Sean Illing interviewed Stephen Mansfield who is an Evangelical Christian but one of the few who does not support Donald Trump.
I must admit I didn’t read the interview. I only read the introduction. Because I don’t really care. There’s only one thing I do care about and that is that 80% of Evangelical Christians voted for Donald Trump. You remember Donald Trump: the guy who’s on his third marriage, who plays around, makes money from the gambling industry, believes in money above all else, lies as though would get a price for it, and admits proudly to molesting women. That Donald Trump. You’d think that Evangelical Christians would be against a man who Jesus would hate. But what do I know?
Christian Trump Apologetics
You see, I don’t see Stephen Mansfield as an actual researcher of the Evangelical Christians who voted for Donald Trump. I see him as an apologist. I see him as a man who is trying to justify why these people would go against everything they claim to believe in to vote for this man.
For example, Mansfield thinks that Evangelical Christians voted for Trump because they thought that he would put people on the Supreme Court who would be anti-choice. Well as you know if you read my article Religious Right: Racism Not Abortion, you would know that the religious right’s absolute focus on abortion is something that was created. It was just a cover to allow religious schools in the south to continue to be all white.
So okay: I have little doubt that the 80% of Evangelical Christians who voted for Trump told themselves that they were voting for him because he would appoint anti-choice judges. But the truth is that it wasn’t really hard for them. Donald Trump’s major appeal was that he was a racist. And so are they. So they voted for him without much thought. He was just the kind of President they wanted!
(Data on the subject is hard. But in general, we know that anti-abortion laws don’t decrease abortions by much if any. Instead, they lower legal, safe abortions. There has never been any question in my mind that anti-choice laws, and the increasingly popular anti-contraceptive laws, are mostly about limited women and punishing them for the act of sex. Christians are a particularly vile group when it comes to this — especially when you consider that Jesus never brough the subject up.)
Early Christians and How Different They Were
I read a lot about Christian theology and about the early Christian sects. And this is clear: they would never have voted for someone like Donald Trump. Because they believed in something. They believed in the word of Jesus Christ. Modern Christians, at least the modern ones here in America. have very little interest in the word of Christ.
In America today, Evangelical Christians are overwhelmingly a group of white people who don’t like anyone else. And that’s really all you have to say about them. You can take a white Evangelical Christian and a white non-evangelical Christian and you will find nothing that separates them. They are just the same with the same bigotries. And if Christ is in their heart there is no indication of it outside of it. They are some of the vilest and intolerant people in the world.
No Christian Terrorists Because They Are in the Majority
The funny thing is that they hate Muslims so much. Because the truth is that if they were not a majority in this country and if they were not constantly pandered to, they would be just like the most extreme Muslims. They would pick up guns and kill people. They would create suicide vests. The Prince of Peace? That’s a joke to these people. The Christ that most of us think of is so different from the Christ that they think of.
To them, Christ is more like Rambo than St Francis. And they are proud of it!
I’m not just talking out of thin air here. I’ve talked to a lot of them. And they have no idea of Christian theology. All they have is the idea that they are the chosen people. They are the people who God loves. And anything they can do to hurt other people who are not chosen by their God is great.
So, of course, they would be for Donald Trump. That is about as surprising as the fact that if you let go of a ball from your hand in the air it will fall to the ground.
Modern Christians: Thugs
It’s funny but I’ve spoken to a number of business owners and they have all told me the same thing. The Christians are the ones they have to watch out for the most. They are the ones who will try to skim a buck here and do other things that people who do not have the supposed Lord in their hearts would never do.
It’s really amazing. Think about it. The early Christians were known for their moral rectitude. And today Christians think that their belief in God allows them to act like common thugs. It’s truly amazing. I’m no more interested in what modern American Christians think then what the insane homeless man has to say. Remember: the Italian and Irish mafia were extremely religious.
So let’s not waste our time wondering why the followers of the Prince of Peace would follow Donald Trump. I’ve seen their shirts. They’re very common! They say, “JESUS Died for You, TRUMP Lives for You.” If you don’t see how heretical this is then you know nothing about Christianity. For these people, Christian isn’t a religion; he’s a social signifier.
There are certainly good Christians. But in general, if American Evangelical Christians got to set up the government that they wanted it would be worse than the Nazi government. I don’t say that to shock. That’s simply a fact of life. These people are vile and evil.
The Modern Christians I’ve Known
I know lots of modern Christians here in America. Not one of them volunteers their time for the poor. All they do is give some money to the church. And they figure that’s enough. They don’t like the poor. They wish the poor would go away. They’re a very disturbing group. Most of them have never read the Bible. The only thing they know is what their pastors have told them. And in most cases that is just what their pastors told them. And in general, it’s really sick and twisted.
There are liberal Christians of course. Bruce Coburn is a famous example of that. He’s a man who cares about people.
But that’s not what American Evangelical Christians are. They are just people in a power struggle. That’s why they hate Muslims so much. They like Jews, but only because they are part of their end of times. And during that end times those Jews that they now like will all be killed. They don’t care about anyone but themselves. (Look at the pictures of the people in the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ pamphlets — but make all the people white.)
And if that sounds familiar it should because that is the philosophy of the current president of the United States. And that’s why they want to limit legal immigration. In fact, they would prefer to have no immigration at all. Because all that does is bring over people who are not white Protestant Christians like themselves. You know: the people who made up the KKK. A land not fit for the KKK is not fit for the Evangelical Christians!
I’m Not Overstating: Evangelical Christians Are Horrible People
Am I being harsh? Certainly not. These are horrible people. The best thing we could do is find them an island somewhere to put them on so they could be all together in all their Lily whiteness. And they wouldn’t have to worry about people who don’t believe exactly what they believe (whatever that is other than, “We good, you bad”).
Let’s go through this once more. In the last election, 80% of Evangelical Christians voted for Donald Trump. And if you are surprised by this it is only because you have not been paying attention. These people are exclusionary. All they want are other white people who are Christians in the same way that they are. And they want to get rid of everyone else.
In other words, and it’s unfortunate I have to say this, they are Donald Trump. They are his people. They hate everyone who is not like them.
Will Evangelicals Regret Aligning With Trump?! Hehe!
In the interview with Stephen Mansfield he says that they may come to regret aligning themselves with Donald Trump. This is nonsense. They will not. All they care about is power. That was clear with Billy Graham and it is even more clear with Franklin Graham. But if you look it’s clear of all of them.
All they want is to see Christ coming back to the world on a horse with a sword killing all the infidels. This is what you get when you worship a 2,000-year-old religion. Then they’ll care about anything but the power of their people. So obviously they are Trump’s people. In 2020 I expect that Trump will get 90% of the Evangelical vote.
Because Trump has already done so much damage to the people that are not white Evangelical Christians that they can only love him more.
American Evangelical Christians Don’t Love Christ
They think they love Jesus Christ. They think they worship him. But in fact they worship Donald Trump. Because really what has Jesus Christ done for them lately? On the other hand Trump quite recently has gotten rid of many of the infidels that they hate so much. And their belief is based on hatred, not love. It is not based on any love that I know.
So can we stop being surprised that Evangelical Christians support Donald Trump? He is everything they want. He is power. He hates everyone who is not like him. He offers no love, no forgiveness, and no mercy to anyone not on his “team.” He is the opposite of Jesus. But Evangelical Christians don’t care about any of that any way. They’ve never been that into the Gospels. They’re into Revelation. They’re into the time when Jesus comes back and kicks ass. Until then, they have Donald Trump.
But they’ve waited a long time. And now here is Donald Trump doing it for them so they worship him. These are vile people. And they will only love Trump more as he does worse and worse things.
Don’t be fooled. Christian Evangalism is just an old name for a new cult: the Cult of Donald Trump. And they are all very dangerous.
I used to be a regular at a restaurant/bar across from a local civic arena. (Naturally, I was only interested in the bar part.) They had a big chalkboard up behind the bar, reminding staff of upcoming concerts, games, etc.
Normally, everyone wanted to work during big concerts/games, because more customers = more tips. But nobody wanted to work the traveling revival shows. Why? Evangelicals don’t tip. You should be rich, like them.
Incidentally this same arena hosted the 2008 GOP convention, and I heard the same complaint from serving staff.
Right-wing evangelical churches basically sell fear; fear of backsliding, fear of isolation, fear of personal trauma. And as they sell the notion that obsession with your church will protect you from these fears, anything/anyone outside is a threat. (Hence not even deserving of a decent tip.)
Republican politicians for 50+ years have been promising the fearful that Democrats would not protect them. And, as you know, having an exaggerated concept of fear is a strong indicator of an authoritarian-leaning personality. The marriage of GOP authoritarian candiadates to fearful evangelical voters was a match ordained in Hell.
I wouldn’t call evangelicals all bad people, myself, I’ve met decent ones. But they almost always have vile views about the others, the outsiders. And these views are so socially reinforced by their church community, it’s virtually impossible for any outsider to reduce the extremity of such views.
And there’s no point in insisting Democrats have evangelical bonafides to run. Clinton and Obama were regular churchgoers; no evangelical cared.
However, there is something to meeting voters at church social halls, Friday fish-fry dinners, etc., and talking regional politics (not religion) in a way that indicates you respect issues facing their community.
That’s interesting: bad tippers? That’s one of the biggest signs that a person isn’t good. They have the money to go out. They should have the money to provide the socially accepted practice of paying for their service. But you are right: they aren’t all bad. An evangelical who thought my niece (working at a See’s Candy store) was feeling bad gave her a hundred dollars. And he clearly wasn’t super rich. It was like if I gave a better $100. (which I do at least twice a year, but that’s a totally different thing.)
I would say that Judaism is an authoritarian religion, but that Christianity is not. But I don’t think of Evangelical or “Born Again” types as actual Christians. They seem to be more focused on their social status. They aren’t worried about what Jesus said; they are worried about what the other people in their church think. I mean, you know my article Religious Right: Racism Not Abortion. That all started at Bob Jones University. Before that, only Catholics cared about abortion. Then suddenly Evangelicals did. And it was just because the “faithful” had been instructed that this was a big deal. But the real big deal was that Bob Jones University and other schools (including grammar and high) didn’t want to have to allow blacks in their schools. Not very Christian, if you ask me. Yet the more authoritarian Jews were out getting killed by racists in the 1960s south because they were trying to allow blacks the right to vote. There is no question at all if it were the early 1960s, the Evangelicals would not be for allowing blacks to vote. They are vile people who don’t care about Jesus at all.
Could be a function of drunks thinking tips will get them somewhere with the bartender, so they tip more. But, yeah, the local restaurant/bar people say evangelicals don’t tip worth a damn.
This is particularly offensive for breakfast staff, especially on weekends. Who doesn’t give a decent tip to weekend morning wait servers? What degree of sociopath is that? It makes no sense.