Evangelicals desperately want to believe that Donald Trump is a Christian. For decades, Evangelicals clamored for God to give them a Christian president. Jimmy Carter? Christian, but the wrong kind. Bill Clinton? Christian, but he had that whole blue dress thing. Besides, he was a Democrat. George W. Bush? Christian, but he was too busy waging war to bother with Evangelical demands. Why he wasn’t even pro-life. Obama? Christian, but he was the unholy trinity of black, democrat, and liberal Christian. Not one of us, Evangelicals said. In November 2015, eighty-two percent of voting white Evangelicals helped elect Donald Trump as the forty-fifth president of the United States. Finally, Evangelicals believed they had a Christian president. Never mind the fact that Trump is a narcissistic liar who bragged about grabbing women by their genitals, a man who has been repeatedly accused of sex crimes. In his blessed heart-of-hearts, Evangelicals believe Trump is a Christian. James Dobson says that Trump is a “baby-Christian.” Instead of looking at the character of the man, Evangelicals divert attention to the president’s agenda. It is here that we see that Trump plays Santa Claus for Evangelical culture warriors. His policies, cabinet, and judicial appointments make it clear that Evangelicals are ruling the White House. It’s hard to walk down the halls of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue without running into Evangelicals either praying, going to Bible study, or trying to subvert the U.S. Constitution.
For Evangelicals who still have a shred of decency left, I am sure that Trump’s awful behavior continues to bother them. Instead of admitting that they made a mistake voting for the most unqualified man ever to be president, Evangelicals search far and wide looking for anything that suggests to them that Trump is one of them. If Evangelicals can convince themselves that the president is a Christian, they will happily vote for him in November. He’s God’s man for such a time as this, Evangelicals tell themselves — even though Trump’s handling of the Coronavirus pandemic has been nothing short of a 9-11/Katrina-level disaster. Some Evangelicals even think that Trump is the reincarnation of King Cyrus.
The latest straw Evangelicals are grasping at has to do with a Bible sent to the president by his Scottish relatives. Evangelical evangelist Ron Susek explains the story this way:
1949. The Island of Lewis in the Hebrides (off the coast of Scotland) was struck by a revival that shook the islanders at the time, and in varying ways continues to impact the world to this day.
It began in the late 1940s on the small Scottish island of Lewis in the village of Barvas. Two Smith sisters, Peggy who was blind and Christine who was arthritic, began to pray. Peggy received a revelation that revival was coming. Some Christian leaders met in a barn to pray, not for others, but for their own cleansing.
Soon revival broke. A fifteen-year-old boy name Donald Smith proved to be a great prayer warrior who kept his heart close to God. He became involved in this famous Hebrides Revival which lasted three years.
Years earlier, Mary Anne Smith MacLeod, niece of the two elderly women and a cousin of Donald Smith emigrated to America and met a young man named Frederick. They fell in love and married in January of 1936 and had five children: Mary Anne (Barry), Frederick Jr., Elizabeth (Grau), Donald and Robert.The one elderly sister who had prayed for revival sent her Bible to America as a gift to Mary Anne, who subsequently gave it to her son, Donald. Today, this Bible lies in her son’s office – the Oval Office – at the White House and it was one of the Bibles upon which he placed his hand to take the oath of office. Yes, President Donald Trump’s roots reach back to one of the greatest revivals in history.
No true believer has the right to withhold prayer for President Trump because of disagreement. No flawless wonder has ever headed any nation. Still, the Bible commands that we pray for those in authority (2 Timothy 2:2).Remember God’s promise: “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14).
Do not withhold heartfelt prayer for this President by comparing him to Jesus. We all fail that test. Begin praying for an awakening to sweep from the Oval Office to every corner of the land.
Evidently, Susek and other Evangelicals like him believe that this special Bible being in the proximity of President Trump is enough to affect him is a positive way. Christianity by osmosis, perhaps?
Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) luminary Clarence Sexton, pastor of Temple Baptist Church in Powell, Tennessee, and president of The Crown College, released a video titled Donald’s Bible. Five minutes long, the video features Sexton breathlessly and with tears in his eyes recounting the history of Donald’s Bible.
Evangelicalism has sold it soul for a bowl of pottage. Whatever moral and ethical influence they once had, it is now gone. In its place we find raw political power fueling the rise of an Evangelical theocracy in America. That’s why Evangelicals either ignore Trump’s licentious behavior or they try to find slivers of Christian faith in the man. This, then, gives them license to re-elect Trump, thus giving Evangelicals four more years to return the United States to Christian nation status; four more years to undo sixty years of social progress; four more years to enact their version of sharia law; four more years to ban abortion and destroy the wall of separation between church and state.
And is Trump loses the election? Hard to tell what ever-Trumpers will do. Hard to tell what Evangelicals will do when their Faustian bargain with the Devil comes to naught. Imagine their outrage if Biden wins the presidency and Democrats regain the majority in the Senate. Why, they will be living through the Great Tribulation, with no rapture in sight.
As far as Trump is concerned, I have a vision of him packing up the Oval Office, preparing for Sleepy Joe to sit in HIS chair. As he gathers up HIS Bible and coloring books, he looks at the Bible and says, a lot of good you did for me! And with that, he throws the Bible into the trash. A rightful ending to the presidency of the most wonderful, beautiful, bigly Christian president in American history.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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Still think this is going to all end with everybody joining hands and singing Kumbia ? Civil War is what I predict. It would also offer the perfect excuse to ban all firearms. Not too sure I would agree with that but, into a little revolution goes a lot of bloodshed and quite possibly a new constitution that doesn’t mention religion or any other special interest group. Think the Dems R up 2 it ? I doubt it. They’ve always proven 2 B weak, unorganized and unable 2 view atheism with anything but contempt. They’re just a softer version of Republicanism. U guys really, really need a 3rd Party in there. Another round. Same unalterable problems. My 2 cents.
In all my years in the church, I had never heard the term “baby Christian.” I have known a few people who jokingly refer to themselves as “half-assed Christians” (or Jews or Muslims.) Usually, they are long fed up with religion, but continue going because they like the cultural celebrations or they don’t want to argue with family. At least they are honest. Baby Christian implies a person wants to learn, grow, and improve himself. Trump wants none of the above. As my half-assed Jewish boss used to say, “I’m an atheist. I’m only in it for the Chanukah gifts and food.” Trump is in Christianity for the power and grift. At least they got the baby part right.
Trump was looking very orange on the telly the other night. Why is he so orange?
I dispute the explanation about the revival. Lewis is a remote island. Its population consisted of poor famers battling the elements in a harsh landscape on small plots of land called crofts. In 1949, it would have been even more insular. its cultural mores were of a strict fundyism. Sundays were for worship and bible reading, strictly nothing else. The inter-island ferries only started Sunday operations recently, amid protest about breaking the sabbath. So, ‘revival’ would have been a splash of excitement in very drab harsh lives. Heck even musical intruments were banned in churches, the leader started a hymn with a tuning fork. Fundy myself since the 1950s, I don’t recall anyone ever telling me of this great revival that had a big impact on the UK…far from it. We visited Lewis, we were staying on the mainland and took a day trip, fascinated, like many are, by the lure of remote islands. The tour operator neglected to tell us that, as it was Sunday,everything in the island’s small capital was closed. So all we could do, for the 4 hours there, was to sit on the harbour wall and wait for the return boat. We had a lovely view of a number of supermarket trolleys and some furniture dumped in the sea…teenagers obviously got very bored there. The account here is a very romanticised one IMO…but then fundies are masters of spin aren’t they?
I first heard about this revival listening to a tape of a sermon by Scottish revivalist Duncan Campbell. You can read a transcript of his sermon here:
Want to listen to Campbell’s sermon? https://youtu.be/db9EgMYWTKY
You can check out Campbell’s Wiki page here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duncan_Campbell_(revivalist)
This revival was quite a legend among American Calvinists during my preaching days.
I’m sure you’re right, legends come about. There are a few folk in Wales still meeting to just to pray for another revival. I wrote once before that the much-vaunted Welsh revival of 1904, like this one, can be explained in secular terms. Not just the mass-hysteria that can be whipped up in an fundy rally….but the folk led such drab lives, had little entertainment, Church was the centre of their non-working hours. it’s reliably said of the Welsh revival that the brutal conditions of life for the 1000s of coal miners, led to alcoholism. Good family men knew they were causing hardship to their families…but had no way out of their addiction. Coming to jesus gave them that help. But churches that filled in 1904, emptied again in the next few years. I suggest the Campbell revival ‘succeeded’ for the same reasons, nothing exciting ever happened, life on scottish islands where crofters struggled to grow enough, to keep sheep or a cow to stop their family from starving in harsh winters….was sufficient for the islanders to rejoice that a way out of such a life was being offered!
Ah, the Welsh Revival. Another one of my favorite revivals back in the day. Your observation about social conditions is spot on. I suspect social conditions also played a part in the first and second great awakenings. I read a lot of books/biographies about revivals. Why? I desperately wanted to see similar events in my church and community. Alas, God never showed up. Maybe I just needed to pray harder. ?? I remember seeing God “move” during revival meetings. However, just as you mentioned, these movements of God had human origins — a mix of circumstances and psychological manipulation.
Hope I’m not labouring a dead topic, but the resultant opening of lots of new chapels here in Wales after 1904, just made for split after split, over doctrine of course. I talk to elderly folk here and it’s clear each chapel hated the guts of every other. They vied with one another to have the best harvest suppers, poached the best singers from another chapel’s choir so they could win the prestigious choral prizes in local singing festivals. They preached against the demon drink on Sundays but went to the back door of the pub with a jug for ale in the week.Several have said to me, ‘My chapel closed’ and they never transferred to one just around the corner..that was the enemy. You notice here, that there are ornate large chape built right on the edge of villages, a few hundred yards from the last house in the village. This is because the vicar, or a prominent pastor, refused to allow a rival to be built, so a local farmer would donate some land on the edge of the village, away from restrictions. I could write a book about the monumental hypocrisy the revival seemed to spawn. The pub-anecdote is from my de-converted dad who couldn’t take the hypocrisy and he and friends regularly saw those jugs of ale being sold as they drank in village pubs themselves!
Evangelicals really are an idolatrous lit, aren’t they?
***lot, not lit, though they act like they’re on drugs too…..
I’m glad you posted this, as it was recently posted by a fundy relative. My retort, “Bible now sits in the oval office where it has never been read.” (How do I know this?) “Because of two Corinthians” (What is in 2nd Corinthians that tells you this?) I Post video of Trump ignorantly referring to the Bible book as TWO Corinthians. (You don’t know what’s in a man’s heart!)
I dropped the conversation because it is an exercise in futility…but if you don’t know what is in Trump’s narcissistic evil heart you aren’t paying attention.
Nor did Trump’s mother exude Christian charity. She would ostentatiously show off her wealth as she would get dressed up to collect the coins from tenant’s washing machines in her Rolls Royce.
I was a christian for a long time so it’s easy enough to spot one and Trump is certainly not a believer. It’s the only thing I have in common with him. But he won’t admit this because he may lose members of his base. He’s despicable in so many ways and this deception is just one more. And the same christians who sit in judgement of anyone who is not a ”true christian” give him a free pass.
Trump is actually much worse as a pander bear for the religious right. Paying lip service to the religious right is actually a very cunning move. For example Mitt Romney, who was actually a bishop in the Mormon church, has a much harder time getting support because he can’t ooze into the shape of a baseline fundamentalist Christian. I wouldn’t say Trump gets a completely free pass, he’s delivered. Just look at the supreme court, and if he gets a second term look out for Amy Coney Barrett, who will no longer be in the mold of the pro-life libertarian, she is a full on religious nut. Pulling the Clarence Thomas switcharoo is exactly what’s up their sleeve.
You are right about the courts. Virtually everything Trump’s done can be undone, but the courts? Trump will leave his mark on the courts for a generation or more.
Funny, Pelosi says she doesn’t hate Trump and prays for him but Donnie doesn’t believe her and he has issues with forgiveness. But he’s the righteous one?
I have know Jesus for over 45 years, am a seminary graduate (Westminster, one of the bulwarks for solid scholarship and fidelity to the Bible as God’s word), pastored or helped “plant” 4 churches… blah blah blah. Just to say I have a few credentials here.
I know of VERY FEW evangelicals who think Trump is born again. I am frankly tired of this stupid accusation that his regenerate nature is the reason many Christians voted for him. This is frankly either a violation of the 9th commandment, or a charge based in profound ignorance. THIS IS NOT THE REASON BIBLE BELIEVERS SUPPORT TRUMP. We did not vote for a pastor, or an elder. Please stop this idiotic and false blather. It is past tiresome.
Many evangelicals (including myself) scoffed initially at Trump, pointing to his failed record in bankruptcies, failed marriages, his fascination with “Hollywood culture” and hob nobbing with a bunch of degenerates, his abysmal record on 2A, his support of infanticide (abortion)… the list goes on. We were not blind to these terrible bullet points, repeated ad nauseum by the keepers of cultural values and parroted by their vapid followers.
Most voted for Trump, knowing he was a godless, secular, boor. However as Luther said “I had rather be governed by a just Turk (Muslim) than Christian who is a fool,” we voted for Trump for the same reason that we love the infidel Thomas Jefferson. To portray this as a Santa Claus dispensing of gifts to the religious right is so silly it hardly deserves a response, but since you said it, here is the response: While I have been a critic of the religious right for decades, and think the idolatry of seeking “top down” change in our society is idolatry, it is also true that a state which coddles shedding of blood -whether in perpetual unjustified war abroad or in slaughter of its own citizens- will lead to judgement and utter destruction. THIS IS THE PARAMOUNT JOB OF THE STATE AND ECLIPSES ALL ELSE. All the sanctimonious whining of the religious left about “concern for the poor” as the mandated task of the state is secondary (I do have a pretty decent response to that bevy of silliness, but this is not the place). The state exists to prevent (not enhance!!!!) bloodshed, and to protect the basic rights of its citizens from being stripped by the powerful. This is why the ONLY time the NT encourages us to pray for our leaders it is actually for the safety of the messengers of God and for the freedom of speech to proclaim it (1 Tim 2:2). No “godly leaders” stuff, and certainly not the silly charge that protecting basic liberties being a sack of goodies to a political sect.
I have a number of serious issues and disappointments with Trump in a whole number of areas, but this nonsense is not one of them. It is not why I voted for him, and the charge itself is just a veiled and dishonest attack on the thoughtfulness of those who did. You should stop this.
Thank you for wagging your dick around, Ohh . . . Westminster. Please. Now that we have that out of the way.
Maybe in your cloistered group of Calvinists Trump is not viewed as a Christian, but I assure he most certainly is in many corners of the Evangelical ghetto. And those who don’t view him as a Christian still continue to support him because he restored Evangelicals to their preferential seat at the head of the cultural/social/political table. He is, indeed, Santa Claus for Evangelicals, delivering to them all sorts of cultural goodies from banning abortion to federal funding of churches, to packing the federal courts with judges that will cause great harm to our secular, progressive society to “protecting ” Evangelicals from non-existent religious persecution.
So, to put it bluntly, no I won’t stop “this.” Your screed told me nothing other than you believe morality and ethics don’t matter as an essential quality in elected officials; that as long as a man delivers on your narrow set of political/theological principles, you will vote for him, character be damned.
The next time you walk in the door of my house, please keep your dick in your pants. No one cares . . . and it’s not germane to the discussion at hand.
The hatred being spewed here has become a common activity among those who bash evangelicals. I did not vote for Trump because I believed him to be a Christian. I still question some of the thing he does. However, I questioned most of the things his predecessor did. I felt that we needed a president who is not a politician, and also that the alternative would be the end of our country…continuing what Trump’s predecessor had started. Is the story of his Bible or the revival true? I don’t know, but neither do any of you. Is he truly a Christian with a relationship with God? I don’t know, but neither do any of you. Is he above reproach? No, and none of us are, including you. Is it necessary to verbally abuse and be hateful toward those who disagree with you, including the use of foul language? No, but here we are. Is it possible to have a decent debate, an expression of opinions, with an attitude of agreeing to disagree and without hatred and intolerance? Apparently not here.
That you can’t say emphatically that Trump is not a Christian speaks volumes. If Trump is a Christian, so is Satan.
Funny how you see critique and opinion as “hatred and intolerance.” This is rich coming from someone who voted for the most hateful, intolerant president in American history. Again, that you can not see this speaks volumes.
Donald Trump is a vile, despicable man; a bigot, racist , misogynist, white nationalist, anti-poor, and an all round asshole who has lied over 17,000 times to the American people. If he is your man, I pity you.
Don’t like the way we talk here, Chris? Set up your own fucking site, then. We. Shall. Not. Be. Silenced.
Bad enough that the pseudo-moral evangelical demographic fawns over Trump at every possible opportunity while seeking to strip rights from just about everyone else. If I actually believed for one nanosecond that COVID-45 was a Christian, it would reduce my desire to become Christian from zero to negative infinity.
LOL! You’re sliding in some hatred spewing yourself re: Obama. Nice try chrisir58. Give me a break. Most for Obama. Some for Trump. You need to start questioning “all” of Trump. At least you got one thing right . . . Trump is not a politician.
Thank you for jumping in and sharing your hatred spewing with us chrisir58.
Most of the people in Trump’s Cabinet are members of Opus Dei, 4 out of 5 of the Supreme Court are. Just found out that Larry Kudlow is. He’s involved with Opus Dei, wake up,Evangelicals ! Anyone aware of just WHO they are, this Opus Dei ?? Regarding Mary Anne Smith, D.J. Trump’s mother, she was always trying to jet off somewhere to get away from Donald and his older brother, who drank himself to death years ago, and is never talked about. She didn’t want to raise kids, too busy traveling far and wide, leaving the brothers without their mother. I’m not impressed with Trump having his mother’s Bible in the White House. Trump plainly hates women, and his mother is probably why. AS a child, he didn’t even own a pet ! This state IS stripping the citizens FOR the powerful, by the way. Look at Yahoo News and what Larry Kudlow says about workers and unemployment checks. I would not be surprised to see more ominous meddling by O.D. Information on their dark political intentions for this country can be seen on the site :odan.org. Was that the same Bible being handed to Trump, in front of that church the protesters were gassed in order for the photo-op ? I understand the vicar was kicked out from the building so this could be done.
He who is without sin cast the first stone ?
If you think my “sin” compares to Donald Trump’s, you are delusional. I have a bag rocks ready to throw.
Larry, your sick ‘faith’ compels you to attack honest expression and call it something other that what it is… figure it out; don’t just spout clichés. It makes you sound like you lack the ability to think deeply. Try a bit harder to listen.
“Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.
And I said, Who art thou, Lord? And He said, I am Jesus “
The only prick in this story is Donald Trump.
Why should we should care about this particular piece of mythology, Doug?