MAGA and the Souls of Evangelical Christians

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

By Anthony B. Robinson
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I am reading Tim Alberta’s new book, The Kingdom, The Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicalism in An Age of Extremism. It runs nearly 500 pages but reads well. Still, it’s tough reading. Why? Because it portrays just how frightened, gullible, manipulated, and lost are those Evangelical Christians who have allied themselves with Trump, the MAGA movement and conspiracy theories. It’s really a very sad story.

Alberta is a staff writer for The Atlantic. What makes him especially suited for this subject is that he is himself an Evangelical Christian — a reminder that not all Evangelical Christians buy into Trump and MAGA.

His father was a well-known minister in the conservative Evangelical Presbyterian Church denomination, and pastor of the large Cornerstone Church in Brighton, Michigan. It was there that Alberta grew up and was nurtured in the faith. He knows this world from the inside, and he is quite capable of engaging those he studies and interviews on a theological and biblical basis. Whether Alberta identifies today as “evangelical” I don’t know, but clearly faith remains core to his life.

What Alberta shows, in essence, is how many of those who identify as Christians are egregiously, even eagerly, betraying the faith they claim. They have made America, or their version of it, their be-all and end-all, their god. Politics and political power have eclipsed their religion. “Saving America” is the end to which their understanding of Christianity has become instrumental. And they have proven willing to use whatever means necessary in order to gain power. Here’s a zinger from Alberta:

https://www.postalley.org/2024/02/23/maga-and-the-souls-of-evangelical-christians/?mc_cid=6fde24f2fb&mc_eid=a0c4847065

[TlalocW]

1. For generations

Evangelical Christians have been told by their preachers that God agrees with them on everything. Their candidates are chosen by God (had to grit their teeth with Romney), and many candidates even have said God wanted them to run. No one though has so brazenly taken that message and run with it like Trump. I think once evangelicals non-genuinely made small objections to Trump being the nominee, they realized that he would allow them to hate more openly, and they could use him to make it so their hatred could become law, and they were right.

Furthermore, they saw their best opportunity to turn America into a religious theocracy with a second Trump term, which is partly why January 6th happened - what they were promised by God was stolen from them. There's been an increase in republicans saying, "America is a republic, not a democracy," expressing their desire to use Trump to deliver on their dreams.

[Timeflyer]

2. Alberta's book explains how religious leaders are cynically turning into political power brokers

(while enjoying tax-free status). Very readable.

[lees1975]

3. Tim Alberta nails this, and from an Evangelical perspective.

MAGA is the reason a good number of conservative, Evangelical churches are now completely fallen into apostasy, along with many of their mega-church pastors and self-appointed "leaders" like Franklin Graham.

Another author from an Evangelical perspective of the evils of Trump and MAGA is Russell Moore who is now the editor of Christianity Today. Moore was driven out of his position as executive director of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission because he took a firm stand against Christians supporting Trump, and unlike Al Mohler, President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, who took the same stand and then caved to protect his job and his power, stuck with it. He landed on his feet, but only after leaving the Southern Baptist Convention behind, in its apostasy.

This is also an excellent book.
https://bookshop.org/p/books/losing-our-religion-an-altar-call-for-evangelical-america-russell-d-moore/19507366?ean=9780593541784

And, not to beat a dead horse, but there are a lot of people from the evangelical side of the American church who see MAGA for the evil intrusion that it is, and speak up against it. Making an alliance with evil because evil promises to do something for you in return simply makes you corrupt and evil. And there's a lot being written and referenced about this. I'm hoping to see the formation of a group of evangelicals committed to the defeat of Trump and MAGA, giving them such a beating as they will not forget their attempt to subvert the Constitution and steal our freedom from us.

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/