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January 28, 2024

Many liberals are astounded that evangelical Christians support Donald Trump for president.  On the night of the Iowa caucus, MSNBC reporter Joy Reid aimed an on-air rant at “white Christians [who] see themselves as the rightful inheritors of this country. … And this is what the Democrats are going to face — this is now what white evangelicalism is.  It is Christian nationalism.”  Ms. Reid and her cohorts believe that evangelicals are the misled malicious MAGA minions of Donald Trump.

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Rather than portraying evangelicals as racists, Ms. Reid should ask  why conservative Christians vote for Republicans.  Evangelicals have voted for Republicans since 1980, when they deserted Jimmy Carter, a Southern Baptist, to vote for Ronald Reagan.  Conservative Christians have continued to vote for Republicans and have no incentive to switch.

Democrats believe they are the arbiters of morality and use government agencies to force their reimagined morality on the people.  President Obama believes that evangelicals cling bitterly to their religion.  Hillary Clinton tossed them into her basket of deplorables.  Biden’s DOJ wanted to investigate Catholics who choose to celebrate the old Mass.  The House Judiciary Committee recently disclosed that the Treasury Department warned banks that customers purchasing “religious texts“ might be violent extremists.  Federal investigators then asked the banks to hand over their customer records related to the purchase of Bibles and other “extremist” material.  Since the Feds regulate and control the banks, the records were delivered without a warrant.  Evangelicals view Biden, not Trump, as the threat to democracy.

At a White House Pride Party last summer, a man calling himself a woman exposed himself on the White House lawn moments after shaking hands with Joe Biden.  Democrats suggest that transgender people use restrooms for the opposite sex.  Public schools have become tools of state indoctrination teaching children that pansexuality is a morally viable lifestyle.  If one doesn’t accept the state’s idolatry of pansexuality, one is accused of bigotry.

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JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon summarized liberal intolerance in an interview with CNBC, saying, “The Democrats have done a good job with the deplorables, hugging their Bibles and their beer and their guns.  I mean, really?  Can we stop that stuff and actually grow up and treat other people respectfully and listen to them a little bit?” 

The government has authority to enact laws, but making something legal doesn’t make it a moral virtue.  It’s legal to consume alcohol and tobacco, but engaging in these activities can be self-destructive.  Legality doesn’t neutralize the physical and mental damage that abuse of these substances causes.  The government may prescribe morality, but the people aren’t obliged to ingest it.

Thomas Jefferson suggested that the First Amendment provides, “a wall of separation between church and state.”  The wall is a metaphor created by Jefferson in his letter to the Danbury Baptists, which went on to say, “Religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions.”

The wall of separation was a convenient device used by liberals to help end school prayer in 1962.  Today, liberals ignore the wall of separation and have empowered themselves to change cultural norms and reimagine morality.  Politicians often change people’s opinions, but Democrats use the machinations of government bureaucracy to force their opinions on the people.  This is the illegitimate use of government power that Jefferson warned against.

Ms. Reid likely doesn’t understand why anyone, evangelical or otherwise, would vote for Trump.  He has been hounded, harassed, and harangued by Democrats since he decided to run for president in 2016.  Democrats may fund a Department of Séances so they can follow Trump into the afterlife.  Anyone whom the Democrats work so hard to beat must be doing something right.

These trials and tribulations have arguably made Trump a stronger candidate.  Trump is a known quantity to evangelicals.  They know that Trump selected three conservative Supreme Court justices, worked to secure the border, and presided over a strong economy during his term as president.  They know that Trump isn’t perfect, but they also know he won’t use the government as a tool to shove the Democrats reimagined morality down people’s throats.  Joe Biden will.