MAGA Evangelical leaders working to Make Apostasy Great Again
It’s a sad reality that in the Age of Trump, a great deal of damage has been done to the gospel of Jesus Christ at the hands of the Fellowship of the Pharisees and so-called Evangelical leaders who have sacrificed morality on the altar of Trumpism. However, recent behavior by these leaders makes past sellouts pale by comparison as MAGA Evangelical leaders have been working to Make Apostasy Great Again.
APOSTASY definition: a total desertion of or departure from one’s religion, principles, party, cause, etc. (Dictionary.com)
One of these leaders is one of the founders of the Fellowship of the Pharisees, First Baptist Church of Dallas Paster Robert Jeffres, who made the bold declaration this past weekend that Donald Trump is, in fact, a biblical genius when it comes to doing his job as president (via Mediaite.com):
Baptist pastor and Fox News contributor Robert Jeffress argued President Donald Trump has a “better understanding” of the bible than Pope Leo XIV — at least when it comes to waging war against Iran.
Jeffress shared his take on Fox News Live on Saturday, two days after Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with the American-born pope in Europe. The pastor said Leo is a “good man,” but his criticism of Trump’s leadership during the war — and his threats against Iran — have been out of line.
“He’s sincere in his faith, but he is sincerely wrong when it comes to Iran,” Jeffress said. “The pope ought to know — and I think he does know — God created both the church and government for two distinct or purposes. The role of a church is to point people in in Jesus Christ to, but the role of government is to protect citizens from evil doers according to Romans 13.” (Emphasis mine)
Ah, yes. Romans 13. A scripture routinely and conveniently taken out of context by MAGA Evangelicals when they need to defend Trump’s indefensible behavior. By the way, I wonder if Jeffress thinks Romans 13 allows Trump to protect the pedophiles and the sexual abusers of girls and women in the Epstein files. Asking for a friend.
If there was a Hall of Fame for MAGA Evangelicals working to Make Apostasy Great Again, Robert Jeffress would certainly be there. For example, when news first hit that Donald Trump had paid Stormy Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet about an affair he had with the porn star, First Baptist Church of Dallas Pastor Robert Jeffress defended Trump, saying evangelicals “knew they weren’t voting for an altar boy” when they cast their ballots in 2016.
In 2019, Jeffress called “Never Trump” evangelicals “spineless morons” for not supporting him, and he predicted that Trump’s impeachment would plunge America into a “civil war.” In an appearance on Fox Business during the impeachment hearings, Jeffress defended Trump for “the values [he] embraces.”
Jeffress also claimed that “99 percent of evangelicals oppose[d] impeachment” because “never in the history of America have we had a president who was a stronger warrior for the Judeo-Christian principles upon which this nation was founded than in President Donald J. Trump.” The Southern Baptist Pharisee also said that “the effort to impeach President Trump [was] really an effort to impeach our own deeply held faith values.”
Fast forward to the 2024 election, and we see that Jeffress remained completely sold out to his mango messiah (via US News):
Pastor Robert Jeffress, an influential evangelical who heads a 14,000-member church in Dallas, earlier this year said he was uncommitted in the 2024 Republican primary. But Jeffress told Reuters this week that he is now solidly behind Trump, saying that he has found DeSantis … to be “lackluster.” (Emphasis mine)
By the way, Jeffress also defended Trump’s cave on abortion in 2024 because, according to Jeffress, the political reality of how difficult it is to end the slaughter of unborn babies deserved more consideration than actually trying to end that slaughter.
There were other players in the Make Apostasy Great Again play this past week, such as Pastor Mark Burns — an Evangelical Leader who boasts on his X account that he has been labeled by Time Magazine as Trump’s Top Pastor. Burns also used Romans 13 again as his defense for leading a dedication ceremony of a 22-foot-tall golden statue of Trump (via ChristianPost.com):
Pastor Mark Burns, a televangelist and ally of President Donald Trump, pushed back twice within days against comparisons of a newly unveiled golden statue of Trump to a biblical idol, insisting the effigy was an act of honor, not worship.
The 22-foot bronze figure, covered in gold leaf, depicts Trump raising his fist in the gesture he made after surviving an assassination attempt in 2024. Titled “Don Colossus,” the statue was unveiled Wednesday at Trump National Doral, the president’s golf course in Miami, Florida, Barron’s reported.
Burns, who led the dedication ceremony, posted on X the same night: “Let me say this plainly: this is not a golden calf.”
“This statue is not about worship. It is about honor,” Burns wrote. “It is a celebration of life and a powerful symbol of resilience, freedom, patriotism, courage, and the will to keep fighting for America.”
He quoted Romans 13:7, “Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.”
At the dedication, a phone message from Trump was played in which the president thanked the organizers and praised Burns as a good pastor who had been with him “from the beginning.” (Emphasis mine)
One of the responses to Burns’s tweet that found funny came from DallasIndependent:
Another Evangelical Leader working to Make Apostasy Great Again chimed in to defend the obvious worship witnessed at the dedication ceremony when Eric Metaxas accused Trump critics of suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) and being under the influence of a “spirit of religiosity.”
When I consider how evangelicals continue to defend Trump and condone his behavior, I’m reminded of the words spoken by a man many considered a modern-day prophet, A.W. Tozer:
“Religion today is not transforming people: rather it is being transformed by the people. It is not raising the moral level of society; it is descending to society’s own level and congratulating itself that it has scored a victory because society is smilingly accepting its surrender.”
Though Tozer passed away 60 years ago, his words still ring true, and they provide an accurate description of evangelicals in the Age of Trump.
Much like the religious leaders in Jesus’ day, Robert Jeffress and the host of Evangelical leaders who comprise the Fellowship of the Pharisees have been sacrificing the gospel in exchange for political power as they keep working to Make Apostasy Great Again.
David Leach is the owner of the Strident Conservative. He holds people of every political stripe accountable for their failure to uphold conservative values, and he promotes those values instead of political parties. He the author of The New Axis of Evil: Exposing the Bipartisan War on Liberty.
Follow the Strident Conservative on Twitter and Facebook.
Subscribe to receive podcasts of his daily radio feature: iTunes | Pandora | Tune In | iHeart | RSS
For media inquiries or to have David speak to your group, use the Contact Us form.
