A Rapist,'Trump' Who Failed His Office, Is Going To Run Again ?Pushed By Evangelicals.Is This What God Wants
Robert Jeffress, the pastor of an evangelical megachurch in Dallas, has been a staunch supporter of Trump since his first campaign for president and is sticking by him even as rivals like South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and former Vice President Mike Pence tout their Christian faith.
“Conservative Christians continue to overwhelmingly support Donald Trump because of his biblical policies, not his personal piety,” Jeffress told The Associated Press via email. “They are smart enough to know the difference between choosing a president and choosing a pastor.”
“In many ways, Christians feel like they are in an existential cultural war between good and evil, and they want a warrior like Donald Trump who can win,” Jeffress added.
In rural southwest Missouri, pastor Mike Leake of Calvary of Neosho – a Southern Baptist church – says support for Trump within the mostly conservative congregation seems to strengthen the more he is criticized and investigated.
“It further convinces them of their rhetoric that there is a leftist plot to undermine our nation,” Leake said. “So if everybody from the Left hates Trump, well, he must be on to something.”
Leake said many of his congregation members who strongly support Trump “are not our most dedicated members.”
“Anytime we’ve seen someone go full on MAGA, we lose them,” Leake added. “Attendance and involvement drop. Giving drops. It’s all-consuming -- just as with any other idol.”
Robert Franklin, professor of moral leadership at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology in Atlanta, said Trump benefits from a perception among some of his followers that he is suffering on their behalf.
“The more he complains of persecution, the more people dig in to support him, and for a few, fight for him and make personal sacrifices (of money and freedom) for his advancement,” Franklin said via email.
Franklin also noted that some evangelicals, since early in Trump’s presidency, have likened him to Cyrus the Great, the Persian king who, according to the Bible, enabled Jews to return to Israel from their exile in Babylon.
“This is a powerful trope, the bad man who makes good things possible, and is hence praised as a hero,” Franklin said. “Unfortunately, under this narrative, Trump can literally do no wrong. His wrong is right. No other politician gets that kind of pass.”
Trump’s great achievements, in the eyes of many evangelicals, include moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and – more profoundly – appointing three Supreme Justices who have helped repeal the nationwide right to abortion and broaden religious-freedom protections in several cases involving conservative Christians.
Trump is eager to tout his faith-based record.
“No president has ever fought for Christians as hard as I have,” he told the Faith & Freedom gala in Washington in June. “I’ll fight hard until I’m back behind that desk in the Oval Office.”
The political results are widely viewed as the key to Trump’s evangelical support.
“I am certain that many Christians in the MAGA movement earnestly believe Trump has been ‘anointed’ for this purpose — to bring about certain political outcomes they desire,” said Robert Millies, a Chicago-based Catholic scholar whose books include “Good Intentions: A History of Catholic Voters’ Road from Roe to Trump.”
“The embrace of Trump is really, finally a cynical calculation concerned with power, one that has the thinnest of possible Scriptural justifications,” Millies added.
Back in February 2017, just two weeks after Trump’s inauguration, the Rev. Peter Daly – a retired Catholic priest of the Archdiocese of Washington – wrote a column for the National Catholic Reporter titled “Donald Trump’s gospel is not the Gospel of Jesus.”
In the piece, Daly depicted Trump as an uncharitable bully, prone to lying, lacking in empathy and tolerance.
“He sees every opponent as someone to be shouted down or roughed up,” Daly wrote. “He is not a peacemaker.”
Six years later, Daly tries to comprehend why so many conservative Christians remain in Trump’s camp despite behavior and rhetoric “that are antithetical to everything they stand for.”
Some pro-Trump pastors have relished the proximity to power afforded during White House visits or special political events, Daly said.
And some rural, white Christians “feel like nobody speaks for them,” Daly added. “They think, ’Here’s Donald Trump. He’ll be our champion’ … It has nothing to do with being Christian. It’s the politics of grievance.”
Serene Jones is president of Union Theological Seminary in New York, which describes itself as “a progressive religious institution with many LGBTQ students.”
Asked about Trump’s popularity among conservative Christians, Jones evoked the numerous recent victories for evangelical and conservative causes in the courts and Republican-controlled state legislatures.
“Our nation is seeing a rampage of attacks on reproductive rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and the separation of church and state,” Jones said via email. “Even though certain evangelical Christians might harbor some discomfort about particular politicians, they may believe these social and political successes far outweigh the concerns.”
In Iowa, where evangelical support is crucial in the caucuses that launch the GOP nomination process, Trump seems far better positioned than in 2016.
A Des Moines Register Iowa Poll in March found that he was viewed favorably by 58% of evangelicals, compared to 19% ahead of the 2016 caucuses.
“President Trump has stood up for the values that we hold dear,” Brad Sherman, a pastor from Williamsburg, Iowa, told The Associated Press in April. “Then we need to pray for him that his personal life comes in line with that.”
As strong as Trump’s support is among conservative Christians, some prominent figures in those ranks are seeking alternatives in the GOP campaign.
There are sins and then there are sins
Evangelicals can be very brute in the way they deal with a "sinner" who wants to be in their mists. But for Evangelicals there are sins and then they are sins.
For instance, when my ex-partner came out and because he was a Sunday church goer with family not he will be missed so once he told one member of his family (grandmother) the phone nor his cell phone ever stop ringing. One call was his pastor.
I study in a Bible Institute or seminary (Independent) but Evangelical so I understand how any church is supposed to handle certain problems that always happen in every church. A popular one is drinking too much and going to be with a stranger or another one of the saints of the church. No one gets expulse, their membership will be put on hold for any amount of time. It's supposed to be done by the deacons but usually, the past decides. It all depends on how strong his figure is and how much he needs his job.
The pastor Calls
The pastor calls and asks my ex-Bill if he indeed is a homosexual. Bill answers on the positive and after. short conversation Bill hangs up and tells me I have been kicked out (not the words he used). I was full of indignation and I knew I was the elephant in the middle of the room because if I was not there with Bill, none of this would have happened and even though his family had to assume he was gay it was ok as long as all stay quiet and everybody goes to church on Sundays.
My point here is to show that I did have a three-way conversation with the Pastor and three Biibles. We discussed the "sin" according to the Bible and after 45 minutes maybe one hour he said, "Bill is going to continue to be gay no matter whether he goes to church or not and I understand your points of view which you have shown through the Bible. However, I work for the church and the church feels this way. If Bill were to come back to the church as a member the church will not allow it.
Bill's church pertains to the same denomination that is supporting Trump the most. So we are not talking about Catholic vs. Protestant.
These Christians found Bill's sin of having an orientation he had nothing to do with. He was born that way just like I did. But that was against one of the sins the church decided they will not tolerate. But with Trump the same denomination of people are blind to his sins which for the worse anybody can be accused of. Indirectly he has killed people. He is proven to be an asexual predator and rapist. He is a bad businessman who has put thousands of people out of work by milking his companies from the top and driving them out of business. To be a good businessman you don't steal from anybody. You make the business produce with the money that has been invested in that endeavor. For Trump, the endeavor is to get money and not get caught. That is business for him.
Why do those so-called Evangelicals don't see the man as he is? Actually, they do but they ignore it because just like god once had a donkey speak to the Prophet (old testament story), god can use Trump to get them what they think god wants. No abortion, curtail on LGBT, and most of all Power. Power will give them enough of what they want which they might never get again. Trump was the answer to the prayers. So it was no Pence after god killed off Trump. it was the sinner Trump. Dumb as a rock and can be guided just like a child because he is one. That is what they see. They see the answer to their prayers. Just Like they would tell you "Just like the Gospel of John will tell you at the end you will see things you have never seen before."
The Rev Mohler, Trump's guardian
The Rev. Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, backed Trump in 2020 but said recently on his radio show that he’s now had enough.
“Christians begin with the clear biblical truth that no sinful human being has a perfect character, but even as we grade presidents on something of a curve, some stand out as particularly lacking in character,” Mohler said. “Donald J. Trump is certainly one of those presidents.”
“I do not want Donald J. Trump to be the 2024 Republican nominee,” Mohler added. “There is simply too much baggage ... A statesman would realize that fact and make way for someone else to lead. That does not appear likely.”
Trump was raised as a Presbyterian but told Religion News Service in 2020 that he had shifted to identifying as a nondenominational Christian. He has not claimed membership in any particular congregation, and during his presidency, he attended worship services infrequently.
When in Florida, Trump has sometimes attended an Episcopal church in Palm Beach for Easter and Christmas Eve services. On the campaign trail, he has visited churches of various denominations, including some new-age churches with music and dancing.
Jeffress, the Dallas megachurch pastor, admires Trump as a political battler. But Jeffress says that during eight years of friendship, “I have seen a side to him that many people never see. I’ve watched him interact with strangers, as well as his own family, with warmth and kindness.”
Adam Gonzalez, Writer
Associated press/Source
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