Trump’s Denial of Election Reality: Will Court Evangelicals Play Along?

Last night Donald Trump said he believed the election was being stolen from him and today tweeted this:

As in every other election, mail in and absentee ballots are being counted today and will be added to the totals. There are more of them this year due to record numbers of ballots being cast in this manner. Ballots haven’t appeared in a “surprise ballot dump.” Either Trump is ignorant or deliberately attempting to destabilize the nation.

Will evangelicals who support Trump buy into this?

Charlie Kirk of Liberty University’s Falkirk Center does:

Franklin Graham is lending credibility to this delusion:

Paula White, of course:

John Fea has a post on this same topic, check it out.

Greg Thornbury has this reaction:

Owen Strachan jumps in:

And of course Etic “Punch and Run” Metaxas punches and runs:

Metaxas in particular is melting down.

Evangelical leaders who have made their bed with Trump will not go quietly into the night. No matter what the damage is to the faith, they will continue to enable Trump’s delusions. It is shameful but predictable given where they have been for the last four years.

In my view, preachers don’t have any specific expertise to add to what is going on with election counting. It is taking place as it always has. What they should do is simply reinforce the beauty of our system that we count every vote. What they shouldn’t do is rebroadcast and reinforce baseless conspiracies about stolen elections.

If you see other evangelicals promoting this delusion, put a link in the comments.

45 thoughts on “Trump’s Denial of Election Reality: Will Court Evangelicals Play Along?”

  1. I would add that the reason that the vote totals started moving against Trump late is that multiple GOP legislatures prohibited counting mail-in votes until election day. Since the counters dealt first with the in-person votes, the late surge was quite deliberately baked in.

    IIRC, Trump even referred to this weeks before, that he’d be ahead on Election Day, and that he should be declared the winner then.

  2. It’s too late to access a link, but Franklin Graham pitched a YouTube endorsement of Trump without actually saying his name (wink, nudge) in an effort to (I allege) not jeopardize his tax-exempt status.

  3. Eric Metaxas writes a book on Dietrich Bonhoeffer

    Then supports a man with many of the same characteristics as the one Bonhoeffer opposed.

  4. Comments from certain ‘religious’ characters notwithstanding, it now appears that Biden is the presumptive President-elect. The election itself will be on 14 December, I believe, with the result of that election confirmed by the 117th Congress on 6 January.

  5. Does anyone remember the classic movie Citizen Kane, specifically the part where media mogul Kane runs for some sort of public office?

    The scene is in the bullpen of one of the newspapers Kane owns; the staff are going round-the-clock preparing not one but two special editions of the paper depending on the election results:

    The Armageddon-size headline of one says KANE ELECTED!
    The other one says

    PROOF OF VOTE FRAUD!

  6. Has anyone reported the recent Metaxas tweet? It seems to incite or wish violence on others.

  7. So glad I left white evangelicalism over 10 years ago.I thought it had real problems and a little craziness back then. I never imagined it would get as bad as it has. Under Trump it’s reached a whole new level of insanity. Hard to see Jesus anymore in much of it.

  8. What evangelicals who voted and promoted Trump and Trumpism don’t seem to understand is the very basic Biblical principle that “he who would save his life will lose it” – they may gain the whole world, but they are soulless now, and they lack any credibility. (Imagine them trying to speak to any kind of social ill or into anyone’s life now: they will be laughed out of town, and rightfully so.) There is nothing left to do but rebuke them and walk away. They are so entirely lost, and they’ve embraced murderous extremism. They must own whatever the mob boss does next.

    1. As Chesterton wrote of the appeal of Black Magick, “The Dark Powers have a reputation for Getting Things Done.”

  9. Like Franklin Graham, I hope that God’s will is at least taken into account at this time.

    Unlike Franklin Graham, I don’t believe that God is registered Republican (or indeed a registered anything else).

    God is surely accustomed to being used as a political football, but there is something particularly unedifying about all this …

    One of the more hilarious aspects of the current iteration of the Trump pantomime is the use of opposing chants in different states. What is it exactly that Trump (and God?! – lol) wants: to stop the count or to count all the votes? Then again, I suppose God’s will depends on which state one is talking about! Silly old me for not realizing that!

    1. I can’t remember who said this but it went something like:

      If god had anything to do with US politics they would be this f’ed up

  10. After watching the Paula White video I have a personal observation and a question

    1. She must have gotten a heck of an arm workout with all of that moving about

    2. Was there a technical malfunction at the end? She sounded like a broken record.

  11. At this point, I really hope the tax-exemption for churches is revoked once and for all. Failing that, no more special exemptions for churches in regarding to filing and transparency requirements. They should have file all the same paperwork and have the exact same transparency as any other non-profit (which requires that salaries be disclosed, etc.).

  12. Why wouldn’t they play along? Would anyone expect honesty from these snake oil sellers now? I certainly wouldn’t. They will defend the one they have put forward as the object of worship, and the new messiah.

      1. I would discourage violence. Besides a better response would be on the day of Biden’s inauguration flood his social media feeds with:

        “You said it was going to fail Eric!”

  14. Least surprising news of the day: Eric “Hit and Run Away” Metaxas has been stoking the crazy on Twitter all day.

      1. I’m sure there were plenty of fraudulent votes cast, but they still weren’t enough for Trump to win.

  16. It gets worse. The Postal Service, which averages 95% on time delivery, is way behind on delivery to Michigan and Pennsylvania, as well as other states. Specifically, up to 20% behind for yesterday’s delivery.

    Welcome to the Reichstag Fire.

    1. “just speak water to the fire and it will be fine” – Paula White: Waterbender and Weatherperson

    2. “just speak water to the fire and it will be fine” – Paula White: Waterbender and Weatherperson

    3. “just speak water to the fire and it will be fine” – Paula White: Waterbender and Weatherperson

      1. Yeah. Prosperity preacher. Don’t remember Jesus saying he would make people rich. In fact, I’m quite certain he didn’t.

        People like White explain why I hold prosperity preachers in contempt.

        Money over life. All you need to know about people like this.

    4. Make that “which used to average.” Postmaster DeJoy has been very effective in slowing the mail, particularly to heavily Democratic districts–but not just to them.

      1. Republicans would love to eliminate the Postal Service. It kills them when government performs a service that friends of their could be turning into a buck.

        1. Fortunately, it’s in the Constitution, so they’d have trouble privitising it entirely.

  19. Satan is the author of division chaos confusion distractions and the father of lies. Many evangelicals have been lied to for so long they can’t tell the difference between God and Satan.

  20. don’t really follow the “christian leaders” but are any of them calling for the people to remain calm and not to do anything drastic?

    1. I doubt it. They’ve been far more interested in platforming fear of civil war than rebuking it.

  21. the reason PA is having delays in counting mail-in ballots is because the GOP filed lawsuits to prevent any pre-processing of the ballots.

    They weren’t allowed to even start counting them until the morning of the election. So of course it is taking a long time.

    Warren, you are in PA, did you vote in person or via mail-in ballot?

    I know of 2 people (housemates) in Pittsburgh, who applied for mail-in, 1 got his ballot but ended up dropping it off in person because it arrived so late, the other never got his ballot and had to vote provisionally in person.

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