It was the gilt that struck me first. Shiny gold doors inlaid with an ornate pattern, glinting in the background of a photo of a beaming Donald Trump with a grinning Scott Morrison. Gold, money, success. Or, the appearance of money, the appearance of success.

An image of an ostentatious, moneyed Manhattan, far, far from Sydney’s Sutherland Shire, that our former prime minister appeared thrilled to be briefly part of. Proudly posting the photo on X, he said he was “pleased” to meet Trump at his “private residence”, the penthouse in Trump Tower: “It was nice to catch up again, especially given the pile-on he is currently dealing with in the US.”

Now, let’s just briefly put aside using the term “pile-on” for four indictments amounting to 88 felony charges, and a criminal trial that aired allegations of hush money paid to a porn star, one who claims she spanked Trump’s bottom with a rolled-up magazine – to talk about these optics.

Two men, in suits. Two men of scant self-doubt who believe God chose them to lead their countries. Two men courting American evangelicals.

Our former PM is in the US on tour for his new book, titled Plans For Your Good: A Prime Minister’s Testimony of God’s Faithfulness, one that appears to be aimed at inserting himself into the American evangelical scene. Former vice president Mike Pence, who wrote the foreword, said: “Christians around the world will be inspired by his story and his example of trusting God no matter the circumstances.”

Morrison’s decision to publicise a meeting with Trump in this way serves as a reminder of how many white evangelicals support a man known for his mendacity, grandiosity and insistence that the last US election was stolen, a man a jury found to have raped a woman, a man who boasted about grabbing “pussies” whenever he felt like it, and who has sledged veterans, people with disabilities, Mexicans, Muslims and a Fox News host who had “blood coming out of her wherever”. How do we explain this to our daughters?

The photo of Trump and Morrison was a neat depiction of the brotherhood of Christian nationalism, and a reminder of why so many people outside the church associate Christianity with conservatism and a pursuit of power, even now with men like Trump whose alleged lovers tell courts they don’t like wearing condoms when they cheat on their wives, but proudly, strategically take credit for the Supreme Court’s dismantling of women’s reproductive rights. Who hurl slurs at opponents, condemn foreigners and turn backs on migrants. Who don’t appear to have, say, read the Bible, the whole “do unto others as they would do unto you” and look-after-the poor-and-the-vulnerable stuff.

I was especially struck by that image this week when the grandson of lifelong Baptist Jimmy Carter informed us that the 99-year-old former president was “coming to the end”. Carter has long been touted as an average president who fumbled the 1979 hostage crisis but as an excellent ex-president; whatever his flaws, or the merits of his politics, he was a man who united, a humanitarian who supported the civil rights movements and connected faith to compassion, decency and goodness.