Why would 34% of New Hampshire Republicans favor Donald Trump over more experienced candidates who state policy with measured language? Because Trump has convinced everyone he is a winner and has the glare and gall to make America’s enemies stand down. Apparently a host of Evangelicals enjoy the thought of being a “winner” and kicking some ISIS ass (in Sarah Palin’s words), threatening the Chinese with tariffs, and barring the infidels who threaten their land with terrorist attacks and Sharia Law.

Trump’s world reminds me of the Book of Judges, the Wild West of the Bible, where Israel’s enemies were dispatched by courageous and righteous leaders whenever they lost their advantage in Canaan.

I loved reading about the Judges when I was younger. There was Ehud who ran his sword through the chubby belly of Eglon, and then escaped while everyone supposed King Eglon was merely indisposed in his chambers. Then there was Deborah and Jael, two women who figured prominently in the death of the mighty infidel Sisera. In Judges 5 we literally get the blow-by-blow description that shows that women are equal-opportunity assassins:

Her hand reached for the tent peg,
Her right hand for the workman’s hammer.
She struck Sisera, she crushed his head,
She shattered and pierced his temple.
At her feet he sank;
he fell; there he lay.
At her feet he sank, he fell;
where he sank there he fell— dead. (5:26-27)

This unsettling detail shows that women in Judges were real winners, too. Another hero was Gideon, who was nominated to take 300 kinsmen against huge battalions of the Midianites. Gideon also kicked butt and returned to judge Israel for forty years.

These are great heroic stories that showed how God favored the faithful underdogs. They showed how peace was administered in a very unsettled land. A little blood-thirsty, perhaps, but they were violent times. There were no international treaties, no horrors of atomic warfare, no U.S. Constitution, and no ecumenical prayer breakfasts. It was all “us” vs. “them.”

Apparently some Evangelicals have been reading too much in Judges and not enough of the Sermon on the Mount, because they are turning out in droves for Donald Trump, who has nothing in his life that he should ask forgiveness for. They like the idea of being winners, like Gideon and Sampson, but not weaklings like Jesus and his Apostles, who all ended up martyrs for their faith.

Evangelicals like God going to battle with people whose religion they dislike, like Deborah taking on the Canaanites with Jael, the tent-peg assassin. Jesus was a bit too magnanimous when he praised the faith of an occupying Roman soldier, who made the startling plea,”Say the word and my servant will be healed.” With unconcealed admiration he said, “I tell you, I have not found such great faith, even in Israel” (Luke 7:9).

Evangelicals like the James Bond-like treachery of Ehud, impaling the enemy Eglon in his own chamber, rather than the vulnerable Jesus who told Pontius Pilate to his face,” My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place” (John 18:36). Not long after that conversation, he was executed.

Somewhere out of the message “My kingdom is not of this world,” Evangelicals have distilled the message they were exceptional “winners” and everyone who opposes them should be put in their place, i.e. the “losers” corner. Donald Trump’s message must be resonating with them, because certainly the more reasoned policies of the competition, say of a Marco Rubio or a John Kasich, are not gathering traction on holy ground. They don’t bluster, they don’t strut, they don’t wipe out the Philistines, like Samson.

The rise of Donald Trump could be a consequence of a defeated generation: the unemployed, the betrayed, the terrorized, the politically disillusioned. Of course some voters are drawn by powerful figures, who promise them deliverance, as the Judges delivered Israel.

Most disappointing, however, are the Evangelical Christians, who have the model of their Christ betrayed, oppressed, and terrorized by his enemies, yet did not aspire to be a “winner.” Before the Resurrection, there was no macho posturing by Jesus, no kicking Pharisee or Centurion ass. Evangelicals should know better than to listen to the toughest mouth on the street or to look for shortest path to revenge on their enemies.

The so-called “winner” should know better than that, too.