By Rudy Barnes, Jr., February 1, 2025
Hyperpolitics is about voter intensity in politics, and it can be a strong political influence. Intense religious beliefs can motivate enough votes to make a difference in politics. Donald Trump benefited from the hyperpolitics of Christian conservatives in the moral majority, which succeeded Billy Graham’s evangelism among Republican conservatives.
But religion is a multifaceted and transitory factor in politics. Neither Billy Graham or Jerry Falwell or their followers are currently in political vogue, and conventional Christianity continues to decline. Off-brand religions like the New Apostolic Reformation are gaining support, but none yet have the numbers nor the intensity to make a difference in America.
Trump rode a wave of conservative GOP Christians to victory in 2016 and 2024, but with changing demographics coupled with a diminishing church, they are not likely to provide Trump with future success. It will take a hybrid religion compatible with the diversity needed for political success in 2026 and 2030, and Democrats haven’t yet shown any evidence that they can do it.
The conventional Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam don’t have the capacity to bring together the diverse beliefs needed to build an effective political coalition, and the New Apostolic Reformation is too distant from any popular religion to be a hybrid that can attract enough followers on which to build an effective religious and political coalition.
Thomas Jefferson once claimed that the teachings of Jesus were “the most sublime moral code ever designed by man.” The greatest commandment to love God and to love your neighbors as yourselves is a summary of the teachings of Jesus. It was taken from the Hebrew Bible, taught by Jesus and is considered a common word of faith by Muslims.
Jesus was a universalist Jew who came to reform Judaism by putting God’s altruistic love over Mosaic law. Jesus never suggested that he was divine. He was a universalist and never indicated that God favored one religion over others. Any universal hybrid religion should consider Jesus a prophet of God’s word and the Logos, and not confuse Jesus with God per se.
In a democracy, the moral imperative of God’s universal faith is that we love all others, including those of other races, religions and politics as we love ourselves; and never condemn those who do not share our faith, but who seek to provide for the common good, recognizing that we can have differences on what constitutes the common good.
In politics we can and should oppose narcissists, like Trump and his billionaire minions, who do not share a commitment to promote the common good, and who exploit others to promote their own selfish objectives. We should be charitable altruists, not self centered narcissists like Ayn Rand, who exploit those in need and those who are hurting and suffering. That’s how we can best oppose morally unprincipled demagogues like Trump and his minions.
Notes:
On Goodbye “Resistance. The Era of Hyperpolitics is Over.” Where has the anti-Trump energy gone? Musings on how a religion based on altruistic love in hyperpolitics could upend Trump, see https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/25/magazine/trump-hyperpolitics-resistance.html.
On How Trump Will Fail, by David Brooks. “You can draw a straight line from a (semi-mythical) image of America to the movement Trump leads today. He leads a band of arrivistes, establishment-haters, money-seekers [and religious charlatans] and unreconstructed nationalists.” https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/23/opinion/trump-mckinley-populism.html.
On how Texas Has a Perverse Idea of Religious Freedom, see David French at https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/19/opinion/texas-catholic-immigration-paxton.html.
On Donald Trump’s Disruption is Back, see https://time.com/7207806/trump-second-inauguration-oath-of-office/?utm.
https://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2025/01/musings-of-maverick-methodist-on.html
On Politics: The New Apostolic Reformation as the Army of God Comes Out of the Shadows.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2025/02/new-apostolic-reformation-christian-movement-trump/681092/. I don’t agree with much of the religious doctrine of the New Apostolic Reformation, but I believe that God has sent prophets to guide us through the years, not only the Jewish prophets, including Jesus, but also Buddha and Muhammad.
In John’s Gospel Jesus is introduced as the Logos, or the word of God (John 1:1), and as in Mark’s Gospel there is no virgin birth. Jesus refers to God as his father and does not claim to be a Trinitarian form of God in the flesh (that’s blasphemy for Jews and Muslims). For other commentaries on Jesus as the Logos and the universal light of God’s word in a dark world, see https://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2024/12/musings-on-teachings-of-jesus-as-gods.html, and also Musings of a Maverick Methodist on a Journey of Faith to Universalism at https://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2025/01/musings-of-maverick-methodist-on.html.
See also, Musings on the Advent of Jesus as the Light of the World and the Universal Logos at #475 (12/23/23) Musings on the Advent of Jesus as the Light of the World and the Universal Logos
https://www.religionlegitimacyandpolitics.com/2023/12/musings-on-advent-of-jesus-as-light-of.html.