Opinion | What the Christian evangelical grip on America means for China and the world

Nurtured by Donald Trump, the Christian radical right – with its doomsday prophecies – threatens to bring civil war, deepen US rivalry with China and upend international relations and governance

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Published: 3:30am, 14 Nov 2020Updated: 4:28am, 14 Nov 2020

For US President Donald Trump’s conservative Christian supporters, Justice Amy Barrett’s swift ascension to the Supreme Court marked a momentous victory. In August, the president had told his supporters at a rally that “we move the capital of Israel to Jerusalem”, and “That’s for the evangelicals.”

The alliance between Trump and the pietistic evangelicals is as odd as it is alarming, with far-reaching consequences for America and the world, including US-China rivalry.

The risk lies within the Christian apocalyptic world view. Some evangelicals believe they can and should expedite events to bring about the end of the world, culminating in an epic Armageddon battle of good vs evil that will usher in the kingdom of God. The Jerusalem move was important because it was one step towards heralding the second coming of Christ.

Many, including America’s founding fathers, were averse to Christianity’s supernatural revelations. Thomas Jefferson’s Bible is famously rid of references to miracles. But to protect religious freedom, Jefferson instituted a wall of separation between church and state, securing a private sphere for divergent beliefs.

Anti-abortion activists march outside the Supreme Court building in Washington on January 18, 2019. The movement has been bolstered by Trump’s support. Photo: AP

This allows the governance of a public space free from theological interference. Over time, Americans began to rally around a new creed centred on civic virtues such as liberty and dignity, in what sociologist Robert Bellah calls American “civil religion”.