The values conservative Evangelicals are praising in Trump are his "healthy masculinity" and "manifest destiny reborn"

[lees1975]

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2025/02/conservative-evangelical-leaders-leave.html

"I don't intend to overstate. I think we understate the case, because I think Donald Trump is the greatest threat to the world that we've seen in our lifetime. He is a menace. I believe he's against everything Jesus Christ teaches. I believe he is cruel. I believe he is evil. I believe he is Satan in disguise and I I'm not overstating that." --Mark Wingfield, Baptist News Global Executive Director in an interview on the podcast "Stuck in the Middle With You."

The word "apostasy" comes from the Greek root word apostasia, which basically means to forsake or desert the faith that one formerly held. It's a term that gets a lot of use within the boundaries of the various forms of Christianity that have been shaped by history. In the United States, where Christianity developed in an atmosphere of complete religious liberty, with no political power dictating doctrine, theology or practice, the term has more often gained popular use when one group of Christians, who conclude that they are God's chosen people because of their doctrinal purity, and their adherence to a set of specific practices, or "commandments," criticize another group of Christians whose doctrine, theology and practice differs from their own.

Looking at what has happened to the conservative, Evangelicals who have fallen victim to the idolatry and apostasy of Trumpism, there's not even a need to argue that their version of the Christian faith isn't an authentic or accurate one. Their support for Trump is a denial of their own version of Christianity and their own interpretation of the Bible. Wingfield told the podcast interviewer, Bejamin Cole, "unwittingly supporting the antichrist."

Unwittingly? Trump's statements, beliefs, lack of ethical behavior and worldly, licentious immorality are defiant in their abject denial of anything resembling the Christian faith. Every public act of his has been an explicit and deliberate violation of every characteristic of the Christian gospel Jesus laid down in the Sermon on the Mount, found in Matthew 5, 6 and 7, from his pathological lies and denial of truth, to his driven, wicked desire for vengeance against those not loyal to him, to his adulterous affairs and divorces so that he could marry the "other women," with whom he was having an affair, except Stormy Daniels, who he bribed to cover it up, because he couldn't afford the bad publicity in a run for the presidency. His open denial of having done anything for which he requires God's forgiveness is a blatant refusal to accept Christian conversion, and a defiant act toward both God and the Evangelical leadership who serve as his willing sycophants. And their support for him makes them apostates.

So when some conservative, Evangelical like Gary Bauer, of the James Dobson Family Foundation, comes along and praises Trump without mentioning any Christian value or virtue, because those are not observable in Trump, he is telling us, very clearly, that he is apostate. He, along with most other white, conservative, Evangelicals in the United States who overlook Trump's open denial of the Christian conversion experience, and his immoral, licentious, anti-Christian lifestyle, have abandoned the Christian gospel in favor of the gospel of Trump.

[CrispyQ]

1. Healthy masculinity? OMG, these people are delusional.

I knew when he mocked the disabled reporter & there wasn't the tiniest dip in his ratings, that he had a cult following. When the Access Hollywood tape came out I knew he'd survive that, too. NBC helped create this monster, promoting his fake persona of a tough, successful businessman in the living rooms of America. I think he would have been laughed off the first debate stage in 2015 if it hadn't been for that stupid TV show.

And I HATE that the media never mentioned how Donald never fired anyone in his first administration to their face, or even himself. IIRC, there was one incident where he had his bodyguard leave someone a note while they were out of town. The "You're fired!" reality TV star is too much a coward to do it in real life.

I can't wait till this fucker is dead.

[lees1975]

2. "Manifest destiny reborn" is not an American value either.

Being aggressive against neighboring countries, in the manner that Trump approaches it, is not only anti-American and anti-patroitic, and it has echoes of Hiterlism in it, but it would be costly and purposeless. The only thing he values is money, and more.

[MustLoveBeagles]

3. The Christian embrace of Dump

Has done more to drive me away from religion than any atheist could have.

[lees1975]

4. It's kind of the point in the post that no Christians have embraced Trump.

Christianity is defined by the practice of its values. None of those who identify as "Christians" supporting Trump exhibit any characteristics of its core values in their faith practice. They are defiant in their denial of those core principles in exactly the same way as he is defiant of them. Someone who thinks that his "healthy masculinity" or "manifest destiny reborn" are the allegedly "Christian" values he brings to the table doesn't know Christianity or its values. They are pseudo-Christian, what the Apostle Paul refers to as "having a form of righteousness but denying it's power." I've been criticized for being judgmental for pointing out the impossibility of being Christian, as defined by Jesus himself, and supporting Trump, but that's not making a judgment, it's simply an observable fact.

And the mix of the errant ultra-conservative fundamentalist and Pentecostal branches of Protestantism [and some militant, fascist, Catholics] with the right wing extremism of Trump is most definitely religion, by definition, an un-named form of pseudo-Christianity that has taken over most of conservative Evangelicalism and virtually all of the Republican party, and makes a strong case for avoiding religion altogether.

But, don't discount the anti-Trump influence of millions of American Christians who haven't let this form of paganism invade their church, and, standing for the values that are the core foundation of their religion gives them common cause with every anti-Trumper. No one in this group will require embracing religion to join hands and rid this country of the worst scourge it has experienced. I