As a progressive black sheep who has drifted politically from my lily-white Republican family, I have ample opportunity to witness the damage that the MAGA movement has been doing to people I once considered reasonable-if-conservative. Most of it sadly predictable: People who denounced Bill Clinton's gross-but-consensual affair now make excuses for Donald Trump's sexual assaults. There's the willing participation in conspiracy theories they know full well are nonsense. And, of course, when utterly unable to make any sense of their own political "beliefs," the fallback of dumb "let's go Brandon"-type jokes.
What has genuinely surprised me, however, is the way a bunch of folks who were previously not very religious have become all about Jesus. Maybe not enough to go to church, mind you, but enough to start littering their social media posts and other communications with Bible verses and the sentimental religious imagery. Not too long ago, many of these folks used to mock the showy piety of the fundamentalist neighbors. I fully blame the MAGA movement, of course.
