Pro-Trump Christian extremists use scripture to justify violent goals

 

To his most zealous Christian supporters, Donald Trump’s campaign is a crusade against “evil” liberal forces that must be vanquished by any means necessary to save the republic.

Democrats aren’t opponents, but enemies to be “smited.” Vice President Harris is depicted as Jezebel, the epitome of womanly wickedness who meets a grisly end. Teachers, librarians, drag queens — all perceived as introducing dangerous ideas to children — are condemned to drowning with millstones around their necks, a la Matthew 18:6.

Spiritual warfare is a central theme of Christian nationalist movements that are reshaping the GOP by preaching that the country’s theological identity is under attack and in urgent need of a revolution to put the faithful in charge. Their rhetoric has been galvanizing crowds at conservative gatherings all year, and is likely to be woven into messaging at the Republican National Convention, which starts Monday.

The movements’ biblical references, extremism monitors warn, soften violent and racist messaging, and offer plausible deniability should believers turn into vigilantes, as hundreds did during the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

“You are either on the side of God or the side of the Devil,” said Miranda Zapor Cruz, a theologian at Indiana Wesleyan University, summing up the rhetoric. “If you are on the side of the Devil, then just about anything can be justified to cast you out, to eradicate your influence. And, for some people, that ‘just about anything’ would include physical violence.”

Religion scholars say Christian nationalism ranges from those who believe in a metaphorical battle of ideas against the left to a more militant subset willing to engage in actual combat over the soul of America. The ideology courses through Trump’s MAGA movement, with proponents worshiping with, stumping for and giving policy advice to the former president and his inner circle.

Trump allies in Congress have openly advocated for Christian nationalism.