As I continue to be confounded by the irrational and heretical support of Trump by Christians I have come to understand a few things:
The average white evangelical male is filled with shame. They’ve been clobbered by hellfire and brimstone preachers, beaten by their Christian parents, lied to by charlatans such as Dobson, Robertson, and Falwell, outworked by immigrants who do their jobs better and cheaper, confused by ever-changing technology, and emasculated by unfulfilled marriages.
To soothe the shame, publicly, they attend church, they sing hymns, they give away half their income to tithes and taxes, they spout scripture, and in private, they sit and endlessly (and mindlessly) consume FOX News, they secretly watch porn when no one is at home, they masturbate their dicks limp, they take opioids, they smoke cigarettes, but nothing’s helped.
And along comes Trump. He is (or at least pretends to be) everything they are not. He is an endless source of taboo entertainment. He is rich, arrogant, a bully, a celebrity, he openly fucks porn stars and playboy playmates, he cheats, he never apologizes, he cares about no one but himself, in short, he does whatever the hell he wants to do, and he has gained the power to do it. How? They say, “By my vote, by god! And I’ll vote for him again.”
Why? Because his psychopathic behavior makes them feel good. It soothes their shame. Because Trump’s actions titillate and turn them on, and because they know without a doubt that Trump is a worse man than they are—and that makes them feel better somehow.
How do I know this? Because I was one of them for over forty years—and you can’t see the heresy and hypocrisy until you are free from the debilitating shame of evangelicalism.
