Trump Akin to 'Horror-Movie Villains' Who Won't Go Away: Christian Scholar

A Christian scholar specializing in ethics has compared former President Donald Trump to a villain from a horror movie.

Dr. David P. Gushee, a Christian ethics professor at Mercer University known for his advocacy of issues like LGBTQ+ inclusion and solutions to climate change, called Trump a "uniquely malignant" force for Republicans in an interview published Tuesday by Salon.

Gushee expressed concerns that Trump may retake the White House in November's presidential election, while arguing that the former president's influence over the GOP had "facilitated the rise" of "authoritarian reactionary Christianity."

"I am feeling a sense of dread as I contemplate a Trump-dominated 2024," Gushee said. "He is like one of those horror-movie villains who you think has been defeated or destroyed but keeps showing up to terrorize the neighborhood."

"While the polling results are mixed, there are plenty of polls that show him leading in most or all of the swing states," he added. "The fact that this person in 2024 might well create a constitutional crisis, and that he doesn't care at all about that—and that his followers are fine with it—is appalling beyond words."

Gushee went on to say that "the weakness" of President Joe Biden as a candidate "only raises the sense of vulnerability" about the election and his fears that Trump could return to office.

He said that he was approaching the election "like a person who is facing a grave spiritual, emotional and moral challenge" and urged fellow Christians to battle against Trump for "the soul of Christianity."

"In light of the manifest surrender of so many Christians to Trump and to authoritarian reactionary Christianity, being a Christian means resistance to this surrender, participation in this internal struggle for the soul of Christianity in the United States," Gushee said.

Newsweek reached out for comment to Trump's office via email on Tuesday.

Although significant majorities of white evangelical protestants supported Trump in the 2016 and 2020 elections, the ex-president does not have full control of the Christian vote. Gushee is also far from the only prominent Christian to question his ethics.

Peter Wehner, ex-speechwriter for former President George W. Bush and a senior fellow at the evangelical nonprofit organization Trinity Forum, accused Christians who support Trump of "betraying the Lord" in an opinion article published by The Atlantic in November.

During an NPR interview in August, Russell Moore, editor-in-chief of Christianity Today and former top official for the Southern Baptist Convention, lamented that Trump's influence had caused some Christian conservatives to reject core tenets of their professed religion as too "weak" or "liberal."

"Multiple pastors tell me, essentially, the same story about quoting the Sermon on the Mount, parenthetically, in their preaching—'turn the other cheek'—[and] to have someone come up after to say, 'Where did you get those liberal talking points?'" Moore said.

"When the pastor would say, 'I'm literally quoting Jesus Christ' ... The response would be, 'Yes, but that doesn't work anymore. That's weak,'" he added. "When we get to the point where the teachings of Jesus himself are seen as subversive to us, then we're in a crisis."

Trump lashed out at evangelical leaders who he said had displayed a "great disloyalty" by hesitating to back his presidential candidacy during a January 2023 interview on conservative network Real America's Voice.

"That's a sign of disloyalty," Trump said. "There's nobody that did more for the movement than I have. And that includes the movement of evangelicals and Christians and the movement very much of 'right to life.'"

Progressive Christian group Faithful American launched an online petition opposing Trump's candidacy shortly after he announced his 2024 run, quickly gaining tens of thousands of signatures.

The group denounced the former president, saying he promoted "fascist tactics" and launched the Make America Great Again movement that "clearly rejected" fundamental Christian principles.