Every day I hear someone say that had no idea Trump would act like this. Just writing that down makes my head spin. At the same time, I hear people ask how they could not have known. I have some thoughts.

Last week after running into some Evangelical friends, I was given a fresh glimpse into that world, a reminder of how strong the hold can be on the rational mind of the Evangelical Christian. One friend I reacquainted with is a woman who had made a decision to become an Evangelical Christian in her youth. Early in her journey she was taught and believed that the world was an in or out place where the saints (Evangelicals) were in and unrepentant sinners (the non-believers) were out. This concept reinforced over time was so strongly imprinted on her personal identity that it became her own.

I know dozens of people who hold on to the same concept and consider anything that challenges it, spiritual warfare, a lie from Satan. It is held so tightly that no matter how contrary to one’s well being it would present itself to be, a person will lose his/her own life before they will ever scrutinize it. I know dozens of people who came into the Evangelical fold in the 70’s and 80’s and made an equal choice to believe in Christ and the world in this way. Over time the worldview has evolved and Jesus Christ and being Christian is now experienced this way.

Jesus is white. The Evangelical Leadership in America experiences Jesus as a white, male, wealthy American capitalist.

Jesus is Conservative. Jesus is said to embody the ideal paradigm that instructs people to work. Experienced as this. If you do not work, you do not eat. If you work it is all yours. Jesus is thought to believe that if you have managed your money wisely, you will become rich. If you are poor, it is your fault.

Jesus is America’s founder and leader- Experienced as American history is Christian history.

Jesus is a male. Experienced as American men are to take leadership of the world. America women to live in submission to men.

Let me be clear, many in the Evangelical community would assert that they couldn’t possibly believe these things this literally. The reality though is that they live as though they do.

No matter what Evangelical persuasion a believer is a part of, these realities overrides everything. People are living under the illusion that what they are a part of is the most significant thing on earth. Those who think and reason are habitually shushed in a myriad of ways and eventually choose to comply because…it’s the will of God. They have been taught from the beginning of their faith experience that to resist authority is to resist God. Our current POTUS knows this and counts on it.

The reality is that Evangelical Christianity and Conservative Republican politics are having a secretive and illicit affair right out in the open, while pretending to be in a monogamous marriage with their Lord and Savior, they are intimate with some of the most godless people on the planet. Donald Trump is POTUS again because there is now no separation between church and state, no collective conscience within the party to provide resistance.

I expect that the Evangelicals will continue to focus on others trans people…immigrants…Bad Bunny…etc. Anything that keeps them fixated on the perceived sins of others so they don’t have to face themselves for this gigantic compromise.

All he had to do was pretend to be against abortion and they were his. He never once looked in the face of Jesus as portrayed in the Bible. They should have seen it but instead they were focused on Hillary – a smart woman who he said was killing babies right and left. But the Evangelical doesn’t know how to seek to understand on his/her own without getting their hands slapped.

The future of the immoral marriage of the church and state will continue for those bought in until we look like Iran but have an Evangelical flavor. The American founders knew this could happen and separated religion and state for this very reason. Immoral selfish people have and will use religion to usurp the will of the people because religiously devout are the most effortlessly brought under control.