Ever since Donald Trump’s upset victory, the religious right has gone overtime warning the nation against speaking out against him. Their explanation? Trump is carrying out God’s plan for this country, and those opposing him are being driven by witchcraft, demons, and the devil himself. So therefore, if you stand against Trump, you’re standing against God himself–and putting yourself at risk for bringing a curse on yourself and your family.
With that kind of talk, it’s no wonder that over 70 percent of white evangelicals approve of Trump’s performance–even as his overall approval ratings continue to crater. We got another example of this early Thursday morning. One of Trump’s loudest religious right cheerleaders had a piece of advice for Christians who are starting to regret voting for the Donald–zip your lips.
Among the fundies who have bowed down to Trump, Lance Wallnau is in a class by himself. To hear him talk, the biggest reason Trump’s ratings seem to be tanking is that the media is using witchcraft to turn us against Trump. In the last few months, he has asked God to “turn the tables” on Trump’s opponents and smite them. This has kept up even after Trump claimed that both sides were responsible for Charlottesville. When several businessmen resigned from Trump’s business advisory council in protest, Wallnau claimed that God punished them by tanking the stock market.
If you thought that Trump’s decision to pardon former rogue sheriff Joe Arpaio shook Wallnau’s reserve, you thought wrong. In a message to his followers on Periscope–which was also simulcasted on Facebook–Wallnau told any Christians having doubts about Trump that they’d best keep it to themselves. People for the American Way’s Right Wing Watch got a clip.
While gearing up his followers to pray for those in the path of Hurricane Irma, Wallnau mused that this country wasn’t supposed to get pummeled by wild weather. He believed that “something’s not feeling right” in this country–the church wasn’t doing its job to be “the guardians and gatekeepers and advancers of the breakthroughs of God.” He believed the church needed to start praying “authoritative prayers.”
After praying that Irma turn away from Florida, Wallnau railed at how Trump was being “beat on” while Congress was “spineless and dysfunctional.” As he saw it, a major factor in this was “secularists” who control “big Hollywood, big media, big government” and “big business.” Another factor was the “Marxist, Communist, crazy and lawless” spirit driving the left–which was the same spirit as Satan and the Antichrist.
Wallnau then lashed out at Christians whom he believed didn’t have enough backbone to stand behind Trump. To those who were wary about Trump’s Twitter addiction, Wallnau had this to say.
“Oh, shut up! You should be thanking God you’ve got a Cyrus in office. You can hear God–he’s telling you to shut up. There are times where God tells you to shut your mouth. And every believer who is sitting there trying to be cool, talking about, ‘I wish he wouldn’t tweet so much,’ you ought to thank God that you have got a guy in there that has a heart to do what is right, and owes nobody any favors, and the devil can’t find hooks in him. God put him in there!”
Wallnau frequently claims that Trump is like King Cyrus, who was chosen by God to help the Jews and allow them to “build their house” even though he wasn’t a believer. He has maintained that just like Cyrus, Trump may not be a believer, but was chosen to help the religious right push its agenda.
So to hear Wallnau talk, because of that, we should ignore that Trump at the very least fostered an environment that made it possible for Paul Manafort to ask Russia for dirt on Hillary Clinton. We should ignore that he thinks there are both sides to Charlottesville when one of those sides was made up almost entirely of Nazis and white supremacists who were spoiling for violence.
In short, Wallnau thinks that we should ignore the fact that Trump lacks basic standards–just because he’s giving the religious right what it wants. That, ladies and gentlemen, is proof that Wallnau and friends have turned Trump into a golden calf–or rather, an orange calf. And it’s yet another reason why this charismatic Christian Dem not only won’t shut up, but will continue to persist and resist. It’s yet another reason why we should all persist and resist as well.
(featured image courtesy Wallnau’s Facebook)
