Donald Trump is building a strange new religious movement

[sanderabeer]

For over six decades, the “religious right” in America was boomer “Christian nationalism,” straight out of The Handmaid’s Tale. It was about “keeping God in the schools” and the National Prayer Breakfast. It was traditionalist, mindful of theology, and, well, theocratic, which is to say it wanted to take the standards of a religious tradition and apply them to the secular law. They wanted the books of Scripture to replace the statute books.

But President Donald Trump is trying to create a new religious right, one that is not just illiberal but fundamentally different and opposed to traditional religion as we’ve known it. The faith of the MAGA movement is not one in which the state conforms to the church, but one in which the church is bent to the will of the strange beast that is American nationalism — the belief that the American project is an exercise in freedom and prosperity like the world has never known, but also the sole possession of those who are white, heterosexual, and unquestioningly loyal to the nation.

Source: Donald Trump is building a strange new religious movement

This is a great article about MAGA and religion. In short, religion is merely a tool in service of a MAGA state.

 

[RileyG]

Trump is no theologian.

 

[durangodawood]

Trump is no theologian.

Thats would matter if God was the concern of your religion.

 

[RileyG]

Thats would matter if God was the concern of your religion.

This isn’t about my religion. It’s about Trump’s view on God.

And yes, God is at the center of my religion.

 

[durangodawood]

This isn’t about my religion. It’s about Trump’s view on God.

And yes, God is at the center of my religion.

By "you" I mean the people who are developing this new religion. Not you, Riley.

So traditional theology doesnt matter if the point of God in your project is to reinforce a certain conception of the state or party.

 

[RileyG]

By "you" I mean the people who are developing this new religion. Not you, Riley.

So traditional theology doesnt matter if the point of God in your project is to reinforce a certain conception of the state or party.

Ahhhh, my mistake. Then no, I don’t follow the new religion at all.

 

[durangodawood]

Ahhhh, my mistake. Then no, I don’t follow the new religion at all.

Kinda my fault for not being clear about that, I think.

Its not like the Trump group is inventing a whole new religion. Its more that they are elevating the influence of Christians (and others) who conceive of the state as pre-eminent and faith as maleable to the states ends.

 

[RileyG]

Kinda my fault for not being clear about that, I think.

Its not like the Trump group is inventing a whole new religion. Its more that they are elevating the influence of Christians (and others) who conceive of the state as pre-eminent and faith as maleable to the states ends.

It’s all good!

Trump has admitted to not going to Church regularly, not asking forgiveness for his sins, and not reading the Bible. He called communion cracker and juice.

That’s why I don’t take his comments on religion seriously.

 

[Maria Billingsley]

Source: Donald Trump is building a strange new religious movement

This is a great article about MAGA and religion. In short, religion is merely a tool in service of a MAGA state.

When will our brothers and sisters in Christ realize this deception?

 

[durangodawood]

It’s all good!

Trump has admitted to not going to Church regularly, not asking forgiveness for his sins, and not reading the Bible. He called communion cracker and juice.

That’s why I don’t take his comments on religion seriously.

Its not really about his personal religiosity. Its about what notion of Christianity our govt grants influence to.

 

[RileyG]

Its not really about his personal religiosity. Its about what notion of Christianity our govt grants influence to.

Yes. That’s true. Especially since Paula White is his spiritual advisor, and she believes in the prosperity gospel, which many Christians reject as heresy.*

*im not calling anyone in the word of faith movement heretical or heretics, rather many Christians don’t subscribe to it. Just so I’m 100% clear

 

[Akita Suggagaki]

"What the new religious right has built has more in common with the Roman Imperial Cult than the tent revivals of early America. Like the ancient pagan religion of the Roman state, the focus is on the power and fertility of the nation, currently demonstrated by the prevalence of pronatalism in the MAGA movement."

What tears my heart apart is the exploitation of Christian symbols to legitimize this phenomenon. It is blasphemy.

 

[RileyG]

"What the new religious right has built has more in common with the Roman Imperial Cult than the tent revivals of early America. Like the ancient pagan religion of the Roman state, the focus is on the power and fertility of the nation, currently demonstrated by the prevalence of pronatalism in the MAGA movement."

What tears my heart apart is the exploitation of Christian symbols to legitimize this phenomenon. It is blasphemy.
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I agree.

 

[sanderabeer]

This isn’t about my religion. It’s about Trump’s view on God.

And yes, God is at the center of my religion.

The title of the article does it a disservice. It's really not about Trump's view of God, but rather those around him.

 

[sanderabeer]

Its about what notion of Christianity our govt grants influence to.

I would argue the article is even less about what notion of Christianity.

The old American civic religion is dead. Instead, we are confronted with a cross-faith coalition united not by theology, but by a shared sense of cultural siege.
...
While the religious right of the 1980s and 1990s was political because of their theology, this is a group doing the opposite: constructing a theology that fits their politics. Take, for example, the defense by evangelical leaders of Trump’s sexual transgressions. Trump’s sins are excusable because he is a messianic figure, they say, sent not to save our souls but America. It’s not coherent in a religious sense. It’s coherent in a political sense.

It definitely draws heavily on Christianity, but there are Muslims and Jews in the mix as well. In fact, the group include even includes someone who spent a decade in prison for helping people join terrorist training camps.

Another excellent example is Ismail Royer, one of the three Muslims Trump has appointed to do the commission’s work. To begin with, Royer might be the first member of a presidential advisory board to have served prison time for crimes stemming from his connection to a terrorist organization. That’s right, Royer served over a little over a decade in federal maximum-security prison after having been convicted of helping people travel to Pakistan to train with Lashkar-e-Taiba, an Islamist militia that aims to unite the whole of Kashmir with Pakistan and has been designated as a terrorist organization by the US government.

 

[Hazelelponi]

I'm sorry but you people are sitting on a forum calling Christians like myself idol worshippers and non-Christian.

Why? Why is this even okay on this forum?

Will someone tell me why they can call Christians idol worshippers for voting for the Republican candidate and out current president

On what planet is this not as highly offensive and intentionally so as one can get?

Why don't we put a sign on the door saying Christians unwelcome? This is what is happening, whether the sign is up or not. That is the message being sent. No Christians desired here.

 

[RileyG]

The title of the article does it a disservice. It's really not about Trump's view of God, but rather those around him.

Indeed.

 

[RileyG]

I'm sorry but you people are sitting on a forum calling Christians like myself idol worshippers and non-Christian.

Why? Why is this even okay on this forum?

Will someone tell me why they can call Christians idol worshippers for voting for the Republican candidate and out current president

For the record, I’m a Republican and indeed voted for Trump. I just don’t agree with some imagery people are using. I am not, not once, accusing anyone of idolatry. Indeed, that would be against the forum rules for anyone to state that.

God bless

 

[Hazelelponi]

For the record, I’m a Republican and indeed voted for Trump. I just don’t agree with some imagery people are using. I am not, not once, accusing anyone of idolatry. Indeed, that would be against the forum rules for anyone to state that.

God bless

I am shaking and I am crying. This is too much Riley. It's just too much¡!!!

 

[Landon Caeli]

I'm sorry but you people are sitting on a forum calling Christians like myself idol worshippers and non-Christian.

Why? Why is this even okay on this forum?

Will someone tell me why they can call Christians idol worshippers for voting for the Republican candidate and out current president

On what planet is this not as highly offensive and intentionally so as one can get?

Why don't we put a sign on the door saying Christians unwelcome? This is what is happening, whether the sign is up or not. That is the message being sent. No Christians desired here.

I agree with you. I find some.things I'm reading here highly offensive.