The Religious Void

[Mister Agenda]

But most structured religions - the Catholic and Anglican churches, Islam, Presbyterians and Baptists, to name a few - obviously have no compunctions about engaging in politics.

Hmm I'm not necessarily suggesting that religious people and institutions are not involved in politics. Rather, whether the particular kind of involvement people have is religious in nature.

For example, the psychologist Jonathan Haidt described some campus protests that occur when conservative speakers are invited to be religious. The protesters behave as if the campus grounds were sacred, and the speakers are impure, and their presence threatens the holiness of the place. Likewise, some Trump supporters do have an uncanny cult-like attitude towards the politician.

So the question is whether having an actual religious outlet prevents this kind of religious behavior in otherwise secular places (not just politics).

As you seem to recognize, the tendency of American Evangelicals to believe anything Trump says despite any factual evidence otherwise and to also be antivaxxers suggests to me that at least for that particular subgroup of Christians, their religion does not inoculate them at all from political cult-like behavior. If anything it seems to make them more susceptible.