The Trump rally of Sunday at Madison Square Garden has been in the news. The rally was billed as an occasion for the closing arguments of the Trump campaign. The “argument” developed as a hate fest, a racist orgy castigating Puerto Rico and immigrant citizens from Puerto Rico who certainly vote in elections. Trump himself, a long time New York celebrity went on at length about the mass deportations which he has in mind for America’s immigrant population.

For me, and I suppose for others with Evangelical Christian backgrounds, the elephant in the room, the question that hangs suspended, begging to be answered: How do Evangelicals support such eruptions of racist rhetoric, not to speak of the cruelty directed at women as demonstrated by the menagerie of characters in the speaker-lineup at this rally…

Perhaps “this” will fill in the blanks of our conundrum. Evangelical Christianity cares about one thing, and one thing alone. Are you saved? Have you given your heart to “the Lord”? Have you asked Jesus to come into your heart?

If so, then you are ‘good to go’. Should you be an abusive SOB, that’s unfortunate, – but your salvation is certain! Racist, resentment towards women, no matter… You belong to the Lord!

Certainly this sharpens what is meant by the term “miracle.”

In the domain of morality,
Christianity knows of nothing
but the miracle;

the sudden change in all valuations,
the sudden renouncement of all habits,
the sudden and irresistible predilection for new things and persons.

Christianity looks upon this phenomenon
as the work of God,
and calls it the act of regeneration,
thus giving it a unique and incomparable value.

Everything else which is called morality,
and which bears no relation to this miracle,
becomes in consequence
a matter of indifference
to the Christian,
and indeed,
so far as it is a feeling
of well-being and pride,
an object of fear…
This struggle for morality
is, however, not necessary;
for it is by no means uncommon
for this miracle to happen to the sinner
at the very moment
when he is, so to speak,
wallowing in the mire of sin:

yea, the leap from the
deepest and most abandoned sinfulness
into its contrary seems easier,
and, as a clear proof of the miracle,

even more desirable.

The Dawn Of Day by Friedrich Nietzsche, trans. by J. M. Kennedy, aphorism 87