She expects to be persecuted by the unbelieving world. When Christians are ridiculed by Saturday Night Live or John Oliver, it’s part of God’s plan. If her children come home from school crying, teased because they don’t swear and are not sexually active, it’s part of God’s plan. When she’s unfriended on Facebook for sharing the gospel, it’s part of God’s plan. She relates what she perceives as her outsider, born-again status to the persecution of Christians in the early church:
“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
“Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted…”
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.”
“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you…”
“Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.”
Therefore, she is fireproof. Anything you might say to test the boundaries of her faith will be discarded as persecution. She is impenetrable in this way. And she always relates best to the most broken person in the room. She sees the most potential for a true conversion experience there. The juicier the testimony, the smuttier the story of a sullied past transformed through redemption, the more people it will draw to Christ. Donald Trump has a hell of a testimony. Only men, she thinks, understand other men, and her husband and all the men in their congregation have grown more comfortable with Trump throughout the election season, which must mean that nothing he has done is that shocking — not to other men, anyway. Besides, no one can know another person’s heart.
She can forgive a man anything, as long as he is saved, as long as he identifies as a Christian, as long as he agrees to protect the unborn and push the message that Jesus is the only hope for our messed-up world. In terms of voting, she believes the only mistake she could make would be to choose a candidate who does not carry this burden of the modern church. He must be a zealot, a man on fire for God, not a lukewarm moderate. Donald Trump’s conversion may or may not be authentic, and there is much discussion among evangelical Christians about that. But he has Mike Pence to vouch for him — a man who has identified as a Christian for the entirety of his public life and has endured much ridicule for it. It is Pence she relates to, not Trump. Trump, she is hopeful for. Pence, she loves.
I want to tell her that I see her, that she is not invisible, and that even though she believes her time here is merely preparation for something else, something better, she has a right to fulfillment. She is my neighbor in Indiana, she was my childhood friend growing up in Kentucky. But I have done so before, so I know what the outcome will be. She will be ashamed that I’m even asking, embarrassed that she has revealed her discontent, embarrassed by her desires, by how small she thinks they are. When I ask her what she wants, she will be at a loss.
She does not fear the end of the world. This is not to say that she wants to see her husband and children, her neighbors, her agnostic brother-in-law swept up in a fiery rapture, but the Second Coming would settle all questions. Christ’s return will mean that her sacrifices are justified, her devotion rewarded — that everyone will finally be forced to admit that she and everyone like her were right all along. On Election Day maybe she said, half-jokingly, that if we’re lucky, Christ will come again even before we get the election results, and we’ll never have to deal with the outcome. She has nothing to gain from saving the world, and no hope in trying. She knows nobody can.
Article Appeared @http://www.villagevoice.com/news/how-evangelical-women-found-a-false-savior-in-trump-9345884