Pseudo-Christianity is the Political Religion of the Right Wing

Mark Wingfield: This is Not Christian 

There is no Jesus in MAGA

Stephanie Messina: Leaving MAGA

Baptist News Global: Burning Down the Church

It has become essential for Americans to have an understanding of what the blend of conservative, Evangelicalism with right wing Trumpism has produced.  It takes some understanding of conservative Christian doctrine, theology and tradition to figure out where much of this has found a home in political populism.  By no means can I provide the full scope of the doctrinal and theological quirks, and the leadership flaws, in one setting or blog post, to explain Evangelical thinking, but there are some basic things that will come in handy to create enough of an understanding to weaponize, if you will, liberals who are up for an attack on this aberration of American values.  

The branch of American Christianity that is identified theologically and doctrinally as Evangelical is actually much less unified around theology and doctrine than the mainline Protestants or Catholics.  There are no "connectional" churches or denominations in that category, it is mostly made up of independent, autonomous congregations and stand-alone denominations and groups like the Southern Baptist Convention or the Assemblies of God.  

More than half of those who are generally associated with the Evangelical branch are either Charismatic or Pentecostal in practice, meaning that they accept things like unverified faith healing or "speaking in tongues" as authentic, without any objective evidence.  That's dangerous, because it leaves open the door for church leaders to claim that "revelation" is an ongoing process, and that they are somehow a unique receptor of the Holy Spirit and can speak on God's behalf with authority.  And some of those who have the biggest followings are the biggest kooks.  

The other side of American Evangelicalism is fundamentalist.  This is a doctrinal and theological position that relies on enforced doctrinal conformity, based on a faulty, literalist interpretation of the Bible, which is sometimes referred to in layman's terms as "verse by verse."  The "fundamentals of the faith" are a list of doctrines to which absolute intellectual assent and affirmation is required.  The problem is that the statements are faulty because they do not consider the historical or cultural context of the various books of the Bible, and are actually based on a literal rendering of the King James translation.  

What Makes Conservative Evangelicals Susceptible to the Heresy of MAGA Cult Religion? 

Most Evangelicals will claim that their churches, independent and autonomous from any central ecclesiastical control, are congregational in polity.  What that means is that the church's theology and doctrine, and its fulfilling its function, is determined by consensus of the collective membership of the local church.  These churches have "business meetings," at which the pastor, pastoral staff if they have one, lay leadership and church members, discuss church practice and business, and then establish those things on behalf of the church by consensus, which usually means agreement must include the vast majority of the congregation.  A 60% or even a 75% favorable vote would not be enough to declare unity or consensus, and the church would likely not move ahead on that.  

But in actual practice, the vast majority of Evangelical churches are controlled by their pastoral leadership who, in most cases, are given a measure of power over the congregation that no other members can exercise.  It is a controlling, authoritarian way to run the church, and it happens because, in most cases, the pastor is the only member of the congregation with a working knowledge of the Bible and how to interpret it.  To give that much power and control over something as intimate and personal as one's faith is dangerous.  As might be expected, there is a high instance of physical and sexual abuse among Evangelical pastors and church staff.  And that means that pastors and church leaders are the ones who establish church theology, doctrine and practice.  

Jerry Falwell and Pat Roberston formed nationwide political groups, the Moral Majority and the Christian Coalition, primarily as a means of opposing abortion rights, with an appeal to the Republican party.  It became difficult to distinguish partisan political positions from the brand of Biblical theology preached by Evangelicals, including open endorsements of Republican candidates from pulpits.  It is a blend of partisan politics, fundamentalist theology and the white, Christian nationalism that has been part of Evangelical eschatology for a little over a hundred years.  

The Trump Heresy

 Stephanie Messina, whose story about her exodus from the MAGA cult is linked above, provides insights as to what most of the pseudo-Christians on the political far right believe that not only identifies them as a cult, but sets them aside from mainstream Christianity, placing them into a category that I call "pseudo-Christian," because they use a lot of the language and the structure, but have actually abandoned the Christian gospel, the core teachings of Jesus.  

Messina says, of her church and pastor, "We were told Trump had been chosen by God, that he was a disheveled man like David, who was also an adulterer.  Trump was a 'baby Christian', meaning he had just gotten saved, so we should give him grace because we're all sinners.  Since he was a new creature in Christ, you couldn't hold anything against him."   

"We saw Trump as the persecuted white savior," Messina goes on.  "We believed Trump's critics were just blinded by Satan, and he was fighting for us."  

The problem with this is that Trump is not "a baby Christian who had just gotten saved."  Trump has repeatedly rejected the Evangelical interpretation of Christian conversion.  He cannot get past the step requiring acknowledgement of being a sinner in need of God's grace.  He has repeatedly and publicly declared, in media interviews where he is asked, that he has done nothing requiring God's forgiveness and that he has his own idea of who God is.  He repeatedly baffles and frustrates several of the right wing evangelists who have been at great pains to try and make him look "converted. "  But according to their own interpretation of Christian conversion, he is not Christian. 

"I haven't done anything that requires God's forgiveness," has been Trump's repeated response.  So Trump is not, by his own admission, a Christian at all.  So he can't be "fighting for Christians." 

And he's not like David.  David was an adulterer, but when confronted with his sin, acknowledged it, and begged God for forgiveness, offering to sacrifice everything if that would have been required.  Trump is unrepentant, continues to indulge in evil, not only adultery but in other sinful attitudes and behaviors as well, including his thirst for revenge and attempts to use the government to get it.  He's brazen enough about his admirers, many who have rejected the teachings of Jesus as "woke," or "liberal," that his words and his attitude border on blasphemy.  His rejection and denials of Christian theology brand him, according to I John 4:1-3 as "antichrist." 

The Christian nationalism and white supremacy he touts doesn't have anything to do with true Christianity.  In biblical Christianity, the idea of establishing a political entity as the means of living out the Christian gospel is antithetical to everything Jesus ever lived or taught.  Jesus, and his apostles, made it very clear that the Christian gospel is not racially or ethnically limited.  It is offered to all humanity, regardless of their race.  It is a spiritual faith that manifests itself in a lifestyle, starting with a confession of Jesus as the Christ, based on a set of moral values established by Jesus, including what he revealed were the greatest of all of the commandments, loving God with all one's heart, soul and mind, and loving one's neighbor as much as we love ourselves.  

Where, in Trump's rantings, poutings, angry outbursts, threats and actual actions is there anything that resembles the core teaching of the Christian gospel found in the Bible, specifically the New Testament?  Where has Donald J. Trump ever exhibited characteristics found in the Beatitudes or in the Sermon on the Mount, which is the core of the Christian gospel.  He has not even made himself aware of all of that part of the teaching of the Christian church.  And he has openly resisted the conviction and repentance that is the essential gateway to a conversion experience.  

He has chosen, as his "spiritual advisor," a heretic named Paula White, whose preaches, not the Christian gospel, but a prosperity gospel that denies and rejects all of the core teachings of the whole Judeo-Christian tradition.  

There's a social media meme which pops up occasionally, which says:

"The devil's best work was being able to convince Evangelicals that a vulgar, greedy, racist man who has 5 children with 3 wives , pays porn stars for sex, gropes women, incites violence, and never tells the truth was sent here by God."  

Christian Nationalism is Antichrist

What makes it easy for Christian nationalists, and right wing extremists, to claim that what they are doing is "God's will for America" is that most of the constituency found in the conservative, Evangelical churches cannot identify the principles and values of the Christian gospel, nor can they articulate the theological breakdown of the Evangelical interpretation of the Christian conversion experience.  There are some catch phrases they can parrot, like "accept Jesus into your heart" but they can't tell you what is involved in that experience.  

From personal experience, I can discern the difference between the pastor of a church who is sincerely providing the kind of servant leadership to his ministry to the congregation he serves and is helping them grow in their ability to interpret what Jesus taught in a way that they can apply it to their own life, and one who is controlling and takes it personal if his church members don't walk in lock step conformity to his own interpretation of the Christian faith.  And it's those who tend to be controlling who have a desire to see, as Lauren Boebert incorrectly stated in a previous campaign, "The government shouldn't tell the church what to do, the church should tell the government what to do."  

There is no place in human history, where the church, tied to the political state as a "state church", which is exactly what Christian nationalism looks like in practice, has not had its doctrine and theology corrupted, it's clergy become basically unconverted heathens who crave political control, and the church hierarchy become agents of unimaginable persecution and cruelty.  And if you think that can't happen in the United States, think again.  The cruelty that would be visited upon all elements of society under a fascist, Evangelical dictatorship would look exactly like it did in Nazi Germany in the 1930's, in which the churches participated enthusiastically.  

Jesus himself, along with three of the Apostles who wrote the bulk of the New Testament, make it very clear that the Christian gospel Jesus preached and taught was not going to be a re-establishment of the ancient Israelite theocracy of the Old Testament, nor was it going to turn the tiny Jewish provinces of Judea and Galilee in the eastern Roman Empire into a military and political power to throw off Roman rule, which is what many of those who were some of Jesus' early followers in Galilee in particular had determined that the promised Messiah would do.  

Almost from the beginning, Jesus and those who followed him and would become the foundation of the church, reached out to the gentile population.  Jesus often began his teaching by starting off with the statement, "You have heard that it was said..." as he intentionally re-interpreted commonly held religious errors.  He clearly identified the highest values of faith, making the primary purpose of human existence as recognizing and loving God as creator and sustainer of life, and equated loving other human beings as much as self, with it.  He included individual, racial, ethnic, religious and political enemies in that principle, and extended the offer of redemption and Christian conversion to Gentile populations, most notably to the Samaritans, who were among the most hated enemies of the Jewish population of Palestine.  

So to advocate for, and promote the use of worldly, political power as a means of establishing the Christian church and enforcing the practice of its principles by the use of the law, which is what every version of Christian nationalism that exists in current culture does, is to defy the core teachings of Christ.  

It's difficult to explain and understand the blindness that people have when it comes to this.  I have been engaged in discussions with people who can't distinguish party platforms of the GOP from Christian theology and doctrine argue with me, accusing me of being "some kind of liberal" when I tell them that love, not vengeance or legalism, is the core principle of the Christian gospel.  

Attempting to establish some kind of theocratic government or rule is an open denial of everything Jesus taught.  This constitutes a refusal to confess Christ, defined by the Apostle John, in his first church epistle [I John 4:1-3] as the "spirit of the Antichrist."  This is a term that gets misinterpreted and misused among Evangelicals who are hard liners on a futurist interpretation of the "end times."  It does not designate a single person or entity who will be some kind of one world ruler, since all of that in the book of Revelation pertains to the Roman Empire, and the historical context of the time in which it was written.  It simply means any "spirit," or person, who does not confess Christ.  

That's the core identifying characteristic of true Christianity.  Trump, because he does not confess Christ, is antichrist by definition, and any form of Christian nationalism is also antichrist because it is opposite from the mission and purpose of the Christian church.  

Acknowledging Trump as a Political Leader Requires Complete Abandonment of the Christian Gospel

In the United States, the Constitution, reflecting the core beliefs about the intersection of politics and religion of the founding fathers, more specifically of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, whose perspective was key in developing the way the first amendment protects freedom of conscience, separates the government from religious practice, and it separates the institution of government from the institutional church.  That was a radical concept when it was conceived and put in practice, because every national government in Europe that existed at the time had a state church which the government, a monarchy of some sort, could exhert political control over their subjects.  

Both Jefferson, an agnostic Deist, and Madison, who trained for the ministry, recognized that the church was oppressed, distorted and corrupted by the influence of the state over its theology, doctrine and practice.  They correctly saw religion, including Christianity, as a matter of conscience, not of collective state control.  And so it is, in a democracy, where the people are the source of the nation's soveregnty, religion, as a matter of conscience, is a factor in influencing the casting of one's ballot for those who represent the people in the government. 

And that is exactly why is it completely inconsistent for someone who claims to be a Christian to cast a ballot to choose Trump as their chief executive and commander in chief.  

In all of his public life, including his business dealings and his celebrity status, along with his political career, Trump's values are clearly visible.  The single most important thing to him, indisputable by observation, is making money.  Trump sees everything in the world by its intrinsic monetary value.  Moral values, ethical principles produced by religious conviction, are, in his words, for suckers.  His moral bankruptcy reflects this belief in practice.  Everything he does, including the value he places on relationships with his wife, and his own children, have to do with the transactional monetary value of the relationships.  

The Christian perspective is made clear by the Apostle Paul, who says, "For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.  It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pieced themselves with many pangs." [I Timothy 6:10, NRSV] 

The other thing Trump values is undying loyalty to himself.  He holds no ethical or moral conviction about the pain and suffering he can inflict upon those who have either openly rejected his influence, or who took advantage of him to get something for themselves, in the same manner that he treats his sycophants and admirers.  He exhibits no sense of right and wrong, in all of his dealings he shows a moral bankruptcy that is as depraved and worldly as any other celebrity I can think of, a brand in which he takes pride.  

The Apostle Paul also addresses this in a practical way.  

What accord has Christ with Belial?  Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? [2 Corinthians 6:15 NRSV]  

There is a fundamental incompatibility between Christianity and worldliness, characterized in this passage as a force of darkness, "Belial."  This principle can be legitimately and correctly applied in providing Christians with instruction regarding the kind and character of the leadership they choose when they have the opportunity to select the individuals who will represent their sovereignty in government.  

And Trump doesn't meet the expectations or have the values or qualities necessary to provide leadership for the Christian church.  That makes those who follow him pseudo-Christian.