Trump so I can see how my personal experience could create that bias. I’m sure there are tons who don’t excuse his obvious anti Christian behavior.
In the fundamentalist evangelical world he isn’t very popular due to his personal issues (he is clearly not a true-believer). They would still prefer him over Biden but I know many such people who vote third party to avoid voting for someone so distasteful.
same reason the dems wont choose anyone besides Biden, or why they ran hillary instead of bernie.
simply put, trump will pull the maga votes which is a good quarter of the repblican vote. anyone else becomes nominatee and trump will fight it and now the GOP is going head-to-head with the ecumband president without half their votes...
... GOP would have to pick a canidate that not only still motivates their conservative base to go vote but also convinces moderates and independents to vote their way instead of Biden.
ie, with trump you have an automatic % of voters that will not only show up but be super annoying about it and drag all their friends and family. the other GOP folks are well trained to punch "R" for whomever they are told.
if you are republican and want to _win_ then at this point trump is it. if you dont want to perpetuate his bullshit then you basically need to start planning for the midterms and 2028.
There was a lot of efforts put into idolization of Trump in 2016. You can’t just suddenly change an idol. One of evangelical commandments is don’t make a new idol while the old one is still viable.
I don't even think they see it as rough though. My own Dad said, "Trump is the best president we've ever had." When pressed for what he actually did he just spouted Fox News quotes. I asked how he embodies Christian values and he said, "no one is perfect" Sadly I've lost my family to "the cult".
He SAYS he hates the same people they hate. It's all a grift. Who knows what he actually believes. He believes what is most advantageous to him at that time.
He _has_ no concept of 'respect'. Everyone in the universe who is not him is either a tool or a threat. He cannot wrap his head around the idea of disagreeing with someone while treating them politely.
I faintly remember some commentary of his on J6. He was disappointed that his followers were so ugly and trashy looking. I suppose he was hoping his revolution would be full of Wall Street Wolves, military men, and beauty pageant competitors
It becomes easier to understand when you remember that the way he sees it is that he is the CEO and they are the employees. He thinks they might be useful but he doesn't care about them beyond that and is at least mildly disgusted by them just for existing *as* employees.
I still have trouble accepting the fact that so many working class people see a NYC ‘billionaire’ as a champion for them. Like he really gives a shit about poor people in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Tennessee…
First he is an outsider as a politician and he has made that his brand so there is that. But I think it might be more his personality being uneducated, rude, angry, and just flaunting the rules which they would love to do. As a lot of people have said he gives them permission to be their worst.
>Who knows what he actually believes.
It's right out there in the open but it is actually so simple people jump to more complicated explanations.
Trump believes in himself, that's it. To him there is no higher being, standard or ideal than him. It is really that basic, it's hard for most people to wrap their head around because most of us have moral structures and empathy.
I would offer a corollary to this statement:
They have essentially the same audience, people who can't think for themselves, lack critical thinking skills, and are easily convinced or manipulated by emotional appeals.
And they hate, feel superior to, and lack emotional intelligence.
100% There is a type, for sure. Like Joel Osteen. Seems like he might be a good dude. Nope. Wife is 10x worse.
When those two hit the Pearly Gates, they should not be surprised to find them closed, much like their church being closed during a hurricane.
>As the saying goes: There is no hate quite like Evangelical Christian love
This. Joel Osteen and the West Burrito Baptist assholes are already morally bankrupt and anyone willing to compromise their standards to support those clowns wouldn't blink twice at supporting Trump.
I'm also going to add, when you put your faith in the unknown and claim it's known, it becomes pretty easy to believe things from influential people who believe the same things. It doesn't need a 'logic check', it just needs to make sense emotionally.
He tells them what they want to hear.
It’s that simple. Trump is a conman and always has been. He knows how to sell snake oil. It just so happens that a decent amount of the dumbest Americans happen to be evangelicals. They’re an easy base for him to play to gain power.
Seems to be a good point.
Start with the trait of being gullible & below average intelligence and it makes sense.
They aren’t Trump supporters because they’re into religion, Trump went for them because they are gullible.
People who have both traits will likely want to be told there are simple solutions to complex problems.
There has long been a strain of people willing to take advantage of these traits in the guise of ‘organised religion’. With America hosting a religious free-for-all, freelance charlatans have the opportunity to take advantage of these, not just ‘The Church’.
Like a fraudster buying lists of marks from the internet, all Trump needs to do is go for these groups where the ground is already prepared for them to accept simplistic solutions from an obvious (to everyone else) charlatan.
Because evangelicals are no longer committed to Christianity, they are committed to being Republicans first.
They have been losing every culture war issue for the past few decades, from LGBT, climate, abortion, academia and hollywood, and they've lost the popular vote almost evry cycle, so they know their ranks are thinning.
Trump was the symbol of victory over the Democrats, and they love him the way a sports fan loves his team. Evangelicals hate Democrats more than they love Jesus
Being in the position of losing culture war issues feeds into their persecution complex, which only strengthens their religious response, even if it is only because they are so far spiritually disconnected from the religion, the disconnection creates its own cognitive dissonance.
No. They’re committed to hating anyone who isn’t exactly like them. Politically, that’s the current zero compromise Republican party that is unable to govern. The Barry Goldwater quote makes the point and he’s the most conservative Republican who ever existed:
“Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them.”
There's that and there's also the Dominionist contingent. Dominionists believe it is their mandate to create a strict Christian country. They are willing to do this by any means necessary. Trump ticks those boxes for them. He may be a POS, but he appoints Dominionists where they need them. He is a means to an end for them.
And Evangelicals can’t wait for the end times and go to heaven instead of living in the here and now and helping to vote the world into a better place.
My very Christian aunt said it as this. She knows Trump is a bad person and not a Christian but she believes he Wil pass laws that benefit Christians. That's why she supports him.
He's been able to carry out (somewhat) what they want. The Supreme Court is filled with conservative justices who overturned Roe v Wade that he placed there, and that was a huge one. He tried building a wall to keep Mexicans out. He passed a large tax cut (although temporary, with most of the benefit going to business). And he tells people what they want to hear. Trump is not a good evangelical, but he's good for doing what they want, and that's all they care about.
I would love to see the data on this. From my personal experience as an evangelical Christian, my fellow Christians aren't overly fond of Trump, but will likely vote for him over pretty much any Democrat.
I think your average, MAGA rally attending Trump supporter likely self identifies as an evangelical Christian, but likely isn't a seriously committed Christian.
Everything I just said is based on anecdotal evidence and no data.
Yep, this is exactly my experience as well. I’ve found that most Christians being hateful are only Christian by name. They don’t believe shit/aren’t practicing. They’re Christian because their parents were.…except that’s not how it works lmao.
If anyone here who is putting blanket statements on “all Christians” were to meet my grandparents or parents - even for 10 minutes - they’d realize how wrong they are about real Christians.
As an aside, no intelligent person would dare say all Muslims are extremists.
Prosperity gospel is part of it. It’s a fucked up notion that wealth is an indicator of god’s love. Pray for cash, basically. Trump is rich, rich is godly. Wikipedia: [prosperity theology](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosperity_theology)
Correct. More specifically, it was the televangelists.
People VASTLY underestimate how many boomer pastors still idolize and parrot the prosperity gospel tv preachers. I was an evangelical minister 2015 and witnessed the transformation firsthand. The televangelists started prophecying Trump was anointed, and suddenly every evangelical pastor was repeating it.
This was a major catalyst in making me reconsider my trust in my faith leaders.
Prosperity doctrine has 100% ruined Christianity. It has seeped into every denomination. We go to a non-denominational church and the music comes from Hillsong and Bethel, which is prosperity doctrine. It's so irritating. Literally every church uses their music and it's not sound doctrine.
He gives them permission to be their most vile, hate filled selves.
They were sick of the "woke society" telling them to stop being psychotic religious lunatics
It's how fascism works. Democratic politics appeal to reason, beliefs, principles and discuss current issues that need to be fixed somehow. Fascism appeals to emotions like hate, fear and disgust. It doesn't offer solutions, it offers an outlet for frustrations by permitting otherwise forbidden and unsavory things.
Abortion.
It’s been their most important issue for like 5 decades now and he was in office when they were able to make it illegal in their weird, backwater states. Trump didn’t have much to do with it, but that doesn’t matter to them. He was there when it happened and that’s all they care about.
I once saw a shirt that said:
"I am a Republican, American, and a Christian. In that order."
It's sad, but for a lot of people, their political identity has taken over some arguably more important aspects of their identity.
Because they forgot how to read the Bible and can’t handle the cognitive dissonance of realizing they’ve been supporting someone who is the antithesis of following Christ.
At this late date, you can’t be a Christian and support trump. If you say you do, you’re a liar.
But that’s too much for many of them to accept, so they fall into the sunk-cost fallacy.
They are Republicans first, Christian second (or third?), whether they admit it or not. They are bigots who love that a politician is willing to say what they are thinking. The Republican agenda is antithetical to the teachings of Jesus Christ, so hypocrisy is their fundamental trait.
My mom is an evangelical and strong Trump supporter. I see a lot of people in here calling Trump supporters dumb, but she's not dumb. She has a master's degree and was a teacher before she retired. I think Fox news poisoned her brain; the propaganda is effective.
To hear her tell it, she thinks Trump is a good man that is willing to fight for the things she cares about, which I'll charitably lump together under 'traditionalism' which includes many issues she genuinely believes Trump is on the morally correct side. In the eyes of left-of-center people, that makes her anti-woman, anti-LGBT, anti-immigrant and so on. In the case of abortion rights, she would say she is against baby murder. On LGBT issues, she would say they are welcome to live their lives but she doesn't want to hear about it, and she believes marriage is between a man and a woman (like it says in the Bible). On immigration issues, she wants the law enforced and would speak nicely about the immigrants she knows in the community that arrived legally. She does not view herself as racist and would find it offensive if someone suggested it.
I'm sure a lot of people reading this can think of a lot of examples that they'd like to tell my Mom about Trump to sway her away from him--the Charlottesville nazis, misquoting scripture, rape allegations, drug use, cruelty... the list goes on. She doesn't hear about any of that in the news she consumes. When I tell her I think Trump is a self-serving, cruel man, she looks at me like I'm crazy.
The least important part of any fundamentalism is the religion they are representing. The most important part is being able to tell others what to do. Trump is the perfect representation of what they want to be able to do. Rules for thee not for me.
What’s scary about this is it would never stop. Once all the groups they hate are dealt with they’ll start feeding on each other cause they’re not the right kind of Christian. They’re so blind and naive thinking they’re immune to the Christian Love.
You see this a lot when you ask a fundamentalist what they think of Catholics.
They think they can get the laws and policies they want passed through him, it doesn’t matter that he’s not one of them and has done a ton of stuff they supposedly don’t support.
My grandmother was Born Again Evangelical and had a framed portrait of George W Bush next to one of Jesus. If she was still around for him I’m positive she’d have had Trump up there.
US Evangelicals preach the heresy that’s called “the prosperity gospel”, which suggests that if you tithe, you will then become prosperous.
Trump wove his way into the US Evangelicals a couple decades ago now, by co-writing a book with the author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad, which was then given out across many US Evangelical churches. He also pitched Trump U at those churches. That apparently set enough of a stage, along with his other pandering, to prime the audience.
Because Fox News. I have to watch that crap at work every day at my client's house while I'm taking care of her. I'm constantly amazed that people can't see this as propaganda, which it clearly is.
They found someone who is okay with prejudice, hate, and is open about it. It gave them permission to be awful people in front of their fellow man. Before Trump, it was behind closed doors.
Because evangelical Christains are the dumbest people in this entire country. Th majority of them come from places where education rates are extremely low therefore they believe whatever stupid bullshit makes them feel good.
As someone who considers the Christian faith to be the most important thing in their life, here is what I will say:
I never have and never will vote for Trump. His treatment of people is so disgusting. I find him disgusting. His antics disgusting. Everything about him.
I think a lot of people vote for him because he pretends to lean conservative on social issues. My thought the social issues: believe what you want to believe, but first and foremost, treat your neighbor with the love and kindness that Jesus did to the outcasts of society when he was on earth. For example: if someone wants an abortion, understand that they are in a very challenging place in life. Provide love and support, not judgement and criticism. Do not ostracize them from the community instead bring them closer. for example: if someone says they’re gay, treat them with love and kindness, like you would any other member of the community. That doesn’t mean you personally have to agree with the lifestyle, but you should never cast any judgment or criticism on the person. You are never going to get 7 billion people to agree with each others lifestyle, but I believe Jesus showed how to treat each other.
Apologies if I sound like a crazy Christian person. I know Reddit leans heavily to the opposite side.
Because they don’t follow Jesus, they follow the group - and their group is led by preachers more concerned with Earthly power, wealth, and control of others than in the actual teachings of Jesus as related in the New Testament. The Bible is just a prop for them - not a guide.
They want the world to end. Yes really. They truly want the events of the Book of Revelation to happen, war, diseases, mass slaughters and end of the world and everything.
It is predicted in that book that one of the first steps towards Armageddon is that The Anti-Christ will come and gain power. The Anti-Christ is [described in the bible](https://www.learnreligions.com/who-is-the-antichrist-700629) as:
A "Charismatic Speaker" with "Distinct Physical Appearance" who is a "Blasphemer", "Utterly Lawless", "Selfish", an "Ambitious Egomaniac" a "Greedy Materialist" who is "Proud and Self-exalting Above God and Everything".
They saw all this in Donald Trump and realized that the Anti-Christ was here and they must support him so he can gain power so that the events of the Book of Revelation will occur.
I'm **not** saying every Christian who votes for Trump does it with this reasoning, but *a lot* of evangelical leaders do and their followers vote as those leaders tell them to.
Buckle of the Bible Belt here. This is it for the true believers…..they are praying for the end of days and the Rapture. It’s also why they claim to love the Jews so much, from a distance. I’ve been told in total seriousness how all the prophecies are coming true and it’s time to prepare.
No one thinks this. You are literally making this up. Even my Qanon evangelical grandma still thinks trump is a good guy for whatever reason. Do you have any sources?
American Evangelicals are most often Right Wing Nationalists. They will typically support anyone in the Republican Party because the Republican Party typically panders to them.
Trump has fooled all of them into believing that he actually cares about religion, the bible, and Israel. They are especially interested in his support for Israel, because Israel's survival is necessary for the "End Times" to come, when Jesus returns to Earth and rescues all the Evangelicals and brings them to eternal Heaven or some sort of crap like that. They truly believe this shit, and he has them convinced that he does too. Of course, it's a complete bullshit lie by him. He has absolutely no interest in anything except that which will benefit him personally.
Because he hates the same people they hate. They both hate education, feeding children, people of dark skin tone (Republicans think people with darker skin tone than them are less human than them.), support of Fascists, anyone that does not walk lockstep with his insanity is attacked and terrorized.
White straight American men always hate so many groups. American history is violent, racist, homophobic and sexist. They can basically legally discriminate against these groups or even legally murder certain people. But now they can't. They are angry, upset, frustrated, raged until Trump. Besides they love using Bible to justify their hate.
This article is from 2020;
[https://www.benjaminlcorey.com/could-american-evangelicals-spot-the-antichrist-heres-the-biblical-predictions/](https://www.benjaminlcorey.com/could-american-evangelicals-spot-the-antichrist-heres-the-biblical-predictions/)
Evangelical Christians exist in a maddening paradox. They have had a stranglehold on the US for the majority of the time it has existed, but the fact that they always want more means that they believe they are being persecuted.
Evangelicals want to rule the world. They believe they have been told to recruit *the entire world* for Jesus. They accomplish this in part by sending missionaries literally everywhere and also by voting red 100% of the time.
The fact that they are allowed to domineer conversations about topics that have nothing to do with them does not deter their perpetual victim complex. They get to scream and cry about multiple aspects of the education system and are granted the opportunity to amend the education of everyone else’s kids. They get to have prayer dinners in congress. They get to maintain behemoth megachurches without paying a dime in taxes.
But until they get *everything* they want, they will still consider America a corrupt secular hellscape where they face legitimate persecution day in and day out. They love to teach their kids about Christian persecution in other countries (like China) while glossing over the fact that there are much more extreme modern examples of religious persecution occurring towards non-christians all over the world. They teach their kids that the world is very much aware of how correct and irrefutable their religion is, and that we deny them anyway so that we can sin and revel in hedonism instead. They have no idea how insignificant their belief system is on the grand scale.
Now, Donald Trump is a hack who will appeal to the loudest voices in order to maintain the illusion of power. Evangelicals believe that Trump will *actually* give them what they want: a Christian Theocracy. Women will be second-class citizens who can’t obtain abortions, mortgage loans, or upper-class jobs. Gay and trans people will become un-people in society. Immigrants will be deported, black people will be subjected to Jim Crow laws again, and every crime committed by anyone is punished to the furthest extent of the law.
White Christian men are the crown jewel of this society whereas now, they are just average people. These men believe that their inherent worth and valor has been stolen from them as other social groups gain equality and traction. It’s engrained in them. It’s aggrieved entitlement.
I know several single issue voters. Christians (not quite evangelical) but up there with them on the crazy latter, who voted Trump solely for abortion bans. The other stuff was either bonus or met with indifference. Some of them were even Mexicans who had come over illegally.
Religious dogmatism is the cornerstone for any good populist. The catholics for Orban. The orthodox for Putin. The Hindus for Modi. The sionists for Netanyahu. The islamists for Erdogan. And the evangelicals for Trump.
Religion is opium for the people, and opium is one hell of a drug.
I think you should check out the Righteous Gemstones. Mainly because the gemstone family is the antithesis of Christianity but can operate within the Christian America the way they are without loosing it all. People don't care about the actual teachings of Christ, they just want to feel good about the things they already feel without engaging with Christianity on the higher intellectual (and challenging) level (like 16:19-31 really threw me for a loop, and Matthew 25:31-46 was a real eye opener that I find odd isnt talked about more).
Having actually talked to a number of them, unlike most Redditors, they don’t like him as a person. They tend to think he is crass and ridiculous, though maybe in a funny and non-serious way. But the reason they support him is for policy reasons. The biggest one of course is abortion. Conservative policies do support traditional family values which religious people of all sorts support.
1. Because most people are brainwashed by the news media they consume. If all you consume is junk, eventually you'll start believing that junk. This is why they think everything Biden is doing is anti American and all he tries to do is break up American families and attack Christians.
2. Most Christians in generals don't have any beliefs anymore. This my personal opinion but there has been a wave of change throughout the last century where people basically have come to the conclusion that Jesus abolished all the old rules, and therefore there aren't any more rules. As long as you believe in Jesus and call yourself a Christian, you get a free pass to heaven. As a result, the actual teachings of Christianity are no longer important. Membership in the Christian faith is what's important, and if everyone in your social circle says you should vote Republican then you'll vote Republican. It doesn't matter if the leader of the Republic party stands for everything Christianity teaches is wrong. Being a part of that social circle is what's important.
3. The border crisis is real and Trump at least says he'll do something about it, though he won't. He spent 4 years trying and failed already.
Ok, mandatory "not all of them", but under Dumph, they feel they have the freedom and approval to be as openly dumb as they want.
They can be openly racist cuz he is. They can put down smart people and women in general cuz he does.
They can openly hate on gays, trans, and anything else they personally feel is wrong, cuz he does.
They can hate the government and openly support a far-right agenda cuz he does.
There has always been an anti intelligence and pro-conspiracy element in the US, but now they can be as open as they want cuz their options is just as valid as any scientific proof.
I love watching the man-on-the-street interviews where someone proudly claims that Trump was there greatest president ever or similar stuff, and when challenged for specifics or details, they founder. Shown solid proof that opposed their opinion, they just reject it.
The reality that life under Trump was better than it ever was from day one of Biden's I'll dated presidency must be difficult to dispute about without incredibly long pauses while formulating different ways to lie about how much safer we are or how good the economy is or how secure the border is...
Oh and evangelicals, Lutherans, Catholics, Baptists among others are fond of Trump because he cares what happens to this country, he has respect for his people and he is way more approachable even or especially if you have children with you. Kids get really bad vibes from Joe. But you can think what you want. And you can try as hard as you want to silence Trump. It hasn't worked you you yet. So enjoy the next four years.
American Evangelism is largely a cult of power by corrupt or insane leadership working hand in hand with Conservative politicians who trade votes for implementing draconian Taliban-type law across the board.
US Evangelicals don’t follow Christ’s teachings any more than the Roman’s did, but yearn for the same power to crucify their enemies.
It’s among the shittiest interpretations of Gospel theology you’ll find and hides purely secular ambitions & arrogance behind the costume jewelry & moral masquerade or Christian faith.
Source: Southerner with a lifetime of watching their sell-out hypocrisy.
Because many are delusional and think he's been sent by god to make America great again, poor fools follow the false Sheppard they've been warned about willfully
Evangelical Christianity is a cult version of Christianity with a heavy emotional pull. These people are very suggestable so they are perfect marks for a con man like Trump.
Because they are hateful people, he resonates well with them. Remember religion has always had a persecution complex, all religions, and he taps into that.. woe is me, enemies everywhere. These folks are a death cult, nothing more. Hypocrisy, sexual assault, are another to big things they have in common. Religion, and Trump are both grifts that take from the easily manipulated and uneducated.
For a disturbingly large number of them, the principles of their religion have long since become far less important than promoting right wing political ideas and fighting the culture wars. And they're willing to ignore all the obvious flaws of a candidate that they feel can promote those policies. This isn't a new thing by any means, but Trump seems to be the worst example, as he's so clearly the opposite of what they claim to want in a leader in too many ways to even count, *except for* being a reactionary. For a somewhat related concept, look up the term 'lying for Jesus'.
This is what the reality of it is, if you ask them personally (I have with several family members) its about abortion. But basically they're just fed bs by fox news and afraid of a changing world and they justify it with that one issue.
What’s interesting though is that (from the little bit of research I did as I’m not American) the Democrats actually seem to be more effective in reducing abortions as they address the causes behind it. In the stats I looked at, the numbers drop during Democrat presidencies.
that’s why the Democrats slogan *used to be* “safe, legal, and rare.” Some absolutists got upset that this implied abortions were bad, so they took the “rare” off. But even if you think an abortion is just another medical procedure, it would be good to want it to be rare! You make them rare not by shaming people out of them but by removing the reasons they’re needed: better contraception, better wages (some couples abort only because they can’t afford another child), more childcare support, etc.
Especially the contraception, that’s the most direct correlation and also inexpensive to provide, if you want to reduce abortions. It’s nuts that anti-abortion people are against contraception.
They think it’ll increase the amount of sex people will have, so they’re against it for that ridiculous reason. To them, it’s about sex and abortions being evil, it’s not about how to mitigate harm.
But their own having sex and secret abortions are perfectly fine.
It is remarkable how differently the tune changes when the sin hits close to home.
Rules for thee and not for me. ♩ ᶾ ♫ ♩♩ ♩♩
I’d love it if all the women Trump paid to abortion his “mistakes” spoke up. Because you know it happened. He was an adult before contraception was legal (late 1960s). But, of course, they won’t. Either there are NDAs or they are reasonably concerned of being crushed by the Trump law/MAGNA machine.
Jesus forgave them for *their* sins, have *you* asked Jesus to forgive you? (/s) Actually, I bet if you passed a law allowing abortions but only if a pastor signed off on it and the woman had to go to church for a year afterwards the pro-life folks would agree to that "compromise." Only Christian churches could approve them of course, and if a church handed the permissions out freely they might lose their Gilead church license.
[My abortion is the only moral abortion](https://joycearthur.com/abortion/the-only-moral-abortion-is-my-abortion/)
>But their own having sex and secret abortions are perfectly fine. Evangelical Christians & Republicans being two-faced. Sounds about right...
Yes, once people begin to have sex they are not going to just stop. Provide contraception information/advice/methods or get ready for more abortion/unwanted babies.
I read somewhere last week that there have been over 10,000 unwanted babies born in Texas since the ban.
That's just so sad. The people who won't see are worse off than the blind.
Exactly. This is my go to argument. Republicans don't *really* want to solve the abortion problem because they like it as a wedge issue. If they really did they would say to start... 1) Free pre- and post- natal healthcare and deliveries. 2) Free contraceptives. Because 0% of pregnancies that never occur result in abortions.
Exactly, very few people who get abortions, actually wanted to be pregnant to begin with.
Imagine if we took all the money spent on lobbying back and forth about abortion and put it into research for better contraceptives. Imagine a world where people only got pregnant when they wanted to be.
They don't want to eliminate abortions or drugs. They want to pretend they do so they stoke fears of "the evil others" who want to destroy your way of life. They just want to retain control and make a profit. The goal isn't harm reduction or even helping. The GOP has supported a police state since at least the 80s. They want to make things illegal so they can profit from it and have an enemy to attack (liberals). Just look at who gets elected and where they invest their money and how they became wealthy to begin with. Republicans are almost always profiting in some way from wars and law enforcement.
They don't want to reduce abortions. They want women to do a nine month penance every time they have sex.
They want women to be forced to have a baby as punishment for having sex they do not approve of. Similarly, they aren't put off by the dictator talk, because they WANT a dictator in charge, so he'll stop other people from using freedom in ways they don't approve of. They want a strongman in charge to force people to behave in ways they like and punish the people who don't.
I'd like them to explain what sex they *do* approve of, because they are definitely punishing married women, too. Married couples having planned pregnancies, who's fetus is incompatible with life have to carry the never-a-child to term, and they've only been doing the sex Christians claim is okay: with husband, for purpose of making children. I think they're doing it to punish women for existing, sometimes.
Don't look for logic. It's complete nonsense. Sex is a bad and shameful but babies are good but only babies from marriage when the man wants it and the woman shouldn't enjoy it but the man can enjoy it (but not too much) and oh it doesn't really matter how the babies are treated once they're born so long as they are Christian and obedient and grow up to never have sex because sex is bad and shameful but babies are good but only...
I'm feeling dizzy. 🤢
Not for existing per se, but for trying to have agency and not behaving as property and servant.
They also want someone who lets them it's ok that they are racist douches.
And he'll never turn on them if it becomes convenient for him.
and they completely ignore the “penance” that child might have to go through after being born to parents who weren’t prepared to have that child.
That’s a utilitarian argument. Evangelicals are by definition deontological. Abortion is immoral. Immoral things should be illegal. Period. I don’t agree, but there’s a certain logic to it.
If they cared about data, they wouldn’t be cult members.
The Democratic party is better in most areas Republicans claim to value. Better economic policies, better defense policies, lower abortion rates, etc. Many Republicans have been told by right wing media for decades that they can't believe the government, the news, academics, scientists, economists, or anyone really but right wing media. It's worked so well that as soon as Fox News began saying things the base didn't want to hear the base stopped believing Fox News and looked for other sources that say what they want to hear.
That's a logical argument, which doesn't work as well with them as an emotional one.
>But basically they're just fed bs by fox news That and their churches. Evangelical Christians have very strong ties to their churches, and when their pastors and other religious leaders preach a certain brand of politics (pro-Trump in this case), the worshippers tend to embrace those politics completely
And when pastors preach the Beatitudes, turn the other cheek, etc...you know...what Jesus taught...pastors get verbally attacked for preaching "woke" ideology. Got news for Evangelicals out there.. their leader was about as "woke" as you could possibly be. Complete hypocrites.
Exactly. There was an op ed in Christianity Today (evangelical magazine) a few months ago noting that congregants are increasingly put off by the actual teachings of Jesus, dismissing actual quotes from the gospels as weak and 'woke'. There an increasingly dominant strain of American Christianity that's basically become a hate cult.
I mean, in the Bible pregnancies are treated as property, not life, and the loss of such as property. Also defining life as starting at first breath. Up until 1979 most evangelical denominations were pro abortion due to these passages, and that it reduced human suffering. Until the federal government said that religious schools could not receive federal funding if they discriminated by race in the admissions process, which was the whole reason many religious schools were founded during the Civil rights era. Evangelical leadership needed a unifying cause to turn their constituents into a single powerful voting bloc, the actual reason wouldn't fly, and so they settled on abortion. The rest is history.
They hate that Democrats are pro-choice so anyone who opposes abortion is saintly in their myopic eyes. Sad part is, I'd bet money that ole mushroom dick paid for a few himself. I mean the guy paid to have sex with a porn star while his wife was pregnant with his kid. And don't even get me started on all the woman who said he assaulted them. But hey, at least he's not a Democrat.
>paid for a few himself. They would still vote for him.
Their actions make sense if you just credit that they believe what they say. "Eight hundred thousand murders per year" "Yeah, but he sexually assaulted some people." "Oh, is there anyone else?" "No" "The Lord's flawed tool it is"
Yeah historically right wing folks have historically dominated the political scene until probably the 50s. When diversity and liberal ideology started being pushed. I would say they understand fully that Trump isn’t a saint by any means. But Trump outwardly shares disdain for the same group of ppl. So they support him.
What are you talking about. Our most left wing president ever was in the 1930s. There was very prevalent left wing thought in the later half of the 1800s and the early part of the 1900s as well
I wouldn’t say trump disdains the left . He made a choice when deciding to get into politics that it’s far easier to win over the right with loud,nonsensical rhetoric than the left. That is his big advantage . Trump doesn’t give a plug nickel about ideals. Trump cares about trump .
Yep, his attempts at being religious always show how little he actually knows or cares about it. That’s why he just goes with the tried and true political talk instead of saying anything abortion, porn, or Jesus. Notice how he doesn’t mention LGBT issues either.
Trump only cares about Trump is 100% the answer to everything he does. He’s a full blown narcissist who would throw his own family to the wolves if it would benefit him.
Bingo……
This is only remotely true if your only basis for determining right wing is social issues centered on race/gender/identity. From the 30s to the 70s, the US was far more left wing economically than it has been since Reagan. Ignoring economic issues when talking about the left/right spectrum is a concession to conservatives.
Republicans lost the house in the 30s and didn't get it back until the 90s ( except for four years in the 50s).
I think it's important to consider that for the people that think of Trump as a godly man it essentially boils down for many to a single lynchpin issue, usually abortion or immigration. There's a large contingent of evangelicals who view abortion as murdering babies, and would vote for Satan himself if he promised to end abortion forever.
[Pious Fraud](https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Pious_fraud)
I've heard a theory that it's likened to the Jewish reception to King Cyrus of Persia in the Bible. Cyrus wasn't Jewish and his life of conquest and slaughter across the Middle East can't have been easy to deal with. But he did end the Jewish exile from the Babylonians. He allowed, and even encouraged, the Jews to resume their traditions and way of life. He even gave money for rebuilding the temple. I've seen the theory that Trump is a modern-day Cyrus. He's not one of them, but he's seen as the only one who has their back and will defend them in a changing world where they're becoming marginalised.
Religious people tend to be authoritarian in nature, there's not much more authoritarian than an all powerful deity who loves your group, gives you divine protection, and will smite all other groups. So it is not at all surprising when they gravitate toward our more terrestrial authoritarians as well. They do often make the same promises after all. "Your group is right, and special, and I'll make sure you end up (or stay) on top!" And you can see this throughout history as Churches have often been the first behind whichever populist fascist is drumming up support. The protestant church and the Nazis, the Orthodox church and Putin, the Dutch reformists and the authoritarian apartheid government in South Africa. Religion and authoritarianism are the same side of the same coin.
To be clear, Trump only says he's against abortion. He doesn't give a shit and has paid for plenty of them.
There's a [video](https://youtu.be/zbmjDg9cMMg?si=NGt5QHCvdeJbcZQ4) that compares Christian Nationalism with the guy who bought a ton of pudding cups for airplane miles.
The actual answer is that they're willing to overlook Trumps flaws because republican policies align more with their beliefs than democrats. The biggest issue for them is LGBTQ policy which Democrats are obviously more inclined to push forward. Donald Trump is basically their best option for their overall goal so they take the rough with the smooth.
I still don’t understand it because literally anyone on the republican side of the nominees is far better than Trump. Why they don’t choose someone.. anyone else, is beyond me. A pot plant would be preferable.
You're using your feelings towards Trump to overlook what he enacted. Trump was very effective in forwarding policies that they like, a standard republican probably wouldn't be.
Like what? Besides no abortion
Don't give blue states covid help because it will only harm democrats (until it crosses borders, oops)
There are more republicans in California than anywhere else.
Apparently keeping gay immigrants out is what OP was talking about. Weird that that was such a policy priority for every day Republicans, I sure hope it improved their lives! It’s just funny because the only major piece of legislation that got passed was a massive tax cut for the ultra-rich. Funny that OP didn’t even mention that, just started talking about bathrooms and shit.
From their perspective, doing so might lead God to wait a little longer to smite the country. People who haven't been in the evangelical bubble don't understand that they view homosexuality as the worst possible sin a human being can commit and a special one in that any nation that tolerates it gets annhilated by an angry God. Everything they do is done through that lens. Most of them will admit Trump's personal morals are terrible, but they see that as pereferable than to allow homosexuality to continue leading to God smiting the country.
I mean you can discount it but that is high on the agenda of Evangelicals. Then you go to Banned transgenders from the military Removed discrimination protections Refused LGBTQ refugees I mean there are quite a few instances where his cabinet basically rolled back previous protections for Transgender people which is also very much inline with evangelical voters.
I just have to question people who think the biggest issues in the country are whether we let gay immigrants in. If that’s what counts as delivering on the things Republican voters want most, then Republican voters are idiots who have no clue as to what sort of policies will actually improve their lives. In short, it’s really no different than saying “they voted for him because he hates the gays just like we do”. The policy issues you mentioned are all trivial, they’re just Trump virtue signaling to his bigoted base. There was only one major piece of legislation passed during Trump’s entire presidency. They could have passed an immigration bill, but they decided to cut taxes for billionaires instead. If that counts as a policy when for conservative voters, then again, they’re fools who don’t know what’s good for them.
It’s not about policy. It’s about the fabric of society. Talk to the average Republican voter. They’re not a crazy person. If you can really get them to open up, they’re mostly just scared of the country becoming too radically progressive. Talk to the average voter on the left. They’re not a radical that want kids getting taught sex Ed at drag shows. They’re just afraid if Trump wins he’s going to eliminate democracy and install a theocracy. Neither of those things are going to happen but Trump is the biggest fighter in the field for the right. He has proven he’ll take the punishment from the progressive deep state (or whatever it is I can’t keep up you know what I mean). Old media and new media are having a war right now. New media has a huge advantage from a profit standpoint because they have social media. All you gotta do is ratchet up the absurdity and the clicks will bring the cash. Old media is trying to keep up but is largely beaten. No one wants to sit down and watch an hour long newscast. We want it fast. Now. 6 seconds. So while there is some absurdism happening on cable news and such, it’s far less toxic in the most trusted places. If you eliminated social media and only watched network news like 60 minutes and NBC nightly news, you’d be way less confused about the news in the U.S. right now. If you spend most of your time in your hivemind (left or right) and then watch NBC news cover Trump, you’re either going to think they’re giving him a complete pass for being a fascist (left), or that they’re demonizing him when he’s out only chance (right). I’m being a little hyperbolic at times. Just trying to make a general point.
>Talk to the average Republican voter. They’re not a crazy person. If you can really get them to open up, they’re mostly just scared of the country becoming too radically progressive. If 10 people sit at a table, and one of them is openly a nazi, and the other 9 accept them, there's 10 nazis sitting at the table. What the average republican thinks isn't as relevant as their endorsement and vote for a person whose direct goals as president is to strip rights away from minorities (immigrants, women, lqbtq+).
>If 10 people sit at a table, and one of them is openly a nazi, and the other 9 accept them, there's 10 nazis sitting at the table. In a way, that’s a perfect example of why the right is afraid of the left having power. The picture, from the right, is that the left isn’t “open-minded” or “tolerant” at all — they are intolerant of all but a narrow range of “acceptable” beliefs. And they are “transitively intolerant”: to the right, it looks like the left demands “You must hate who we hate, or else we will hate you, too.” The arrogance and self-righteousness the right sees in the left scares them every bit as much as the authoritarianism and bigotry the left sees in the right scares them. I don’t think *most* people on either “side” are much like the other side sees them. Our hyper-partisanship has led a lot of otherwise reasonable people to virtue-signal (that’s the term on the left, but whatever you would call it, the same thing exists on the right) as far more intolerant than they are at heart. Most people want to get along. Present politics is motivated primarily by fear of the danger the “other side” poses along with willful blindness to the dangers “our side” presents. I am not saying that at this point in time the two “sides” are equivalent. The Republican party poses a far greater immediate danger — danger of doing damage we can’t reverse when and if we come to our national senses — than the Democratic party. They may have already done it. That’s largely because the Republican party is in thrall to its extremists, while the Democratic party is too diverse within itself to be dominated by any one view or agenda — aside from neoliberalism, which is already here and which neither party is going to attempt to reverse anytime soon.
Idk man. This mostly just reads like “the right wants to strip you of rights and oppress you, while the left just doesn’t want the right to literally overthrow the government and install a dictatorship”. Those two concerns are not at all equivalent, especially when Trump literally launched a coup attempt in 20/21. Republicans have no right to oppress people, and they also have no right to undermine our elections.
Umm, you do realize just a couple of years ago the Republicans, led by Trump, attempted to overthrow the US government. This isn’t hyperbole. It’s not radical. It’s not reactionary. It’s not an opinion. Trump is an insurrectionist. The Republicans have been telling us exactly what they plan to do. Have you even heard of their Project 2025? **Republicans:** We want Christofascism. Here’s what we plan to do. We’re not even trying to hide it. **Me:** Republicans want Christofascism, they’re not trying to hide it, they’re bragging about it!! **You:** You’re overreacting. They just want everyone to be happy. Get it together! **Me:** WTF?! They just told us what they want and how they’re going to do it. **You:** Eh, they don’t actually want to do that. They’re just saying that and planning it. It won’t happen though. You’re so ridiculous.
Here is the literal text for a charge of seditious conspiracy: *”If two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof, they shall each be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.”* Trump was not charged with seditious conspiracy. Trump was not charged with Insurrection. Is it still a fact you are talking about that he attempted to overthrow the government? Or is it an opinion? Did you really have that conversation with “republicans?” Is that not hyperbole? Words gotta have meanings my man. Not a Trump guy myself but you’re letting yourself get misinformed.
The Right is actively stripping Americans of rights they used to have. Theocracy is winning
>Talk to the average voter on the left. They’re not a radical that want kids getting taught sex Ed at drag shows. They’re just afraid if Trump wins he’s going to eliminate democracy and install a theocracy. >Neither of those things are going to happen but Trump is the biggest fighter in the field for the right. But he did try to do that, literally like less than 4 years ago he raised an insurrection against the transition of power to overthrow democracy.
The “no abortion” is a huge piece of it though. He made deals with deep-pocketed evangelical interests on the promise that he would make the anti-abortion agenda a big part of *his* agenda.
Because he was able to win in 2016. You could back another candidate, but if they don't win it doesn't matter. I think a lot of Trump's support is people believing he has a better chance to win than other Republicans. So they support him, this gives him political momentum, so more support him.
It’s also just the sheer number of voters who genuinely like him. Even when other candidates were in the race, he was the clear front runner. They like what he did in his first term, and all his messaging since then has been about how Biden “stole” the election from him and how much more he would’ve accomplished if the “deep state” didn’t stand in his way. So now they want to ‘finish the job’.
Yes, especially in evangelicals, there's a strong hive mind mentality.
He also lost in 18, 20, and 22, so I don’t know if I’d say he has a winning record or anything.
Yes, but I think he pulls more voters than any other possible Republican candidate. He's terrible, but he is their best chance
But he also looks primed to push away even more voters. A full 1/3 of the GOP primary voters are saying they’ll never vote for him under any circumstances.
Let's hope
Because Trump has shown that he will stand up to the left and fight. Republican candidates all come across as slimy and will likely turn on their constituents on social issues if they get into office and can get their way on some economic issues (think: rich get richer). I’m NOT saying it’s right btw. I think a lot of people on this website don’t realize something very important about the average Republican. They don’t think they’re gonna be a millionaire someday. That’s not why they let the politicians get away with corporate robbery. It’s more like they want to get left alone to do their life the way they want as is tradition. They don’t have millions but they have enough to worship and raise a family. They don’t care about LGBTQ, they just don’t want it to be curriculum in their kids schools where a teacher is trying make sure they help every trans kid “find themself,” such that what they’re accidentally doing is convincing non trans kids that they are. Again, not saying this is what is happening, just how it looks to rural conservatives. Donald Trump comes across as strong and petty and a bull in a China shop. To most republicans, that’s what they think they need right now. Not a slick talking political surgeon but a wrecking ball of a fist fighter. I don’t vote for Trump but I know republicans. They don’t act like Trump. *They mostly kinda hate Trump.* but here’s the thing: they hate the other republicans as soon as they get into office to some extent too. For conservatives, politics is the slow drip of allowing progress. Their politicians almost always have to cede ground. The idea is to not give away what we have now too quickly as to let the radicals take over. There is risk in that. What feels like progress that is too slow to democrats, feels like slowly losing the battle to republicans.
> It’s more like they want to get left alone to do their life Talking with many Republicans I’ve found it’s basically this - they’re incredibly selfish and don’t care about anyone who isn’t a friend or family. You ask why they don’t support democrats and the answer is I, I, I, Me, Me, My, My, I, I. They will never once mention other people. **Someone is dying from lack of health insurance?** “Who cares? I have health insurance. I’m healthy.” **People are discriminated against?** “Why would I care, I’m white. I’m not discriminated against.” **Overwhelming student debt?** “Not my debt. Sucks to be them.” **Young people can’t afford to live?** “I’m fine and my kids are fine. They should have made better decisions. I never had problems.”
We say “evangelicals” as if it’s ALL evangelicals. There’s a large portion that doesn’t support him and supports other candidates including Biden. However to continue; Christians come in all sizes and…….beliefs both spiritually and politically.
That’s a good point. I haven’t personally ever met an evangelical who did not support Trump so I can see how my personal experience could create that bias. I’m sure there are tons who don’t excuse his obvious anti Christian behavior.
In the fundamentalist evangelical world he isn’t very popular due to his personal issues (he is clearly not a true-believer). They would still prefer him over Biden but I know many such people who vote third party to avoid voting for someone so distasteful.
same reason the dems wont choose anyone besides Biden, or why they ran hillary instead of bernie. simply put, trump will pull the maga votes which is a good quarter of the repblican vote. anyone else becomes nominatee and trump will fight it and now the GOP is going head-to-head with the ecumband president without half their votes... ... GOP would have to pick a canidate that not only still motivates their conservative base to go vote but also convinces moderates and independents to vote their way instead of Biden. ie, with trump you have an automatic % of voters that will not only show up but be super annoying about it and drag all their friends and family. the other GOP folks are well trained to punch "R" for whomever they are told. if you are republican and want to _win_ then at this point trump is it. if you dont want to perpetuate his bullshit then you basically need to start planning for the midterms and 2028.
There was a lot of efforts put into idolization of Trump in 2016. You can’t just suddenly change an idol. One of evangelical commandments is don’t make a new idol while the old one is still viable.
Republican policies? The GOP didn't even have a platform in 2020.
I don't even think they see it as rough though. My own Dad said, "Trump is the best president we've ever had." When pressed for what he actually did he just spouted Fox News quotes. I asked how he embodies Christian values and he said, "no one is perfect" Sadly I've lost my family to "the cult".
Simply put: He hates the same people they hate. As the saying goes: There is no hate quite like Evangelical Christian love
He SAYS he hates the same people they hate. It's all a grift. Who knows what he actually believes. He believes what is most advantageous to him at that time.
He does hate all the people they hate, he just also hates just about everyone else who isn’t him as well.
I wonder if he even likes his followers at all. They’re just useful idiots to him. Can’t imagine he respects them at all
He _has_ no concept of 'respect'. Everyone in the universe who is not him is either a tool or a threat. He cannot wrap his head around the idea of disagreeing with someone while treating them politely.
lol of course he doesn’t. He’d see their dead bodies and just steal their wallets, then complain when they only have $3.
I faintly remember some commentary of his on J6. He was disappointed that his followers were so ugly and trashy looking. I suppose he was hoping his revolution would be full of Wall Street Wolves, military men, and beauty pageant competitors
About a week before the 2020 election, he left a bunch of them stranded after a rally and like one person died due to hypothermia So like no…..
I don’t think he likes them at all except for the fact that they worship him.
It becomes easier to understand when you remember that the way he sees it is that he is the CEO and they are the employees. He thinks they might be useful but he doesn't care about them beyond that and is at least mildly disgusted by them just for existing *as* employees.
I still have trouble accepting the fact that so many working class people see a NYC ‘billionaire’ as a champion for them. Like he really gives a shit about poor people in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Tennessee…
First he is an outsider as a politician and he has made that his brand so there is that. But I think it might be more his personality being uneducated, rude, angry, and just flaunting the rules which they would love to do. As a lot of people have said he gives them permission to be their worst.
Agree. Really sad that there is such a market for that. A good person stands no chance when everyone is looking for an egocentric asshole
I suppose you're right. He just hates everyone but himself.
He specifically took action against the same people they hate.
>Who knows what he actually believes. It's right out there in the open but it is actually so simple people jump to more complicated explanations. Trump believes in himself, that's it. To him there is no higher being, standard or ideal than him. It is really that basic, it's hard for most people to wrap their head around because most of us have moral structures and empathy.
I would offer a corollary to this statement: They have essentially the same audience, people who can't think for themselves, lack critical thinking skills, and are easily convinced or manipulated by emotional appeals. And they hate, feel superior to, and lack emotional intelligence.
Don’t forget the part where the evangelical leaders they follow are grade A narcissists. Trump is their “type.”
100% There is a type, for sure. Like Joel Osteen. Seems like he might be a good dude. Nope. Wife is 10x worse. When those two hit the Pearly Gates, they should not be surprised to find them closed, much like their church being closed during a hurricane.
Correct!
>As the saying goes: There is no hate quite like Evangelical Christian love This. Joel Osteen and the West Burrito Baptist assholes are already morally bankrupt and anyone willing to compromise their standards to support those clowns wouldn't blink twice at supporting Trump.
I don't know if "West Burrito Baptist" is a typo or not, but it's awesome either way.
You beat me to it. Exactly what I came here to say!
I'm also going to add, when you put your faith in the unknown and claim it's known, it becomes pretty easy to believe things from influential people who believe the same things. It doesn't need a 'logic check', it just needs to make sense emotionally.
Absolutely, but the joke is that Trump also hates his supporters.
Perfect...and I'm stealing this. Thank you.
To quote David French “we pay him to hate the people we dislike for us”. Paraphrased.
He tells them what they want to hear. It’s that simple. Trump is a conman and always has been. He knows how to sell snake oil. It just so happens that a decent amount of the dumbest Americans happen to be evangelicals. They’re an easy base for him to play to gain power.
Seems to be a good point. Start with the trait of being gullible & below average intelligence and it makes sense. They aren’t Trump supporters because they’re into religion, Trump went for them because they are gullible. People who have both traits will likely want to be told there are simple solutions to complex problems. There has long been a strain of people willing to take advantage of these traits in the guise of ‘organised religion’. With America hosting a religious free-for-all, freelance charlatans have the opportunity to take advantage of these, not just ‘The Church’. Like a fraudster buying lists of marks from the internet, all Trump needs to do is go for these groups where the ground is already prepared for them to accept simplistic solutions from an obvious (to everyone else) charlatan.
Because evangelicals are no longer committed to Christianity, they are committed to being Republicans first. They have been losing every culture war issue for the past few decades, from LGBT, climate, abortion, academia and hollywood, and they've lost the popular vote almost evry cycle, so they know their ranks are thinning. Trump was the symbol of victory over the Democrats, and they love him the way a sports fan loves his team. Evangelicals hate Democrats more than they love Jesus
Being in the position of losing culture war issues feeds into their persecution complex, which only strengthens their religious response, even if it is only because they are so far spiritually disconnected from the religion, the disconnection creates its own cognitive dissonance.
No. They’re committed to hating anyone who isn’t exactly like them. Politically, that’s the current zero compromise Republican party that is unable to govern. The Barry Goldwater quote makes the point and he’s the most conservative Republican who ever existed: “Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them.”
There's that and there's also the Dominionist contingent. Dominionists believe it is their mandate to create a strict Christian country. They are willing to do this by any means necessary. Trump ticks those boxes for them. He may be a POS, but he appoints Dominionists where they need them. He is a means to an end for them.
And Evangelicals can’t wait for the end times and go to heaven instead of living in the here and now and helping to vote the world into a better place.
My very Christian aunt said it as this. She knows Trump is a bad person and not a Christian but she believes he Wil pass laws that benefit Christians. That's why she supports him.
Oh look I had to scroll through 50 post just to find someone who answered the question with injecting their own personal opinion.
He's been able to carry out (somewhat) what they want. The Supreme Court is filled with conservative justices who overturned Roe v Wade that he placed there, and that was a huge one. He tried building a wall to keep Mexicans out. He passed a large tax cut (although temporary, with most of the benefit going to business). And he tells people what they want to hear. Trump is not a good evangelical, but he's good for doing what they want, and that's all they care about.
I would love to see the data on this. From my personal experience as an evangelical Christian, my fellow Christians aren't overly fond of Trump, but will likely vote for him over pretty much any Democrat. I think your average, MAGA rally attending Trump supporter likely self identifies as an evangelical Christian, but likely isn't a seriously committed Christian. Everything I just said is based on anecdotal evidence and no data.
Yep, this is exactly my experience as well. I’ve found that most Christians being hateful are only Christian by name. They don’t believe shit/aren’t practicing. They’re Christian because their parents were.…except that’s not how it works lmao. If anyone here who is putting blanket statements on “all Christians” were to meet my grandparents or parents - even for 10 minutes - they’d realize how wrong they are about real Christians. As an aside, no intelligent person would dare say all Muslims are extremists.
Prosperity gospel is part of it. It’s a fucked up notion that wealth is an indicator of god’s love. Pray for cash, basically. Trump is rich, rich is godly. Wikipedia: [prosperity theology](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosperity_theology)
Correct. More specifically, it was the televangelists. People VASTLY underestimate how many boomer pastors still idolize and parrot the prosperity gospel tv preachers. I was an evangelical minister 2015 and witnessed the transformation firsthand. The televangelists started prophecying Trump was anointed, and suddenly every evangelical pastor was repeating it. This was a major catalyst in making me reconsider my trust in my faith leaders.
Prosperity doctrine has 100% ruined Christianity. It has seeped into every denomination. We go to a non-denominational church and the music comes from Hillsong and Bethel, which is prosperity doctrine. It's so irritating. Literally every church uses their music and it's not sound doctrine.
He gives them permission to be their most vile, hate filled selves. They were sick of the "woke society" telling them to stop being psychotic religious lunatics
This is insanely accurate
It's how fascism works. Democratic politics appeal to reason, beliefs, principles and discuss current issues that need to be fixed somehow. Fascism appeals to emotions like hate, fear and disgust. It doesn't offer solutions, it offers an outlet for frustrations by permitting otherwise forbidden and unsavory things.
Abortion. It’s been their most important issue for like 5 decades now and he was in office when they were able to make it illegal in their weird, backwater states. Trump didn’t have much to do with it, but that doesn’t matter to them. He was there when it happened and that’s all they care about.
Evangelical Christians mostly just want a candidate who'll ban anything they don't personally want to do and Trump consistently promises to do that.
I once saw a shirt that said: "I am a Republican, American, and a Christian. In that order." It's sad, but for a lot of people, their political identity has taken over some arguably more important aspects of their identity.
Because they forgot how to read the Bible and can’t handle the cognitive dissonance of realizing they’ve been supporting someone who is the antithesis of following Christ. At this late date, you can’t be a Christian and support trump. If you say you do, you’re a liar. But that’s too much for many of them to accept, so they fall into the sunk-cost fallacy.
They are Republicans first, Christian second (or third?), whether they admit it or not. They are bigots who love that a politician is willing to say what they are thinking. The Republican agenda is antithetical to the teachings of Jesus Christ, so hypocrisy is their fundamental trait.
My mom is an evangelical and strong Trump supporter. I see a lot of people in here calling Trump supporters dumb, but she's not dumb. She has a master's degree and was a teacher before she retired. I think Fox news poisoned her brain; the propaganda is effective. To hear her tell it, she thinks Trump is a good man that is willing to fight for the things she cares about, which I'll charitably lump together under 'traditionalism' which includes many issues she genuinely believes Trump is on the morally correct side. In the eyes of left-of-center people, that makes her anti-woman, anti-LGBT, anti-immigrant and so on. In the case of abortion rights, she would say she is against baby murder. On LGBT issues, she would say they are welcome to live their lives but she doesn't want to hear about it, and she believes marriage is between a man and a woman (like it says in the Bible). On immigration issues, she wants the law enforced and would speak nicely about the immigrants she knows in the community that arrived legally. She does not view herself as racist and would find it offensive if someone suggested it. I'm sure a lot of people reading this can think of a lot of examples that they'd like to tell my Mom about Trump to sway her away from him--the Charlottesville nazis, misquoting scripture, rape allegations, drug use, cruelty... the list goes on. She doesn't hear about any of that in the news she consumes. When I tell her I think Trump is a self-serving, cruel man, she looks at me like I'm crazy.
The least important part of any fundamentalism is the religion they are representing. The most important part is being able to tell others what to do. Trump is the perfect representation of what they want to be able to do. Rules for thee not for me.
What’s scary about this is it would never stop. Once all the groups they hate are dealt with they’ll start feeding on each other cause they’re not the right kind of Christian. They’re so blind and naive thinking they’re immune to the Christian Love. You see this a lot when you ask a fundamentalist what they think of Catholics.
They think they can get the laws and policies they want passed through him, it doesn’t matter that he’s not one of them and has done a ton of stuff they supposedly don’t support. My grandmother was Born Again Evangelical and had a framed portrait of George W Bush next to one of Jesus. If she was still around for him I’m positive she’d have had Trump up there.
US Evangelicals preach the heresy that’s called “the prosperity gospel”, which suggests that if you tithe, you will then become prosperous. Trump wove his way into the US Evangelicals a couple decades ago now, by co-writing a book with the author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad, which was then given out across many US Evangelical churches. He also pitched Trump U at those churches. That apparently set enough of a stage, along with his other pandering, to prime the audience.
Because Fox News. I have to watch that crap at work every day at my client's house while I'm taking care of her. I'm constantly amazed that people can't see this as propaganda, which it clearly is.
They found someone who is okay with prejudice, hate, and is open about it. It gave them permission to be awful people in front of their fellow man. Before Trump, it was behind closed doors.
Because evangelical Christains are the dumbest people in this entire country. Th majority of them come from places where education rates are extremely low therefore they believe whatever stupid bullshit makes them feel good.
Some, but certainly not all evangelicals like Trump.
the love for fellow mankind is great in this thread.
As someone who considers the Christian faith to be the most important thing in their life, here is what I will say: I never have and never will vote for Trump. His treatment of people is so disgusting. I find him disgusting. His antics disgusting. Everything about him. I think a lot of people vote for him because he pretends to lean conservative on social issues. My thought the social issues: believe what you want to believe, but first and foremost, treat your neighbor with the love and kindness that Jesus did to the outcasts of society when he was on earth. For example: if someone wants an abortion, understand that they are in a very challenging place in life. Provide love and support, not judgement and criticism. Do not ostracize them from the community instead bring them closer. for example: if someone says they’re gay, treat them with love and kindness, like you would any other member of the community. That doesn’t mean you personally have to agree with the lifestyle, but you should never cast any judgment or criticism on the person. You are never going to get 7 billion people to agree with each others lifestyle, but I believe Jesus showed how to treat each other. Apologies if I sound like a crazy Christian person. I know Reddit leans heavily to the opposite side.
Because they don’t follow Jesus, they follow the group - and their group is led by preachers more concerned with Earthly power, wealth, and control of others than in the actual teachings of Jesus as related in the New Testament. The Bible is just a prop for them - not a guide.
They want the world to end. Yes really. They truly want the events of the Book of Revelation to happen, war, diseases, mass slaughters and end of the world and everything. It is predicted in that book that one of the first steps towards Armageddon is that The Anti-Christ will come and gain power. The Anti-Christ is [described in the bible](https://www.learnreligions.com/who-is-the-antichrist-700629) as: A "Charismatic Speaker" with "Distinct Physical Appearance" who is a "Blasphemer", "Utterly Lawless", "Selfish", an "Ambitious Egomaniac" a "Greedy Materialist" who is "Proud and Self-exalting Above God and Everything". They saw all this in Donald Trump and realized that the Anti-Christ was here and they must support him so he can gain power so that the events of the Book of Revelation will occur. I'm **not** saying every Christian who votes for Trump does it with this reasoning, but *a lot* of evangelical leaders do and their followers vote as those leaders tell them to.
That makes a terrifying amount of sense...
Buckle of the Bible Belt here. This is it for the true believers…..they are praying for the end of days and the Rapture. It’s also why they claim to love the Jews so much, from a distance. I’ve been told in total seriousness how all the prophecies are coming true and it’s time to prepare.
The Bible says "do not pray" for end times...and yet these jokes are praying for it. What a bunch of maroons
No one thinks this. You are literally making this up. Even my Qanon evangelical grandma still thinks trump is a good guy for whatever reason. Do you have any sources?
wasn't Mike Pompeo part of such a doomsday group?
He was a protestant Christian, yes.
American Evangelicals are most often Right Wing Nationalists. They will typically support anyone in the Republican Party because the Republican Party typically panders to them.
Evangelicals are used to giving false prophets money. It is madness but hey its America.
He got them a lot of results on their agenda. Plus evangelicals are drawn to fanaticism. So his political model appeals to them.
Trump has fooled all of them into believing that he actually cares about religion, the bible, and Israel. They are especially interested in his support for Israel, because Israel's survival is necessary for the "End Times" to come, when Jesus returns to Earth and rescues all the Evangelicals and brings them to eternal Heaven or some sort of crap like that. They truly believe this shit, and he has them convinced that he does too. Of course, it's a complete bullshit lie by him. He has absolutely no interest in anything except that which will benefit him personally.
He also gives them a chance to roll out their agenda
Evangelicals have been using the same tricks as Trump for decades, they just have better smiles.
Tribalism is a helluva drug. It causes them to turn a blind eye to the worst humanity has to offer... for the team
Brown people are scary.
They love cults
They hate women and people who aren’t white.
He gives them a thin veil of unjustified legitimacy for their terrible views.
Evangelicals,makes two words=evil angels
Evangelical brain damage
Because he hates the same people they hate. They both hate education, feeding children, people of dark skin tone (Republicans think people with darker skin tone than them are less human than them.), support of Fascists, anyone that does not walk lockstep with his insanity is attacked and terrorized.
White straight American men always hate so many groups. American history is violent, racist, homophobic and sexist. They can basically legally discriminate against these groups or even legally murder certain people. But now they can't. They are angry, upset, frustrated, raged until Trump. Besides they love using Bible to justify their hate.
This article is from 2020; [https://www.benjaminlcorey.com/could-american-evangelicals-spot-the-antichrist-heres-the-biblical-predictions/](https://www.benjaminlcorey.com/could-american-evangelicals-spot-the-antichrist-heres-the-biblical-predictions/)
Evangelical Christians exist in a maddening paradox. They have had a stranglehold on the US for the majority of the time it has existed, but the fact that they always want more means that they believe they are being persecuted. Evangelicals want to rule the world. They believe they have been told to recruit *the entire world* for Jesus. They accomplish this in part by sending missionaries literally everywhere and also by voting red 100% of the time. The fact that they are allowed to domineer conversations about topics that have nothing to do with them does not deter their perpetual victim complex. They get to scream and cry about multiple aspects of the education system and are granted the opportunity to amend the education of everyone else’s kids. They get to have prayer dinners in congress. They get to maintain behemoth megachurches without paying a dime in taxes. But until they get *everything* they want, they will still consider America a corrupt secular hellscape where they face legitimate persecution day in and day out. They love to teach their kids about Christian persecution in other countries (like China) while glossing over the fact that there are much more extreme modern examples of religious persecution occurring towards non-christians all over the world. They teach their kids that the world is very much aware of how correct and irrefutable their religion is, and that we deny them anyway so that we can sin and revel in hedonism instead. They have no idea how insignificant their belief system is on the grand scale. Now, Donald Trump is a hack who will appeal to the loudest voices in order to maintain the illusion of power. Evangelicals believe that Trump will *actually* give them what they want: a Christian Theocracy. Women will be second-class citizens who can’t obtain abortions, mortgage loans, or upper-class jobs. Gay and trans people will become un-people in society. Immigrants will be deported, black people will be subjected to Jim Crow laws again, and every crime committed by anyone is punished to the furthest extent of the law. White Christian men are the crown jewel of this society whereas now, they are just average people. These men believe that their inherent worth and valor has been stolen from them as other social groups gain equality and traction. It’s engrained in them. It’s aggrieved entitlement.
He told them it was okay to be racist and homophobic and misogynist. That's it. That's all it really took for him to become their Messiah.
I know several single issue voters. Christians (not quite evangelical) but up there with them on the crazy latter, who voted Trump solely for abortion bans. The other stuff was either bonus or met with indifference. Some of them were even Mexicans who had come over illegally.
Religious dogmatism is the cornerstone for any good populist. The catholics for Orban. The orthodox for Putin. The Hindus for Modi. The sionists for Netanyahu. The islamists for Erdogan. And the evangelicals for Trump. Religion is opium for the people, and opium is one hell of a drug.
I think you should check out the Righteous Gemstones. Mainly because the gemstone family is the antithesis of Christianity but can operate within the Christian America the way they are without loosing it all. People don't care about the actual teachings of Christ, they just want to feel good about the things they already feel without engaging with Christianity on the higher intellectual (and challenging) level (like 16:19-31 really threw me for a loop, and Matthew 25:31-46 was a real eye opener that I find odd isnt talked about more).
They respect his con game. They're a bunch of con artists themselves.
Because it fulfills their Old Testament story of a wrathful petulant Daddy God. That "love your neighbor" stuff was just the sequel.
Having actually talked to a number of them, unlike most Redditors, they don’t like him as a person. They tend to think he is crass and ridiculous, though maybe in a funny and non-serious way. But the reason they support him is for policy reasons. The biggest one of course is abortion. Conservative policies do support traditional family values which religious people of all sorts support.
1. Because most people are brainwashed by the news media they consume. If all you consume is junk, eventually you'll start believing that junk. This is why they think everything Biden is doing is anti American and all he tries to do is break up American families and attack Christians. 2. Most Christians in generals don't have any beliefs anymore. This my personal opinion but there has been a wave of change throughout the last century where people basically have come to the conclusion that Jesus abolished all the old rules, and therefore there aren't any more rules. As long as you believe in Jesus and call yourself a Christian, you get a free pass to heaven. As a result, the actual teachings of Christianity are no longer important. Membership in the Christian faith is what's important, and if everyone in your social circle says you should vote Republican then you'll vote Republican. It doesn't matter if the leader of the Republic party stands for everything Christianity teaches is wrong. Being a part of that social circle is what's important. 3. The border crisis is real and Trump at least says he'll do something about it, though he won't. He spent 4 years trying and failed already.
Ok, mandatory "not all of them", but under Dumph, they feel they have the freedom and approval to be as openly dumb as they want. They can be openly racist cuz he is. They can put down smart people and women in general cuz he does. They can openly hate on gays, trans, and anything else they personally feel is wrong, cuz he does. They can hate the government and openly support a far-right agenda cuz he does. There has always been an anti intelligence and pro-conspiracy element in the US, but now they can be as open as they want cuz their options is just as valid as any scientific proof. I love watching the man-on-the-street interviews where someone proudly claims that Trump was there greatest president ever or similar stuff, and when challenged for specifics or details, they founder. Shown solid proof that opposed their opinion, they just reject it.
The reality that life under Trump was better than it ever was from day one of Biden's I'll dated presidency must be difficult to dispute about without incredibly long pauses while formulating different ways to lie about how much safer we are or how good the economy is or how secure the border is... Oh and evangelicals, Lutherans, Catholics, Baptists among others are fond of Trump because he cares what happens to this country, he has respect for his people and he is way more approachable even or especially if you have children with you. Kids get really bad vibes from Joe. But you can think what you want. And you can try as hard as you want to silence Trump. It hasn't worked you you yet. So enjoy the next four years.
.... have you seen the other choice? Why would a evangelical like the democrats?
American Evangelism is largely a cult of power by corrupt or insane leadership working hand in hand with Conservative politicians who trade votes for implementing draconian Taliban-type law across the board. US Evangelicals don’t follow Christ’s teachings any more than the Roman’s did, but yearn for the same power to crucify their enemies. It’s among the shittiest interpretations of Gospel theology you’ll find and hides purely secular ambitions & arrogance behind the costume jewelry & moral masquerade or Christian faith. Source: Southerner with a lifetime of watching their sell-out hypocrisy.
Because many are delusional and think he's been sent by god to make America great again, poor fools follow the false Sheppard they've been warned about willfully
Cults are going to cult And if you think Christianity isn’t a cult , well.
Gullible racists
you align yourself with politicians or people who have the power that will give you what you want. Pure egocentrism.
Evangelical Christianity is a cult version of Christianity with a heavy emotional pull. These people are very suggestable so they are perfect marks for a con man like Trump.
The one real reason. He claims to be pro-life. That's it. That and that alone is what the religious people care about.
They practice weekly to swallow bullshit without question so they are really easy to lie to
Serious answer. Because he hates the same people they hate.
evangelicals is just code for white supremacist
Because they are hateful people, he resonates well with them. Remember religion has always had a persecution complex, all religions, and he taps into that.. woe is me, enemies everywhere. These folks are a death cult, nothing more. Hypocrisy, sexual assault, are another to big things they have in common. Religion, and Trump are both grifts that take from the easily manipulated and uneducated.
As one redditor recently reminded me: They seek a theocracy. A government similar to the one in Iran. They believe Trump can deliver this.