White House resident Donald Trump took a few moments off from his usual weekend routine of disappearing to one of his golf clubs for a few days to deliver an address to graduates at Jerry Falwell Jr.'s far-right Liberty University. It's a good time to remind ourselves that Jerry Falwell Jr. is quite possibly the most consistently malevolent mainstream preacher in America today; he's the supposed Jesus Guy who led the evangelical movement into accepting the serial sexual assaulter and misogynist Trump—a rich boor who conspicuously has never done a speck of Christian or non-Christian good for anybody—as being a good and proper vessel for evangelical voters because ... well, that's a good question now, isn't it?
It's partly because Falwell's version of Christianity doesn't seem to depend much on doing actual good. It's partly because Falwell's version of Christianity is one that flirts with a notion that more crooked preachers blurt out outright; if you're rich, it means God doesn't care whether you're a decent man or not. But it is mostly because Falwell is of the opinion that whether or not you are a good Christian is entirely irrelevant, compared to the existential importance of making sure everyone else in America are good Christians whether they want to be or not.
If the man accused of sexual assault by a line of women who once had to deal with him is the path to a Supreme Court that will nationalize Falwell's version of his religion into American law, then that is the path he will take. He is a bad person, and not half the man his father was, and is evidence that the same moral rot that has so consumed the top of our political food chain has done the same to the nation's religious hierarchies as well. No matter what your religion is, if Donald Trump can exemplify its tenets then You Are Doing It Wrong. Not even the Satanists want a piece of this jackass that Jerry Falwell Jr. hoisted to the top of his university’s pedestal.
Anyhoo, all of that is a long buildup to Donald Trump's speech. Donald Trump's speech was the sort of thing a mid-ranking Nazi might belt out to motivate the troops, and if you think I'm being facetious about that then feel free to check the relevant history books.
It was religious only to the extent it needed to be in order to equate Christianity with true patriotism; it was Christians who were truly suffering today, as opposed to any of the the other religious faithful who have had headstones toppled or their places of worship set afire; we must weave together our Christian faith with our military might.
As some graduates looked on donned in Make America Great Again hats, he proclaimed a faith-fueled version of American history and society, lifting up a version of Christian nationalism he first introduced during his speech at Inauguration Day. [...]
"In America we don’t worship government, we worship God,” Trump proclaimed, to thunderous applause. He later added: “We all bleed the same blood of patriots, we all salute the same, great American flag, and we are all made by the same almighty God."
The address also appeared to connect religion to the president’s willingness to increase military action in the Middle East, such as dropping the MOAB bomb on Afghanistan. Falwell in particular praised Trump for “bomb[ing] those…who were persecuting Christians,” and the president noted during his speech that Americans will be “hearing a lot about [military actions] next week from our generals.”
Falwell and many of the graduates appeared pleased enough. The serial sexual assaulter would carry the Christian banner, after all, and if the Christian banner once meant something else then we will simply adjust, in order to focus on what's truly important.
"I do not believe that any president in our lifetimes has done so much that has benefited the Christian community in such a short time span than Donald Trump," [Falwell] said. [...]
"I really am glad that he's putting God back into everything," [a graduate's parent] said.
"[I want] to bring Christ back into our nation and into our schools, since we don't have him in schools rights now; it's just silent prayers," [an elementary education graduate] said, "I would love to see the prayers back into schools because it makes a big difference."
So we will bomb the Middle East, and we will ensure the non-Christians say our Christian prayers in their public schools, and the rest will work itself out. Truly, Jerry Falwell Jr. is among the worst of the major preachers in the country today, but he has a wide following nonetheless. Every religion has a sect like this, a sect that glosses over their leaders’ failings and praises violence if the violence is in service to an end; every religion has adherents who know every rule and tenet of their Book by heart, but who deem their own success in following those tenets to be of considerably less import than whether those of less or different faiths are obliged, by force, to pay lip service to them as well.