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The New York Times headline proclaims, "The Church of Trump: How He’s Infusing Christianity Into His Movement."
"Ending many of his rallies with a churchlike ritual and casting his prosecutions as persecution, the former president is demanding — and receiving — new levels of devotion from Republicans," the Times proclaims.
Could it be there may be some things about conservatives and Christians the NYT doesn't understand?
There's no question in my mind that the Times wants to mischaracterize about 65,000,000+ Americans.
And help Joe Biden win an election in November.
Be informed, not misled.
The New York Times begins with this:
Soft, reflective music fills the venue as a hush falls over the crowd. Mr. Trump’s tone turns reverent and somber, prompting some supporters to bow their heads or close their eyes. Others raise open palms in the air or murmur as if in prayer.
In this moment, Mr. Trump’s audience is his congregation, and the former president is their pastor as he delivers a roughly 15-minute finale that evokes an evangelical altar call, the emotional tradition that concludes some Christian services in which attendees come forward to commit to their savior.
“The great silent majority is rising like never before and under our leadership,” he recites from a teleprompter in a typical version of the script. “We will pray to God for our strength and for our liberty. We will pray for God and we will pray with God. We are one movement, one people, one family, and one glorious nation under God.”
Passion and piety.
The Times explains that Trump is converting the Republican Party into a kind of "Church of Trump" with absolute devotion that can be seen at every level of the party, from Congress to the Republican National Committee to rank-and-file voters.
"Mr. Trump’s ability to turn his supporters’ passion into piety is crucial to understanding how he remains the undisputed Republican leader despite guiding his party to repeated political failures and while facing dozens of felony charges in four criminal cases. His success at portraying those prosecutions as persecutions — and warning, without merit, that his followers could be targeted next — has fueled enthusiasm for his candidacy and placed him, once again, in a position to capture the White House," the Times warns.
The Times states, "But while Mr. Trump is eager to maintain the support of evangelical voters and portray his presidential campaign as a battle for the nation’s soul, he has mostly been careful not to speak directly in messianic terms."
Trump may be a lot of things, with a line of moral failures, but I'm pretty sure he does not see himself as a "messiah." I've certainly seen no indication of that kind of thinking in anything he has said.
In fact, he told the 14,000-member First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, “This country has a savior, and it’s not me—that’s someone much higher up than me.”
What I do see is a terrified secular progressive left that sees their own messiah miserably failing and the looming possibility of losing power over the people and the opportunities for personal enrichment.
And for the Left---their mission is always so noble it always justifies the means.
The New York Times goes to great lengths to find very few pastors who suggest that Trump is anything more than a political candidate for the presidency of the United States.
Consider this.
Democrats see an advantage in all this. Much of Mr. Biden’s support comes from voters deeply opposed to Mr. Trump, and the president’s advisers see an opportunity to spook moderate swing voters into supporting Mr. Biden by casting Mr. Trump’s movement as a cultlike creation bent on restricting abortion rights and undermining democracy.
Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, a top Democratic ally of Mr. Biden---at least until he gets the opportunity to replace Mr. Biden--- pointed to an increasingly aggressive online presence from the president’s re-election campaign, which has sought to portray Mr. Trump as prone to religious extremism.
“There’s a huge opportunity here,” Mr. Newsom said in an interview. “Trump is so easily defined, and he reinforces that definition over and over and over again. And Biden has a campaign that can weaponize that now.”
"Even more than in his past campaigns," the NYT says, "he is framing his 2024 bid as a fight for Christianity, telling a convention of Christian broadcasters that 'Just like in the battles of the past, we still need the hand of our Lord.'”
I have noticed recently that people are wearing apparel that reads, "Jesus Is Our Lord--Trump is our President."
I think the vast majority of people who support Trump are not far-right religious extremists as the press would have you believe.
Takeaway
Pew Research has published a new survey on the question of why religious people support Trump.
Pew began with this: "For most of the last decade, observers have been trying to understand why so many highly religious Americans have a favorable view of Donald Trump, asking how values voters can support a candidate who has been divorced twice, married three times and found liable for sexual abuse. Is Trump viewed most positively by those who might be described as 'Christians in name only' – people who identify as Christians but aren’t actually religious?"
"The latest Pew Research Center survey sheds light on these and related questions."
The survey contains a lot of interesting information. I think #4 answers the question of why Christians support Trump, and it has nothing to do with messianic misconceptions, as the New York Times would have you believe.
1. Among religious groups, White evangelical Protestants continue to have the most positive opinion of Trump. Overall, two-thirds of White evangelical Protestants say they have a favorable view of the former president, including 30% who have a very favorable opinion of him.
Roughly half of White Catholics (51%) express positive views of Trump, as do 47% of White non-evangelical Protestants and 45% of Hispanic Protestants.
But in every other U.S. religious group large enough to be analyzed in this survey, large majorities have unfavorable opinions of Trump.
2. Trump’s favorability rating is similar among Christians who attend church regularly and those who don’t.
3. Many of the people who view Trump favorably don’t go to religious services regularly – but very few are nonreligious.
4. Most people who view Trump positively don’t think he is especially religious himself. But many think he stands up for people with religious beliefs like theirs. Just 8% of people who have a positive view of Trump think he is very religious, while 51% think he is somewhat religious, and 38% say he is not too or not at all religious.
But 51% of those with a favorable view of Trump think he stands up for people with religious beliefs like their own, including 24% who think he does this a great deal and 27% who say he does this quite a bit.
5. Religious “nones” who are culturally Christian view Trump a bit more positively than religious “nones” who aren’t.
It's really quite simple why certain people in our country support Trump, and some do not.
Franklin Graham explained the "mystery" 4 years ago: "We are not electing a pastor. We're electing a president."
Trump has demonstrated he will stand up for Christians and their biblical beliefs.
To my Leftist Christian friends: Relax. Repent. Reconsider.
Be Informed. Be Vigilant. Be Discerning. Be Faithful. Be Prayerful.