I’ve been talking with an expert on Trump’s evangelical base and am grateful for the information. I’m going to call these religious zealots fundamentalists. Word choice is important here because not all evangelicals are Trump’s base. If we use “evangelicals,” we run the risk of not only having others stereotyping all non-Trump evangelicals as zealots, but also promoting anger at the wrong people. It becomes bigotry.
Just tonight: More projecting what is to come — CNN reports “Senate removes phrase 'white nationalist' from measure intended to screen military enlistees”
Evangelicals Who Model the Best of Christianity
Here are a couple of people who are evangelical Christians: President Jimmy Carter and Rev. William Barber, who is African American. I’m not a Christian, but I see them both as models of love, compassion, and charity, exactly what Jesus’ message was. Carter and Barber are genuine heroes to me.
One other thing about Carter is extremely important to me. He is not afraid to speak truth to the power structure. This shows me, along with other examples, that he is genuine. I’m trying to follow his example.
When Congressman Joe Wilson shouted "You lie!" at Obama during an address to a joint session of Congress, his apology was accepted by the president, but that did not satisfy Jimmy Carter, who said Wilson's shout had been "based on racism. There is an inherent feeling among many in this country that an African-American should not be president."
In contrast, fundamentalists look hypocritical. They eagerly support concentration camps, poverty, oppression, and so many more ills, which are antithetical to Jesus’ message above.
Why?
The Pre-Constantine Church: Before the Bible – Early Christianity
Fundamentalists see Jesus differently because they are part of the primitive church, the definition of fundamentalism.
The primitive church existed before Roman emperor Constantine the Great convened an ecumenical council called the First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD. Its goal was to bring various early Christian groups together to solve controversies and come to a consensus about what Christianity stood for. They debated the vary nature of Christ, for example. The Bible developed from the council.
The period before this about 30-36 AD to the First Council of Nicaea is called Early Christianity and is the primitive church. I’ve seen some call themselves, the pre-denominational church.
This is why most of us don’t recognize this seemingly hypocritical message of Christianity. There are various groups that are fundamentalists.
Prosperity Doctrine, Per Se
The expert I spoke to was talking about the Calvinist and anti-Calvinist wings of the Southern Baptists. While the groups say they are against the prosperity gospel, they end up effectively with a prosperity doctrine. The person (wanted to remain anonymous) said these preachers,
Make their appeal to salvation on the basis of “If God is for me, who can be against me?” They cite David speaking of God, or God speaking to Jeremiah, to suggest a view of grace that is tantamount to fate, on the one hand and a sort of providence that can become superstition in the pews: believers tell me that God has led them to this job, not that one, and God caused their opponent to win the game as a scourge to their bad practices. (The evidence of Jesus, in Luke, telling the crowd that the men who died when the Tower of Shiloam collapsed on them were no worse than anyone else just doesn’t get cited.)
Effectively this is the prosperity gospel where God blesses his people, alleviating sickness and poverty. Both are viewed as curses for lack of faith.
Reprobation
Even worse, fundamentalists believe in reprobation. The poor and sick are sinners and deserve what they get, predestined to damnation.
In fact, the expert said,
Why do so many [fundamentalists] cite Paul telling a church leader that those able- bodied persons in a church that held food in common should not get their shares if they refused to do chores as evidence against SNAP? It’s because they have been taught that the Psalms are not about David, except as a quick pass-through, and each of them is a prophet; therefore all of the verses in the Old Testament to and by prophets are reflective of their own lives.
This explains so much of what is happening with healthcare, SNAP, and so any other things. Reprobation directly in opposition to Jesus’ message of love, compassion, and charity.
Purity Doctrine: Christian Fundamentalism = Islamic Fundamentalism
Being that this is the primitive church, it is the church of martyrs. They believe they are “true Christians because they are persecuted.”
The expert went on,
Just as a fundamentalist Muslim group attests its purity with a claim to being part of the caliphate, the fundamentalist Christian group does so by being persecuted. The history of the true church for them goes from Diocletian to the Roman Inquisition, with error between (and dissertations written about Waldensians or other asterisks). For this reason, even as these groups gain wealth and secular power, they must, internally, talk about how little power they have. For example, I’m sure you’ve run across the statistics that show that America is only very, very slightly less Christian today than a century ago, but it is substantially less “churched.”
The less “churched” issue is driving fundamentalists crazy.
The expert said,
Inside the fundamentalist churches, every nasty comment gets harvested, both as proof of hatred and fuel. Every time another church fails to respond with identical tactics to the fundamentalist church, it, too, gets harvested. These are the mechanics of polarization.
Someone else I spoke to briefly who grew up in a fundamentalist church said he’s been expecting violence for quite some time.
Mobilizing an “Army of God”
There are several different types of fundamentalist churches, not just the ones the expert and I talked about. They have one thing in common, a persecution complex. Feelings of being persecuted are powerful recruitment tactics. This persecution complex taps into that hatred, bigotry, and fear that leaders exploit to whip people into a mob.
For example, if you search for “Warriors for Christ,” a whole list of websites come up for various churches. Some use military terms, like putting on armor for battle.
Check out how scary Rick Perry is “Rick Perry’s Army of God.”
One other scary thing is that new military recruits have been evangelized for years by chaplains. They are taught that they owe their allegiance to Jesus first. The Constitution comes second.
So effectively, we have Christian ISIS – Warriors for Christ – right here, and they have mostly taken over the government. Effectively, they have married church and State – their goal.
None of us is safe, not even Christians, if you aren’t part of this primitive church. That’s no different than what happened with fundamentalist Muslims and other Muslims.
In the impeachment trial last night, Rep. Congressman Loudermilk compared Jesus and persecution to Trump, which isn’t Biblically accurate.
When Jesus was falsely accused of treason, Pontius Pilate gave Jesus the opportunity to face his accusers. During that sham trial, Pontius Pilate afforded more rights to Jesus than the Democrats have afforded this president in this process.
Also, another Rep. congressman compared this impeachment to “Pearl Harbor.” We know how he feels.
Hitler: Christ, the Warrior
One thing to note is that Hitler saw himself as the “Chosen One,” and so did many German Christians. Actually, he saw himself as Christ, the Warrior, while he saw Christ, the Crucified, as weak and disgusting. I talk about Trump and the Hitler connection in my diary Why Trump’s Base Won’t Budge.
Trump Projecting
Trump’s War Room put out a video of Thanos eliminating half the population.
Trump, their Chosen One, is the Anti-Christ, just like Hitler. To fight back, we have to use their own terminology against them, even if we aren’t Christians.