BuzzFeed People Are Genuinely Confused How MAGA Christians Justify Their Behavior, And This New Term Explains Everything

[applegrove]

BuzzFeed
People Are Genuinely Confused How MAGA Christians Justify Their Behavior, And This New Term Explains Everything
Caroline Bologna
Sun, October 12, 2025 at 12:14 PM EDT
11 min read

https://www.buzzfeed.com/carolinebologna/vertical-morality-maga-christians

For many Americans, the gap between Christian teachings and MAGA politics is baffling. How can people profess faith in Jesus ― who preached love, mercy and care for the oppressed ― while supporting policies that punish immigrants, demonize LGBTQ people and glorify cruelty?

The key to understanding this apparent contradiction might lie in something called “vertical morality.”

This ethical framework measures righteousness not by goodness to others, but by something more simplistic. Below, Christian advocates and former fundamentalists break down what vertical morality means and how it explains our political landscape today.

What Is Vertical Morality?

“Vertical morality teaches that authority, power, and a moral code of right and wrong, or acceptable and unacceptable, come from ‘above’ ― an external superior who designates rules, systems, and tenets that must be obeyed by those beneath,” said Tia Levings, a former Christian fundamentalist and author of A Well-Trained Wife: My Escape from Christian Patriarchy.

Applegrove: thanks to my cousin for the suggestion

[RockRaven]

1. Too lazy to think for oneself. Too spineless to take responsibility for one's choices.

Willful perpetual moral childhood.

How's this for vertical? That way of thinking is BENEATH CONTEMPT.

[applegrove]

3. Thankfully it is not all over the place in Canada. Though there does seem to be money for evangelical

church buildings without much of a flock like on the street where my brother lives.

[Oeditpus Rex]

31. It isn't 'laziness' or 'spinelessness'

It comes from a thorough indoctrination veginning in early childhood that we all owe everything "good" to a supreme being (e g "God&quot and are obligated to thank and appease "Him" at every applicable turn. You didn't die today? Praise "God"! Your ankle isn't broken, only sprained? Praise "God"! Your team won? Praise ""God"! (When I was a sportswriter, one year the local high school quarterback, who was only a sophomore, said "All glory to 'God'" every time I interviewed him after a game.)

A significant aspect of the indoctrination, of course, is the threat of various punishments for the slightest question of any of this, from a glare from Mom to an eternity in hell. The surest way to make a kid obey the rules is to scare the hell into them for disobedience.

Fear is really the key element in religious fundamentalism.

[WmChris]

33. My question

Which God there seem to a lot of them to choose from. You claim yours is the only real one even though everyone claims theirs is.

[chouchou]

2. "and author of A Well-Trained Wife"

and author of A Well-Trained brain that is a Damn idiot. Yeah...I got your well-trained wife..
She is waiting for you to go to sleep and has a DeWalt drill in her hand.

[mopinko]

7. my dear friend's mother gave her a set of cast iron pans for her wedding.

in case she needed some self defense, and the advice- remember, he has to sleep sometime.

[chouchou]

9. Nice heavy, well oiled cast-iron pans work beautifully

[slightlv]

18. My MIL would agree with you... she had one, and managed to find a way to use it

to knock some sense into hubby without killing him. That woman was something else! First among the WACs, and wildcatter in oil, and a PHD geologist. Loved that woman!!

[Scrivener7]

36. Not an idiot. She wrote about her escape from abusive Christian fundamentalism

with her six children after years of marital rape and nearly being killed by her husband. She knows what she's talking about.

[chouchou]

43. I understand.

[malaise]

4. In other words white supremacist Theocracy

devoid of morality or basic human decency - back to the 16th century
Fuck that every which way.
We are not going back.

[B.See]

44. Precisely. File under

"do as I say, not as I do." Hypocritical bstrds.

[Henry203]

5. All fundamentalists are nuts

whether taliban or Christian. we are dealing with crazy people.

[eppur_se_muova]

11. You can't spell "fundamentalist" without "mental". nt

[applegrove]

12. The people are not all nuts. Some of them walk the walk.

[slightlv]

19. Those who aren't nuts walk the walk of Christianity and Christ.

Maga, thanks to the Dominionists (NAR) have re-created the old medieval religious structure when every country was ruled by a king, and every "commonwealth" had a duke or better. There was always someone watching over everything a person did, didn't do, or said. THAT'S the type of structure they want here. Not really so much big brother as their angry father "big god"... Christ is too pansy for these people.

[FHRRK]

42. I use the 80/20 rule a lot in life (Pareto or ABC Analysis)

And you are correct, not all of them are nuts, but 80% of them are.

A Pareto Analysis (ABC Analysis) is now used to stratify Inventory, Customers, etc, the original Pareto rule stated 80% of the wealth is held by 20% of the population. (Which is accurate, currently we have .001% who hold the majority of the 80% of wealth)

It is a great way to manage business, 80% of your costs are due to 20% of inventory line items, 80% of your business is generated by 20% of your clients, 20% of your products are responsible for 80% of your sales, on and on.

I used it often to focus on key issues and customers. You end up effectively ignoring 80% and working with the 20%

I now use it with Christians, 80% should be ignored, 20% are great people.

[mobeau69]

6. Good read. Thanks.

[Tetrachloride]

8. i make do with patriarchy

[DBoon]

10. The morality of a concentration camp guard

"I was following orders.My religion says I must always follow orders."

[flvegan]

13. There's no such thing as a MAGA Christian, full stop.

There, fixed it for everyone. Now it's much easier to understand.

Start to prove me wrong by releasing the Epstein files and we'll count the MAGA chuds listed/redacted therein.

edit: spelling

[eppur_se_muova]

14. It's been suggested that the God of the Old Testament is the Devil of the New ...

the OT god was vengeful, selfish, and spiteful .... but his supposed bleeding-heart, progressive, liberal hippie son disavowed all that ... I read on DU months ago that many conservative Christians objected to the revivalist movements of the 18th and 19th centuries because they saw them as promulgating a "feminized", "weakened" version of Christianity which centered around forgiveness (Jeez, who started that ?) rather than retribution and punishment. I'm not sure of the historical accuracy of that, but it sure seems to fit with the paleo-Christian resurgence we see today. Remember, many in the GOP have expressed admiration and envy for the (state-controlled) Russian Orthodox Church, in preference to American Christian denominations, and seem to be closer to the Taliban in outlook than to their historical predecessors in their ostensible faith. That's why cruelty is so often the point -- how are you going to get people to behave "right" if you don't hurt them for doing it "wrong"? There's no answer to that, in their ossified, parochial thinking, so only the Old Ways are acceptable to them.

If only they'd do like the Russian "Old Believers" did, and disappear into the remote wilderness to escape from modernity, which is their real enemy ...

[slightlv]

22. The Bible... especially the Old Testament...

is so full of contradictions and actual ideas taken from other Middle Eastern religions of those early days... most of those, Pagan. There are chapters, if you can find them in the original Aramaic, Hebrew, or Greek that say read nearly exactly to what the old Pagan texts of the time said. For many other verses, etc., words they didn't like were changed in mid sentence in such ways that it completely nullified what the chapter was talking about.

Interpretation is hard work... especially when you need to go back to some an archaic language to do it. And it's been shown one of the worst offenders of this misinformation is the King James Bible. And guess what's been most popular for decades? Americans, in particular, just aren't curious enough to really do their own research. Which is why the "Vertical Morality" is so easy for them to follow!

[Xolodno]

41. The look of shock when I tell people that King James may have been gay....

....PRICELESS!!!!

But yes, the OT is full of contradictions. For example the sex laws change over time. Because they would just borrow the laws from other nearby cultures at the time. I often point out that adultery in the OT is not a moral law, but rather a violation of property rights.

Maybe that's why they don't like to include me on theological debates.....

[ultralite001]

15. Whatever it takes...

to take "Christ" out of the church...

Evangelical Fundamentalism has become the Gospel according to Krasnov...

[dobleremolque]

16. So they don't see Jesus in that role?

"an external superior who designates rules, systems, and tenets that must be obeyed"

Miss the point much?

[I_UndergroundPanther]

38. Vertical morality?

My middle finger is vertical cause all you evilgelicals are
afraid of taking responsibility for your own actions. Pass the buck like good little nazi doing what thier told. Narcissist authoritarian Jesus makes me sick. I have no masters, I am kingless, ungovernable, and wild. And I bite.

[PatrickforB]

17. Ah, the Fuhrer Prinzip by yet another name...'vertical morality.' n/t

[ShazamIam]

20. I noticed long ago and left religion because they keep increasing the list of who and what is unacceptable. nt

[Fil1957]

21. May explain a lot, but not everything...

[Raven123]

23. Those who do not understand need to read a little history

What people claim to believe and how they act rarely has been consistent. The chasm may be more visible to some, ut it has always existed

[SoFlaBro]

24. A vertical, up and down MAGA motherfucker with mush mouthed morality. Piss on those fucking turds.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

25. "Horizontal morality prioritizes the well-being of our neighbors, communities and personal relationships," Ajoy explaine

“Horizontal morality prioritizes the well-being of our neighbors, communities and personal relationships,” Ajoy explained. “We act in ways that cause the least amount of harm to those around us, regardless of beliefs. Someone with vertical morality may help someone in need because they believe that’s what God wants them to do, versus someone with horizontal morality may help that same person for the benefit of the person that needs help.”

[bucolic_frolic]

26. In other words, they have boundaries that don't allow morality in

and that prevents them from feeling empathy for other human beings.

Fixed it for them.

[mgardener]

27. Don't you think

Trump's morality comes from below?

[JCMach1]

28. External locus of control people in extremis

[al bupp]

29. In other words, CINOs

Christian In Name Only, sounds about right, though not exactly an Earth-shattering revelation.

[ChicagoTeamster]

30. Their Christianity is a political identity. Their doctrine has no basis in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

They make up their own doctrine to justify greed and control over others. The American Evangelical Christian movement grew out of the Southern Baptist church. The Southern Baptists split from the mainline Baptists after virtually every church in America aligned with the Abolitionist movement in the mid 1800s. Same with the Southern Methodists. They created their new religions for the preservation of their profitable institution of slavery.

They created heresy like the mark of Cain doctrine which taught that the mark God put on Cain for killing his brother was black skin and it justified slavery. Never mind that at that time people knew of the existence of Asians (India, Pakistan, Khorasan), Orientals, and the indigenous peoples of the new world. Yet, they had to single out people of African descent because they needed an excuse to justify slavery. Slavery ended and they still preached separation of the races. Southern Baptists also taught that there were separate heavens for black and white people. Again, what about everybody else. These people twist their religious doctrines to justify their persecution of working people and minorities, the subjugation of women, and as always, the reduction or elimination of taxes on the rich.

Evangelicals don't preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ or the letters of Paul. They preach the gospel of white supremacy.

[Metaphorical]

34. Which is why MAGA can be seen as the secular arm of the Southern Evangelicals

Very good point, and it explains a lot.

[Norrrm]

32. There are two major groups of 'Christians' in our country; Christians of faith and Political Christians

There are two major groups of ‘Christians’ in our country;
Christians of faith and Political Christians who praise proud adulterer Trump who does not need Christ’s forgiveness and ridicules Holy Communion.

[hildegaard28]

35. The Problem

With Evangelicals is that they believe once saved always saved. Once they believe they are saved, they think there's no way they can be sent to hell, so they can do whatever they want. They are already forgiven by virtue of being "saved". They have no incentive to do right or behave themselves.

[Scrivener7]

37. So does that mean the Catholics among them will be obeying Pope Leo?

[ChicagoTeamster]

39. He's generally liked by the US Bishops. For Now

Cardinal Dolan praised Charlie Kirk. Nuns complained about the praise. It's hard to see if there's going to be a fracture. Many US Catholic churches have already had immigrant outreach.

[Scrivener7]

45. I'm convinced Dolan has someone chained in a basement somewhere. He gives me the willies.

[ChicagoTeamster]

47. I wonder if it's possible to check with the church or local PD in parishes he's worked if he's had complaints

Pope Benedict retired, first pope ever to not die in office, because he was supposed to sit for a deposition in front of the International Criminal Court at the Hague. They were investigating the Church's handling of their global sexual abuse problem. They were looking into allegations of an institution wide cover up.

[Scrivener7]

48. Apparently when Dolan was archbishop of Milwaukee, he hid $57 million of diocesan money so it wouldn't

be available for settlements for sexual abuse survivors.

https://www.ncronline.org/news/accountability/milwaukee-documents-show-dolan-asked-transfer-funds

I don't know of direct complaints against him, but squirreling that money away doesn't point to a high moral character.

[ChicagoTeamster]

49. The Vatican Bank has a long history of shady transactions going all the way back to the Medici family.

There was even a movie starring Christopher Reeves called the Monsegnor about Cardinal Marcinkus of Cicero, IL, who was head of the Vatican bank. It was about how he rose up the ranks and his ties to the mafia and his involvement through those ties to his role at the Vatican Bank and the eventual collapse of the Italian bank Banco Ambrosiano. So it's not just the sexual proclivities of the clergy. Churches have been involved in financial corruption for a long time. It's commonly referred to as stealing in the name of the Lord.

[LymphocyteLover]

40. that really doesn't explain much but I'll have to read the whole piece

[Kid Berwyn]

46. Like slaves. They know their place.

“Respect your superiors, people.”