There are a lot of Americans that have a very normal spiritual relationship with their religion.

It's private or familial and it's something that brings light and serenity into their lives.

If you have that type of relationship with your faith, I'm not talking about you.

But we're about about our white evangelical mega-church Christians and the damage that they

are doing to this country.

And I have long felt that evangelical white evangelical Christianity is in fact a cult.

And I'm not alone in thinking this.

Kylie, pop up the first slide.

Tim Whitaker says, I'm finally saying it.

The evangelical world that raised me was a cult.

Next slide. I grew up in a world where disagreeing

with doctrine meant you were a heretic who needed to be promptly scolded, where your church was the

only biblical one and everyone else was lukewarm at best, hellbound at worst. Next one. And now we're watching the end result

unfold in real time, a religious political cult that sees Jesus as a mascot for their

team, not a savior to be followed. Next. But they follow the Jesus of the basement, the conquering strong man,

the defender of their distorted vision of truth, the punisher of outsiders, the Jesus who

kidnaps immigrants and separates them from their children. That's the Jesus they worship.

Trump is their version of Christ incarnate.

He's been sent by God to, quote, make America great again. That's why they excuse everything he does, the lies, the cruelty, the corruption, the authoritarianism, the hatred of the other. In a cult, the leader must

be defended at all costs. If the leader is undermined, the entire identity of the group

collapses. So they defend the end defensible. I grew up in the basement of Christianity, the dark, damp, musty place.

That basement was a cult. After years of watching the evangelical world, I grew up in, the Christian

...