Trump And The Christian Right
When Donald Trump became president in 2017, as a result of an American travesty known as the electoral college system, he exposed the truth about a lot of people. The number one group has been the Christian right. Despite professing their endless love for Jesus Christ, they are the antithesis of his teachings. Teachings such as; do unto others as you would have others do unto you, love your neighbor as you love thyself, and judge not lest ye be judged, are ignored by the Christian right on a daily basis. If the Christian right didn't know it was Jesus Christ they would call him a long-haired liberal who wants to give out free health care and food.
In addition to ignoring the teachings of Christ, they support a thrice-married adulterer who owned casinos. Of course, he managed to go bankrupt in a 100 billion-a-year industry. Right-wing Christians believe the Ten Commandments should be posted on every government building yet they support a man who has broken almost all of them without apology. “Thou shalt have no God before me” but come on, no man worships himself like Donald Trump. “Thou shalt not steal”, he settled out of court for running a sham University while he used his campaign funds to pay hush money to a pornstar he was committing adultery with. (That's just three commandments so far)
“Thou shalt not make unto thee any Graven image”. Since the 1980s Donald Trump has based his entire Persona on acquiring wealth (even though he sucked at it). Trump has no problem taking the lord's name in vain while working on the Sabbath and tweeting false information about anyone if it suits his purpose. That's four more. His jealousy of anyone richer or more popular shows every time he makes a tweet. Now he probably honored his parents because he was counting on the Inheritance, but people definitely died as a result of his downplaying of COVID.
Despite Donald Trump's rejection of the Ten Commandments and the principles of Christ, millions of Republican Christians, evangelicals being the worst, proudly support trump. News footage of trump rallies will show his cult wearing t-shirts saying things like “Better russian,Then a Democrat”,“Jesus Is My Savior, Trump is my president” and “God, Guns, and Trump” One dumbass had a shirt saying “Make America Godly again” with an image of Jesus putting his hands on Trump's shoulders. I'm an atheist and I still find this offensive.
When asked why they support Trump his worshipers will point to his views on abortion, lgbt rights, and guns. The funny thing is that the Bible doesn't say anything about abortion or guns and despite the right wing narrative it says very little about homosexuality. Like a lot of Christians they don't actually read the Bible they just take the bits and pieces that sound good at the time.
“Trump supports Jesus and without Jesus America will fail”, “I believe he believes in God and our military men and women in our country in America” are some quotes from some of the zombies at his rallies. When asked how these people claiming to be Christian can support Trump they will say things like the Bible believes in forgiveness. Of course this forgiveness only applies to other republicans.
In 2016, shortly after the Access Hollywood tapes were Trump bragged about sexual assault came out, the Pat Robertson Christian Network started the “King Cyrus” narrative. On one of the shows, evangelical Lance Wallnau told Chris Mitchell that “Trump is a modern-day King Cyrus, chosen by God to navigate through the chaos.” Wallnau cited the growing threat from China, Russia, and Iran, and concluded America's going to have a challenge either way. With Trump, I believe we have a “Cyrus” to navigate the storm.” After this interview other Christian sheep jumped on the bandwagon.
Cyrus was a historical Persian king in 6th Century BC who conquered Babylon and ended the Babylonian Captivity. This was the period where Israelites had been forcibly resettled. The invasion allowed Jews to return to Israel and build a temple in Jerusalem, according to the Bible, which needs to be taken with a whole lot of salt.
King Cyrus wasn't a Jew and didn't worship the god of israel, but he has used as an instrument of God in the book of isaiah. Wallnau also pointed out that the verse about Cyrus being anointed is Isaiah 45 and Trump is the 45th president. Wow, Wallnau even has the nerve to claim God told him “Isaiah 45 will be the 45th… president Isaiah 45 is Cyrus’.
Andrew Whitehead, assistant professor of Sociology at Clemson University who studies Christian nationalism pointed out the Ridiculousness of the Cyrus bullshit narrative. He is quoted saying “Christian nationalist rhetoric, defending America's Christian Heritage are common tropes, but what makes Trump interesting, a test as to the power of this Christian nationalist rhetoric, is that regardless of the personal piety he used, his use of that rhetoric still resonated and people still voted for him.” He's got to hand it to the people who came up with this con. Trump can be trump, piss off all over the Ten Commandments and his “spiritual advisors” can say “that's all right he is a vessel being used by god.”
It gets worse. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu promoted this ridiculousness after Trump moved the American Embassy to Jerusalem. In a press conference he said “we remember the proclamation of the great king, Cyrus the Great, Persian king. 2500 years ago he proclaimed that the Jewish exiles and Babylon could come back and rebuild our temple in Jerusalem, and we remember how a few weeks ago…. Mr President this will be remembered by our people throughout the ages. “
Netanyahu is right, Trump's presidency will be remembered for the ages. It should be a reminder of just how stupid people can be. It's also a reminder of what happens when people use religious text to make important decisions. Regardless of Trump's recent conviction for paying off a pornstar he cheated with while his third wife was pregnant. He won't lose his Christian following. It's really a sad state of affairs when the most corrupt president in US history could get a second term regardless of:
-Being a felon, and having 3 more criminal court cases
-Having broken every Political promise he has made including his Border Wall.
-taking sides with Vladimir Putin against our intelligence Agencies
-Trying to overturn a democratic election because he lost
And so many more things that make him the most unqualified president in US history (and thats a pretty low bar)
Despite these facts, millions of American Voters are willing to re-elect him because they believe he is the Reincarnation of a Persian king 2500 years ago who unintentionally helped some Jews in Israel.