Why are evangelicals so in the tank for Trump?

I just wanted to get this insight down on virtual paper and for the record I will be painting with broad strokes.

Why are evangelicals so in the tank for Trump? I’ve seen some discussion online about how he fulfills their goals or how he is a “Cyrus”, or just an imperfect politician used by a God for godly purposes. And while some of that is what evangelicals will say, I am really intrigued that the craziness and cruelty of Trump seems to focus the evangelical enthusiasm from a practical allegiance to him for their political purposes to a white hot devotion.

The insight springs from an article linked to below, but my re-working of it is that central to the evangelical worldview is a STRONG authoritarian God, and with Trump their psyche is in love with him subconsciously because Trump's erratic behavior is on the same wavelength as their conception of God.

The more I thought of it the clearer it became. If you actually read the Old Testament, God is a really messed up deity. He is viciously cruel, unfair, and mercurial in judgments. And that is SO Trump! The whole thing falls into place with amazing clarity.

Of course there is the "Jesus" thing that is supposedly the Christian reason for the season, but when you can only hold one idea in your head at a time, cruelty generally wins out. And that is another amazing thing about evangelicals, they seem to somehow never notice any of the liberal and compassionate stuff in the Gospel and by some religious alchemy they filter away anything that an authoritarian sees as weakness.

So while I might see the Beatitudes as a temptation to join a Christian cult where there are irrational ideas like,

• Blessed are the poor in spirit
• Blessed are the meek
• Blessed are they who hunger
• Blessed are the merciful
• Blessed are the peacemakers

These thoughts are ignored by any notable evangelical and in the age of Trump such revolutionary thoughts are actually anathema to the Trump/Republican way of life. Trump is always about being “strong”, being “really wealthy”, being bellicose, belligerent, and always threatening. Basically modern evangelicals have adopted Trump and anti-Beatitude framework.

The short version is evangelicals worship a cruel, confusing, mercurial God and Tump is a cruel, confusing, mercurial president. The connections make themselves.

the article is not perfect but still worth reading

https://evonomics.com/lakoff-no-one-knows-why-trump-is-winning/

Why Being "Right" is Never Wrong

Interesting take on religion and politics and how for religious conservatives some people are always on the the wrong side of "right" and others stay "in" no matter what the SIN!

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When your Christian doctrine is built entirely around heaven and hell as a mechanistic punishment/reward system for sin, you will end up bifurcating humanity into two categories: those who can never do anything right and those who can never mess up badly enough to be disqualified.

If sin has to be wicked enough to deserve eternal torture, that means that non-Christians (or Democrats) are nihilistically evil. Nothing about their views or actions can possibly be right, which is why they must not be negotiated or compromised with under any circumstances. There is no reason to try to understand where they’re coming from. They are simply wrong. They must be utterly opposed and utterly delegitimized (for their own good, of course). That’s why doing anything that might contribute to Hillary Clinton’s presidency is unimaginable to Grudem:

If this election is close (which seems likely), then if someone votes for a write-in candidate instead of voting for Trump, this action will directly help Hillary Clinton, because she will need one less vote to win. Therefore the question that Christians should ask is this: Can I in good conscience act in a way that helps a liberal like Hillary Clinton win the presidency?

On the other hand, no sin is great enough to disqualify a born-again Christian from heaven (or a Republican politician from being elected). Leaders who are inside the Jesus fold must be given the benefit of the doubt and complete grace. As long as their sin is acknowledged, it can be instantaneously put on Jesus’ cross and forgiven. That’s why all that Grudem has to do is acknowledge Trump’s imperfections before endorsing him.

He is egotistical, bombastic, and brash. He often lacks nuance in his statements. Sometimes he blurts out mistaken ideas (such as bombing the families of terrorists) that he later must abandon. He insults people. He can be vindictive when people attack him. He has been slow to disown and rebuke the wrongful words and actions of some angry fringe supporters. He has been married three times and claims to have been unfaithful in his marriages. These are certainly flaws, but I don’t think they are disqualifying flaws in this election.

From Patheos