“That makes me wonder what Rubin does with evangelicals who chastise the President for his egotism, lack of decorum, and many vices and sins. Aren’t they guilty of demanding that Trump conform to Christian morality? And isn’t that a form of imposing Christianity on the country?”

Jennifer Rubin, a conservative columnist at the Washington Post, claims that evangelicals are proving their harshest critics right. Why? Because they defend Donald Trump. But Rubin’s reasons don’t make sense.

She starts:

For years, Democrats accused Christian conservatives of being closet theocrats, seeking to impose Christianity on the country and refusing to accept, let alone embrace, American diversity. That was a generalization, but it turned out to be more true than not.

The evangelical defense of President Trump has taken on a religious fervor immune to reason.

Notice, the vice of evangelicals shifts from imposing their religion on the country to defending Trump with fervor. Since Donald Trump, widely regarded as one step removed from Harvey Weinstein, is never going to impose Christian morality on the country, Rubin’s point unravels.

If she meant, evangelicals are inconsistent, or even hypocritical, I understand. But if hypocrisy were the slippery slope to theocracy, then the United States has been theocratic except for those virtuous administrations of Washington and Lincoln.

Next, Rubin quotes a Post story as evidence of evangelicals’ fervent defense of Trump:

Although some say the Trump-evangelical alliance harms Christianity, it’s common to hear other conservative Christians say that Trump’s unexpected win — down to the electoral college — shows that God had a more-deliberate-than-usual hand, and has put Trump there for some reason.

Brian Kaylor, a Baptist pastor with a PhD in political communications who has written several books about religion and politics, thinks [White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee] Sanders holds this view of a divine plan and it gives her confidence at the podium.

“When you have to stand up there and defend whatever he’s done, it’s more than you are defending a politician, or even a president; you are defending God’s chosen leader for this time,” he said of Trump’s defenders.

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