Evangelicals' Anointed One is a Convicted Felon

Donald Trump's convictions for 34 crimes won't shake his evangelical support. Just like serial lying and pussy-grabbing and embracing Nazis didn't. Just like an attempted coup didn't. I could go on, of course, but you know the drill.

One of the most frequent questions I get asked in public and media appearances (and also in social settings) goes something like this: "how can Christians support and even admire Donald Trump?" "How can they claim to be so moral and still adore the grab-them-by-the-pussy-porn-star-hush-money guy?" "They are not real Christians, then, are they?"

Trump's evangelical supporters are Christians. All religions have different interpretations, sects, and denominations. American Christianity certainly has its expansive variations. Just because it conflicts with your own interpretation of Christianity, or with your perception of what Christianity is (or, in your mind, should be), doesn't mean it's not Christianity. Remember the old bumper sticker that read, "The religious right is neither"? It was clever (sort of) but it promoted the misperception that the movement isn't truly religious.

Trump's evangelicals are followers of very peculiarly American brand of charismatic Christianity, which spread rapidly in the latter part of the 20th century, owing to televangelism, the internet, and social media. At its core was a rejection of reason in favor of direct revelation from God; belief in signs, wonders, miracles, and faith-healing; the prosperity gospel; the elevation of self-proclaimed prophets and apostles; and promotion of spiritual warfare against claimed demonic enemies of America. Those supposed enemies include church-state separation, civil rights, feminism, abortion, LGBTQ rights, public education (aka "government schools"), and liberal democracy itself.

This wild religious environment, which is also a big business, has long been ripe for Republican politicians to exploit. A single meeting, handshake, or endorsement could reach the vast audiences that many of these televangelists—I guess now we'd call them influencers—enjoyed. Over time, Republican politicians became less squeamish than say, George H.W. Bush appeared to be when he made a cringy appearance on the Trinity Broadcasting Network to boost his 1988 presidential campaign. Increasingly, ambitious Republicans sought out this movement's growing audiences. But no one figured out how to harness it better than Trump, who emerged as the televangelist candidate, and later, president. Sow your seed, save America.

People steeped in this kind of religious fervor were primed to fall under the spell of a messianic leader in Trump. His powerful backers successfully used their platforms to portray him as anointed by God to lead America at a pivotal juncture in its history. That is, to rescue America from its demonic enemies (what the rest of us would think of as freedom, equality, progress) and "restore" it as a Christian nation, as God intended.

The anointing is central to this Christian nationalistic enthrallment with Trump, and shows us why we can't not see this as a religious movement. If God anointed Trump, how could he lose the 2020 election? Must have been stolen. If God anointed Trump, how could he have devised an illegal plot to cover up an affair with a porn star to hide it from voters? Must be the corrupt prosecutorial arm of the deep state.

Evangelicals want Trump back in the White House. Whether their leaders are cynically stoking a base they know to be true believers in the anointing or whether they believe in it themselves, their championing of Trump is targeted directly at the heart of democracy. They want to subvert the rule of law, enable corruption, undermine freedom and equality, and foster an unaccountable judiciary that will enforce their vision of a "Christian nation" governed by "biblical law."

Trump isn't a libertine with a mystifying base of incongruous supporters. He's the leader of a messianic movement out to destroy equal rights and democracy. I don't know what, if anything, could break the spell. But the rest of us should understand the spell is real, and know what we're up against.