I have extended family who are Evangelical (they’re part of the Quiverfull cult). It’s easier for them to justify people like Trump and Boebert than you might think.
Sorry, this answer got long, but it spells out the Evangelical mindset as I understand it.
The usual rationalizing goes something like this:
- All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
- The Holy Spirit can move within anyone who accepts salvation through Jesus Christ, no matter how fallen.
- Since everyone is a sinner, but only people who accept Jesus can be moved by the Holy Spirit, it is far better to vote for a politician who is sinful but open to receiving the Spirit than a politician who is sinful but turns his back on God.
- Boebert has received Jesus Christ. She may be sinful, like we all are, but through her God may still do good works. A godless person is incapable of good works.
- Isn’t it better to vote for someone who can do good works, whatever their private failings, than someone incapable of good works?
That’s basically it. That’s the “logic” I’ve heard.
Now, of course, in order to believe this line of “thinking,” you have to believe that Trump and Boebert have actually accepted Jesus. If, as the Bible says, you will know them by their works (Matthew 7:16), they clearly aren’t Christians. They are, in fact, exactly who Matthew 7:15 warns about.
You also have to assume their political opponents aren’t Christian. Which is actually pretty easy for Evangelicals; to them, anyone who isn’t a member of their particular Evangelical sect isn’t really Christian. Like, my Evangelical family thinks Southern Baptists are fake Christians because they aren’t conservative enough.
Christians enjoy trying to define God into existence and trying to define other Christians out of existence.
And Evangelicals are psychologically conditioned to accept two standards of behavior, one from leaders and one from the flock. They do this weird thing where if a member of the congregation has lunch with a woman not his wife he’s expelled, but a leader who is photographed having sex with his mistress on a private yacht is worshipped.
It looks like hypocrisy, but they legit don’t see it that way.
Evangelicals are authoritarian and rigidly hierarchical. They literally see their leaders as army generals, engaged in literal, not metaphorical, spiritual warfare against the demonic armies of Satan. In war you obey your leaders without question. If their generals sometimes slip into sin, what of it? They have the most pressure, God has placed the most responsibility on their shoulders. Sure they slip from time to time—they're fallible, like all men, and all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, remember?
But God placed them in leadership because that’s where He wants them. It is not for us to question God’s decisions.
To the Evangelical, God orders all things; God is directly, personally involved in every aspect of our lives. If you’re rich, God made you rich as a sign of His favor (Proverbs 10:22, 2 Corinthians 9:8). If you’re in a position of authority, it’s because God has judged you worthy of being an agent of His action.
That’s why it does no good to point out to an Evangelical that Boebert is a drunk sex offender screwup so stupid, she had to try four times to pass the GED.
That’s the thing: they will agree with you. To them it’s proof that God has chosen her.
Yes! Boebert is a drunk sex offender screwup who’s dumb as a post. That’s why they follow and support her! There is no way such a person could be in Congress except that God Himself wills it so.
She did not get elected through her own efforts, like those elitist West Coasters who use their connections and their money and their fancy education to game the system. She’s just a common, ordinary person who beat the system and beat those elitists at their own game through God’s grace and power, amen.