How gullible are conservative Christians? So gullible they think Donald Trump actually takes their faith seriously. Like, now, even when he’s out of office and has nothing personal to gain from it other than keeping his base in line for future grifts.
During last week’s “ReAwaken America” gathering in California, one of the speakers was “apostle” Leon Benjamin, who says he served as one of Trump’s former spiritual advisers. It’s not surprising that he said Christians should take over all the major realms of culture — i.e. Seven Mountains Dominionism.
What’s scary is that he insisted we ought to live in a theocracy, that Trump was a devout Christian, and that his own election was stolen from him.
“The church was meant to rule and reign in the Earth,” Benjamin declared while proclaiming that the church needs modern “apostles,” such as himself, to guide it properly. “What happens when the church is not apostolically uniformed? We don’t have the true mission of what Jesus said in Matthew 28:19, which was, ‘Go ye out into all the world’ — go ye into government, go into education, go into economy, go into sports and entertainment, go into media, go into a religion — ’and teach all nations and baptize them.’ That means we should be baptizing presidents!”
“This is why President Donald Trump gave his life to the Lord Jesus Christ,” Benjamin continued, “because when I first met him, he was like, ‘You people have a lot of power.’ But have you heard him lately? He prays in the name of Jesus.”
“Our job in these tours is to light a fire back up under the church again, to get you out of the pew, get you out of the chair, and get you back into the world,” Benjamin added. “We are the next president of the United States. I ran for Congress in 2020, and they did steal my election. That’s why I’m running again in 2022, but I’m taking the power.”
“They” didn’t steal his election. He lost his election. By a lot. He didn’t even get 40% of the vote and lost by nearly 100,000 votes to his Democratic opponent. There’s no evidence of fraud or illegitimacy. He’s just a sore loser who’s lying about the election because he’s a Republican speaking to a Christian audience too ignorant and cowardly to call him out on his bullshit.
But that’s not even the story here. It’s the idea that Trump is truly devout, which is just wild.
Conservatives trying to defend Trump have been saying some version of that story for years, and it’s always embarrassing that they manage to keep a straight face while they say it. James Dobson said before the 2016 election that Trump had “really made a commitment, but he’s a baby Christian.” Which sounds bad but was meant to excuse his inability to speak Christianese. Months later, the “Access Hollywood” tape came out. Over the next several years, he drove the government into the ground with his corruption and cruelty while conservative Christian leaders did nothing of significance to push back. Then, in 2020, they voted for him in even stronger numbers than before because they’re just as awful as their critics (hi) always said they were.
And Benjamin is still riding the Trump train because it’s the only way he can think of to get elected. It’s not like he has good ideas to carry him through a race.
Anyway, it’s unclear if Trump became “born again” before or after he was getting spanked with a magazine by the porn star he was having an affair with during his marriage to his third wife. Maybe Benjamin can fill in those details for us.
(via Right Wing Watch)
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