If you’re looking for the ultimate contradiction in terms, it’d be hard to top “Christian narcissist.” Nonetheless, David Masciotra alleged in a Tuesday Salon piece (originally published on the left-wing site AlterNet) that “conservative evangelical Christianity” somehow “encourages narcissism,” and that this unholy communion explains Donald Trump’s relatively high level of popularity on the religious right.
“In order to appeal to evangelical voters, candidates…have to project narcissism and selfishness,” asserted Masciotra. “Having perfected his personality through years of reality television performance, Trump is able to successfully sway evangelicals to his side, despite his lack of Christian credentials, because narcissists take comfort in each other.”
Evangelicals, Masciotra claimed, are better suited for dictatorship than for representative government: “Compromise and negotiation require an acknowledgment that no one has all the answers. Evangelical Christians do not worship a God that compromises and negotiates. They worship an all-knowing, all-powerful deity…[Trump’s] failure to offer specifics on some proposals, and his dismissal of constitutional restraints on other proposals resonates with a constituency that believes ‘through faith all things are possible.’”
From Masciotra’s article (bolding added):
Trump and America’s religious right are not as different as one would think. If any corner of American Christianity encourages narcissism, it’s conservative evangelical Christianity.
One of the oddest traits of many deeply religious people is their self-professed humility even as they claim to understand the plan of the creator of the universe as well as their own special role in its development…
...[R]eligion-affiliated charities like food banks demonstrate that the influence of faith is, like most things, complex and contradictory. But the Christian right in America has a long history of encouraging narcissistic, intolerant ideology.
Trump, meanwhile, is the rock bottom of Republican decline from a political party with a coherent policy agenda to a loosely connected network of nativists and extremists. The party’s loss of credibility is the predictable outcome of its transformation into a vehicle for the self-promotion and theocratic advocacy of white evangelical Christians. In order to appeal to evangelical voters, candidates like Carson and Cruz have to project narcissism and selfishness. They do it very well, but Donald Trump is the demagogic master of it.
Having perfected his personality through years of reality television performance, Trump is able to successfully sway evangelicals to his side, despite his lack of Christian credentials, because narcissists take comfort in each other…
Ominous signs of GOP evangelical narcissism have appeared in the past two election cycles. First, there was the walking disaster of Sarah Palin. Then there was a revealing moment during Clint Eastwood’s infamous empty chair speech at the 2012 Republican National Convention. The legendary actor and filmmaker proclaimed that, “We own this country.” The crowd went wild.
Evangelical Christians believe they are a persecuted minority because anything less than total ownership is unsatisfactory…
Good governance is a push and pull process in which compromise and negotiation are essential. Compromise and negotiation require an acknowledgment that no one has all the answers. Evangelical Christians do not worship a God that compromises and negotiates. They worship an all-knowing, all-powerful deity whose will is infallible and unquestionable…
…[Trump’s] failure to offer specifics on some proposals, and his dismissal of constitutional restraints on other proposals resonates with a constituency that believes “through faith all things are possible”…
Arthur Miller once remarked that Christian conservatives don’t want a president. Instead, they “ache for an Ayatollah.” Right now, they have Trump.
