# Trump Compared to Jesus Christ **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [September 2, 2023, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-compared-to-jesus-christ/989502 "2023-09-02T12:47:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2023, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-compared-to-jesus-christ/989502/61 "2023-09-03T01:52:11Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > It’s set of beliefs, and some people who share those beliefs are assholes, some aren’t. It just isn’t that simple. Who controls the pulpit and/or the power-The assholes or the non-assholes? ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2023, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-compared-to-jesus-christ/989502/62 "2023-09-03T01:55:12Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Who controls the pulpit and/or the power-The assholes or the non-assholes? Among most Christian denominations, the answer is “nobody”. At least, not on a large scale. ---
**Author:** ![Chingon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chingon/32/17645_2.png) [@Chingon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chingon)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2023, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-compared-to-jesus-christ/989502/63 "2023-09-03T01:56:31Z")
What is claimed to be Christianity today is very very different from that of 100 years ago. Simply put, those who reject Trump and MAGA will be seen as apostates by the newest iteration of American Christianity. Who am I to say that they’re wrong? They’re in the vast majority anyway ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2023, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-compared-to-jesus-christ/989502/64 "2023-09-03T02:01:57Z")
> [@nelliebly](#): > > Have all evangelical churches been taken over by nutbags? I know the leadership of certain denominations are pretty hateful, but I’m wondering if that means each individual church within that denomination has been taken over, or, if not, whether they’re all following the commands from HQ. You say that as if this isn’t who they have always been. The “demon” of the moment shifts, and they’ve gotten more organized and empowered, but the drive behind it has not changed. The leaders need them to fear the outside, so they stay and give power and resources to the leaders. If there is no “outside” to fear, they will _make_ one–I watched this play out over and over in microcosm, as Baptist churches fought, schismed, briefly reunited to libel Catholics, then schismed again back in the 1970s and 80s. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2023, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-compared-to-jesus-christ/989502/65 "2023-09-03T02:06:39Z")
“Nobody is _really_ at fault” vagaries aside, major denominations often have controlling councils that have the ability to kick out those that stray. It is hard for a family to decide to leave a church and the accompanying social structure it oft provides just because the leaders of that church have strayed from what used to be basic values, but it is even harder for a particular church to leave _its_ family because politics have turned sour. To say that nobody is really in power when it comes to organized religion just isn’t true for most organized religion. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2023, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-compared-to-jesus-christ/989502/66 "2023-09-03T02:29:45Z")
> [@Chingon](#): > > Simply put, those who reject Trump and MAGA will be seen as apostates by the newest iteration of American Christianity. Who am I to say that they’re wrong? They’re in the vast majority anyway What are you basing this on?! > **[Religious Landscape Study](https://www.pewresearch.org/religious-landscape-study/database/party-affiliation/)** > > Explore the geographic distribution and demographics of America's major religious groups. Republicans dominate the Mormon sect, and have the majority of the Evangelical sect. They are a minority among other sects. And this is just Republican folks, of which only a subset are going to support, let alone venerate Trump. There are some wacky assumptions going on in this thread, of some monolithic Trump-worship that has taken over American Christianity. Leave the conspiracy theories to Qanon. > [@Czarcasm](#): > > “Nobody is _really_ at fault” vagaries aside, major denominations often have controlling councils that have the ability to kick out those that stray. It is hard for a family to decide to leave a church and the accompanying social structure it oft provides just because the leaders of that church have strayed from what used to be basic values, but it is even harder for a particular church to leave _its_ family because politics have turned sour. This hasn’t been my experience at all among Protestants. Catholics and Mormons, sure. And there may be some other sects that operate that way. But much of American Christianity isn’t so hierarchical. ---
**Author:** ![Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b487fb/32.png) [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2023, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-compared-to-jesus-christ/989502/67 "2023-09-03T02:37:33Z")
That U.S. Religious Landscape Study was conducted in 2014, though. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2023, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-compared-to-jesus-christ/989502/68 "2023-09-03T02:45:44Z")
Fair enough, this is slightly newer, but still old. > **[U.S. religious groups and their political leanings](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2016/02/23/u-s-religious-groups-and-their-political-leanings/)** > > Mormons are the most heavily Republican-leaning religious group in the U.S., while a pair of major historically black Protestant denominations are two of the most reliably Democratic groups. I’m having trouble finding anything newer, it’s possible they haven’t run these sorts of polls in the past few years. But there is no way that it flipped so hard in less than a decade. I still push back on the idea that Christianity as a whole is dominated by Trump-followers. There is nothing to back that up. ---
**Author:** ![Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b487fb/32.png) [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2023, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-compared-to-jesus-christ/989502/69 "2023-09-03T02:48:58Z")
The article’s from 2016, but it says it’s using data from the 2014 survey previously mentioned. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2023, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-compared-to-jesus-christ/989502/70 "2023-09-03T02:50:35Z")
Are we including Baptists as evangelical? I know a lot of Baptists and they report the churches they attend are vastly filled with Republicans. Some ardent Trumpers. Some not quite as bad. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2023, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-compared-to-jesus-christ/989502/71 "2023-09-03T02:51:54Z")
Okay, my point still stands. I can’t see Trump taking over the entire religion like that. That’s a fantasy. ---
**Author:** ![Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b487fb/32.png) [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2023, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-compared-to-jesus-christ/989502/72 "2023-09-03T03:07:46Z")
Here’s some more recent polling from 2020 that supports your assertion. > [@](#): > > Overall, 59% of voters who frequently attend religious services cast their ballot for Trump, while 40% chose Biden. Among those who attend services a few times a year or less, the pattern was almost exactly reversed: 58% picked Biden, while 40% voted for Trump. Black voters overwhelmingly supported Biden in 2020, regardless of how often they attend religious services. Among White voters, it’s only evangelical Protestants that are overwhelmingly Trump supporters: [![](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/ft_2021.08.30_validatedvotersreligion_01.png) ](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/ft_2021.08.30_validatedvotersreligion_01.png) > **[Most White Americans who regularly attend worship services voted for Trump in...](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/08/30/most-white-americans-who-regularly-attend-worship-services-voted-for-trump-in-2020/)** > > Among White Americans, worship service attendance remains highly correlated with presidential vote choice. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2023, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-compared-to-jesus-christ/989502/73 "2023-09-03T03:29:39Z")
> [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](#): > > Among White voters, it’s only evangelical Protestants that are overwhelmingly Trump supporters: And that tracks because that’s the group most often cited when I see stories about Trump’s Christian base. I also believe that the Christian nationalist movement comes largely from there as well. On a personal note, they freak me out. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2023, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-compared-to-jesus-christ/989502/74 "2023-09-03T04:39:09Z")
It seems most “evangelicals” are embracing Trump. I would call them nutbags. You can decide what you call them. > **[More White Americans adopted than shed evangelical label during Trump...](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/09/15/more-white-americans-adopted-than-shed-evangelical-label-during-trump-presidency-especially-his-supporters/)** > > A new analysis of survey data finds that there has been no large-scale departure from evangelicalism among White Americans. > [@Atamasama](#): > > You don’t suddenly change your belief system because some jerks proclaim they believe the same thing. That’s ludicrous. You have a very strange idea of how religion works. **Trump garnered even more support in 2020 than in 2016 among White voters who identified as evangelical Protestants in both years and voted in at least one of the two elections.** ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2023, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-compared-to-jesus-christ/989502/75 "2023-09-03T04:42:37Z")
> [@wguy123](#): > > > [@BigT](#): > > > > As someone who knows a lot of evangelicals, simply by living in the Bible Belt, I can say there are some who openly are against Trump. My cousins, for example, who even lead their own Bible studies at times, were very much anti-Trump. (They even pointed out that the golden statues of him were like the Golden Calf in scripture.) ⁢ > > If my club was co-opted by a bunch of nutbags, I’d find a new club or just quit that hobby. Who would want to be associated with something so diametrically opposed to what their club believes? I’m not quite sure what you’re saying. But there isn’t a club or hobby involved in my cousins’ case. I call then Evangelicals due to the type of Christianity they believe in—with the Bible being the inerrant Word of God and such. Not because they belong to some particular church that calls itself Evangelical. From the belief perspective, it is the Trump followers who have already strayed. They’re the ones who should stop calling themselves Evangelicals, since they no longer adhere to the beliefs that is required. That said, there very much is the exvangelical movement. But that’s largely made up of people who not only disagree about Trump, but have seen the other baggage of the Evangelicals. I would almost count as one, except that I was technically raised Pentecostal. But it is the stuff that Pentecostals and Evangelicals have in common (but other forms of Christianity do not) that I have abandoned. So some would call me an exvangelical. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2023, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-compared-to-jesus-christ/989502/76 "2023-09-03T04:50:23Z")
Just to add: > **[Evangelicals are now rejecting 'liberal' teachings of Jesus](https://www.newsweek.com/evangelicals-rejecting-jesus-teachings-liberal-talking-points-pastor-1818706)** > > Christian devotees of former President Donald Trump are denouncing Bible verses attributed to Jesus as "weak," according to an evangelical leader. ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2023, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-compared-to-jesus-christ/989502/77 "2023-09-03T04:51:34Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > From the belief perspective, it is the Trump followers who have already strayed. They’re the ones who should stop calling themselves Evangelicals, since they no longer adhere to the beliefs that is required See my post above. Also, the one from @Whack-a-Mole ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2023, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-compared-to-jesus-christ/989502/78 "2023-09-03T04:55:55Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Are we including Baptists as evangelical? Generally speaking, many Baptist churches (such as those aligned with the Southern Baptist Convention) would consider themselves to be Evangelical. I suspect that this is particularly true of Baptist churches in the Southern U.S., especially those whose congregants are primarily White. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2023, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-compared-to-jesus-christ/989502/79 "2023-09-03T05:44:49Z")
> [@wguy123](#): > > > [@BigT](#): > > > > From the belief perspective, it is the Trump followers who have already strayed. They’re the ones who should stop calling themselves Evangelicals, since they no longer adhere to the beliefs that is required ⁢ > > See my post above. Also, the one from @Whack-a-Mole ⁢ I’ve read them. They don’t change what I said. They self-identify as Evangelicals. But, **from a belief perspective** (i.e. not self-identification), they’re the ones abandoning Evangelicalism. The concept of “Evangelical Christian” has a particular meaning, and a set of established beliefs that come with it. And your response to @Atamasama didn’t rebut anything they said, either. I don’t even see what connection you see between what they said and your response. ---
**Author:** ![Digger11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/838e76/32.png) [@Digger11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digger11)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2023, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-compared-to-jesus-christ/989502/80 "2023-09-03T05:46:32Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > I only know a handful fo Evangelicals myself, and two of them voted for Hillary in 2016 because they couldn’t stomach Trump, but the one I’m in contact with on occasion is a big Trump supporter. I asked him straight up how he could look at Trump and say, “This is a man who represents my values.” His reply was that Trump’s character didn’t matter, that he wasn’t necessarily voting for someone who held his values, but that he was only concerned with what he would do in office. i.e. His answer was full of crap. Considering that Trump had been a Democrat until fairly recently before his run, I was genuinely surprised at some of the things that he did in office. On some points, he “out-Republicaned” ALL of the recent Republican presidents. Case in point–moving the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. The Republicans **claimed** that they wanted to do it–but somehow they never actually did it. Not until Trump came along did empty promises get turned into action. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-compared-to-jesus-christ/989502.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-compared-to-jesus-christ/989502.md?page=5)