Why Millions of Ex-Christians Trade Christ for Trump

Thousands of words have been written about the recent Republican caucuses in Iowa. I’m not going to add my thoughts to the mix, but the news did make me think about several questions that have confounded me since the 2016 election. The main ones are these: Why would millions of white evangelical Christians vote for Donald Trump in 2016? And why would Christians trade Christ for Trump, as many have, since 2016?

In writing this article, I didn’t want to make accusations without supporting them. I turned to quite a few sources because as a one-time journalist, accuracy and the truth are extremely important to me.

Rather than rely on one source for the statements I make, I found additional sources to confirm my original sources. I won’t name bother to name the latter, but my major sources were:

• The Global Center for Religious Research
• The Washington Post
• Time
• ABC News
• The New York Times

Several articles by other contributors to Patheos were also helpful and worth your time, although I didn’t quote from them. They are:

• Gearing Up for the Fight Against the Donald Trump Cult” Donald Trump cult
  by Mary Pezzulo”
• “Autocrats Are Bad, Actually” by Mary Pezzulo
• “The Trump Indictment and the Scandal of American Christianity” by Mary Pezzula
• “Power Vs Goodness in 2024” by Ted Peters
• “Trump As Our Example” by the Rev. Rob Schenick.

Now, let’s get back to my questions. Those questions led me to several “how’s” and “why’s” about America’s political landscape in recent years:

• How could anyone, especially a supposedly devout Christian, support an immoral man who flaunts his immoral behavior? His constant lies, corrupt business practices and immoral sexual behavior are decades old and show that immorality goes to the core of his being.
• Why would millions of people vote for a narcissist who seems incapable of loving anyone — including Christ and his supporters? Why, indeed?
• Why does anyone support an extremely arrogant businessman who went bankrupt six times? His numerous bankruptcies tell me he is incapable of leading or managing a major business — or a huge federal government.
• Aside from logic and moral and religious considerations, why do so many white evangelicals believe in a man who has frequently expressed his disdain for American democracy, the U.S. constitution and the laws of the land? He took an oath to support and uphold the constitution, not destroy it. It’s an oath that all presidents have taken, and Trump failed miserably.

Some of his so-called Christian supporters have gone as far as rejecting Christ to follow Trump. I would direct these people to Exodus 20:2-17, which contains the 10 commandments. In those commandments, God tells us, among other things, You shall put no gods before me, you shall not worship idols, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not lie and you shall not steal.

A Depraved & Corrupt History

Yet, all too many so-called Christians trade Christ for Trump.

The following list offers quite a few reasons for Americans to reject Donald Trump once and for all in 2024. It’s obvious that millions of evangelical “Christians” ignore these reasons, but my hope is that the list reminds the rest of us to vote.

Let’s refresh our memories about Donald Trump’s actions and words. Some are monstrous and none are Christ-like. Trump has….

1. Made baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him, despite President Biden receiving more than 81 million legal votes to Trump’s 74 million (I’m no math whiz, but when I use a calculator, 81 million is more than 74 million.) Trump’s baseless claims have damaged Americans’ trust in their country.

But let’s get on with this list. Trump also has….

2. Referred to armed terrorists who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 as “a loving crowd” and refused to call them off (those people were trying to keep Trump in power by stopping the constitutional election process)
3. Verbally attacked U.S. soldiers, war veterans and war heroes such as the late Republican Sen. John McCain, and families who have lost family members through war
4. Falsified his medical records to avoid the Vietnam-era draft (I’ll leave you to reflect on this one)
5. Deported members of the U.S. military who are non-white (no subtle racism here)
6. Praised war criminals and dictators such as N. Korean dictator Kim Jong Un (“We fell in love”), Chinese strongman Xi Jinping (“We love each other) and Vladimir Putin (“Putin is a nicer person than I am.”)
7. Undermined U.S. intelligence agencies, thus putting American lives at risk
8. Was ordered by a federal court to pay $25 million to students who filed a class action lawsuit against Trump and his fraudulent Trump University. (The students said they were duped by Trump and his sham university, and the organization is now closed.)
9. Used campaign donations for personal use
10. Avoided paying taxes on his properties and bragged about it
11. Committed adultery with numerous women
12. Was found financially liable for sexually assaulting one woman and stands accused of sexually assaulting several others
13. Paid his mistresses to keep quiet about their adulterous liaisons with him
14. Separated immigrant babies and toddlers from their parents
15. Called desperate immigrants rapists and terrorists
16. Disparaged African nations as “shithole” countries
17. Spread ugly propaganda against women, blacks and other people of color, Jews, Muslims and people who identify as LGBTQ+
18. Ridiculed disabled people
19. Spread false rumors about people who oppose him, including his political opponents
20. Suggests that he should be able to kill his opponents
21. Declares that he wants to become a U.S. dictator
22. Undermines the U.S judiciary by attacking judges who oppose him
23. Was involved in witness tampering (the news site Axios is one media outlet that has talked about this issue. It’s story concerns Trump’s legal problems in Georgia and references “Trump’s long history of trying to influence witnesses”)
24. Refuses to condemn supporters who commit hate crimes “in his name”
25. Encouraged abuse of power by law enforcement
26. Appointed white supremacists to powerful positions
27. Made an estimated 30,573 false or misleading statements as president (in other words, he lied)
28. Bribed the Ukrainian president for personal political gain
29. Delayed federal disaster aid to Democratic-led California during devastating wildfires
30. Obstructed an investigation into reasons that congressionally approved money was not sent to help hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico
31. Denies climate change (a stance that will come back to haunt our children and grandchildren)
32. Denied the seriousness of the COVID-19 pandemic, which killed nearly 1.2 million Americans
33. Slashed badly needed funding for children’s food programs (so, it seems he supports abortion to get the evangelical vote but has no interest in helping low-income mothers who are forced to have babies they cannot support)
34. Denied badly needed funding for public housing for low-income Americans (again, he has no interest in helping people in need)
35. Slashed badly needed funding for mental health programs (he has shown his lack of interest in mental health programs that might – just might – reduce the number of mass shootings in this country)

A Vivid Picture of Depravity

There’s more, but I’ll stop here. This list should be enough to paint a vivid picture of Donald Trump’s character – or lack of character, lack of a conscience and depravity. The only good thing to say about him is that he, like the rest of us, is a child of God.

Which item on the list would cause you to change your vote from Trump to anyone but Trump? It would take only one – any one – of the items for me.

My first impression of Trump was that he is a failed New York businessman, and I looked at his 2016 candidacy as a joke. The first time I saw Trump’s true character was during the 2016 campaign when he mocked reporter Serge Kovaleski, who has a congenital defect in his joints. Watch the incident by clicking on NBC’s website here.

This one appalling action told me all I needed to know about Trump’s character. I was taught early in childhood that my family did not disparage people who were somehow “different” than we were. For a child, it meant we did not stare at or comment on another a person’s differences. Such behavior was unacceptable.

I have an early memory of walking past a woman who had a gray goatee, and I stared at her. Of course, I stared. She didn’t have a disability, but she was “different.”

My stare locked upward onto her face as she walked toward my mother and me, and I felt mother jerk my arm. Once we were beyond the woman’s earshot, mother admonished me, though I don’t remember her exact words. But I do remember mother saying the woman was proud of her goatee. Lesson learned.

Failing to Distinguish between Right & Wrong

When I look at Trump, I sometimes wonder about his early family life. Did anyone in his family ever tell him that he shouldn’t mock people? Probably not. Did anyone ever talk to him about distinguishing between right from wrong? From what I’ve read, I doubt it.

Stories about Donald Trump’s father come to mind. Fred Trump was an infamous landlord in New York — so infamous that singer/songwriter Woody Guthrie, who lived in a Fred Trump building, reworked one of his songs, “I Ain’t Got No Home,” to slam him. Read the New York Times story, “Woody Guthrie Sang of His Contempt for His Landlord, Donald Trump’s Father,” here.

So, my question remains: Why in God’s name do millions of so-called evangelical “Christians” support Donald Trump? The Bible tells us that we cannot follow a depraved man like Trump and simultaneously follow Christ.

The Bible also is very clear about worshipping anyone other than God, which some right-wing white Christians seem to do with Trump. The Almighty gave us his commandments in Exodus 20:1-17, and the first commandment says, “You must not have any other god but me” (New Living Translation). That’s as clear as it can be.

The second commandment elaborates: “You must not make for yourself an idol of any kind or an image of anything in the heavens or on the earth or in the sea. You must not bow down to them or worship them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods.”

God will not tolerate it….

Trying to Justify Things That Cannot Be Justified

So, how do so-called Christians justify ordering a golden statue of Trump for the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2021? Did any of them even think about the graven image covered in gold that the Israelites made while Moses was on the mountain with God?

Matthew 12:31-32 quotes Christ as saying that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is the one unforgivable sin. Blasphemy, according to Merriam-Webster, is defined as “the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence for God.” In my mind, the golden statue of Trump does insult God, and it’s very reminiscent of the Israelites’ golden statue.

Yet, some “Christians’” behavior is more blatant. The Charlotte Observer recently wrote about how so-called Christians trade Christ for Trump.

The story involved congregants who have “told pastors Jesus is weak, or at least his message (is), and that Trump is strong. They seem to believe following Trump instead of Jesus will get them to a promised land of glory and power quicker.”

Note the plural words “pastors” and “they.” This story wasn’t about one pastor, one church or one person.

At one point in 2023, U.S. News and World Report said, “Comparisons likening Trump to Christ were among the top online narratives about the Republican former president and his criminal charges circulating in the last several days, according to an analysis of online and social media content conducted by Zignal Labs, a media intelligence firm, on behalf of The Associated Press.”

Marjorie Taylor Greene, an extreme right-wing U.S. representative from Georgia, likened legal prosecution of Trump to persecution of Christ.

“The comparison was denounced by Episcopal Bishop Reginal T. Jackson, who oversees more than 500 churches in Greene’s home state and called her comments blasphemous and disgusting,” U.S. News and World report said at the time. “’While Marjorie Taylor Greene may put her political loyalty ahead of God, Christians do not,’ Jackson said.”

Thank you, Bishop Jackson, for pointing out the blasphemy.

Why, Why, Why Do So-called Christians Trade Christ for Trump?

Why would some Christians risk their salvation by trading Christ for Trump?

Writing for The Atlantic on Jan. 16, 2024, Tom Nichols writes that many Trump voters “can’t accept what’s happened over the past several years, and they blame other Americans.”

Nichols is precisely the type of person Trump voters hate. He’s a well-educated writer and PhD who specializes in international affairs. He also was a professor at the U.S. Naval War College for 25 years before retiring.

In his Jan. 16 article for The Atlantic, Nichols leads with this strong statement: “Donald Trump is the presumptive GOP nominee, and he has vowed revenge on his political enemies. His voters want revenge as well – on their fellow citizens.”

Nichols writes that Trump wants “payback” and “so do millions of voters who have no one to blame for their sense of humiliation but themselves.” Trump and the right-wing media constantly fuel the anger of those voters, who are generally older, white and middle class.

Angry Whites vs. the Changing World

I have sensed for a long time that Trump voters are largely angry white people incensed by greater rights for…

• Blacks and other non-whites
• Women
• LGBTQ+ community
• And until recently, greater abortion rights for women

Trump’s voters seem to feel they are on the losing end of these advancements. Perhaps they are. I don’t know.

But as I think about the 2024 election, my thoughts are coalescing. Perhaps the final straw for these voters was the election of a black man named Barak Obama in 2008. I know for a fact that his election incensed many southerners.

These voters want to return to the “good old days” of the 1950s and earlier when everyone knew their place. Intimidation and fear kept most blacks in their “place,” gays were invisible, and America’s big lie about being a land of opportunity went unchallenged for the most part.

A Desire to “Get Even”

I doubt that anything will persuade Trump’s true believers that they are wrong. Their unwavering support seems to be in their DNA.

“These voters now want to get even with their fellow citizens not for what they feel has been done to Trump but for what they feel has been done to them,” Tom Nichols writes.

“They were certain that 2016 would finally bring them the recognition and respect they craved. Instead, Trump set them up for a steady diet of ego-bruising rebukes from other voters.”

Still, they support him.

Looking Deeper

Yet, we need to delve even deeper to understand the mentality of these voters, as CEPR does in its post, “The Case for Trumpers’ Anger.” CEPR (Center for Economic and Policy Research) is a leading network of more than 1,700 economic policy researchers and is based in Europe. It’s just one more academic organization that many Trump followers would hate were they aware of it.

CEPR notes that a large majority of voters who “are willing to follow Donald Trump over any cliff” are not just white but non-college educated whites. That distinction is important.

“They have open contempt for more educated people (a.k.a. the ‘elites’) and their institutions, such as universities, mainstream media outlets, and science.”

I don’t feel that way, which makes it difficult for me to understand their feelings. I’m a well-educated white woman whose life was transformed by college, where new worlds opened up for me. Learning new things has always been important to me, and I believe that the day I stop learning will be the day I die.

Many Trump Supporters Feel ‘Screwed’

Please bear with me in this section about CEPR’s research even if the thought of economics causes you to roll your eyes. I don’t like economics, either, but it’s an important factor in this article.

CEPR says in reference to the U.S., “We know the data on what has happened to income distribution over the last four decades.

“To take a simple point of reference, in debates on the minimum wage we often talk about how if it had kept pace with inflation since its peak in real value in 1968, the national minimum wage would be over $12 an hour at present, compared to its current $7.25.”

Prior to 1968, the minimum wage didn’t just keep pace with inflation. It rose, the CEPR article explained. “Imagine (if) the lowest paid workers, the people cleaning toilets in office buildings or bussing dishes in restaurants, earned $52,000 a year if they worked a full-time job for the whole year. A two minimum wage earner couple would be pulling down $104,000 a year.”

My belief is that Democrats tend to support increases in the minimum wage, while Republicans strongly oppose increases. But all too many voters either don’t know that fact, or they fail to remember it.

Working Harder for Less Real Income

CEPR raises another problem for America’s under-educated low-wage earners. The problem is that American men with only a high school education saw real wages fall by 7% between 1979 and 2021 while productivity increased about 80 percent.

Low-income Americans were working harder, but the money they earned didn’t reflect it. The situation is even worse for American women, who earn only 63 percent of the amount men with the same education earn in equivalent jobs.

Yet, there’s more.

People in power who control economic policy, as well as those darlings of the Republican party – e.g., corporations – have contrived to rig the economy to enrich themselves at the expense of low-income earners for decades, Center for Economic and Policy Research pointed out.

Those in power “lied about the fact that they rigged it and ridiculed the less educated for not being able to compete in the modern economy,” according to the center.

Major media outlets, which are controlled by large corporations, repeated the false story and rarely talked about the difficulty people have when they aren’t trained for most high-paying jobs.

Trump constantly fuels the hatred that white, non-college educated Americans feel for their own situation and the powers-that-be who created it.

Ironically, Trump is a billionaire, a powerful man and the least likely person to understand his core supporters’ plight. But he knows how to manipulate his supporters.

CEPR has more to say on this subject, but I’ll stop here. Its post, “The Case for Trumpers’ Anger,” is an eye-opening article that I hope more people read. You may check it out here.

My Eureka Moments
The CEPR post has given me several eureka moments because economic need is understandable. I doubt that Trump gave deep thought about any of this because he’s apparently incapable of deep thought. But I think he has instinctively tapped into some people’s deep anger and fear because he, himself, is an angry man.

I won’t attempt to explain Donald Trump’s psychology, but you can read Mary Trump’s postings about her uncle. As Donald Trump’s niece, she has two things going for her: She knows him personally, and she’s a clinical psychologist. You can find her online by searching for “Mary Trump.”

In Closing

We have now circled back to the beginning of this post about why many Christians trade Christ for Trump. It seems Trump has tapped into their deep-seated and long-simmering anger to the point that this emotionally and spiritually damaged man is their savior – their new messiah.

He is more important to them than their faith in God or Christ’s teachings. They have replaced Christ with a broken and dangerous loser who blasphemies God with every breath he takes.

Do I believe my words — or anyone’s words — will change the minds of these so-called Christians?

No.

Hard-core Trump supporters have let their hearts harden to the extent that only God can reach them. But I feel I must speak while I have the opportunity to do so.

If you share my concerns and horror at the thought of another Trump presidency, PLEASE VOTE!