In an era of “fake news,” “fake science,” and even “fake law,” I suppose it was inevitable the term “fake Christians” would pop up. On Twitter, it’s most commonly used as a means of criticizing Trump voters. As such, it’s of a piece with commentary from the 2016 election cycle asserting, for example, that Evangelicals are “political” as opposed to “really religious” (as if these things were entirely distinct or there were any such thing as apolitical religion). Even scholars such as the widely (and rightly) respected Randall Balmer, who should know better, have argued that, in terms of their voting, “Evangelicals are secular now,” a claim that is frankly absurd. If this is the kind of thing that gets you riled up, then you’ve surely observed the hashtag #FakeChristians and the acronym CINO (“Christian in name only”) on Twitter, but in case you haven’t, here are some examples of relevant tweets:
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