2020/05/13 by Sean Durbin · 1 voice
Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #Religion and Society Interactions #Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence #Media, Religion, Digital Communication
paper · doi:10.1177/2050303220924078
openalex publication_date 2020/05/13 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
When Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential elections with the help of 81 percent of self-identified white evangelicals, liberal commentators, relying on folk-conceptions of religion that privileged concepts like morality and belief, struggled to understand how someone who seemed to lack both could garner such support. Since then scholars have provided various explanations, relating to Christian nationalism evangelical appeals to authoritarianism, and straightforward racism. This article aims to expand this discussion by analyzing the way that evangelical Christian Zionists have supported Trump by rhetorically identifying him as God’s instrument on account of his support for Israel and withdrawal of the United States from the Iran Nuclear Deal. In addition to analyzing the process by which Trump is constituted as God’s instrument, the article also demonstrates more generally how religious discourse functions as a legitimating discourse for those who seek to gain, or maintain, positions of power.