A Proper Christian Response to Trump ... Finally!

This, an open letter from the Washington National Cathedral, is a beautifully worded, spot-on, timely response to the divisive, cruel bully that is our President.  It is also a reminder to all Christians that rejection, not acceptance; outrage, not loyalty; and righteous anger, not blind support, should be their daily reactions to this man's daily public vitriol spit at other human souls.

It is (beyond) time, Christians, to renounce this immoral buffoon's hold upon you, the Republican party, and the nation.

WWJD?  He wouldn't follow this guy, I assure you.

"Christians" Who Weaponize the Bible

Romans 13 has been a particularly useful tool for evangelical Trumpists.  So we all know:

Romans 13:1-2 ¹Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. ²Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.

In fact, we have seen Attorney General Jeff Sessions use it to validate the current southern-border immigration policy:

And, we then saw Sarah Huckabee Sanders do her thing by more generally using the Bible to defend Sessions and attack the Democrats:

So, if you are of the ilk to root these two on when they use the Christian's sacred text in order to validate a vile, inhumane policy of treating human souls as if they are "less than" by throwing them into cages, then allow me to challenge your "less-than" Christianity:

1. The current immigration policy is NOT a policy from the former administration; it was specifically changed in April of 2017 by Sessions and Trump.  Anyone, including Sanders herself, who tells/told you otherwise is lying for the sake of political gain, pure and simple. Now that that fact is out of the way, we can move forward.
2. Sanders's statement that "it is very Biblical to enforce the law" is laughable in this context for a few reasons: (a) I didn't know anything could be "very" Biblical.  Does that mean other precepts are only "kinda" Biblical?  If so, which ones?  We'd all like to know from this Biblical scholar. (b) Her hypocrisy is beyond blatant since her own boss was a consistent law-breaker before he came into office and has remained as such since being elected.  So it seems that enforcing the law only on poor, powerless people is what is "very" Biblical.  (c) That argument could literally be used for ANY law those in power want to put into place.  Don't like red-heads?  Outlaw them; then, ipso facto, argue that it is godly to obey the law against red-heads, for that's what "God wanted" when He put those lawmakers into power. Of course that's preposterous, but that argument of Sanders is putting the law up on a pedestal as if it should not be challenged, just obeyed.
3. That brings me to my next point; that is, the Christian has a godly responsibility in fighting against unjust laws, not just blindly complying with them because some Republican in power has weaponized Romans 13 by completely ignoring other parts of the Bible.  Parts like (a) Isaiah 10:1-2, which states, "Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people"; OR (b) Isaiah 1:17, which states, "Learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause"; OR (c) Romans 12:2, which states, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect"; OR (d) Matthew 25:40, which states, "The King will reply, 'Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me."  ALL of these (and many others like them) compel the Christian to push back against the world's laws if those laws are hurting the "less thans" of the world; many current evangelicals seem to be forgetting that God's precepts should hold a higher status than man's laws.
4. And finally, I'm so very glad that past Christians remembered points 2 and 3, since all of the following were completely legal in the past: (a) slavery, (b) Native American forced migrations, (c) gender inequality, (d) racial segregation, (e) Nazism, just to name a few.  Meaning, had all Christians in the past weaponized Romans 13 the way many are doing now, then all of those moral atrocities just mentioned would never have been addressed.  Rather, they would have been ignored under the guise of "godly obedience."

All of this is to say that this kind of contemptible, yet conscious, misuse of the Biblical text by the current Republican party to validate their immoral leanings is EXACTLY what Billy Graham was warning us about (See the quote directly under this blog's title.).  Republicans presently are using Christianity for their own non-godly purposes, and when Christians can't even recognize that simple fact, then they put their own souls in danger. 

The Qualifiers and Conditionals That Republicans Think Are in the Bible

In the study of rhetoric, there are a couple of devices that readers need to be on the lookout for:

• A qualifier is a word or phrase that specifically limits the meaning of a sentence or part of a sentence (Ex: Several women drivers that I know are horrible.  This sentence does not say all women drivers are horrible, since qualifiers have been included.); 
• A conditional is generally an "if" clause (or the like) that states a singular criterion for the outcome to be true.  (Ex: If you study hard, the test should be easy.  This sentence does not say the test will be easy for everyone because a condition has been stated for the test to be easy.)

The Bible is generally pretty clear and does not offer too many of either of those when it comes to "rules to live by"; Christian Republicans who worship Trump seem to have forgotten that fact.  Here, though, is a handy-dandy (however incomplete) list of a few verses in the Bible that offer no qualifiers or conditionals even though current Christian Republicans seem to think they are there.

Citation	Actual Verse	Conditional/Qualifier NOT  Actually in the Verse
Leviticus 19:33-34	“When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God."	As long as that foreigner has immigrated through a legal port of entry and has proceeded through all the proper legal channels … and isn’t poor and brown
Genesis 2:15	“The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work [better translated as ‘serve’] it and keep [better translated as ‘guard and protect’] it.”	Unless big businesses are impacted financially by environmental laws, thereby hurting jobs and the stock market
Exodus 20:7 AND Matthew 5:28	“You shall not commit adultery.” AND “I [Jesus] tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”	Unless you run for political office and are, on the surface at least, anti-abortion.  THEN you can get a pass (or 2 or 3 or 10 or whatever).
Proverbs 12:22	“Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who act faithfully are his delight.”	Except if you’re a Republican who has hit the 10,000-public-lie mark in under 3 years.
Matthew 5:44	“I [Jesus] say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;”	Unless you can publicly bully your enemies with a tweet-storm of thoroughly uninspired, juvenile name-calling
Luke 4:40	“While the sun was setting, all those who had any who were sick with various diseases brought them to Him; and laying His hands on each one of them, He was healing them.”	As long as they could prove they did not have pre-existing conditions and could pay for His services
Micah 6:8	“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”	Unless you’re the President, since overt kindness and humility are for sissies!

Here's my point.  The middle column, without any additions or subtractions or qualifiers or conditionals, SHOULD be the Christian's moral compass; however, with this particular Republican in the White House, most white evangelicals have taken it upon themselves to excuse him rather than accuse him for his moral vacuity.  And if you are one of those, then your politics mean significantly more to you than your religion.   

The (Republican) Parable of the Good Samaritan

Luke 10:25-37 New Revised Republican Standard Version (NRRSV)

²⁵ Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus.^[a] “Teacher,” he said, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” ²⁶ He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” ²⁷ He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” ²⁸ And he said to him, “You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.”

²⁹ But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” ³⁰ Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. ³¹ Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. ³² So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. ³³ But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. ³⁴ He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. ³⁵ The next day he took out two denarii,^[b] gave them to the innkeeper, and said, ‘Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.’ ³⁶ Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” 

³⁷ He said, “Well, it kinda depends, Jesus.  If the victim was an illegal immigrant trying to sneak across national borders, then the first two men who encountered him were doing the right thing by leaving him alone because helping him would be (and should be, mind you) a felony.  The victim, if he's sneaking across borders in the first place, is probably some drug lord or rapist anyway. Thus, the Samaritan was a criminal and should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, and the victim should be immediately deported back to his own shithole nation.  On the other hand, if the victim was a regular citizen but was poor and had no health insurance, then the question becomes, 'Who's going to pay for all his health care?'  That shit's expensive, ya know!  If the Samaritan foolishly wants to do that out of his own pocket, then that's his own business, not the government's.  But the priest and the Levite shouldn't be expected to help pay for this man's medical bills by a socialist government, which decides to illegally impose health care on everyone as some kind of 'human right,' no matter the costs; it's not like it was their fault that this dude had decided to walk around in the wrong part of town and got jumped.” And Jesus said to him, “WTF?”

(OK, so maybe this is the correct version of verse 37: ³⁷ He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”)  Pretty straightforward, I'd say.

Why the Love Affair?

This is an exceptionally well explained, well researched, and well articulated summary of why evangelicals are still in love with our thoroughly immoral leader.  It is particularly striking because it becomes a logical condemnation of that love affair by an evangelical Christian himself, who uses the Christian holy text to demonstrate the utter hypocrisy current Republican Christians are exemplifying to the world.  It is well worth your 6 minutes, I assure you.

(Sorry I couldn't embed it.  Because it's not a YouTube video, this site wouldn't let me.)

This Has Happened Before, Christians

Trump's Racism and the Christian's Complicity

Donald J. Trump, our nation's President, is a racist.  Here is a reminder of the obvious evidence (much of which is a summary from a New York Times article):

1. His real-estate company tried to avoid renting apartments to African-Americans in the 1970s.
2. In 1989, he publicly argued for the death penalty for the Central Park 5.  Moreover, in 2019, more than 15 years after DNA tests cleared all 5 from all responsibility, he has continued to argue that they are guilty.
3. He was a public leader in the Birtherism movement against black President Barack Obama, a movement that has been clearly debunked as based on lies time and again.
4. In his 2016 presidential campaign, he stated that  Mexicans are criminals, drug-lords, and rapists, although he did, as an afterthought, note that "some … are good people."
5. In 2015, he called for a complete shutdown of all Muslims' entering the United States, including American citizens who were abroad at the time.
6. He believed that a judge who was in charge of a case involving Trump University could not be objective because of his Mexican heritage.
7. In 2017, he said that "15,000 recent immigrants from Haiti 'all have AIDS' and that 40,000 Nigerians, once seeing the United States, would 'never go back to their huts' in Africa."
8. He has stated publicly that he wants more immigration from Norway (white) and less immigration from Haiti (black).
9. He called African countries "shithole nations."
10. With literally no evidence at all (he even admitted as such), he claimed that the caravans coming up from Central America contained "criminals and unknown Middle Easterners," including a myriad of MS-13 gang members.
11. He has re-tweeted white nationalists and neo-Nazis time and again unapologetically.
12. He has refused to condemn the white nationalists gathering in Charlottesville, VA, even going so far as to call some of them "very fine people."
13. Neo-Nazi leader Richard Spencer has stated that the Charlottesville rally never would have happened "without Trump."
14. He endorsed Roy Moore in Alabama, a known racist himself.
15. He has endlessly mocked Elizabeth Warren as "Pocahontas."
16. In April of 2019, Trump focused his tweeting on the burning of the Notre Dame cathedral but tweeted nothing about the burning of 3 black churches in Louisiana in 10 days. 
17. He has focused his criticism and public attacks heavily on the role of Muslims in domestic terrorism yet never calls out the role of the far-right-leaning white male. 
18. And, of course, in his most recent tweet directed towards 4 American citizens, all Congresswomen of color, he told them to "go back … from which they came."  He, then, basked in his crowd's "Send her back" chants for 12-13 seconds and has called those people chanting those abominable words "incredible patriots." 

Now, a few points about this list, and then my point: First, this is not an exhaustive list, a sad fact in and of itself.  Second, IF any one (maybe two) of these incidents had occurred in an isolated fashion and IF Trump had recognized his error and apologized sincerely and publicly, then his label as a "racist" would probably be unwarranted; we all make mistakes.  However, neither of those conditionals has happened, and this is quite an extensive, public list, which adds great credibility to understanding him as a racist, clear and simple.

And finally, my point: Where has the evangelical right's public, vociferous, unending outcry against this man's blatant racism been?  Where has been Franklin Graham's and Pat Robertson's and Tony Perkins's righteous condemnation of this leader while he consistently spews this divisive hatred towards non-whites?  Where are the socially conscious sermons from mega-church leaders on Sundays denouncing, in no uncertain terms, this despicable rhetoric and these immoral actions?   

<Crickets>

Martin Luther King, Jr., once stated that "silence is betrayal."  And right now, any Christian who is silent in the face of Trump's shameless racism is betraying the very tenets of Christ on which s/he is supposed to stand.  And maybe worse, any Republican Christian who refuses to speak out against this racist Republican leader is showing the world that his/her political affiliation is much more important than his/her spiritual devotion.

WWJD?  Not stay silent.

The Republican Party's Interpretation of the Teachings of Jesus

Can a "Christian" Support Trump?

If you are a self-professed "Christian" and you currently support President Trump, allow me to remind you of the facts concerning the one whom you are choosing to support:

1. He is an unapologetic adulterer.
2. He is a self-professed sexual assaulter.
3. He is a habitual, unrepentant liar.
4. He loves to bully and to call his enemies childish names.
5. He praises brutal dictators who have no regard for human life.
6. He is a racist.
7. He has no problem with children's being put into unsanitary cages to live.
8. He has no regard for the healthy stewardship of our planet. 
9. His economic policies help the rich and hurt the poor.
10. He is actively trying to destroy affordable health care for millions.   

Now, the first 6 on the list concern Trump the individual; those speak to who this man is at his core.  And each one of those characterizations is supported by numerous pieces of factual information that have been documented by a myriad of sources.  They are not dubious hasty generalizations constructed from a single incident taken out of context by a "Fake News" conglomerate; rather, they are strong, accurate, inarguable insights into this man's thoroughly immoral character.  

The last 4, though, admittedly deal with Trump the politician.  Yes, each one of those is based on a policy issue that will be argued across the political-party spectrum for years to come; however, the point is that Trump's specific decisions on each of the issues still show a complete lack of a moral compass by this singular human being (at least to anyone who doesn't worship the charade that is Fox "News").

Sure, Trump is also anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ anything (2 strong talking points by the evangelical Right), but so is about every other Republican politician right now.  I wouldn't think that those two standard Republican issues would completely stifle the evangelical outcry against this man's daily boot-stomp on basic moral precepts (e.g., compassion, humility, truthfulness, integrity, and the like).  But they do, without question, even up to the spiritual leaders of the supposed "Moral Majority."   

So, here's my question: Can a "Christian" support Trump?  Put more specifically: Can a "Christian" unequivocally support Trump with no regard for holding him morally accountable?

The answer is clear: Absolutely not.

And if you don't agree with me, ask yourself this WWJD question: Would Jesus Himself support this leader without daily asserting, in no uncertain terms, that Trump should be socially indicted over his personal depravity?

That answer should be pretty clear as well.