'Anointed by God': The Christians who see Trump as their saviour

[reader]

Much has been posted regarding how Trump managed to score the hat trick of US presidential elections: capturing both houses of congress and the White House. Posters have pretty much exhausted the missteps of the Democrats but have not given sufficient credit to role evangelicals played.

From The BBC

Standing on a podium in a Florida convention centre on the night of the election, a row of American flags behind him and a jubilant crowd looking on, Donald Trump declared: “Many people have told me that God spared my life for a reason, and that reason was to save our country and to restore America to greatness.”

This was one of the most striking themes of his election campaign - that he had been chosen by God. Yet even before the attempt on his life on 13 July in Butler, Pennsylvania, millions of Americans already felt guided by their faith to support the former, and now future, president. 

Some cast the election in an apocalyptic light and likened Trump to a Biblical figure.

Last year, on the Christian show FlashPoint, TV evangelist Hank Kunneman described “a battle between good and evil”, adding: “There's something on President Trump that the enemy fears: it's called the anointing.”

Jim Caviezel, an actor who played Jesus in Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, proclaimed, albeit jokingly, that Trump was “the new Moses”. Then, in the months leading up to the election, many of his supporters referred to him as a “saviour”.

The question is why. What makes so many see this man, who isn’t known to have an especially strong faith, as sent from God? 

And what does that say about Christianity more broadly in a country where the numbers of churchgoers is in rapid decline?

Reverend Franklin Graham is one of America’s best-known evangelists and the son of Billy Graham, arguably its most famous preacher. He is one of the Trump believers, convinced there is no doubt that the president-elect was chosen for this mission by God.

“The bullet that went through his ear missed his brain by a millimetre, and his head turned just at the last second when the gun was fired,” he says. “I believe that God turned his head and saved his life.”

The questions asked about Trump’s character - including accusations of sexual misconduct, and his alleged affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels and associatedhush-money trial - don't dim Mr Graham’s view.

Continues at

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c20g1zvgj4do

[Stable Genius]

[stevenkesslar]

On 11/16/2024 at 9:09 PM, reader said:

The question is why. What makes so many see this man, who isn’t known to have an especially strong faith, as sent from God? 

There is another answer, to give the devil his due - so to speak.

Policy.

Poll after poll reveals that they like Trump's conservative policies.   They would love a national abortion ban.  When asked whether they are voting for the person, or the policies, they usually answer the policies.  

If we are talking evangelicals, these are also the people who would like to repeal same sex marriage, if they can.

They are happy to make a deal with the devil, so to speak.   We could care less about Trump's crimes and infidelities.   We just want our conservative policies.  And judges.

And they got them.