Today’s guest says that many evangelicals use characters from the Christian Bible to legitimize their support of Trump.  Dr. André Gagné  says the argument goes “God can use imperfect individuals. Look at King David: King David committed adultery and killed the husband of Bathsheba, and God still called him a man according to my heart. King David was not perfect. The apostle Peter, who was one of the 12 apostles, betrayed Jesus, and Jesus reinstated him forgave him… ‘oh, you see, God can use someone like Trump to bring America back to him.'”Gagné argues, that these stories lend imperfect figures that are easily compared Trump.

André Gagné joins Esty about his new book American Evangelicals for Trump: Dominion, Spiritual Warfare, and the End Times. In an hour full of listener calls, Gagné breaks down the reasoning behind many evangelicals’ support of Trump and offers a theological lens to the conversation.

André Gagné is a professor and the Chair of the Department of Theological Studies at Concordia University. His teaching and scholarship focus on political theology, religion and violence, and the interpretation and reception of the Bible. He is a member of the  National Expert Committee on Countering Radicalization to Violence with Public Safety Canada, a member of Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance (Concordia), and research associate with the Centre de recherche Société, Droit et Religions (Université de Sherbrooke).

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