Theologian Gregory Thornbury remarks on the mixture of QAnon, White Evangelicals, and President Trump:
With his drug-fueled “recovery” from COVID-19 on recent display after leaving Walter Reed hospital, pundits scrambled to describe what they were seeing. Joy Reid notably referred to the president’s stunt on the balcony Monday night as a “Mussolini moment.” Others saw something different on their screens. Trump’s evangelical supporters beheld a positively biblical moment unfolding before them. “Is there anyone like unto him?” tweeted evangelical radio host Eric Metaxas, echoing Moses’ post-Exodus awe at the wonder-working powers of the Lord God himself (Exodus 15:11). Shortly before his diagnosis, Kaitlin Bennett, another Trump booster, had posted a photo of herself on Twitter in a t-shirt that read, “Trump is my KING!”—not “just my president.” [Religion & Politics]
Generally, I figure religion is the shortcut to a plausible morality, but, like that unseen mole on your backside that might be cancerous, the flip side of religion comes when its theology, with its foundational element of irrationality, assumes such prominence that it drowns out the voice of reason.
So what comes next?
These days, the evangelical political imagination is so impoverished it’s not enough to see Trump as a hero or strongman fighting for them. For right-wing America, there’s only one move left: Trump has to be the Messiah incarnate.
The consecration of Trump by QAnon may be new, but religious manias are nothing new. This is ironic in the case of American religious manias, as America was originally conceived, in part, as a refuge from monarchies that considered themselves to be Chosen by God; that this refuge became infected, right from the get-go, with religious mania is disappointing, and speaks to the terror of mankind in the face of a Universe beyond our ken.
Thornbury is worried about White Evangelical fascination with a chronic and prolix liar …
As in Oz, this time around we find white evangelicals saying, “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!” Forget that he’s the man who cages children, a eugenicist who allegedly demands hysterectomies on immigrant women, and a demagogue who lies about the coronavirus while hundreds of thousands die. “Just hang in there,” whispers Q, standing in as the Holy Spirit. “The scrolls are about to be broken, although we but see dimly right now. Your salvation is nigh!” All you have to do is vote on November 3rd, one more time, “and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh will see it together.”
Of course, I could argue that Thornbury is part of the problem. However, that would be a little cruel at this point. Watching those you consider your spiritual brothers and sisters praise, and even indulge in, behaviors that should be repulsive to them, is indicative of the fundamental confusion and disconnect from reality of the basis of his moral philosophy, and that is a hard enough blow. While he obviously, to his credit, cares for them, I doubt he’s willing to walk away from the theology that leads them down a road to metaphorical Hell.
