Republicans and Religion

 It's been really wild to watch interactions between the Republican party and Christians over the last few months.  Before I talk about the present though, I'd like to talk about the history of politics and religion, at least as I know it.

For those of you who don't know, I was raised as a fire and brimstone Southern Baptist.  My early memories of church had me singing "Jesus Loves Me' in Sunday School, immediately followed by the pastor sharing a sermon that invariably said follow the rules or spend eternity in flames.  Sermons ended with a tearful plea from the pastor to come to the alter and repent, so you can avoid endless suffering.  I remember watching "Late Great Planet Earth" in that church.  I don't remember much about the movie other than skulls, and fire.  Overall, this church filled me exclusively with fear of God, and utterly failed to share any of the love and selflessness.

When my parents moved us from Kansas to Iowa, my mom never sent us back to Church.  I honestly don't know why, but in retrospect, I am thankful.  As it was, I turned my back on God in my late teens to early twenties.  I did attend some church lock-ins with high school classmates, but nothing clicked.  I remember my mom watching  Billy Graham, Jimmy Swaggart, and "PTL Club" with Jim and Tammy Bakker,  

I remember Graham as genuine.  I remember Tammy Bakker always singing poorly and crying.  I remember taking perverse delight in the Jessica Hahn scandal that brought them down.  I remember being horrified to learn as a young adult that my mom financially supported Swaggart and again taking delight in his scandal and downfall.  I remember the Moral Majority group staunchly supporting the Republican party, and promoting "traditional family values."  I kind of always remember evangelical Christianity walking in lock step with the Republican party platform.

While not raised Catholic, I also seem to recall a friendly relationship between Republicans and Catholics, especially when it comes to abortion and homosexuality.  I believe Donald Trump had strong electoral support from the Hispanic community, which I also think skews Catholic.  This is my impression and I haven't deeply researched, so take it with a grain of salt.

Now, let's fast forward to the present.  Over the last year, Donald Trump has shared memes that show him as the Pope, as Jesus, (though he denies the Jesus one,) and when the public rejected his Trump as Jesus picture, he quickly shared a Trump with Jesus as a follow-up.  And this is where it's been fun to watch, because Trump and Christians have had an almost incestuous relationship.  I've seen Christians support a ton of Trump's $h!+ that they would never tolerate from someone else...

They wanted to throw Clinton from office for adultery, but fully exonerated Trump's affair with a porn star.

Trump bears false witness (lies) as casually as the average person breathes, and his supporters eat it up. 

They supported his practice of stiffing contractors (theft) as "good business," while believing that he supported the little guy and small businessman.

This, of course, only discusses the Ten Commandments of the Old Testament. Let's touch on some of the teachings of Jesus...

 Jesus teaches that we should pray for and love our enemies.  Trump's default behavior is that you serve him, or he punishes you.

Jesus teaches that we should turn the other cheek.

Jesus teaches that we should serve others.

Jesus teaches that we should help those in need.

Jesus teaches that we should be compassionate. 

In short, Trump is not a good man, based on these ideals.  He has broken multiple tenets of Christianity, yet he attracts Christians like moth to a flame.  Only recently, now that he has shared an image of him as Jesus, are these supporters crying foul. Maybe this is because they see a crisis of faith, because that's what the Antichrist is supposed to do, right?

Again, I'm only speculating.  While I have rediscovered my faith and am attending Church, I am not an apocalyptic Christian and haven't spent a lot of energy focusing on Revelation and the end times.  But I can't help but assume that Evangelical Christians, who tend to be highly focused on the end of the world, would see Trump's latest action as ... ummm ... questionable.

... let's expand this to Republican elected officials.  Those guys are in quite the pickle.  They have sworn their fealty to Trump.  Now Republican constituents are up in arms over the Jesus Trump picture, and the elected officials have to somehow calm down their party base while not pissing off their sovereign.

Of course, the media and the liberals are predicting this will be Trump's downfall.  Pardon my skepticism, but I've heard that song before.  We, as a society, have the attention span of gnats.