Bastardization

Religion has always been useful especially for those who needed orthodoxy to provide them with certainty. If you were uncomfortable with nebulous reality, it provided comfort plus a way for the ruling class to keep people controlled. Small wonder that the clergy was well entrenched with the monarchies of Europe for centuries

Religion can of course be perverted into whatever forms you like and it has always been infected with human biases because it cannot be helped. But if you were too afraid to look behind the curtain, many people were led astray by those with less than honorable intent. Priests molested children, papal indulgences handed out for money and nonsensical rules were followed which had little to do with love of neighbor and more with passing judgement.

Today the perversion of the New Testament messaging by White Christian Nationalism is threatening US politics like never before. The GOP courting of Evangelicals has thwarted the underpinnings of the country and reminds one of the rise of Nazism under much the same guise and we know how well that went. This "Jesus and guns" dogma which also preaches monetary prosperity is the kind of corruption that is the antithesis of the message of Christ.

Trumpism captured this demographic in spades and emboldened it and, unfortunately, "Turn the other cheek" isn't part of its credo.