What are those heresies? Well, two that Douthat identifies sound tailor-made for Trump.
The first is Christian nationalism. This is an old heresy in American life, now mostly found on the right, that believes, in a sense, that America is a new “chosen people” or a New Israel. Obviously, religion and nationalism together form a combustible mix. Here, the heresy of Christian nationalism takes a Christian idea — that nations and political bodies have a role to play in God’s unfolding design — and takes it to the extreme of divinely ordered nationalism, forgetting the counterbalancing idea of the Christian gospel that all humans are brothers and sisters in Christ.
It’s easy to see how the heresy of Christian nationalism could power the rise of Trump. If you’re a Christian who believes so deeply in American exceptionalism that you forget that, actually, God judges all nations, and that all fall short of the glory of God, you might see in Trump’s overt nationalism a quite natural thing, and be ready to brush off his other departures from what is usually considered good Christian conduct, such as his bigotry, his cruelty, or his misogyny.
The other major heresy is the prosperity gospel.
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