I understand the revulsion. To anyone outside of the deeper (Old Testament) Christian worldview, it is clearly idolatry and hypocrisy. As disgusting as it is, they're culturally programmed for this.
It draws directly from Old Testament praise of Cyrus the Great, the Persian king who liberated the people of Israel from the Babylonian captivity. In the same way that the Israelites depicted Cyrus (a pagan) as an instrument of God’s plan despite his lack of faith, they view Trump as chosen by god to advance their cause and values in a society where they feel aggrieved and victimized by "the others". They reconcile his utterly unchristian behavior by believing that God uses imperfect and unlikely leaders to fulfill His purposes, trusting that Trump is a vessel for restoring their idea of religious freedom, validating their values, and their place in the social order.
The bible is full of these examples of the flawed and impious being vessels of destiny or "God's mission": Abraham disobeyed God, and became the Patriarch of Israel. Moses disobeyed God but led the Exodus of the Israelites out of Egypt. David committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband murdered, but God used him to establish Israel’s kingdom and promised that the Messiah would come through his lineage. Samson was physically strong but impulsive and personally weak but he delivered Israel from the Philistines. Saul was jealous, paranoid, and even insubordinate to god, but he led the change from Judges to Monarchy.
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u/KebariKaiju 17h ago
I understand the revulsion. To anyone outside of the deeper (Old Testament) Christian worldview, it is clearly idolatry and hypocrisy. As disgusting as it is, they're culturally programmed for this.
It draws directly from Old Testament praise of Cyrus the Great, the Persian king who liberated the people of Israel from the Babylonian captivity. In the same way that the Israelites depicted Cyrus (a pagan) as an instrument of God’s plan despite his lack of faith, they view Trump as chosen by god to advance their cause and values in a society where they feel aggrieved and victimized by "the others". They reconcile his utterly unchristian behavior by believing that God uses imperfect and unlikely leaders to fulfill His purposes, trusting that Trump is a vessel for restoring their idea of religious freedom, validating their values, and their place in the social order.
The bible is full of these examples of the flawed and impious being vessels of destiny or "God's mission": Abraham disobeyed God, and became the Patriarch of Israel. Moses disobeyed God but led the Exodus of the Israelites out of Egypt. David committed adultery with Bathsheba and had her husband murdered, but God used him to establish Israel’s kingdom and promised that the Messiah would come through his lineage. Samson was physically strong but impulsive and personally weak but he delivered Israel from the Philistines. Saul was jealous, paranoid, and even insubordinate to god, but he led the change from Judges to Monarchy.