The psychology behind Christians supporting Trump.

FireDragon76 said:

I don't mean to be flippant by saying that support for Trump is a personality cult, BTW. I mean that some people seem to act as if everything Trump does is beyond criticism.

My parents are a perfect example. My father in particular. He has a signed picture of Trump in his family room, thinks Trump is some kind of genius and that people who critique him are just brainwashed or have some ulterior, nefarious motive: he rejects alternative explanations or criticism of Trump's behavior or policies, no matter how reasonable. He's also taken a noticeably anti-intellectual turn in the last eight years.

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It is pretty scary with some people, and I know a lot of people that are exactly like what you are describing in all of your posts here, and I definitely don't take any offense to you referring to it as some kind of a cult either, because that is exactly what I think it is with some people, and I try to distance myself from those kinds or types of people that are like that with him personally.

Neogaia777 said:

It is pretty scary with some people, and I know a lot of people that are exactly like what you are describing in all of your posts here, and I definitely don't take any offense to you referring to it as some kind of a cult either, because that is exactly what I think it is with some people, and I try to distance myself from those kinds or types of people that are like that with him personally.

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But if you guys want to talk about the psychology behind that maybe, then I'm game?

God Bless.

Neogaia777 said:

But if you guys want to talk about the psychology behind that maybe, then I'm game?

God Bless.

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And I think all we really have to do is just do some research into everybody who's ever had or created these kinds of followings in the past, and analyze deeply what was going on with both the leaders and followers, or creators and co-creators, of such things in the past, and the specific situations of what each one of those was or were/are in when they happen, both in our most recent present, and our most recent current past? The psychology behind it all is pretty fascinating really, etc, and certain situations always always come about to set us up for this kind of thing pretty often, or from time to time.

God Bless.

sjastro said:

If voting was based on personal issues, it becomes difficult to explain why particular voting blocs occurred such as 82% of white male evangelicals voters preferred Trump or 61% of college educated females voted for Harris.

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I note how you mention what male white evangelicals did, but what about *female* white evangelicals??

How college educated women voted can mean nothing, unless you tell us what percentage of them are white evangelicals, if any, who voted for Kamala.

The ones I know might not deeply favor Donald, but they have major issues with Joe and Kamala who are ok with killing unborn people and castrating boys and exposing young school kids to gay and gender rejecting stuff. I consider that if you mess with kids, a Christian mother can be more concerned with this, than with what Donald has done in his past.

So, why leave out *these* statistics????

sjastro said:

his authoritarian style of leadership reflected how evangelicals raise their own children leading to a binary viewpoint of the world of being for us or against us.

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Authoritarian > I have been told how certain school workers have tried to force parents to accept how schools have been teaching young kids about gender and same-sex stuff. And those workers could be very authoritarian to dictate how everyone has to cooperate with what those school authorities dictate.

sjastro said:

It ignores the moral code which evangelicals supposedly abide to which clashes with Trump’s amoral or immoral behaviour.

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But Donald knows better than to go along with altering kids and false marriage and killing unborn children. So, he's got that straight. And to my knowledge, he has not presently been doing extra-marital betraying of his family. And God is able to change a wrong person; so I need to not evaluate him automatically by his past.

But authoritarian people can have a way of judging people by their past . . . right? And accuse the other person of being authoritarian.

There is a well-known principle of psychology, by the way > how ones guilty of some thing can be so busy pointing at another person and not even seeing how they themselves have the problem.

Look at how authoritarian ones can dictate that everyone has to be ok with killing unborn people. And ones can be authoritarian to demand that an unborn has to die so the killer can have the life she demands. This is what authoritarians do > they kill for what they want.

And I have been told how relatives of an unwed mother can be pressured by authoritarian family members demanding she kill her unborn or else they will not support her. And there is such fear and insecurity in that psychological terrorism, that women will kill their own unborn with whom they could learn real love. They actually give in to ones who do not know how to love them!

Unsure and insecure love, then, is a major problem in the United States . . . while many deeply unsure and unsound people can be pointing the finger at someone else besides their own selves - like psychologists say we all can do.

Yes, me too!

FireDragon76 said:

It's provocative language but I think it raises an important point: many people don't understand the appeal of Trump except as a form of personality cult. Trump himself doesn't personally align with the values that many Christians claim to espouse, or the teachings of Jesus Christ, which would be seemingly important for an understanding of Christian ethics. And excessive devotion can be understood as a kind of idolatry or worship in its own right.

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There’s no doubt that some Christians are fanatical about Donald Trump. In my experience, they tend to overlap with the hyper-patriotic crowd, people who may react harshly to things like someone turning around in their driveway or not standing for the national anthem. I don’t say that to be judgmental or to disparage anyone, but I do think that, for some, their primary identity seems more rooted in their political affiliation than in Christ. Unfortunately, those are often the voices that get the most media coverage, which creates a distorted view of the broader Christian voting base. I honestly don’t know what percentage of Trump voters fall into that category.

As for me, I voted for him because he aligned more closely with the policies I care about. When it came down to the two primary options, one didn’t reflect my values in personality or policy, the other didn’t in personality, but did in policy. I could’ve voted third party, and I absolutely respect anyone who does, but in a system like ours, that often feels like more of a symbolic gesture than a viable path to real change.

As for the video, I think it’s pretty clear that it was created for a specific audience, one that already holds certain views, and its purpose seems more about reinforcing existing stereotypes than fostering meaningful dialogue between differing perspectives. That’s the kind of content that keeps people in their bubbles, rather than building bridges.

sjastro said:

Since psychology is a soft science what better place to ask the question why Christians particularly Evangelicals largely support Trump.

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If you have a town sheriff who is a womanizer and lier and false witness, you "might" not support him. But if a gang comes into town and starts violating your children, who are you going to vote for sheriff . . . a family member of the gang, or that immoral narcissistic sheriff - when no one else is running??

sjastro said:

Hopefully part 2 not yet released will provide more substantial answers.​

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Well . . . if the person starts right off with saying Christians "worship" Donald . . . I understand that each human is unique; and so, I would say that competent experienced psychologists know this better than plenty of us do, because they have gotten to know so many unique patients and others.

So, when I see something asking why Chistians "worship" Donald . . . I am wondering if the writer of that is experienced with real people who can be so complex and unique.

To my knowledge, there are a lot of anti-Christian people who support Donald . . . possibly being the ones or the majority who worship him if anyone really does.

The problem is how certain groups have used falsification to rile-up activists who have been violent and dirty dealing. These would not be Jesus honoring people. And so, in case anyone is claiming the genuinely Christian ones "worship" or even approve of Donald, someone claiming this is either outrightly dishonest or is not competent and maybe too lazy to really find out why each individual has voted for Donald.

For the fun of it, I'll list a few reasons why I find people have voted for Donald > *n-o-t* necessarily Christian reasons >

Heavily into the Zionist campaign

Aghast at the killing of unborn people and castration of children

Horrified that school authorities have pushed gay and anti-gender ideas in schools, even without communicating about this to parents

Refusal to give in to the psychological terrorism of school authoritarians who are trying to coerce parents into accepting the anti-gender, anti-marriage, anti-family agendas of certain school programs

Want the economy to get better

Suppose a human president can fix the real problems of the United States of America

Anti-Hispanic snobbery

English-only snobbery

According to my knowledge of God's word and real loving, it is my opinion that mature Christians did not vote for Donald because they worship him. And they did not vote for him because they approve of him as a person whom they would trust to mentor their children in how to become and to love like Jesus.

But ones have treated Donald as though he is above question. But before you say a Christian has so worshiped Donald, I suggest you check with that Christian and make sure the person speaks for oneself. Because if someone is not approved in the sight of God > "without Me you can do nothing" (in John 15:5).

FireDragon76 said:

Though many Evangelicals have authoritarian parenting styles, I don't think its universal, and I offered some alternative explanations in the video's comments.

Trump's strongest support is actually among people that are nominally religious, rural and suburban white Americans who hold Christianity as more of an ethnic or cultural identifier than a religious practice. They aren't people deeply involved in their religion.



People like to use sanctimony or self-righteousness as a deflection from introspection and criticism.

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Neogaia777 said:

It is pretty scary with some people, and I know a lot of people that are exactly like what you are describing in all of your posts here, and I definitely don't take any offense to you referring to it as some kind of a cult either, because that is exactly what I think it is with some people, and I try to distance myself from those kinds or types of people that are like that with him personally.

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There are many devout Christians who support Trump because they perceive him as being pro-life.
The support of churches for Trump gives others crises of faith. If my church told us to rob a store and give them the money I'm sure very few would follow, but personally I feel like voting for Trump would be far more sinful.
I do not criticize pro-lifers for following their pastors, but my faith was restored when Pope Francis acknowledged that Trump creates a lot of evil.
A friend, a retired psychologist who is now deceased, worked hard for pro-life ministries, especially helping young moms and babies in the first few years of life. During the 2016 election, he was on oxygen. He always sat in the front row at church, near the organ where I played, and I could hear the hum of the oxygen machine.
I overheard him talking to another man, obviously in great conflict, about how he was "required" to vote for Trump. Being an accomplished mental health professional, he understood exactly how dangerous and harmful a leader Trump would be, and yet he believed that the Catholic Church was telling him he had no other choice--vote for a man whom forty years of clinical psychological practice told him was deranged and dangerous, or commit serious sin. In a blessed moment, the priest in his homily read an excerpt from U.S. Catholic in which Pope Francis said, "The Church should inform consciences, not replace them."
Hopefully Pope Francis' words gave him some peace.