“And on June 14, 1946, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, ‘I need a caretaker.’ So, God gave us Trump.”
I didn’t make that up. It comes from a video distributed by ever-humble Trump himself. It is a voice-over, so we don’t know if it was God himself hired as narrator. He can’t be inexpensive, but, what the hell, He is certainly worth every penny it takes.
My interest is only political, but I have tried to understand evangelicals’ embrace of Trump, including here in Iowa. Trump hasn’t found a commandment he wouldn’t break. He lies, cheats on wives, essentially steals through fraud. The hold Donald Trump has on evangelicals across the country is astounding.
As he has from his holy start, the Orange Deity reigns over our parade (oops, rains.) Like most of you, I was excited to learn that Donald Trump was ordained by God and that a recent blessing came with the first absentee ballot ever mailed from Heaven. The postmark and return address make it special, and it should be cherished, but Trump, I’ve heard, put it on display in the Trump Tower lobby and has been selling copies to evangelicals, claiming each is the real thing.
Evangelicals somehow believe Trump’s nonsense, and think they are patriots and saints when they vote for him. It intrigues me even as it bewilders me and scares the religion out of me. This is not the Christianity that fills the heart with love.
Evangelicals believe they must be born again. (“If you bothered to be born again, why did you come back the same way?”)
As best I can tell, being born again should involve only a person’s relationship with God and the Bible as the law. They don’t have to worship Trump or vote for him as so many have and will. That is what continues to worry me, even as his support seems to be shrinking.
About a quarter of our population is evangelical. Most evangelicals are Republicans. Only 20% identify as Democrats—I’d guess almost all of these are Black, and understand racism as most evangelicals do not (or are themselves bigots.) It is hard not to sound irreligious or prejudiced in disparaging evangelicals for their Trump idolatry. They may be more Christian, but I think I’m more religious than most of them. Trump is a false idol, a Golden Calf.
I am used to Trump’s ego trips, his nasty tongue, chronic philandering. Long after Trump has gone to his reward, his devoted followers and their children and grandchildren will fill a century with hate and delusion.
Here is the video again: ‘‘God said, ‘I need somebody willing to get up before dawn, fix this country, work all day, fight the Marxists, eat supper, then go to the Oval Office and stay up past midnight at a meeting with the heads of state.’ So God made Trump.’’
If you meet an Evangelical for Trump, first wash your hands, and then quote from the Book of Jonah.
“Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love.”
Norman Sherman of Coralville has worked extensively in politics, including as Vice President Hubert Humphrey’s press secretary, and authored a memoir “From Nowhere to Somewhere.”
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