Donald Trump uses religious language to gain more followers

I am a religious person as most of you are, according to the polls. Beyond that, like many of you I was trained in a seminary to lead in a religion, with the special language of that religion, which is based on the Bible. More than that, the language is drawn from and based on the Person of Jesus Christ. This is done as my faith tradition (Presbyterian) interprets Jesus Christ in the Bible. I certainly recognize and respect other faith traditions, even if I have a different emphasis and interpretation of the Bible from them.

I say all of this because I recognize religious language and religious leadership when I hear and see them. Donald Trump, an aspiring political leader, is clearly using religious language as he seeks to gain many followers. Recently, in a rally he said, “The great silent majority is rising like never before and under our leadership … We will pray to God for our strength and for our liberty. We will pray for God and we will pray with God. We are one movement, one people, one family and one glorious nation under God.”

I have preached in many pulpits in this country and overseas and I know that the most powerful appeal that can be made to people is that they can be made into a new people under God, in short to become children of God. I remember asking indigenous young people why did they want to be baptized. They said, “We want to be children of God.” It happened, of course, that as indigenous people they knew that the majority population looked down on them. While I was with the indigenous people, I saw thousands of them become Christians. This became a movement that had started before I got to their land of Taiwan, and has continued. I learned of similar movements in many other lands.

It made me think of my own European tribal ancestors. Why did they become Christians? I believe they knew that the civilized Greeks and Romans looked down on them. A Christian Movement took place among European tribes so that Europe became a center for Christianity. Unfortunately, from our present American perspective, the Christian Church became a state church in most European lands, which gave it coercive power from the state. The church assumed great authority, not only over the souls of people, but also over all knowledge.

The Scientific Movement that had started in the Medieval church's faith that God was rational and made people rational, challenged many of the ideas that were in the church, particularly about creation of the cosmos. Science used a secular methodology and did not get its theories from religious sources. Secular methodology is still the methodology of science, for example in modern medicine, as well as in other areas of life, for example in our Democracy, where organized religion was kept out of government. Secularism, with the addition of “ism” to secular, is a way of life or philosophy that considers God irrelevant to life. But the secular method of study is a useful tool to avoid false ideas.

Despite the attempt to keep religion out of government, religion has remained a powerful force in society. It has power to affect people's emotions, motivations, and actions. This creates the temptation for political leaders to use religion as a means of gaining support. At the same time, religious leaders may welcome the power of government to favor their religion. The drawing of religion and power to each other is as old as humanity. It is a marriage made in hell.

Sadly, we are seeing Donald Trump fall for the temptation to use the trappings of religion, particu

larly religious language, to gain followers. Religions often become movements when large numbers of people answer a religious call.

Christianity was originally the “Jesus Movement” and in many ways still is essentially that. The idea of a movement for him is appealing to Trump because it sounds like great numbers of followers. A religious movement can be especially wide spread. I saw one in Taiwan.

There are many reasons why Trump would adopt the religious language he is using. Tyrants have done the same in the past to gain followers because of the power of religious emotions. It demonstrates the good reason why our American Constitution keeps organized religion out of our government. Instead, we stand on the universal moral foundation of “liberty and justice for all.”

Rev. Robert L. Montgomery, Ph.D., lives in Black Mountain.