Evangelical leaders redefined Trump’s religious ignorance as forgivable infancy

Evidence

Less than a month before the Republican Convention, Dobson, who had initially endorsed Cruz, testified on behalf of Trump’s nascent faith. Granted, the candidate didn’t exactly talk the talk. “He used the word ‘hell’ four or five times” in his meeting with conservative Christian leaders, Dobson acknowledged, and “he doesn’t know our language.” And yes, he’d had a rough time on the campaign trail, getting tripped up on questions about whether he’d ever asked for forgiveness (no), or what his favorite Bible verse was (“I don’t want to get into specifics”). But Dobson had on good authority that Trump had recently come “to accept a relationship with Christ.” He was, in Dobson’s words, “a baby Christian.” When it came to Trump’s obvious shortcomings, Dobson urged evangelicals to “cut him some slack.” — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 588

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the ‘baby Christian’ pattern described earlier in the book of leaders excusing political failings through spiritualized rhetoric; connects to the broader militant-masculinity framework where strength trumps theological fluency. — connects to: Evangelical leaders defended Trump’s moral scandals as a political trade-off for cultural power. — Andrew L. Whitehead; Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back for God, 230
• DEFINE: Illustrates how evangelical leaders’ Trump endorsement entailed redefining what authentic Christian identity required — orthopraxy shifted from theological knowledge to stature.