Many white evangelicals are no longer Christians. They have become Trumpians. Athanasius is clear that once you choose to follow a profane person, you bear that profane person’s name. Donald Trump has stated on various occasions that he is “the Chosen One,” “the second coming of God,” and “the new King of Israel.” Many of his followers believe and have written that he is the literal Son of Man in the Bible. In our faith community, who are the disseminators of disinformation and loony conspiracy theories? Seventh-day Adventist Trumpians. Who are the neosubordinationists and other anti-Trinitarians, all of whom feel it necessary to diminish and debase Jesus? Mostly Seventh-day Adventist Trumpians.
Everyone should put on a Hazmat suit, wade in the muck of Fulcrum7, and read the deranged writings of David Read. (Yes, I understand the argument that such a person and his writings should be ignored, marginalized, and shunned). He believes that there is only person in the entire world whom you can trust, and that person’s name is Donald Trump. You can’t trust the secret cabal of Jews who are in control of the world because that cabal is secretly acting to diminish America’s whiteness (Great Replacement Theory). You can’t trust the Catholics, because they are using climate change to gain control of the world. You can’t trust the Muslims, blacks, Mexicans, immigrants, refugees, women, LGBT+ persons, liberals, scholars, and scientists, because they are all “Marxists.” And you can’t trust the president, the congress, the courts, the CDC, the Department of Justice, the FBI, the rest of the “Deep State,” the mainstream media, the World Health Organization, and other domestic and international entities, because they are all in on it. You can’t even trust the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the GC, and Ted Wilson, because they all are in on it, too. And you can’t even trust the Republican Party, because it has not sufficiently bent the knee to Donald Trump. Again, the organizing principle in Read’s entire body of writings, stated concisely and with only a smidgeon of exaggeration, is that there is only one person in the world whom you can trust, and that person’s name is Donald Trump.
There is so much literature written and handwringing done about the futility we have all experienced in ministering to Seventh-day Adventist Trumpians. How could they have fallen into this cult? How could they have become so ungrounded in factual reality? Why can’t they see the light? Why are they so impervious to reason? I don’t have good answers to these questions. I too am frustrated. But I am reminded of a specific Seventh-day Adventist Church teaching, which sets forth what we have traditionally described as The Unpardonable Sin. And in my despair, I remain inconsolable.
