I keep thinking about a conversation I overheard in late November 2016 - in the breakfast room at a Hampton Inn in Louisiana.
I was speaking at a church. But it happened that there was a conference for Pentecostal pastors at the hotel.
I was still in shock from the election. Two pastors sat at the table next to me. They were talking about how excited they were about Trump.
They were excited that he was a businessman.
"About time," they said. "Somebody who can finally run this country like a business."
There have been countless articles about why white evangelicals support Trump.
But I've always thought about their conversation. A businessman. That's who they believed would fix things. Nothing more than that, no vision of political messiah.
Just some weird patriarchal mystique about businessmen.
Nothing about morality, nothing about the common good, nothing even vaguely religious.
Just a businessman will finally fix America.
I've always thought this said more about American evangelicalism than just about anything I'd ever heard.
Faith in business.
There was no theology at all. Just obvious, overt sexism and trust in money.
Oh, and the coffee that I accidentally spilled on them.
Don't worry it was lukewarm.
"accidentally"
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.