The title of a Nov. 7, 2024 article in the National Catholic Reporter says it all: “White Christians made Donald Trump president — again.” Exit polls from CNN and other news outlets reported that 72% of white Protestants and 61% of white Catholics stated they voted for Trump. Among white voters, 81% of those who identify as born-again or evangelical supported Trump, up from 76% in 2020.

Tens of millions of Christians who claim to worship Jesus Christ, a God of love, compassion, mercy, peace and justice, voted for a man who tirelessly spouts hate-filled vile rhetoric of fear, anger, vengeance and violence.

In 2020, when protesters were marching against police brutality and structural racism near the White House, Trump told (then) Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley to order an attack. Trump said: “Beat the f*** out of them … crack skulls … just shoot them.”

Milley had to talk Trump out of giving a command to open fire on American citizens. Retired Marine Corps General John Kelly reported that Trump told him, “I want the kind of generals Hitler had.”

MAGA Christians had no problem with Trump of Mar-a-Lago comparing himself to Jesus of Nazareth during Holy Week in 2024 while shamelessly hawking his $60 “Trump Approved,” God Bless the USA Bibles. The Associated Press reports at least 114,000 of these books were printed in China — that godless communist country Trump accuses of taking American jobs — at $3 a copy.

In the years since Trump was first elected in 2016, few church leaders have challenged his hate speech and behavior. One notable exception is the Episcopal Bishop of Washington D.C., Marrian Budde, who asked Trump (while he was in attendance at the Washington National Cathedral): “In the name of our God … have mercy upon the people in our country … The people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meatpacking plants” for “those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here.”

Trump’s response was a predictable posting on social media that Bishop Budde was a “Radical left hardline Trump hater … nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart.” He demanded an apology. Republican representative Mike Collins of Georgia stated that Bishop Budde (who was born in New Jersey) “should be added to the deportation list.” Shortly after her sermon, Budde was receiving online “hate speech” and threatening phone calls. How many came from self-described Christians?

Greg Gutfeld of Fox News referred to Bishop Budde as “Satan.” Matt Walsh of The Daily Wire stated: “It is a truth long-established that a liberal woman over 50 with a lesbian haircut is sure to support the most evil ideas and policies that mankind has ever conceived.”

In 2022, after some Catholic bishops advocated for supporting migrants and refugees, Marjorie Taylor Greene accused them of attempting to destroy this country, that Satan controls the Catholic Church.

A few weeks prior to the 2022 midterm election, Trump confidante Pastor Mark Burns told people at a ReAwaken American rally that “I’m coming here to declare war on every demonic, demon-possessed Democrat that comes from the gates of Hell!” During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump’s childhood friend David Rem referred to Kamala Harris as “the Antichrist” and “the devil.”

Two significant and simultaneous trends are occurring in American Christianity. First, church attendance has declined significantly. Twenty years ago, 44% of Christians reported attending weekly services. In 2024, that number had dropped to 30%. Second, right-wing, ultraconservative Christianity has increased dramatically, especially since 2016 and the emergence of Donald Trump. They are vocal and prone to the rhetoric of violence.

While the ultraconservative Christian Nationalist movement has received a great deal of press, Atlantic journalist Stephanie McCrummen reports the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) “seeks to destroy the secular state” in this country espousing a Seven Mountain Mandate (7M or 7MM). These mountains represent the government, business, education, family, arts, media and religion itself. Each mountain, McCrummen notes, “is a field of battle between the forces of God and Satan.” If the NAR has its way, the United States will become a theocracy.

Based on his survey research, political scientist Paul Djupe (Dennison University) reports that in March 2023, just over 30% of American Christian adults believed that “God wants Christians to stand atop the 7 mountains of society.” By January 2024, that figure had grown to 41%.

Prior to the Jan. 6 insurrection, Paula White-Caine, one of Trump’s spiritual advisors stated: “Let every demonic network that has aligned itself against the purpose, against the calling of President Trump, let it be broken, let it be torn down in the name of Jesus.” Spiritual warfare can turn violent.

In his book “The Violent Take It by Force: The Christian Movement That Is Threatening Our Democracy,” religious scholar Matthew Taylor stated NAR leaders were the “the principal theological advocates of the Jan. 6 insurrection. This movement is merging seamlessly “into the MAGA blob.”

After witnessing a Trump rally, Anthea Butler, professor of religion at the University of Pennsylvania, wrote: “You have a major faction of the Republican Party morphing into Republican Religion … these rallies, especially the Trump ones, have effectively blended religious fervor, calls for violence, and patriotism into a noxious stew.”

The Reverend Nathan Empsall, an Episcopal priest and the executive director of Faithful America, writes: “To oppose QAnon and MAGA is now to oppose God, country and family, for they have been made one and the same in the minds of the MAGA base.”

For Trump and his ultraconservative MAGA, white Nationalist Christian and NAR followers, their opponents are no longer people with a different political philosophy. Rather, they’re devils and Satanic devotees, evil forces from the depths of hell. And how does one fight this evil? By destroying it.

Trump has convinced a majority of White Christians that immigrants from “s***hole” countries are destroying America and must be stopped whatever the cost, even if these followers of Christ must repudiate every aspect of their faith to do so.

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George J. Bryjak lives in Bloomingdale and is retired after 24 years of teaching sociology at the University of San Diego.

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Sources:

Colvin, J. (2024) “Trump is selling “God Bless the USA” Bibles for $59.95 as he faces mounting legal bills,” March 26, AP News, www.apnews.com

Djupe, P. (2024) “Belief in the 7 Mountains Mandate appears to be growing in the last year,” May 24, Religion in Public, https://religioninpublic.blog

Dreisbach, T. (2025) “A Capitol police officer assaulted during January 6 riot says he feels ‘betrayed'” January 6, National Public Radio, www.npr.org

“Editorial: Addressing Trump, Bishop Budde did what a Christian is obliged to do” (2025) January 22, National Catholic Reporter, www.ncronline.org

Empsall, N. (2022) “Donald Trumps’ bizarre altar call in Ohio,” September 22, Think, NBC News, www.nbcnews.com

“Fox’s Greg Gutfield calls Bishop Budde “Satan” after she asked Trump to show compassion as president” (2025) January 22, Media Matters, www.mediamatters.org

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www.100daysinappalachia,com

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January 25, The Guardian, www.theguardian.com

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