Mystery Solved: Why Evangelicals Support Trump

Why do some evangelical Christians support President Trump? What's the appeal, to people who profess family values, of a man whose life includes multiple marriages and affairs and who tends to be crude?

Let's dive into this alleged mystery.

Turn with me if you will to the book of Isaiah, chapter 45. We come to the story of Cyrus the Great. He was not a king of Israel or Judah. He was emperor of Persia from 539-530 BC. Persia tended to be an enemy of the children of Israel. It's now called Iran, and continues to be an enemy of Israel.

But Cyrus himself was not; God called Cyrus "my servant" and Cyrus followed through. Cyrus decreed that the Jewish exiles in Babylon could return to their homes and re-establish their country. He also allowed them to rebuild the temple. This was a big deal; Judah had been subjugated and exiled for 70 years, their ability to worship disrupted by the destruction of their temple in Jerusalem. Yet here was Cyrus, who was not one of them, playing a major role in fostering the Jews' return home.

I do have a point.

NeverTrumper Ben Howe has a book out called The Immoral Majority: Why Evangelicals Chose Political Power over Christian Values. Howe has been doing a lot of TV, MSNBC included, defending that incendiary title.

I have not read the book. I've seen him defend, it including the title, which suggests it reflects what he really thinks.

The thesis smears evangelicals.

Supporting is different from worshipping.

In almost all cases, men are flawed. Prudence is necessary to work out how the flaws are to be weighed.

The author makes a very good point that people sometimes have a hard time grasping either intellectually or in practice: God can work through people in positions of authority who have many flaws that we find distasteful and that would be very bad for us to imitate.

The life of King David is worth checking out—and remembering that he and Josiah (who, from a human perspective, would have done well to listen to Pharaoh) were the Bees Knees of the Kings of Israel and Judah.

For those who are curious about the intersection of history and technology, the algorithm wonks, run a search on StartPage and on DuckDuckGo using the terms “josiah, pharaoh, judah” and compare the results. Add in the same terms using Google.

The internet is forever, unless someone changes it. /sarc

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.