The former speechwriter for three Republican presidents and a senior fellow at the non-profit Christian organization The Trinity Forum explains what he calls "fully MAGA-fied Christianity" in his latest piece forThe Atlantic.
Peter Wehner, who served under President Ronald Reagan and both Bushes, says that when President Donald Trump admitted at the memorial service of slain MAGA podcaster Charlie Kirk that he hated his enemies, it was hardly a surprise.
"President Trump has in the past made clear his disagreement with, and even his contempt for, some of the core teachings of Jesus. So has his son Don Jr., who told a Turning Point USA gathering in 2021 that turning the other cheek has “gotten us nothing," Wehner says.
Trump has "acknowledged that he’s a man filled with hate and driven by vengeance. It’s not simply that those qualities are part of who he is; it is that he draws strength from the dark passions," he adds.
And despite the fact that Trump has, Wehner explains, "spent nearly every day of the past decade confirming that he lacks empathy. He sees himself as both entitled and as a victim. He’s incapable of remorse. He’s driven by an insatiable need for revenge. And he enjoys inflicting pain on others."
"It’s no longer an interesting question as to why Trump is an almost perfect inversion of the moral teachings of Jesus; the answer can be traced to a damaged, disordered personality that has tragically warped his soul." Wehner says, adding, "What is an interesting question is why those who claim that the greatest desire of their life is to follow Jesus revere such a man and seem willing to follow him, instead, to the ends of the earth."
"Trump and the MAGA movement capitalized on, and then amplified, the problems facing Christian communities, but they did not create them," Wehner explains.
Pastor and author Brian Zahnd posted on Bluesky that “It grieves me to see people I’ve known for years (some as far back as the Jesus Movement of the 1970s) seduced by a mean-spirited culture-war Christianity that is but a perverse caricature of the authentic faith formed around Jesus of Nazareth."
Russell Moore, editor in chief of Christianity Today, has said that Jesus is a “hood ornament” for many American Christians, Wehner writes.
"The expectation of, among others, the Apostle Paul wasn’t human perfection. He believed that original sin touched every human life, and many of his Epistles were written to address serious problems within the Church," he says.
Wehner also points to culture wars as a commonality that draws Christians to Trump.
"Politics, especially culture-war politics, provides many fundamentalists and evangelicals with a sense of community and a common enemy,: Wehner explains. "It gives purpose and meaning to their life, turning them into protagonists in a great drama pitting good against evil. They are vivified by it."
Leaders within the Christian MAGA movement, Wehner adds, are also autocratic and they like what they see with Trump's attempts to consolidate power within the excutive branch.
"Many of the leaders within the Christian-MAGA movement are autocratic, arrogant, and controlling; they lack accountability, demand unquestioned loyalty, and try to intimidate their critics, especially those within their church or denomination," Wehner says.
And as Wehner pointed out, grievance politics also plays a role.
"The grievances and resentment they feel are impossible to overstate; they are suffering from a persecution complex. Fully MAGA-fied Christians view Trump as the “ultimate fighting machine,” in the words of the historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez, and they love him for it."