A King Shall Rise Up

 Twenty years ago, just 46 percent of white evangelical Protestants were older than 50;

now, 62 percent are above 50. The median age of white evangelicals is 55.

Only 10 percent of Americans under 30 identify as white evangelicals.

The exodus of youth is so swift that demographers now predict that evangelicals

 will likely cease being a major political force in presidential elections by 2024.

Newsweek, December 13^th.

With all of the success that our Country is having, including the just released

jobs numbers which are off the charts, the Fake News & totally dishonest Media

concerning me and my presidency has never been worse. Many have become

crazed lunatics who have given up on the TRUTH!...

Donald Trump Tweet, January 7^th

Thus saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden,

to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings,

to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut…

Old Testament/Torah, Isaiah 45: 1    

And so King Cyrus arose as God’s servant to save the Jews held captive in Babylon. Cyrus, a pagan, is mentioned more than 30 times in the Bible. He ruled Persia between 539—530 BC. Under his rule, Jews were first allowed to return to Israel after 70 years of captivity. That he was not of the faith does not lessen his prominence in Jewish history, but it provides an example of a non-believer who, as God’s instrument, saves the faithful. For a very important segment of Trump-supporting evangelicals, these biblical/historical references are rife with parallel symbolism, none of which augurs well for our democracy.

Isaiah 45? Trump is our 45^th president. A non-believer freed the faithful? Trump’s involvement in clear sexual indiscretions, his litany of lies, his callous flaunting of religious doctrine not only fail to disqualify him from rising to autocrat/king… but sustain the parallel of a non-believer sent by God to save the faithful. Simply, Donald Trump will rise and take complete control to purge all things non-Christian in the land. King Donald.

Writing an Op-Ed piece for the December 31^st New York Times, author (The Good News Club: The Christian Right’s Stealth Assault on America’s Children) Katherine Stewart explains why we shouldn’t be so quick to dismiss these seeming coincidences: “The identification of the 45th president with an ancient Middle Eastern potentate isn’t a fringe thing. [The theatrical motion picture,] ‘The Trump Prophecy’ was produced with the help of professors and students at Liberty University, whose president, Jerry Falwell Jr., has been instrumental in rallying evangelical support for Mr. Trump. Jeanine Pirro of Fox News has picked up on the meme, as has Ron Dermer, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, among many others.

“As the Trump presidency falls under siege on multiple fronts, it has become increasingly clear that the so-called values voters will be among the last to leave the citadel. A lot of attention has been paid to the supposed paradox of evangelicals backing such an imperfect man, but the real problem is that our idea of Christian nationalism hasn’t caught up with the reality. We still buy the line that the hard core of the Christian right is just an interest group working to protect its values. But what we don’t get is that Mr. Trump’s supposedly anti-Christian attributes and anti-democratic attributes are a vital part of his attraction.

“Today’s Christian nationalists talk a good game about respecting the Constitution and America’s founders, but at bottom they sound as if they prefer autocrats to democrats. In fact, what they really want is a king. ‘It is God that raises up a king,’ according to Paula White, a prosperity gospel preacher who has advised Mr. Trump.

“Ralph Drollinger, who has led weekly Bible study groups in the White House attended by Vice President Mike Pence and many other cabinet members, likes the word ‘king’ so much that he frequently turns it into a verb. ‘Get ready to king in our future lives,’ he tells his followers. ‘Christian believers will — soon, I hope — become the consummate, perfect governing authorities!’” 

Maybe you didn’t see ads or trailers for “The Trump Prophecy,” but then you might not live in an evangelical-dominated community. Trust me, it played there. “The month before the 2018 midterms, a thousand theaters screened ‘The Trump Prophecy,’ a film that tells the story of Mark Taylor, a former firefighter who claims that God told him in 2011 that Donald Trump would be elected president… At a critical moment in the film, just after the actor representing Mr. Taylor collapses in the flashing light of an epiphany, he picks up a Bible and turns to the 45th chapter of the book of Isaiah, which describes the anointment of King Cyrus by God. In the next scene, we hear Mr. Trump being interviewed on ‘The 700 Club,’ a popular Christian television show.

“As Lance Wallnau, an evangelical author and speaker who appears in the film, once said, ‘I believe the 45th president is meant to be an Isaiah 45 Cyrus,’ who will ‘restore the crumbling walls that separate us from cultural collapse.’” Katherine Stewart.

When deeply religious people believe that God’s prophecy is upon them, there are few powers or facts that are likely to deter their mission. For those who believe that the evangelical community is simply holding their noses but supporting Trump because of his policies and judicial appointments, think again. To so many evangelicals, Trump’s profane words and conduct precisely qualify him as that God-appointed non-believer directed by the Lord to rescue true Christians from a Godless United States. Fear-mongering has a whole lot of evangelicals angry and spoiling for a fight.

“‘When are they going to start rolling out the boxcars to start hauling off Christians?’ Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, asked in 2016. If you’re hearing those boxcars pulling up in the distance, as it were, you don’t merely overlook the antisocial qualities of a prospective leader, you embrace them as virtues.

“Mr. Trump himself well understands this longing for the hard hand of the despot. ‘If you don’t mind me saying so, you’ve gotten soft,’ he told Mr. Wallnau and other evangelical leaders during the 2016 campaign — much to their delight.

“Another important thing to understand about Cyrus is that he is not a queen. In the Christian nationalist world, legitimate political power is largely male power. Mr. Drollinger insists that the Bible describes only ‘male leadership.’… 

“I have attended dozens of Christian nationalist conferences and events over the past two years. And while I have heard plenty of comments casting doubt on the more questionable aspects of Mr. Trump’s character, the gist of the proceedings almost always comes down to the belief that he is a miracle sent straight from heaven to bring the nation back to the Lord. I have also learned that resistance to Mr. Trump is tantamount to resistance to God.

“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… They want it all. And in Mr. Trump, they have found a man who does not merely serve their cause, but also satisfies their craving for a certain kind of political leadership.” Stewart. Hillary Clinton as a candidate was an affront to their most basic beliefs.

Changing demographics are marginalizing these extremist rural-values evangelical views by the day, as the above quote from Newsweek underscores. The United States is close to 85% urban where racial, ethnic and gender diversity rule, and so much of the evangelical movement is based on an aging segment of the population that is dying off. Thus, these evangelicals cannot allow popular votes and true democratic “one person, one vote” principles to prevail, because they are now the clear minority. They are trying to limit the accuracy of the upcoming Census, restrict voters who might disagree with them, embrace gerrymandering to insure their continued political supremacy and need an evangelical-supporting Supreme Court to enforce their narrow views.

Everything hinges on keeping King Trump on the throne, at whatever cost. If you wonder how King Trump deals with democracy – in the face of a substantial and bitter loss of control of the popular-vote-driven House of Representatives – his willingness to shut government down, perhaps to invoke an imaginary national security declaration to enable him to dictate what he wants, pretty much says it all. As more than one pundit has suggested, 2019 will probably be the worst year in Donald Trump’s life. But it also may be year in which the American democracy is truly attacked from within like never before.

              I’m Peter Dekom, and when a popular and deeply religious movement is driven by the passionate, if mistaken, view that their perspective is God’s mandate, there will be hell to pay!