The religious right is steeling itself for a Biblical battle on Trumps behalf

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2017/03/06/the-religious-right-is-steeling-itself-for-a-biblical-battle-on-trumps-behalf/?utm_term=.041fa51061c2

In so doing, the religious right — a core Trump constituency — is revealing something interesting about the bond that these millions of Americans have formed with Trump. His religious-right defenders see themselves as warriors in an epic battle for Christian America, not unlike the one underlying the agenda envisioned by top Trump strategist Stephen K. Bannon — and as Trump hunkers down, they are invested in the narrative that Trump’s critics are satanic enemies bent on destroying him.
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White evangelicals are Trump’s most ardent supporters. A January Washington Post-ABC News poll found that 66 percent of white evangelicals had a favorable view of Trump, the only religious constituency boasting a majority with a positive impression of him. White evangelicals also continue to be Obama’s most predictable opponents; while that poll found that at least 50 percent of other religious demographics had a favorable view of Obama, only 31 percent of white evangelicals did.

Now religious-right figures are rising to Trump’s defense in the battle over whether Obama tapped his phones. For instance, Charisma magazine, a leading source for charismatic and Pentecostal writings, is credulously citing Breitbart as proof of the need for a congressional investigation of Trump’s claim that Obama ordered the wiretap. Charisma has long been a cheerleader for Trump; during the campaign, it promoted widely disseminated comparisons of Trump to the Persian King Cyrus, referred to in the Book of Isaiah as God’s “anointed” one.
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The larger context here is that the religious right is girding for a much longer fight alongside Trump. His signing of his new travel ban today will signal to the religious right that he remains a strong defender of their Christian nation. A Pew poll in February found that 76 percent of white evangelicals supported his original executive order, and a Public Religion Research Institute poll found that white evangelicals are the only constituency whose support for a Muslim ban has grown since last year.

The policy-focused segment of the religious right — the Beltway players who cheered Trump’s early actions, including most recently the Education Department’s withdrawal of Obama-era guidance protecting the rights of transgender students in public schools — regularly praise the president in the hopes that he will grant their wishes for nominations and appointments, and will eventually sign a broad executive order creating unprecedented religious exemptions for opponents of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality and reproductive rights.

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So Trump may be the benefiting from a union of sorts between the conspiracy-minded Breitbart and charismatic and evangelical Christians who believe they are engaged in a spiritual war to defend Trump. This fuses two Trump allies in a shared belief in a civilizational showdown. With the White House giving all indications that it will stand by the notion that Obama wiretapped Trump’s phones, it would not be surprising if more religious-right figures rallied behind the claim, leading millions of evangelical Christian voters to believe it.

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These people frighten the hell out of me