The Prince of Lies: The Heresy of White Christian Nationalism and Donald Trump
You don't get authoritarianism without the perversion of religion and it doesn't just spontaneously appear
Just a few updates: I’ll be heading to Iowa this weekend to cover the Iowa Caucuses and providing exclusive coverage for subscribers here and over at The Muckrake Podcast. If you haven’t yet, check out my series The Stakes. Part I lays out what I mean when I talk about the “authoritarian agenda” we’re facing. Part II begins the conversation about what the 2024 Presidential Election represents, as well as what it could mean going forward. Part III is coming soon and will deal with how American discourse fails us, culturally and in the media.
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I remember the moment rather well.
Sitting there in the basement of the church over a potluck after service. The food Midwest bland. The metal chair uncomfortable and made even worse by my uncomfortable dress clothes. We were poor and so the outfit was shoddy. Wal-Mart dress clothes. Shoes that didn’t fit. A button-up always on the verge of disintegrating. I was moving some boring mac & cheese around on my paper Dixie plate and wondering when I could get out of there.
I was always awkward and anxious, hypervigilant from years of abuse, and so, from even a young age, I was listening to conversations around me. Always ready for a change in tone that signaled anger or to find some information that could be useful. I didn’t know it then, but what I was about to hear would pay off for years to come.
“I told him, you think God doesn’t want us to drive a nice car?”
At first, I didn’t think I’d heard it right. The words were so preposterous together. Our baptist church and its congregation were very modest. Our preachers warned us of greed and avarice. And, what was more, I just couldn’t wrestle my concept of God into shape with the idea of a luxury automobile.
The conversation continued and I heard a rudimentary but telling description of what would come to be called the Prosperity Gospel, or consumer Christianity. God as the most powerful being in the universe apparently bestowed upon his chosen few a life full of riches and unimaginable comforts. Which stood in almost complete contrast to the God I had been told about. A vengeful, watchful deity that demanded worship and gave only tests to determine our faith.
What stood out to me, in that moment, was another aspect of what I had been taught. That I and everyone I knew was subject to temptation by a fallen angel named Satan who played on our most selfish desires and wants. Who lurked around every corner, ready to capitalize on our greed and our pride. Who would promise us anything - riches, houses, and power - should we give him our allegiance.
I couldn’t even begin to tell you how many people sent me the “God Made Trump” ad. Within an hour of this thing rearing its ugly head over at Truth Social I bet I’d received two dozen links. One came with the message “Honest to god, I never believed you when you said they see him as a messiah.”
And of course that person couldn’t. A third-rate reality TV conman makes for a pretty damn bad messianic candidate, and yet here we are.
If you haven’t watched this insipid nonsense, I suggest you do. It is a perfect rundown of exactly how the Christian Nationalist Cult of the Shining City sees Donald Trump. A powerful and competent warrior with a literal heart of gold. Never mind how utterly delusional it all is. The sacrilege is what we need to address.
I have been pretty open about the fact that I believe MAGA is a religious cult. I first touched on the fact in my 2016 reportage, covered it in American Rule: How A Nation Conquered The World But Failed Its People, and put the movement into the broader context of historical white supremacy and the weaponization of Christianity in The Midnight Kingdom: A History of Power, Paranoia, and the Coming Crisis. And nothing I have seen has done anything besides fortify my total and utter faith in that fact.
The “God Made Trump” advertisement is new ground, however. A crystallization of what has been largely kept underneath the surface of MAGA. There, of course, Christian Nationalist churches where deranged preachers tell their parishioners that God on high sent Trump to smite his enemies. There are forums and unwell groups that hold this philosophy and pump out memes and posts that will make your hair turn white. But this is a perfect distillation of a belief that has been percolating and marinating for a while now.
As we enter 2024 and face an election in which Trump has already declared himself the “retribution” for those who had been “wronged and betrayed,” in which Trump has already framed and given context by traveling to Waco, TX where another messianic madman led his flock to destruction, we are watching the evolution we all knew was coming. But we had yet to realize just how powerful and dangerous it could be.
And so we must look deeper and steel ourselves against it.