Part VI - Authoritarian Followers and the Rise of American Christo-fascism

Social scientists have long known that a certain percentage of people, irrespective of religion and politics, are prone to follow any strong leader that represents the existing social and political order. Such people are known as authoritarian followers. We will see how basic human psychology plays a strong role when people are tempted to follow a politically fascist program.

According to a prominent expert:

“Authoritarianism is something authoritarian followers and authoritarian leaders cook up between themselves. It happens when the followers submit too much to the leaders, trust them too much, and give them too much leeway to do whatever they want--which often is something undemocratic, tyrannical and brutal.”

Authoritarian leaders are typically… “inclined to be intimidating, ruthless, and vengeful. They scorn such noble acts as helping others, and being kind, charitable, and forgiving. Instead they would rather be feared than loved, and be viewed as mean, pitiless, and vengeful. They love power, including the power to hurt in their drive to the top.”

They… “can easily pretend to be religious, saying the right words and claiming a deep personal belief… and gullible right-wing authoritarian (followers) will go out on almost any limb, walk almost any plank to believe them.”

Authoritarian followers tend to… “display personalities featuring:

1. a high degree of submission to the established, legitimate authorities in their society;
2. high levels of (cowardly group) aggression; (done) in the name of their authorities, (and often justified by religion)
3. a high level of conventionalism.

In North America, people who submit to the established authorities to extraordinary degrees often turn out to be political conservatives (and evangelicals), so you can call them “right-wingers.” 

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This sounds like something that was written after the rise of Donald Trump, but it was published by (a secular university professor) Bob Altemeyer in 2006. If you take the time to study his essay, you will begin to understand how American fundamentalists can hold so many contradictory ideas that not only conflict with the US Constitution but with the religion that they claim to represent.   

https://theauthoritarians.org/Downloads/TheAuthoritarians.pdf. 

As I stated above, none of this is new to social scientists. Like many people, I found it telling that Donald Trump’s first wife claimed that the only book Trump ever read and kept close by, was a book about another manipulative authoritarian leader and anti-christ figure – Adolph Hitler.

Has Trump, the known con-man and liar, been studying how to manipulate his sycophantic followers for decades?

It has always been a mystery to me how real christians could ever follow an obvious anti-christ, especially given all the warnings in the BIBLE – but here we have it. Authoritarian followers are given someone to hate (minorities and immigrants), told that they are superior, offered a few false “christian” prophecies centered on culture war, dominion, and hate, offered a vulgar (but rich) leader to idolize, and they fall right in line. Trump’s diehard followers do not seem to be able to understand that he is a pied piper leading them to hell. They often cant or simply wont say why their loyalty is so unshakable – but given that it is their psychological tendency to follow the leader, they may not actually know. If you see yourself in this, pray for repentance. The BIBLE tells us that GOD HIMSELF will cause false christians to be totally deceived in the end times because they love the lies of their authoritarian leaders. 2 Thessalonians 2:8-12

The False Hope of Politics

America is a corporation by and for people who are willing to sell their souls for wealth and power. The rich bought the government long ago and there is nothing you can do about it. 

Politics is nothing more than a dog and pony show; a distraction sponsored by the rich to give the common people a continuing sense of false hope.

This generation has seen, with the last two presidents, that salvation in politics is an illusion. Obama put a black face on the same old neo-liberal pro-big business agenda. His presidency did little or nothing for average people – particularly blacks. Now we have the bizarrely incompetent Donald Trump. As with Obama, the only people who have benefited from his presidency are the rich. It should be plain that powerful people behind the scenes choose the candidates – at every level of government - to promote their agenda. The candidate will say anything, whether smart sounding and inspiring (Obama) or petty and ridiculous (Trump), to get the voters to continue to buy into a fundamentally flawed process.

Is Trump a blessing from GOD?

There is a verse in the BIBLE that shows exactly how real Christians are supposed to interact with false christians that lie and sin:

"But now I (Paul) write to you not to associate with anyone who (claims to be a christian) if he is known to be a fornicator/adulterer, or greedy, or is an idolater, or is a person with a foul tongue [railing, abusing, reviling, slandering], or is a drunkard, or a swindler or a robber. …You must not so much as eat with such a person." (Slightly expanded word definitions) 1CO 5:11

It sounds almost like it was written to describe Donald Trump, who has said on camera, that he feels no need of repentance - showing that he has little or no knowledge of Christianity. The false “prophecies” that claim Trump is a chosen christian leader are completely at odds with what the BIBLE actually says. False right-wing prophet Mark Taylor’s childish rhymes are fixated on patriotism, partisan political power, and prosperity. Like many previous false prophets and modern psychics, Taylor's predictions had to be revised after the fact to make them seem accurate. Originally, his main prediction said that Trump would run against and beat Obama - the prevailing racist right-wing fantasy of the time.

Trump's presidency is a blessing to those who voted for him?!

By voting for Trump, the right-wing political church exposed its anti-christian race pride, its love of money - as evidenced in its idolization of a supposed billionaire candidate, its love of lies, acceptance of false prophecy, and its general hypocrisy. That said, I still see the Trump presidency as a blessing to those who voted for him. Why? Because even though Trump voters willfully idolized and empowered an insincere, hateful, racist, anti-Christ figure to lead them, they are still alive (mostly) to be able to repent and be saved. (Repentance is not available in the afterlife.)

We have seen a preview of how a large portion of people who think of themselves as christians, having been deceived by their own idols, will accept an anti-christ figure if he pretends to support their hypocritical religious beliefs and political agenda. Eze 14:4 Like the ancient Pharisees, the American right-wing political church is looking for a version of jesus that will make them the rulers of the world – not for THE CHRIST who demands that they change their fundamentally sinful inner attitudes. (pun intended)

We are sojourners here on Earth – meaning travelers passing through. We are only here to be tested by God to prove whether we are worthy of living with him in heaven for eternity. The BIBLE does not encourage us to be patriots for a worldly nation or to seek political dominion over an earthly kingdom.