When Donald Trump read the political tea leaves and urged House Republicans to vote for the release of the Epstein files, speculation was rampant. Did this mean Trump’s hold over the GOP was beginning to weaken? Or was his Department of Justice hatching a secret plan to keep the most damning documents out of the public view?
Was Marjorie Taylor Greene the first rat to flee a sinking ship, or did her departure demonstrate the futility of questioning the big man?
How will Trump’s Christian base react if the Epstein files reveal the president was fully aware of his old friend’s elaborate sex trafficking network? Or, if Trump’s DOJ holds back the bulk of the Epstein material in its possession, will MAGA Christians walk away from their leader?
When the crowds that initially flocked to Jesus found his message too radical for their liking, Jesus asked his disciples, “Do you also wish to go away?” Simon Peter answered without hesitation: “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
“MAGA Christians will stand by their man because, like the disciples of Jesus, they have nowhere else to go.”
MAGA Christians will stand by their man because, like the disciples of Jesus, they have nowhere else to go.
White evangelicals lead the MAGA parade
MAGA Christianity casts a broad net. As religious statistician Ryan Burge frequently reminds us, white Catholics and white Mainline Protestants are almost as enamored of MAGA politics as white evangelicals. The difference is that MAGA voters who attend Catholic or Mainline Protestant churches are unlikely to hear Trumpian political themes reinforced from the pulpit.
Since Mainline congregations are ideologically diverse, preachers generally hold their political cards tight to the vest. Similarly, Catholic churches are so racially diverse that partisan sermons are certain to stoke unwanted controversy. White evangelicals lead the MAGA parade because, after decades of ideological sorting, pastors and parishioners have a cozy relationship with MAGA-themed messaging.
Standing by their man
As the defection of Margarie Taylor Greene indicates, there is plenty of unrest within the MAGA fold. The cost of living was supposed to plummet, but costs keep rising. People wanted to see the foreign criminals and cartels driven out of the country, but they weren’t ready for masked thugs dragging parents to prison while their children are in school. Most MAGA Christians support Ukraine and are suspicious of Vladimir Putin. On the campaign trail, Trump promised the Epstein files would be fully disclosed by his Justice Department. Instead, there was a cover-up.
But the antipathy toward liberals, Democrats and woke progressives hasn’t lessened in the least. MAGA folk will dance with the one who brung ’em. Even if it becomes clear that Trump was fully aware of the full extent of Epstein’s depredations, MAGA evangelicals will stand their ground. Where else could they go?
“A full break with MAGA orthodoxy would require the shattering admission that you have been wrong about just about everything.”
A full break with MAGA orthodoxy would require the shattering admission that you, and those you love, have been wrong about just about everything. Marjorie Taylor Greene took a few baby steps away from MAGA orthodoxy and was deluged by death threats. No matter how painful sticking with Trump becomes; breaking with Dear Leader would be worse.
Expanding the godhead
But aren’t white evangelicals the people who celebrated “purity culture” in the last quarter of the 20th century? Aren’t they tied to a “biblical worldview” in which any form of sexual entanglement outside of marriage is condemned in the strongest terms? Weren’t white evangelicals the folks who asked what Jesus would do?
So, if Trump presents himself to the world as the antithesis of Christian virtue (a literal antichrist), why have Christians become his most dedicated followers?
For all intents and purposes, MAGA Christians have incorporated Donald J. Trump into the godhead. Projecting a mere mortal into the heavenly realm has clear advantages. It takes faith to believe in a God we can neither see, hear nor touch. We believe and ask God to forgive our unbelief. But believing in Trump is easy. No one doubts his existence — he’s right there on the television screen cursing his enemies, sneering at reporters, assuring us of his excellent greatness.
Christians believe God is at work in the world even when the facts suggest otherwise. But no one doubts Trump’s power to influence events. Just ask the professor who has been fired for being too woke; the Venezuelan father who has been separated from his wife and family. Ask the millions of people who are dying of hunger because Elon Musk and his boy brigade axed funds for USAID. Ask the brave people of Ukraine who must watch an American president schmoozing with their Russian tormentor.
“Jesus is your ticket to the sweet bye-and-bye, but Trump is Lord of the here and now.”
No one is suggesting Trump can forgive sins or save souls from hell. Jesus is your ticket to the sweet bye-and-bye, but Trump is Lord of the here and now.
The indispensable man
If Trump falls from grace, or simply succumbs to the ravages of old age, won’t some other self-promoting politician take his place?
No, they won’t. Trump is indispensable because he is a malignant narcissist who spouts lies for sport. His superpower is his utter lack of shame. Subjected to the legal gauntlet Trump encountered following the January 6 debacle, any other politician in America would have been emotionally overwhelmed. Trump uses his humiliation as rocket fuel.
Trump is a natural performer. Privately, he may be amused or bewildered by the Christian soldiers flocking to his banner, but he loves to engage them in mass public events. Most of the men and women in a Trump rally are used to long religious services replete with passionate prayers, paeons to Christian America and the demonization of all things woke. In such a setting, Trump pushes the predictable buttons and gets the predictable response.
Trump may have been momentarily stunned when a bullet grazed his ear in the course of a campaign rally, but in a matter of seconds his political instincts kicked in. The image of a bleeding Trump defiantly shaking his fist and screaming “Fight, fight, fight” recapitulated the dramatic arc of his political revival.
“I am he that was dead; and, behold, I am alive” (Revelation 1:18). Trump acolytes such as JD Vance, Marco Rubio, Stephen Miller and Mike Johnson never could stage a comeback like that. If Trump is carried off the field on a stretcher, there is no one on the bench to take his place.
“If Trump is carried off the field on a stretcher, there is no one on the bench to take his place.”
Again, MAGA Christians will stick with Trump because they have nowhere else to turn.
MAGA Christianity without Trump
With Trump on the throne, MAGA Christians are free to dream of theocratic bliss. Billionaires like Peter Thiel, Mark Zuckerburg and Jeff Bezos have tolerated the movement’s religious wing so long as they have access to Trump. When Trump leaves the political scene, this marriage of convenience between billionaires and Bible thumpers will collapse.
The MAGA coalition is like a triumphal arch; remove the keystone and the edifice collapses.
MAGA Christianity is a marriage of convenience that allows prophets of the New Apostolic Reformation, prosperity gospelers, neo-fundamentalist Southern Baptists, and the conservative branches of the Presbyterian, Methodist and Anglican communions to combine forces. Everybody plays nice so long as Trump is at the helm; but ancient animosities will re-emerge once he’s gone.
Trump’s physical, cognitive and emotional decline is accelerating. He is a man of robust constitution who functions on very little sleep; but advanced age, a horrendous diet, his dislike of exercise and a brutal schedule are taking an inevitable toll. The keystone of the triumphal arch is crumbling before our eyes.
MAGA Christians talk as if they are both a persecuted minority driven to the margins of American life and the victorious vanguard of a Trumpian theocracy. The faithful are told if MAGA Christians don’t vanquish the liberals, the liberals will vanquish them. Only one side can triumph, and the losers are destined for the Gulag.
When Trump is gone, there will be weeping, wailing and the gnashing of evangelical teeth.
North of 80% of conservative Christians will continue to pull the lever for whoever emerges as the Republican presidential candidate; but they no longer will dictate who that candidate will be. When Trump staggers off the stage of history, MAGA Christians will have to make do with the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. And that could be their salvation.
Alan Bean
Alan Bean leads the nonprofit Friends of Justice and lives in Fort Worth, Texas, where he attends Broadway Baptist Church.