Why Evangelicals Support Trump

The answer lies deep in their identity. Which gives a clue on how to defeat them

Photo by History in HD on Unsplash

Ever wonder how evangelicals can support people like Donald Trump and Herschel Walker — who embody the exact opposite of things they are supposed to stand for? Isn’t this the ultimate in hypocrisy?

Well, there’s more to the story than you might realize.

In a recent article The secret of why evangelicals love Herschel Walker (and Donald Trump), Kristin Kobes Du Mez, author of New York Times Bestseller “Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation,” offers fascinating insights.

According to Du Mez, evangelicals value “strength.” They equate rugged masculinity with successful leadership. This is why they view empathy, feminism, support for LGBTQ as weak. It’s a threat to strong family values for them. They want all guns blazing and kicking ass for leadership.

So they believe men need to be good fathers and strong fighters. But strong fighters more. Much more.

Evangelicals teach that men and women are opposites, and as such there exists a social order in their universe — men are superior to women, and therefore God gave men testosterone so they could fulfill their role as leaders, protectors and providers.

Generations of evangelicals consumed millions of books and listened to countless sermons expounding these “truths.” Within this framework, there was ready forgiveness for male sexual misconduct. It was up to women to avoid tempting men who were not their husbands and meet the sexual needs of men who were. When men went astray, there was always a woman to blame. For men, misdeeds could be written off as too much of a good thing or perhaps a necessary evil, as evidence of red-blooded masculinity that needed only to be channeled in redemptive directions.
-Kristin Kobes Du Mez

What does this mean?

• Women are supposed to be submissive, since men are simply “fulfilling their God ordained role”. God WANTS this.
• Any misconduct on men’s part is to be brushed off as a necessary evil. Rape? It happens. Women shouldn’t have tempted men! Men are on a mission from God.