However, as President-For-Life of what evangelicals regard as one of their flagship evangelical universities, and as the son of Jerry Falwell Sr., evangelicals regard what he says as gospel - certainly in the metaphorical sense, and just this side of the literal sense.
Unless it turns out that he was sexually involved with that pool boy, they are not going to take his religious yarbling (I like that term!) with the tiniest grain of salt. And that’s what matters, unfortunately.
In the United States of America, when the President says some variation of “God bless America” it is understood by the vast majority of people in the United States of America that the President is NOT referring to Satan. Or Zeus. Or Allah. Or Buddha. But to the Christian God and only the Christian God.
That wouldn’t work either, at least among any who know what that word means in context. Cyrus was (and is) considered a small “m” messiah - in religious parlance a person sent by God for a specific purpose at a specific time and place, AKA an anointed one. There are several examples of messiahs in the Old Testament. Jesus is considered by Christians as the big “M” Messiah - God incarnate sent to establish the new covenant. Big letter = big difference.
Yes, I acknowledge that Christians, Jews, and Muslims are all ‘people of the book,’ as they say. But finding someone who actually knows - much less cares - about that enough to stop hating their perceived enemies is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Most ‘Christians’ I’ve met are barely familiar with their own religion and are hardly inclined to consider Muslims as actual human beings, much less co-religionists.
Not sure what you mean by that comment, but I want to make it clear that Christian Nationalists are an extremist group, and that mainstream Protestants do not subscribe to their extremism.