McKay Coppins, a staff writer for The Atlantic Monthly, recently compiled a comprehensive list of invocational prayers at Trump rallies across the country. His distillation and analysis of these divine supplications can be found in the latest issue of The Atlantic magazine. I was so inspired by his story, I went to a recent Trump rally in Asheville, NC to listen to the invocation, delivered by Mark Robinson, Republican candidate for NC Governor, and part-time pastor of the post-apocalyptic, Evangelical, Pentecostal Church. Although recovering from a snake bite suffered the previous Sunday, he delivered a short, but heartfelt, invocation.
“O Lord, wake our struggling nation from this woke nightmare and deliver us from the satirical grip of the devil himself. We know you have a plan, but your righteous lambs are suffering mightily at the hands of our oppressors. We give thanks that you have anointed Donald Trump to be our humble shepherd who will lead us through this valley of darkness until we emerge victoriously at your throne of grace.
Meanwhile, we solicit you, O Lord, in the name of Jesus, in this, our most urgent hour of need, to arm us with the sword of Damocles, gird our loins with Orion’s belt, protect us with the shield of Hercules, and light our way with Aladdin’s lamp. Give us the strength, courage, wisdom and hallucinations of all these former godly warriors you anointed to do your heavenly work here on earth.
Make America great again and women’s skirts longer!
Amen.”
The invocation was followed by a chorus of amens.
For people of this ilk, somehow, when a public speaker parses their words in the cadence of an invocation or benediction, it feels to them like a higher wisdom, a wisdom not yet fully accessible to them, is being called on and delivered; as if God Almighty has mysteriously worked himself into the phrasing. In short, they are witnessing a Higher Calling. For these people, there is sadly not a sliver of a chance that they might feel that they are being hoodwinked into the sideshow of a dreadful man. Their duty is to follow the simple word association from which they are already accustomed; already installed into long-term memory: woke = child molestation, Trump = Savior.