Among Evangelicals, the stronger your faith, the more confidently you disbelieve any information that could threaten it. Dismissing conflicting viewpoints and evidence is seen as a virtue and practiced regularly

By SAMUEL DEAN

Planet Waves Legal Reporter

On the surface, Evangelical* support of President Trump seems astounding. After all, this is the group of people who firmly believe in Christian values like forgiveness, piety, kindness, honesty, sexual propriety, charity, humility and earnest Bible study, while Trump embodies the complete antithesis of those values.

So why do white Evangelicals overwhelmingly (over 8 in 10) support Trump? In short, because he pushes all of the same buttons they have practiced responding to their whole lives.

I grew up in the South in an extremely conservative area, and attended an Evangelical church three times a week until I left home. During that time, I considered myself a Republican and a born-again Christian. I vividly remember what that culture is like and the values and thought processes that we shared, so I am not writing this as an outsider speculating about a group I can’t understand. I’m speaking from my own personal experience, and while some of what I have to say may sound harsh, I’m coming from a position of sympathy, and my indignation is on their behalf.

A Badge of Honor

In the Evangelical community, the strength of your faith is seen as a sign of virtue. And you demonstrate that faith by persisting in your beliefs in the face of conflicting evidence. If the Bible says that there was a giant, worldwide flood, and science says there wasn’t, the faithful reject science; the heretics reject the Bible.

Among Evangelicals, the stronger your faith, the more confidently you disbelieve any information that could threaten it. Dismissing conflicting viewpoints and evidence is seen as a virtue and practiced regularly. Many Evangelicals therefore wear their rejection of reality as a badge of honor, often announcing with pride that they don’t care what the scientists say about evolution because the Bible assures them it’s not true, or laughing at historians who provide evidence that biblical accounts of ancient events may be inaccurate.

When it comes to politics, then, this same mindset applies. Having spent their entire lives believing as gospel what they are told by authority figures, and bonding over their shared rejection and suppression of dissenting views, it’s only natural that they will take at face value the word of a liar like President Trump, since he is the leader of the party, while rejecting the same scientists, liberal politicians, and media that their churches have spent a lifetime demonizing as satanic liars dead set on destroying Christianity.

There is also a small subset of Evangelicals who are sadly susceptible to being conned: believers who send in “seed faith” donations to TV preachers promising extravagant wealth in return, or ailing grandmothers who are convinced that fraudulent “faith healers” have the power to cure them. These people are prime targets for a lifelong con artist like Donald Trump.

It is also worth noting that Trump speaks with the same cadence and emotional rhetoric favored by so many televangelists and country preachers. Like these fiery pastors, he peppers his message with humorous asides and oversimplified solutions to complex problems.

Buttons Work

Trump pushes other buttons that motivate Evangelicals. His “tough-on-crime” policies and seemingly anti-Christian**, draconian stance towards anyone crossing the Southern border actually resonates well with Evangelicals because they tend to favor interpretations of the bible that emphasize strict adherence to rigid rules with harsh consequences for violating them (e.g., believe in Jesus or burn in hell for all eternity; if you don’t work, you shouldn’t eat; spare the rod, spoil the child, etc.).

Another key lever that Trump uses to great effect is the persecution complex and victimhood mentality that has been embedded in Evangelical Christianity since the beginning. The persecution and martyrdom of Christ and the early Church is foundational to modern Evangelicals’ beliefs and perception of their own place in the world. Growing up in church, current events and politics were consistently framed as deliberate attacks on Christianity, and I was regularly taught that The World’s opposition to our evangelism was proof that we were doing the right thing (just as Trump supporters often claim that the opposition of the media and the “liberal elites” is proof that Trump is a righteous crusader fixing our system).

There is also a small subset of Evangelicals who are sadly susceptible to being conned: believers who send in “seed faith” donations to TV preachers promising extravagant wealth in return, or ailing grandmothers who are convinced that fraudulent “faith healers” have the power to cure them. These people are prime targets for a lifelong con artist like Donald Trump.

According to Trump, everything from the coronavirus to law enforcement noticing his criminal activity to the Hurricane Maria death toll is a malicious liberal conspiracy meant to attack and discredit him and his supporters. These claims track well with those who have been taught since birth that the world is out to get them.

While it is certainly not true that most Evangelicals, or even a majority of them, are racists, it would nevertheless be negligent to explore white Evangelical support for Trump without acknowledging the unfortunate history that Evangelicals share with slave owners and segregationists, and pointing out that there does exist some small fraction of white Evangelicals who support Trump based on feelings of racial animosity and a belief that he will restore white people to their proper place in society and halt the Great Replacement they see happening.

It is also worth noting that Trump speaks with the same cadence and emotional rhetoric favored by so many televangelists and country preachers. Like these fiery pastors, he peppers his message with humorous asides and oversimplified solutions to complex problems, which are far more appealing than the cautious and nuanced recommendations of experts. When someone is telling you what you want to hear, packaged the same way you receive the Word of God, it’s easy to believe it.

The Faustian Bargain

The other side of the coin in Trump’s Evangelical support is the purely transactional (often cynical) way in which many of them view politics. I often heard members of my church make remarks like, “It’s all about judges,” and other similar justifications for supporting morally dubious conservative politicians.

This reasoning most commonly manifests in Evangelicals who prioritize ending abortion. People are willing to forgive a lot if they believe it’s in service of saving the children. The “abortion is murder” argument is especially useful to Trump and other conservative politicians who oppose abortion, because it means that they can commit any evil acts they please, short of literal baby murder, and still enjoy Evangelical support as the lesser of two evils.

Halting the so-called “gay agenda,” seating conservative (read: anti-abortion, pro-religious discrimination) judges, and supporting Israel (for apocalyptic reasons) are other popular deliverables that Evangelicals expect to receive from Trump, which outweigh their personal distaste for him.

The other side of the coin in Trump’s Evangelical support is the purely transactional (often cynical) way in which many of them view politics. I often heard members of my church make remarks like, “It’s all about judges,” and other similar justifications for supporting morally dubious conservative politicians.

Is Anyone Really “Too Far Gone”?

So what can we do to persuade Evangelicals that Trump is not the leader they should support? I don’t know. Maybe nothing can be done. But what won’t work is berating them or waving a list of all the bad things Trump has done in their faces. Any approach that frames you as opposition from The World will just be taken as proof that they’re in the right. I know, because I used to think that way.

I can only suggest that you listen and demonstrate kindness and humility, while explaining that you agree with many of their beliefs, which is why you support someone different. If they are biblical literalists, you could show them some of the verses below (or find others relating to whichever topic you want to discuss), and explain that you think the Bible has valuable lessons, and we should elect people who will make policy in line with them.

It hasn’t worked with my family. Not yet, at least. But I have to keep trying, if only because it’s the Christian thing to do.

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*I am referring to white Evangelicals. Non-white Evangelicals tend to have a much dimmer view of Trump. For the sake of brevity, I will continue to refer to white Evangelicals simply as Evangelicals.

**Zero-tolerance/family separation policy is anti-Christian. Here are the references.