Evangelical 'mass radicalization around Trump' in 'overdrive' after shooting: expert

According to a scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies, the failed assassination attempt on Donald Trump over a week ago has given a boost to Christian nationalists and far-right evangelicals who believe the former president is the chosen one as promised in various prophecies.

In a column for Politico, Matthew D. Taylor, an expert in religious extremism noted that it was just mere hours after the shooting in Pennsylvania was reported that evangelicals latched on to Trump's survival as proof of his divinity.

According to the religious scholar, since that time "right-wing Christianity is presently experiencing mass radicalization around Trump."

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As he reported, "this insurgent new faction of evangelicals believes in modern prophecy, that there are literal prophets today who speak the words of God directly," adding, "Trump has captured the imaginations of the nondenominational charismatics and prophecy believers like no American politician before him."

Writing, "Within minutes of the shooting hitting the news, a constellation of prophet-influencers took to social media to claim that they had predicted this incident," he continued, "The embrace of Trump-centric prophecies in this corner of Christianity has been building for years now. Part of the attraction is probably that Trump looks and behaves something like a classic televangelist — the gravity-defying hair, the repetitive propagation of half-truths, the cunning salesmanship — but part of it is also a historical accident."

He then issued a warning that newly ramped-up evangelical fervor for Trump is a danger to democracy.

"The more that MAGA Christians embellish Trump with messianic properties and make him an instrument of divine wrath on God’s enemies, the more of a menace they and he pose to democracy," he wrote. "If Trump wins, he might claim — to shouts of acclamation from his devotees — a divine mandate to remake America. If he loses, these prophecies may once again become rationalizations for attacking the “demonic” institutions that dare defy God’s anointed."

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