jedioffsidetrap’s Reviews > Unholy: Why White Evangelicals Worship at the Altar of Donald Trump > Status Update

The conditions that first brought T to power & later led to the complete Rep capitulation to his whims were set in motion by two religious & pol transformations of the 1970s: the sprawling pol & ideological infrastructure Paul Weyrich built in the wake of Watergate & the proliferation of televangelism & its marriage to Rep politics.

For T’s evang supporters def him became indistinguishable from def white Chr Am

T not only gives voice to the Chr right’s perceived loss of religious dominance, he pounds away at grievences over white book losing ground to black& brown ppl & immigrants, of men losing ground to women, of originality judges under the Sam way of liberal intruders demanding “special” rights.

Overall #s of white evang are dropping, T’s presidency has given them new life as most influential pol demographic in Am

See him not as sinner but a strongman not a con man but a king corageously unshackling them from liberal oppression

13: T is more televangelist than pol- exactly why he was able to break the pol mode for evangelical voters who believed the estab Reps failed to deliver govt of biblical values

God’s Strongman

Facile explanation is that Chr right hypocrit sacrificed its princp for raw pol power but deeper bond-they idolize how he loudly & fearlessly articulates their shared grievances-that alien anti-Chr anti-Am ideolog have taken over govt judiciary media educ & even pop culture & forced edicts upon a besieged white Chr majority, cowing them into submission w/PC that aims to censor silence oppress them

T 1.0 exec order allow Chr to deny services based on gender identity, marital status, sexual orientation— this is what they mean by religious freedom

AG Sessions memo follow-up says: “except in narrowest circumstances no one should be forced to choose b/t living out their faith & complying w/the law”

Created not just new rights but new authority for conservative Chr, according them extraordinary preference

T didn’t speak language of faith & Chr values but did another lingua franca of the Am right—the rhetoric of resentment of lost domination of grievances v “special” rights for others at the expense of white Christians.

T is culmination of 5 decades of pol organizing: on surface Chr right rhetoric is faith/values but driving force is grievances over school deseg, women’s rights, gay rights, affirm action

I also met the most important architect of the New Right & religious right, Paul Weyrich… he harbored a disdain for pol & Econ “elites” & maintained that authentic Am had been destroyed by liberalism, diversity, & expansion of civil rights

Decades in DC, thanks to infrastructure he built GOP able to put T in White House

In 2008, Pence said, “I want to be like Paul Weyrich when I grow up”