Trump doesn’t speak to the thin veneer of compulsory sensitivity training we’ve all endured. He speaks to the bones of who we are: people who love the Bible, are Protestant, and went to Sunday School. It doesn’t matter so much that he does not live a Biblical ethic in his personal nor professional life. It doesn’t matter that he fails to treat people as if they are all equally made in God’s image. What matters is that it satisfies the appetite developed by a cultural “can do” mantra.
In a question and answer session in Dubuque, Iowa, Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump said, “I love the Bible. I’m a Protestant. I’m a Presbyterian. I went to Sunday school.”
He went on to identify New York’s Marble Collegiate Church as the place where his religious identity was formed under the teachings of Norman Vincent Peale. The famous author of “The Power of Positive Thinking” so captivated the young Trump that he says, “you hated to leave church.”
Peale was very much the Joel Osteen of his day which may be why Trump sees his stock rising among a sector of American evangelicalism.
Trump has said that he’s winning support from evangelical Christians who he describes as “incredible people who are really smart, and they want to see our country thrive.” But exactly who is he talking about? The Tea-evangelicals? The social-justice evangelicals?
Trump’s “evangelical” supporters are the God-fearing, Christmas-churchgoing, Protestant work-ethic/manifest destiny believing, can-do capitalists. They are in every denomination and none. They think of themselves as Christians but they see no real need to have every aspect of their lives aligned with an arcane morality. Trump is tapping into the spirit and power of positive thinking that pervades the teachings of modern cultural evangelists like Oprah Winfrey and Joel Osteen.
Trump remembers this as pastor Peale’s philosophy, but most today know it by its echoes in the “health and wealth gospel.” If you listen, you can hear it in almost every line of Trump’s “I’ll make America great again” platform. It resonates with the innate desire within every human to rise, be raised, and live a life that is worthy of their calling.
[Editor’s note: This article is incomplete. The link (URL) to the original article is unavailable and has been removed.]