Certainly, the Loser winning the 2020 presidential election in a miraculous "Landslide!" is an Evel Kenievel leap of faith that squarely casts dead-end Trumpers as devotees of a creed that eschews the normal, factually-based metrics of this world, and the virtual, virulent rejection of all who respect them. Has the cult of dysfunctional personality exacted its toll upon our democratic system, the Republican Party, and Christianity? Much has been written about White evangelicals’ central role in the fraying of democracy. More attention, however, should be paid to the damage the political movement has inflicted on religion itself. The demographic — which remains in the throes of White grievance and an apocalyptic vision that postulates America (indeed “Western civilization”) is under attack from socialists, foreigners and secularists — forms the core of the MAGA movement. Many have rejected the sanctity of elections, the principle of inclusion and even objective reality... Members of the most populous, most powerful demographic in the nation - White Christians - whinging in self-pity as they cast themselves as discriminated against and persecuted is pathetic, to be sure, but those who put a strange god, a very strange god, before their purported religion's ethos are squealing a rapturous "Gimmee that new-time religion!" ... The doctrinal elevation of the “big lie," the increase in violent rhetoric and the effort to rig elections all reflect a heightened desperation by the MAGA crowd. This has driven the GOP to new lows (e.g., vaccine refusal to “own the libs,” virtually all House Republicans defending an animation depicting the murder of a congresswoman). The new, new testament of Trumpery is antithetical to the two-millennia-old message of the faith. Peter Wehner, an evangelical Christian explains in a column for the Atlantic how a recent speech from Donald Trump Jr. reflects the inversion of religious faith: “The former president’s son has a message for the tens of millions of evangelicals who form the energized base of the GOP: the scriptures are essentially a manual for suckers. The teachings of Jesus have ‘gotten us nothing.’ ” Wehner continues: "It’s worse than that, really; the ethic of Jesus has gotten in the way of successfully prosecuting the culture wars against the left. If the ethic of Jesus encourages sensibilities that might cause people in politics to act a little less brutally, a bit more civilly, with a touch more grace? Then it needs to go. Decency is for suckers." Understanding this phenomenon goes a long way toward explaining the MAGA crowd’s very unreligious cruelty toward immigrants, its selfish refusal to vaccinate to protect the most vulnerable and its veneration of a vulgar, misogynistic cult leader. If you wonder how so many “people of faith” can behave in such ways, understand that their “faith” has become hostile to traditional religious values such as kindness, empathy, self-restraint, grace, honesty and humility. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/12/28/trump-idolatry-has-undermined-religious-faith/ Of course, the allure for bible thumpers could be just the beatific vision of rutting with bimbos behind the backs of trophy wives.
