Kick-Ass Jesus
Evangelical Christians know God's plan:
Men are aggressive. They fight. They protect. They grab pussies.
Women nurture. They can be kind and gentle because men are tough.
There is a role for each gender. Jesus was a man's man, and so is Trump.
Most of the political world was surprised to read that Madison Cawthorn (R. North Carolina) urged women to raise boys to be "monsters."
I mean you can look at the testosterone levels of young men today and they are lower than throughout all of history. . .. They are trying to de-masculate the young men in this country because they don't want people who are going to stand up. So I am telling you, all of the moms here, the people who I said were the most vicious and are in our movement, if you were raising a young man, please raise them to be a monster. [audience cheers.]
Meanwhile, Missouri Senator Josh Hawley told the National Conservatism Conference that the left defines traditional masculinity as "toxic." He said, "they want to define the traditional masculine virtues -- things like courage and independence and assertiveness -- as a danger to society." The result, he said, is that young men have retreated into video games and pornography.
Texas Senator Ted Cruz beat Hawley to the masculinity issue, having cooked bacon with the hot barrel of a machine gun, having trolled Bernie Sanders by saying he "identifies with every gender, simultaneously," having been a leader in insisting on binary gendered bathrooms, and by tweeting that "liberal males never grow balls." Cruz grew a manly beard.
This kind of talk is consistent with the Trump-ified GOP. Trump ran against George W. Bush's post-9/11 declarations that Islam is a religion of peace and Jeb Bush's "low energy" message of respect for Mexico and Mexicans. Trump was kick-ass opponent of Muslims, Mexicans, the Chinese, liberals, Black activists, "woke" people, progressives, the news media, and cultural elites. Trump defined himself by his open contempt for his opponents and by willingness to take them on. He has big hands, wink-wink. GOP voters seem to like it. Potential Trump successors are adopting that tone.
Evangelicals are Trump's most reliable supporters. Trump is an expression of a significant theme within that community, one based on an idea of a muscular Christ, a fighter in the battle of good and evil. This Jesus isn't a wimp. He doesn't turn the other cheek. He doesn't wash feet. He kicks ass because times are desperate and the faith needs defending.
One of the themes within Evangelical Christian thought is that the world is sharply gendered, with men given the responsibility of family leadership in decisions, as provider and as the protector against threats from outside. Women are the nurturer and keeper of the home. This isn't just cultural tradition. They consider it sacred revelation and God's plan.
This traditional division of roles is changing in American culture. Women are in the workforce and are increasingly a family's primary or sole source of income. Women outnumber men in colleges. The #MeToo movement called out and shamed male behaviors that were once common in workplaces. Fewer and fewer jobs--especially well-paying high-status ones--require a young man's upper body strength. Evangelical Christians observe the displacement of traditional gender roles and are pushing back. Trump rides that wave; potential GOP successors are climbing aboard it.
Social conservatism allied with Evangelical Christianity, in a kind of chicken-and-egg symbiosis. This era's re-positioning of Jesus from a spiritual "love-thy-enemy" figure into a fighter happened coincidently with the 1960s changes to the roles of women and racial minorities. Polls show social conservatives to be uncomfortable with the "browning" of America. There is also an overlapping reason, which helps explain the increased votes the GOP is getting among Blacks and Hispanics. Gender roles. Formerly men were by default the "head of household," a term that seems old fashioned and discriminatory now in the world of census questionnaires. For Evangelicals, it isn't old fashioned. It is sacred.Â
God's only begotten child is a son, and so, like Trump, male. Many Evangelical Christians believe Trump to be anointed by God. A muscular, fighting Messiah is exactly what we need when sacred truths are under attack. God answered their prayers.
