Hailing Deliverance

A Last Trump Before an Apocalypse? by S. M. Hutchens

In a column published on March 3, Charles Krauthammer noted what is to many a surprise: strong Evangelical support for Donald Trump over a field of far more likely candidates. Why, he wondered, are they supporting him in such large numbers instead of conservatives whose Christianity is far more believable? Krauthammer noted that Evangelicals have no illusions that Trump is one of them (his ancestral Presbyterianism does not make him a Christian by Evangelical standards), or about his dingy ethics, or his ambiguous political record. Looking, after the Super Tuesday primaries, at Trump's victories over Ted Cruz in states where Evangelicals dominate, Krauthammer asked,

How could this have happened? A more scripturally, spiritually flawed man than Trump would be hard to find. As several anti-Trump evangelical voices have argued, Christian witness cannot possibly support a thrice-married man with such an impressive list of sins, featuring especially spectacular displays of the seven deadlies. . . . The message is clear: I may not be one of you. I can't recite or even correctly cite Scripture. But I will patrol the borders of Christendom on your behalf. After all, who do you want out there—a choir boy or a tough guy with a loaded gun and a kick-ass demeanor? Evangelicals answered resoundingly. They went for Trump in a rout. The essence of Trump's appeal everywhere, far beyond evangelicals, is precisely the same: "I'm tough, I will protect you."

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S. M. Hutchens is a Touchstone senior editor.

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