How Trump duped Christian nationalists: scholar

25 September 2024

If GOP nominee Donald Trump defeats his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, in the United States' 2024 presidential election, one of the factors will be a heavy turnout from far-right white evangelicals and Christian fundamentalists.

Harris and other Democratic candidates do plenty of campaigning in churches and synagogues, and the vice president isn't shy about discussing religion — from her experiences as a Baptist to her husband Doug Emhoff's Judaism to her mother's Hinduism. But the Religious Right, on the whole, favors Trump.

In an interview with Salon's Chauncey DeVega, Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) President Robert P. Jones discussed Trump's bond with Christian nationalists — an alliance that, according to the religious studies scholar, is driven by a combination of fear and fanaticism.

Jones told DeVega, "Trump has long played into the idea that he was specially chosen by God to save the country from evil and destruction. This appeal is straight out of the authoritarian playbook. Even before the two attempts on his life, he was using language that directly compared himself to a messianic figure who was being wounded and persecuted on behalf of his righteous followers…. He's continued to use this language that evokes the theological logic of substitutionary atonement, where he bravely offers himself to be sacrificed on behalf of his followers."

Jones discussed PPRI research during the interview, noting that "white evangelical Protestants" are the Christians most likely to support Trump — and that Christian nationalists in the MAGA movement hold "authoritarian attitudes" rejected by "two-thirds of the country."

The PRRI president told DeVega, "Christian nationalists are more likely than other Americans to think about politics in apocalyptic terms and are about twice as likely as other Americans to believe political violence may be justified…. The danger of the Christian nationalist worldview is that it raises the stakes of political contests exponentially, transposing political opponents into existential enemies."

Jones added, "Politics are no longer understood to be disagreements between fellow citizens of goodwill but to be apocalyptic battles over good and evil, fought by agents of God against agents of Satan. Political opponents should not just be defeated in fair electoral contests but should be jailed, exiled, attacked, or even killed."

Jones described Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation's 920-page blueprint for a second Trump presidency, as a Christian nationalist manifesto.

Jones told DeVega, "The most disturbing thing about Project 2025 isn't its extreme policy and political recommendations but the way it marshals Christian nationalist commitments to distort beyond all recognition fundamental American values like life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness…. If Trump succeeds in getting elected and implementing Project 2025, I'm sure he'll still speak about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. But the rest of us will only be free to do what they believe we ought."

Chauncey DeVega's full interview with Robert P. Jones for Salon is available at this link.

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