Onward, Christian Scolders

The other day, I read a quote from a MAGOP operative.  He described the party’s Religious Right as “Christian warriors willing to accept Trump with flaws.”
 
I thought, what an eloquent-sounding way to twist reality into knots in order to obfuscate what otherwise would undercut the reality of evangelicals pretending they're even remotely concerned with the Bible.
 
After all, how noble the concept of “Christian warriors” appears to be, as if meaning they would go to battle and risk everything for the teachings of Jesus.  And how humane and loving they sound by embracing those who are imperfect, just as Jesus would do.
 
It’s all so beatific.
 
But then you take just a step back.  And just open your eyes as the real world does all the work and spreads itself out before you.
 
No, evangelicals are not willing to accept Trump with flaws.  They are willing to accept that Trump has close to no connection at all to Christianity, other than using it as a theatrical prop.  They are willing to accept, by their own supposedly-devout standards -- the strict religious standards they cry as being Christian warriors -- that Trump is a heathen, but still want him to lead them.  They are willing to accept in Trump what they not only denounce in most anyone else, especially those not Republican, but decry as evil, berate as being from the devil, reprimand as Satan's spawn.  But Trump?  Thumbs up, it’s just “flaws”.  Which they’re kindly willing to accept, even despite being “Christian warriors”.
 
This isn’t a case of Trump having “flaws.”  This is not “Forgive me, o Lord, for stumbling, and thank you for catching me in my faults and setting me on the path to righteousness.”  This is a case of Trump not only having so many flaws that they’re spilling out of his ears and other orifices, ruining the carpet that covers society, but that he doesn’t even think he has any flaws and literally has said he has nothing to ask forgiveness for!
 
And by “literally,” I literally mean literally.  In 2015, when running for president, Trump did an interview with Anderson Cooper who wondered if “asking for forgiveness” was central to his personal faith.
 
"I try not make mistakes where I have to ask forgiveness," Trump replied.  Unable to admit human mistakes.
 
And further, when Cooper followed up about repentance, Trump answered "I think repenting is terrific."  But then added, “Why do I have to repent or ask for forgiveness, if I am not making mistakes?  I work hard, I'm an honorable person."
 
So, yes, literally.  Putting aside that "honorable" is not a quality one hears ever attached to Trump, this is a man who says he literally doesn’t make mistakes.  And says therefore that if you don’t make mistakes, there’s no reason to repent or ask forgiveness.
 
It borders on impossible for evangelicals to justify the concept of accepting Trump for his flaws when he himself doesn’t even say he makes mistakes.
 
But then, it’s also near-impossible to justify actions as mere “flaws” when they include being found liable for the equivalence of rape.  And being convicted of a felony as part of having sex with a porn actress after his wife had just given birth to his child.  And being found liable twice for defamation.  And found guilty of business fraud.  And having his charity foundation shut down for a "shocking pattern of illegality.”  And creating a policy to take children from their parents and cage them.
 
And not feeling you have anything to repent or ask forgiveness for doing so. Because those aren't mistakes since you don't make mistakes.
 
And that doesn’t touch on such “flaws” that Christian warriors are willing to blissfully accept in Trump as he is unable thus far to name a single Bible verse that means something to him.  Unable to name just one, even knowing he will keep getting asked this (asked because he says he “loves the evangelicals”) and could just have a junior staffer come up with something, any verse he could write down on a card and keep in his wallet until needed.  Even Scripture as basic as “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.”  Or not even be able to explain (as happened two weeks ago) what his relationship is with God, but only kept repeating how much the evangelicals love him.  Or go into a church to give a speech (as he did the other week) with families and little children in attendance and swear up a storm in their House of God.
 
All this and much more is supposedly “Christian warriors willing to accept Trump with flaws.”
 
No, this has zero to do with Christianity or accepting flaws.  This is sanctimonious, empty vessels, so lost and tortured inside that they'll embrace the loudest con man to tell them what to do, closing their self-proclaimed devout eyes and minds to the teachings of God they need to insist drives them, all so that they can break not only one of the Ten Commandments, but the very first one (!!), and willfully follow a false idol.
 
And no, that is not hyperbole, since news reports and social media are full of stories with evangelicals carrying signs about Trump being from God and pictures of Trump that come as close to being like Jesus as Artificial Intelligence can figure out without burning in Hell.

The only thing that surprises me is that the Religious Right hasn't tried to say (yet) that the "J" in "Donald J. Trump" actually stands for Jes...oh, you know.

There have been many ways that have tried to describe this reality.  But ultimately, it really doesn't matter if this is a religious cult or a sect of Whirling Dervishes or just a self-deluded, venal and frightened pitchfork-carrying mob that believes snake charmers and anonymous hucksters who can make money off them by telling them what they desperately need to hear:  that it's "the others" -- other for any reason, every reason, just different, it doesn't matter why, being different is enough -- who (because they're different) are therefore wrong and wicked about everything.  Which comfortingly explains why they themselves haven't succeeded enough or at all, even if such hatred for others conflicts with what they insist is the faith they believe.
​
And then proclaiming themselves “Christian warriors” because it sounds like they’re on a Crusade to vanquish the infidels.  When all it is…is putting a dirty, used band-aid on a broken arm, while a cancer is rotting them from within.
 
There are none so blind as they who will not see.

Of course, if they truly want to vanquish the infidels, they really don’t have to travel as far as they think, and can make a huge dent in pagans by getting rid of the guy leading their Crusade.