While there are certainly Evangelicals who publicly speak out against Donald Trump, they are black swans in a bevy of white ones. They exist, but largely have no meaningful voice within Evangelicalism. In the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, over 80 percent of voting white Evangelicals voted for Donald Trump. And come November, I have no doubt that most of these “godly” followers of Jesus will vote for him again. What has happened to Evangelicals that they can no longer see things from a Biblical or moral perspective? How is it that Evangelical churches have become the “ministry of truth” for Trump and his fellow MAGA Republicans? What happened to Evangelical commitments to holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord?
Remember the President Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky scandal? Remember Clinton’s lies? At the time, I was the pastor of Somerset Baptist Church — an Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) congregation in the Appalachian foothills of southeast Ohio. The Sunday following news reports of Clinton’s immoral, adulterous behavior, I took to the pulpit and lambasted him, pointing out that he claimed to be a Christian, yet he seduced a young college intern and had sex with her. I know of other Evangelical preachers who did the same. It seemed clear to me at the time that our political leaders, including President Clinton, must be held to high moral and ethical standards. If churches and pastors were to be clarions of morality and virtue, then politicians — Democrats and Republicans alike — must be held accountable for immoral and unethical behavior. While my view has moderated a bit over the ensuing years, I still believe that people who work for and serve the public, be they politicians, preachers, lawyers, policemen, doctors, or school teachers, must be held to high standards. Using your power and authority to seduce and take sexual advantage of vulnerable women (and men) is morally wrong, and people who engage in such behavior, including presidents and congresspeople, should lose their jobs.
My how things have changed. Trump, who claims to be a Christian — James Dobson called him a “baby Christian” — is immune from criticism and accountability for his immoral, unethical, and sinful behaviors; sins so heinous that the Bible says that people who commit such sins will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
Charisma News is, by far, the biggest defender of all things Trump. There is no crime or sin so bad that Charisma can’t find a writer to defend, justify, or deflect Trump’s wickedness. Take Oscar Amaechina, the president of Afri-Mission and Evangelism Network and a frequent author for Charisma. With Trump’s orgiastic juices dripping from the corner of his lips after giving his small-dicked hero metaphorical head, Amaechina has nothing but praise for Donald J. Trump — a man well known for his sexual and financial crimes; a man who lies so often that it is impossible for him to tell the truth.
Recently, Amaechina had this to say about twice impeached ex-president Trump:
Now, it is clear to everyone that Donald Trump has many moral failures. Some have described him as a racist, others a corrupt leader, and some say he is a liar. But If he wins the primary of his party, between him and Biden, who do you think will create an environment for Christianity to thrive? Or do we pretend that our faith does not matter when politics are concern? Sincere answers to these questions will guide your decisions come November.
I know that Trump has his weaknesses, but he did something that endeared him to us in Nigeria. On September 8, 2020, our then-president Muhammadu Buhari said: “I believe I was about the only African amongst the least developed countries that Trump invited and when I was in his office, only myself and himself, only God is a witness, he looked at me in the face and said, ‘Why are you killing Christians?’”
It takes a man who believes in the sanctity of life and love for humanity to ask such delicate and sensitive questions. I must confess that I was touched by this question which indicated that someone cares about the survival of the Nigerian Christians. Now that no one is asking this question, we have seen how Nigerian Christians are slaughtered on a daily basis recklessly.
This is not the time to be politically correct, nor the time for interdenominational criticisms. The evangelicals should also know that this is not the time to discriminate or claim that they can do it all alone. This is the time to bring everyone who calls on the name of Christ together. All should pray and work hard so that all will be free to practice their faith when religious freedom is restored first in America and then all around the world, including in my own country of Nigeria.
When one of you says, “’I am a follower of Paul,’ and another says, ‘I follow Apollos,’ aren’t you acting just like people of the world?” (1 Corinthians 3:4) A house divided against itself shall not stand (Mark 3:25). I am not oblivious to the fact that Trump and Biden claim to be Christians, but it is not about their claims that should matter to American Christians, but their dispositions.
Who between the two will favor the course of the Christian faith? Let all American people of faith vote to have freedom to serve their God without intimidation or harassment.
Amaechina admits that it is clear that Trump has many moral failures, yet he ignores them because all that matters is what Trump will deliver for Christians politically. Amaechina adds “Some have described him as a racist, others a corrupt leader, and some say he is a liar.” What I want to know is this: does Amaechina think Trump is a racist, corrupt leader, and a liar? The evidence is clear, Trump is all three. He is also a pussy-grabbing rapist and pervert, a man with licentious sexual appetites. We know just by listening to the man that he cannot tell the truth, even when there is no need to lie. We know he is in bed with dictators such as Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, and Viktor Orban. We know he is a narcissist, a psychopath, a man without empathy or sympathy for other people. We know he wants to be a dictator, using the U.S. Justice Department and the military to punish his enemies, including the press. We know he wants to deport or incarcerate millions of people of color. We know he wants to lock up socialists, atheists, Muslims, and other undesirables in internment camps so they can be re-educated in proper American thinking. We know Trump is a racist and a misogynist. And Amaechina KNOWS all these things too, yet instead of speaking truth to power and condemning his vile, violent behavior, he justifies and condones Trump’s debauchery. Why? Well, Trump is nice to Evangelicals and delivers gifts from their wishlists on Christmas, Easter, and their birthdays. Amaechina and his fellow Evangelicals have sold their souls for bowls of pottage, trading moral authority for naked political power. In doing so, they have ceased to be Christian.
Amaechina says, with a straight face, that Trump is “a man who believes in the sanctity of life and love for humanity.” The only “humanity” Trump loves is the man who stares back at him when he looks at a mirror. As far as the “sanctity of life” is concerned, Trump is not pro-life. He sees Evangelicals and their commitment to forcing women to have babies as tools he can use to advance his political cause. Without the Evangelical vote, Trump cannot win the 2024 presidential election. He is willing to tell Evangelicals what they want to hear; that he alone is the pro-life president; that he alone overturned Roe v. Wade; that he alone is the defender of the one truth faith; that he alone will restore religious (white Christian) liberty and freedom. Never mind the fact that Trump rarely, if ever reads the Bible, never attends church, doesn’t pray or ask God to forgive him of his sins, and shows no signs that he knows one thing about what Christians believe and practice.
Amaechina concludes his sticky defense of Trump by saying, “I am not oblivious to the fact that Trump and Biden claim to be Christians, but it is not about their claims that should matter to American Christians, but their dispositions.”
There is no question that Joe and Jill Biden are practicing Roman Catholics. There is also no question that Trump is not, in any meaningful sense of the word, a Christian. It shouldn’t take an atheist to point out that Trump is an egotistical maniac; a man who has no regard for Christianity, Jesus, or the Bible; and that Evangelicals are nothing more than a political prop to him; a means to an end. Amaechina wants his fellow Evangelicals to ignore both Trump’s and Biden’s claims of faith. Instead, he wants people to focus on their “dispositions.” That’s a good idea, and if Evangelicals follow his advice, there’s no doubt that they will vote for Joe Biden in November. Of course, that ain’t going to happen. All that matters to Evangelicals is what Santa Trump can deliver to them. Now that Evangelical churches are overrun by white Christian Nationalist pastors and congregants, all that matters to them is turning the United States into a Christian nation. All that matters is enacting and enforcing the Evangelical version of Sharia Law. All that matters is returning America to the glory days of the 1950s. You know the days when Christianity was the de facto religion of most Americans, women were barefoot, pregnant keepers of the home, Blacks knew their place and lived in segregated communities, LGBTQ people were buried deeply in dark, dank closets, children read the Bible and prayed in public schools, and abortion, birth control, divorce, miscegenation, shacking up, adultery, and homosexuality were illegal. In other words, most Evangelicals want to roll back over a hundred years of social progress, going back to when stupid, silly women were given the constitutional right to vote.
A Trump win in November will be the end of American democracy, as we know it. We must not let this happen. I am no fan of Joe Biden, but I recognize that Trump is an existential threat to me, my family, and the American people, so I plan to vote for Biden. I will hold my nose and stifle the urge to vomit, knowing that Biden is the only man who can save our Republic from the white Christian National horde.
Freedom for Christianity, oops, I mean religion is the only freedom Evangelicals care about. Oh, that and the 2nd Amendment. Without guns, how else will they oppress, opps, I mean spread the love of Christ?
The first rule of power politics, according to Niccolo Machiavelli is, nice guys finish last.
Donald Trump is the first ball buster the GOP has had since Abraham Lincoln.
The rule of thumb for voters is keep an eye on a politician’s policies and not his personality. I was far better off under Trump policies than those of Joseph Robinette. So was the country: sealed border, low inflation, my 401K account making money hand over fist, peace breaking out all over the world.
As someone who lives in this reality but not in the US I’m seriously worried about the prospect of another Trump presidency. Putin relishes the prospect because, let’s face it, nobody favours Russia like Trump. Netanyahu probably likes the idea, though we can’t be sure because Trump doesn’t even know what he wants himself. Other world dictators love the thought because Trump is such a dope. Trump hasn’t had any part in improving the economy, this is something Biden can actually be credited with.
Apart from this, nobody with the least claim to the moral high ground can possibly support Trump. End of story.
Geoff, Reality is that Putin waited until Joseph Robinette took office before he invaded Ukraine. Trump knows exactly what he wants. He moved the US embassy to Jerusalem when no other US president could manage it. President Trump brought peace and stability to the Middle East with the Abraham Accords. Joseph Robinette has wrecked the Middle East.
Bidenomics has unleashed massive inflation and economic uncertainty. Either one is enough to cause massive economic catastrophe. Both together beggars the imagination.
Things have gotten so bad that the state of Texas has a proposition on the March 5 ballot, to make gold and silver legal tender.
The states are anticipating the collapse of the US dollar because of Joseph Robinette’s catastrophic policies.
Moving the embassy to Jerusalem was a deliberately provocative action, aimed at appeasing Israeli sympathisers, so naturally it had their support. It was not a sensible act. It was heavily criticised throughout the world and has put back the prospect of a two state solution still further.
The US economy has substantially improved under Biden, and many commentators now regard him as being one of the best US presidents in history (I must admit to some surprise in this, as his demeanour doesn’t suggest this). There has not been a collapse of the dollar, though its status as the world’s reserve currency is under threat, especially from China. The idea that gold and silver could become legal tender is economically preposterous, and could only be considered plausible in a political backwater like Texas.
Whilst all countries can choose leaders who come with some baggage, it’s without precedent for a modern western democracy to choose a leader who is so morally bankrupt as Trump in all areas of life, from his depraved ethics to his morally bereft commercial practices.
Geoff, If the Abraham Accords were provocative, why was peace the result? Regarding Bidenomics, the “many commentators” are of course, shills for the regime. I had to get a second job to deal with the inflation. That second job is as a cashier in a dollar store. People are buying massive of amounts of cheap junk food. I eat a diet 100% chunk food free and spend a fortune. Also, shoplifting has gone through the roof. Customers even steal toilet paper out of our restrooms.
The truth about Trump is that he is the most investigated politician in human history. And he came up clean, absolutely clean.
Amaechina: “… who do you think will create an environment for Christianity to thrive?”
Zoe: Let me fix this for you Amaechina: … who do you think will create an environment for Christians to keep on sinning to their hearts delight?
I don’t agree that these Christian Trump supporters aren’t real Christians. They are real Christians, but they have jettisoned a lot of the good that was originally associated with Christianity. Actually, I would argue that Christianity is a huge tent under which a diverse set of people sit, carrying diverse sets of beliefs. Progressive liberal Christians would love to dissociate themselves from their mean fundamentalist evangelical brethren, but they’re all flavors of Christians.
I would like to think that my late grandparents and mom would not have taken part in Trump love, but I am not sure. My uncle and aunt and I said we’re glad that we didn’t have to find out where they stood on that because they passed away before Trump came along. It’s been heartbreaking for my husband to see how his father who had trained to be a Catholic priest, was a social worker for awhile, and generally purports to care about other humans is the biggest MAGA Trump supporter we personally know.
Some of my friends and acquaintances are starting to acknowledge that I am not exaggerating or engaging in histrionics when I say that I will end up dead, in prison or involuntarily committed under some false pretense if Trump wins another term.
Silence of the Mind echoes a typical comic book reading of Machiavelli. But his comment does remind us of this: Evangelicals and their allies can’t make this country into Gilead through democratic means. That is what Trump will do for them—because it would profit him.
Christians want power at any cost because god makes it better. For them. As long as they have the same god belief as those they put in power.
Many of us are truly in danger should republicans gain power. We already see the seeds of that danger in states everywhere, and if Americans do not vote out these power hungry extremists then democracy in this country is dead. And I I can’t get out, I will be doomed too
MJ, My “echo” of Niccolo Machiavelli is spot on. “Nice guys finish last,” though a loose translation, captures his exact meaning of, “Men with morals will be destroyed by men who are immoral.”
Yeah, it’s great that he uses Nigeria as an example of killing Christians. My understanding is that rebel forces are behind these killings and the government has trouble dealing with these groups. How did Trump help solve this problem other than scolding Nigerian officials?
Meanwhile the actual government of Nigeria is arresting and imprisoning gay and gender queer people.
“A Trump win in November will be the end of American democracy, as we know it. We must not let this happen. ”
I hate to even think what a second Trump presidency would look like. Surely on his first day he would pardon himself of any past or future crimes. And it would go downhill from there.
Joe Biden’s appearance and speech sometimes betrays his age, but that is not what the presidency is about. The president must be able to deal rationally with many different opinions and work with others to find the best solutions. And, from what I hear from those that are in meetings with Biden, he does quite well at that. This is what is important: Can the President govern? Unfortunately, in today’s world, people think it is more important that one can make an impressive image on the public stage. I want to know how my next president will govern. And we already know that Donald Trump cannot govern effectively.
Merle, A second Trump term will look like the first one: peace and prosperity will break out all over the world. And the Democrat Party-Deep State will engineer a global disaster and various cases of lawfare to drive him from office, and BLM/Antifa will burn down Democrat-controlled cities over a period of months.
We have seen it all before.
Silence.. I now understand your goal. You come here and make arbitrary, illogical ranting posts that are void of fact just to get reaction.
We have seen it all before,
Sage, You are projecting your own arbitrariness upon me. I am reciting actual history and offer very reasonable discussion. “Ranting” is only you being triggered by opposing opinions.
Thank you for verifying my point about your reason for posting. Yet another rant.
Amazing how you fell into that….😈😈😈
Sage, My goal is to provide commentary that attracts attention and traffic, while respecting the logos, pathos and ethos of Bruce’s most excellent website.
I love expressing my opinion among people of differing outlooks because it keeps me emotionally compassionate and intellectually sharp.
Ridiculous nonsense, SOM. I note you make no comment about the January 6 insurrection, nor Trump’s inciting of it. Trump has succeeded in undermining democracy in America for nothing more than self interest and because he so hates being a loser. Trouble is that’s all he is, a loser supported by a mob so stupid that they are blind to the fact that they are nothing more than turkeys voting for Christmas.
Geoff, J6 is a myth. Pelosi was in charge of security. When Trump offered the National Guard she refused. Trump ordered everyone to exercise their freedom of speech peacefully. The Capitol police murdered one woman and nearly beat another one to death. All of this is part of the public record, that is, it has been in the news in the form of audio and video of the participants. The 10’s of thousand of hours of J6 video that Pelosi tried to keep secret, have not been released. J6 is a proven scam.
Sigh
As I’ve pointed out previously, far from being someone with solutions to the problems afflicting the US you are part of the problem. You gleefully point to the public record in respect of some basic facts which suit your agenda, then ignore the vastly bigger public record in which courts have consistently found hundreds of insurrectionists (because no other word suffices) guilty. Trump incited this undermining of democracy. To claim that this buffoon is somehow going to bring about world peace is mind numbing delusion at its worst.
https://coalitionofthebrave.wordpress.com/2024/01/31/trump-is-a-titanic-failure/ Reality would like a word with your delusions SoM.
Bruce, You are a fucking idiot. Good bye.
Thank you. And you are banned from this site.
This conversation reminds me of what happened with my mother 3 and a half years ago. Only her information was correct. She wasn’t open to any conversation that challenged her whole Trump stuff etc.. When I told her I didn’t agree with her (not yelling at her, conversationally) she started to bawl her eyes out. Despite efforts to connect with her, she refused to stop crying, refused to speak to me and well, it must have been hard for her to have a “fucking idiot” for a daughter. We have not spoke since.
This. This strikes me in the heart, emotionally. My mother was pretty much an evangelical Republican and she and I were very close, but she passed away a long time ago. I really hope she would not have gotten mixed up in the Trump nonsense. I believe it would have torn apart our family. I am so sorry for what happened to you (and in a way, I think I have survivor’s guilt).
Thank you Byroniac. Oddly enough, mom was never a Christian evangelical. However, she became evangelical in all that she did believe. Her personality is narcissistic, so any attempts to be conversational only left her fighting whoever was in front of her.
As time passed, mom reminded me of my fundamentalist beliefs. One day, as she was pontificating in front of myself and her sisters, I gently leaned into the conversation and said: This reminds me of my fundamentalist Christianity. Oh was she mad! She believed she was enlightened in all ways. Fundamentalist Christianity was beneath her. She leaned reincarnation and all things wellness community and all things The Great Awakening, and all things conspiracy. I knew I had lost her when she insisted the deaths at Sandy Hook Elementary were a red flag op and those people didn’t die and that wasn’t blood, it was ketchup.
Byroniac, our family is torn apart. I have guilt because I decided I would die of my broken heart, if I didn’t remove myself from her abuse. 🙁 I have done so, but it is very sad to wake up and go to bed every night knowing your mother can’t stand you. She’d never admit to saying I’m an idiot out loud to others, because it would mean as a mother she failed. Thing is, she only has to say it to me and she did, many times.
Thankfully, therapy has helped me cope but I have accepted that I will always carry pain in this regard.