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Men must stop treating women as property.
Jimmy Carter
Evangelicals knew in 2016 what Donald Trump was. They may not have known just how profoundly corrupt, vulgar and narcissistic he was, but they knew he was grossly immoral. They knew he was full of debauchery. They knew he was depraved. And yet somehow, they thought he was the man who would save America.
Maybe they justified their support for this international scoundrel by convincing themselves that he was no worse than former presidents. Those of us old enough to remember the Bill Clinton presidency know that Trump is not the first occupant of the White House to bring public shame to the office.
But evangelical Christians did not support, laud and idolize Bill Clinton. Just the opposite: They publicly denounced him—in the strongest terms. That’s the difference.
Especially in Trump’s second term as president, The Donald has sunk to debauchery so low, it’s difficult to even fathom. Just when you think that the man cannot sink any lower, he shows us that he can—with ease.
At a rally in Port Huron, Michigan last Saturday, Donald Trump said this:
By the way, I looked at one h**l of a beautiful a*s before — Nicki Minaj. That’s hard to miss.
The MAGA crowd, which included thousands of evangelical Christians, exploded in applause.
Then after publicly treating the woman like a piece of meat in a butcher shop, he asked the female rapper to stand up so everyone could join Trump in gazing at her you-know-what. (The woman’s personal lifestyle doesn’t change the odiousness of Trump’s disgraceful behavior one iota.)
And, again, thousands of evangelical Christians—with countless pastors in the audience—erupted in more applause. Think of the influence this has with the little girls (and little boys) in Christian families as they watch their president, their pastor and their parents applauding this smutty behavior.
Now, Minaj is rumored as possibly being the next White House Press Secretary. Gee! I wonder why? Read this:
Nicki Minaj's husband, Kenneth Petty, is a registered sex offender following his 1994 conviction for attempted rape. Meanwhile, her brother, Jelani Maraj, is serving a 25-year prison sentence for predatory sexual assault and child endangerment.
Referring to these cases, one fan criticized the rapper, writing, "Pretending to care about kids when she's married to a sex offender." Another person slammed her, saying, "Her circle is full of criminals."
She’s a perfect fit for Trump’s White House.
Giving Minaj the position of White House Press Secretary in return for her support (and Trump’s admiration of her a*s, of course) will give Trump’s pardoning sex offenders and drug traffickers modus operandi a chance to kick in gear again.
Plus, Trump is so busy ogling Minaj’s derriere that he is blind to the fact that she is not even an American citizen.
Trump’s entire second term is really not about what Trump is; it is about what evangelicals have become—or maybe always were.
I know something I read is good when I say to myself, “I wish I had written that.” That’s what I told myself when I read a missive written by Michael Jochum. Now, I know nothing about this man. I never heard his name before reading his treatise. But every word he wrote is inspired.
I quote Michael Jochum:
I used to wonder how it was possible that Trump could have won in 2016, and then again in 2024, given how emotionally toxic and depraved he is.
I don’t wonder anymore. I think he won for that exact reason. Because he carried at least one broken shard to reflect the broken shards in millions of others.
If you’re a racist, you found your guy. If you’re a misogynist, you found your guy. If money is your only religion, you found your guy. If your heart is armored shut, you found your guy. If you mock the disabled, you found your guy. If intelligence makes you insecure, you found your guy. If you’re a sexual predator, you found your guy.
If you trade in humiliation and conspiracy and filth, you found your guy. If you’ve never done a single hour of emotional inventory, you found your guy. If you cheat, stiff contractors, bankrupt your obligations, and call it savvy, you found your guy. If you lie as easily as you breathe, you found your guy. If cruelty feels like strength, you found your guy. If white grievance is your comfort food, you found your guy.
If your ego is a black hole no title can fill, you found your guy. If warmongering fuels your ego, you found your guy, if empathy feels like weakness and dominance feels like oxygen, you found your guy.
If he’d only carried one or two of these pathologies, he might have been dismissed as just another loud, damaged man. But he carried a buffet of them. That was the appeal. Millions could locate themselves somewhere in the wreckage. They didn’t have to agree with all of it. They just had to recognize a piece of themselves in it.
It was never really about him. It was about the validation. The absolution. The permission. He didn’t invent the resentment; he amplified it. He didn’t create the cruelty; he normalized it. He gave millions the intoxicating relief of hearing their ugliest impulses echoed back at rally volume.
Trump is a symptom. The deeper illness is collective. If there’s one sentence that defines his power, it’s this: “He says the things I’m thinking.”
And that’s the part that should chill us.
Because what does it say about us that so many were thinking those things? That tens of millions of Americans harbored resentments so deep, so seething, that they were simply waiting for a demagogue to baptize them as virtue? That after decades of supposed progress on race, gender, and equality, so many white men felt so threatened, so displaced, so furious, that cruelty became a political platform?
Maybe we were living in a fool’s paradise, mistaking silence for healing, politeness for progress.
Now the mask is off. Now we know.
And knowing is a far more dangerous place to stand.
Trump is a symptom. The deeper illness is collective.
There it is! That says it all.
Evangelicals say that Donald Trump is Christianity’s best friend. I say that Donald Trump is Christianity’s worst enemy. Not because of the evil that Trump exudes, but because of the way evangelicals embrace and extol the evil that Trump exudes.
Donald Trump has done more to turn millions of people against Christianity than any atheist or agnostic could ever do.
Imagine if the manager of an office gathered all of the employees together in a room and then proceeded to call out one of the female employees by name and told the crowd that he looked at the woman’s “beautiful a*s” and then proceeded to have the woman stand up in front of the crowd so everyone in the room could gawk at her.
What would be the reaction of any self-respecting evangelical in attendance at that gathering? For that matter, what would be the reaction of everybody in that office, whether they attended church or not, whether they professed any religion or none?
You know what would happen. That manager would not only be immediately fired from his position, but he would also be brought before a court of justice on sexual harassment charges.
Ditto if the man was a police chief or sheriff; ditto if the man was a military officer; ditto if the man was the principal of a school or the manager of a restaurant or any other business; ditto if the man was any man other than Donald J. Trump.
Evangelical support for Trump is unconditional. No matter how many innocent people he murders in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iran, evangelicals support him. No matter how vulgar and blasphemous his speech is, evangelicals support him. No matter how rude or crude his public conduct is, evangelicals support him. No matter how misogynistic his treatment of women is, evangelicals—including evangelical women—support him. No matter how much he lies, evangelicals support him. No matter that he uses the office of president to amass over $2 billion, evangelicals support him. No matter how much violence he incites among his followers, evangelicals support him. No matter how much hate he spews out of his mouth against minorities and people of other countries, evangelicals support him.
But it’s more than support. Evangelicals love Donald Trump. They idolize him. They adore him. They put caricatures of him on the windows of their trucks. They applaud when Trump says that the war in Iran has put billions of dollars in his pockets and the pockets of his billionaire buddies, while at the same time saying, “I don’t give a d**n,” when asked about the difficulty average Americans are having due to the inflation caused by the war he started in Iran.
Now we watch them cheer and applaud as he stands in front of the world and represents the people of the United States as the Sexual-Harasser-in-Chief.
This is not mere political support. This is idolatry. These MAGA evangelicals worship him. Yes! They worship Donald Trump.
Back in 2016, Trump said, "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK?"
He was right—at least about MAGA evangelicals.
If MAGA pastors were honest, they would stop attempting to pass themselves off as Bible teachers and followers of Jesus. They care absolutely nothing about the Bible or the teachings of Jesus and the apostles. They violate everything taught by Christ and His apostles in order to praise and defend Donald Trump. Everything!
“The love of money is the root of all evil.” (I Timothy 6:10) That’s Donald Trump.
“The lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father.” (I John 2:16) That’s Donald Trump.
“When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar.” (John 8:44) That’s Donald Trump.
“Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.” (I John 3:15) That’s Donald Trump.
“Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.” (Romans 3:14) That’s Donald Trump.
“Their feet are swift to shed blood.” (Romans 3:15) That’s Donald Trump.
“And the way of peace have they not known.” (Romans 3:17) That’s Donald Trump.
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Romans 3:18) That’s Donald Trump.
Quoting Jochum again:
Trump is a symptom. The deeper illness is collective. If there’s one sentence that defines his power, it’s this: “He says the things I’m thinking.”
And that’s the part that should chill us.
Now the mask is off. Now we know.
Yes, we do.
The worst part of all of this is that after Trump is gone (and that day will come, thank God), everyone will remember the cruelty that evangelicals embraced, how blasphemously they spoke, how shamefully they behaved, the hatred and bloodlust they exuded and the devil they took into their bosom. That will stay in the psyche of people all over the world for the next generation and beyond.
After G.W. Bush launched his “war on terror” against Iraq and Afghanistan and took America into a surveillance state with the Patriot Act and Department of Homeland Security, I predicted on my nationally syndicated radio talk show that Bush’s war-lust would forever ruin evangelicalism in America.
Donald Trump is the fulfillment of that prediction.
Evangelical churches are closing in record numbers. This investigative report states:
Experts project an estimated 100,000 churches in the US will close or be repurposed over the next decade.
Evangelicalism is doomed to share the fate of Zionism. But that’s only fitting, is it not? They have shared the same bed of death and destruction for the past 78 years; now let them lie forever together in it.
© Chuck Baldwin
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