Perhaps no detail is more important to understanding Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement than the religious component: it is overwhelmingly White and evangelical.
Which is why the MAGA president awkwardly attempts to invoke a Christian faith that, to many, often comes across as less than authentic.
Who can forget Trump being asked to name his favorite Bible verses?
“I wouldn’t want to get into it. Because to me, that’s very personal,” he said. “The Bible means a lot to me, but I don’t want to get into specifics.”
Trump—who, as CNN noted, once referred to communion as “my little wine and my little cracker,” —was asked if he prefers the New or Old Testaments.
“Probably equal. I think it’s just incredible,” he said.
Last year, the Rev. Dr. Caleb J. Lines, a progressive Disciples of Christ pastor from San Diego, decided he needed to call out how traditional MAGA politics fails the test when compared to the teachings of Jesus.
Here’s part of what he told me in the attached video about his viral “MAGA vs. Jesus” video series:
“I’ve been pretty critical of MAGA since Donald Trump first ran for office, and it was something that I’ve spoken about openly from the pulpit and in writing and and all of that for for many years.
“But one thing that is different for me than during Trump’s first term is that I now have a larger social media following, and I continued to hear Christian nationalists, MAGA Christians, use the Bible in ways that were just not compatible with with Jesus’ message—like, the things they were advocating for just were clearly antithetical to Jesus.
“And I thought, you know, a pretty clear way to show that is to just say something that MAGA has said and then show something that Jesus said—and show how those are kind of incompatible….
“And I think one of the reasons that that was so successful is just that it shows in a very clear, short visual way how what people I think know to be true, a lot of people know to be true, about how MAGA is inconsistent with with Christianity. It articulates that in an easy to digest way.”
In this conversation, Dr. Lines explains why he does not believe that Christians can legitimately use the Bible to condemn abortion nor same-gender relations.
Please watch, then tell me what you think in the comments below.
