Apparently insanity pervades this country

A chilling op-ed in today’s NYTimes by author Katherine Stewart, who has extensively studied and written about the Christian right, says that the far right have been pushing a meme for several years now that Donald Trump, conman and egomaniac, has been sent by God to be “a vessel for the purposes of the faithful” in the role of King of the United States of America.

Unbeknownst to people with even a tenuous grip on reality, prior to the midterms a thousand theaters showed “The Trump Prophecy,” a film about a firefighter who, in a blinding orgiastic epiphany, picks up a Bible and turns to Isaiah 45, “which describes the anointment of King Cyrus by God.” Get it, Isaiah “45” — Trump “45”? What more proof do you need, right?

Stewart goes on, saying that evangelical author and speaker Lance Wallnau has said:

I believe the 45th president is meant to be an Isaiah 45 Cyrus [who will] restore … us from cultural collapse.

And in this telling it is not at all paradoxical that Trump is a non-believer intent on wrecking our democracy and government. Apparently the story of Cyrus is of a nonbeliever who becomes the first emperor of Babylon (“Babble-on” — it’s all starting to come together now, isn’t it?) and frees the Jews.

Stewart provides numerous quotations from across the spectrum of the religious right leadership pushing this meme that God sent Trump to be King, including Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council and Ralph Drollinger who leads weekly bible study groups at the White House attended by Mike Pence and members of the Cabinet.

In her article Stewart confirms our worst suspicions about what Trump’s core followers see in him:

This isn’t the religious right we thought we knew. The Christian nationalist movement today is authoritarian, paranoid and patriarchal at its core. They aren’t fighting a culture war. They’re making a direct attack on democracy itself.

And, according to Stewart, Trump has been egging them on, goading their preachers for becoming too “soft” — as he openly muses about becoming “President for life”.