The Christian Support of Donald Trump
Christian Support of Trump
An old friend/acquaintance of mine recently posted something in regards to President Trump and how he as a Christian would stand behind him, basically, so I politely asked him (and anyone else in the thread who wanted to) to explain why he thought that Christians should support a man like Donald Trump. One person (who shall remain anonymous) responded as follows, and this seemed like a fairly typical response that is probably somewhat representative of the protestant Christian community as a whole:
I wanted to offer a concise response to this, and there was no way that I would be able to in a format that would fit properly in a Facebook response, so I decided to edit it well and post it here on my blog (then link back to the article in the thread).
Let’s get started…
“Pro Israel”
This is a touchy subject, of course, and I suppose I can start off by saying that being Pro Israel isn’t a stance that is uniquely held by Republicans… that much should be obvious and not even in question. If you want to be President of the United States, you had better have the support of the Israeli lobby (AIPAC - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_lobby_in_the_United_States). On the other hand, for any public figure to even question or attempt to start a rational discussion about the treatment of the Palestinian people or the involvement of the financial relationships (i.e. weapon sales) between us and Israel is to bring an avalanche of criticism from both sides of the aisle… just look at what happened to Ilhan Omar when she dared to comment on the lobbying and money involved in our politics (she was publicly scorned by even Nancy Pelosi).
Next to String Theory, the Israel-Palestine question is considered to be one of the most complicated issues of our time. I won’t pretend to have all of the answers, but there is much about it that seems to just be outright ignored or not talked about by many people in the US – Likely because it isn’t covered in much detail in the media here, or the media is just really one-sided.
Yes, there are many references in the Bible where it speaks of Israel becoming a State (I found this: https://www.openbible.info/topics/israel_becoming_a_state – Although, it seems like most of these quotes are pretty vague interpretations to this effect). Most of these references talk about ‘all of the Jews returning’, and that certainly hasn’t happened as only a fraction of them actually live in Israel still (many are still in the US, Europe, the Middle East, etc.)… but we can ignore that for now.
I suppose you can look at this in a couple of different ways. If you are a Christian, you are taught to believe the following:
1. Israel was destined to become a State because it says so in the Bible. This was prophecy and the prophecy has been proven to be true.
2. Seemingly, the Israeli state has been put there by God and can do no wrong, or if it does do wrong then this is somehow the will of God and you can interpret that as you like.
3. For there to be a second coming of Jesus, the creation of Israel had to come to pass. This is a major reason why many Christians believe that we are indeed in the “End Times” and that the Rapture will happen soon (the whole subject of the Rapture is something else that we could address).
If you believe the above, then you probably can conveniently ignore the suffering that the Jewish state has inflicted upon the Palestinian people for half a century now. The Gaza strip has, last I heard, the highest population density of any place on the planet and they are currently living in abhorrent conditions. The Israeli government seems to find a reason to go to war with them every few years (brought to you by the US tax dollar), resulting in the destruction of what little power/water infrastructure is there and the loss of thousands of lives… Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has actually referred to this as “Mowing the Lawn” (keeping them in check). Every other nation in the UN apart from the United States has declared this situation to be Apartheid, comparing it to pre-Democratic South Africa.
Another obvious problem with this situation is the fact that this type of treatment of the Palestinians by the Jewish state has resulted in the calls for its outright destruction by neighboring Muslim States and has contributed to the high level of instability in the region, as well as a (arguably) near-universal hatred of the United States… though we’ve done plenty of other things to get to potentially reap said hatred.
I would just have to ask: Doesn’t this seem more like the “Old Testament” God to anyone else? What happened to “Love thy neighbor as thy brother”?
…Oh, that part is in the New Testament, which Judaism doesn’t recognize… nor do they recognize Jesus as the Messiah... or the book of Revelation, for that matter... something to seriously think about, yes?
Anyway, my main point is that it seems as though most Christians probably take it for granted that they (and any US President) should have unwavering support for the country of Israel, and I think that it may be good to at least take a step back and question their stance on this a little more.
“Pro life of the Unborn”
I don’t know if anyone has noticed, but I’m not a woman, and I can’t claim to completely own this discussion. Still…
We could talk about that ethics of abortions all day, but whether you are for or against abortion is pretty much completely beside the point. The fact is that there is no way to completely prevent women from getting abortions in this country or any country, ever (I don’t care how much praying you do, it isn’t going to happen). If you outlaw it entirely or even criminalize it, women who are desperate enough will seek out and find a (most likely, medically sub-standard) way to get one. We’ve seen this happen to a more extreme level in places like South America, and it’s pretty frightening.
A second point here would be regarding Planned Parenthood. Yes, they provide abortions, but that’s something like 1% of the work that they actually do. Mainly, they provide free or low-cost medical services to women who are without insurance and need them. More importantly, they hand out birth control like it’s candy (I remember taking trips there with a girlfriend when I was younger, and still know women who go there for that reason today).
It’s pretty safe to say that without an institution like Planned Parenthood around, we would have a much, much higher level of unwanted pregnancies in this country… not to mention women who go without regular breast exams, mammograms, etc… and the more sick people you have in the country, the more it winds up costing all of us in the long run.
To summarize this point, I’d say that being against the idea of abortions is totally fine (as President Trump seems to be these days, though he wasn’t always), but trying to turn that into political practice in the way that it’s been done has probably only made things worse for everyone as a society.
“Pro Conservative Supreme Court Judges”
Trump is most certainly in support of Conservative judges, yes. If that’s what you want, then great. I would just have to ask: What, exactly, does the word “Conservative” mean to you in this specific context? I mean, what boxes have to be checked in order to pass as a “Conservative”? By all means, correct me if I’m wrong, but:
1. Pro-Life and will do everything in their power to abolish Roe v. Wade
2. Pro-Guns (???)
3. Says that they believe in God and/or go to Church blah blah
…am I forgetting anything? I could be, but what other boxes are we checking which almost always go along with the ones above? Let’s see:
4. For limiting the liability of corporations. Against the regulation of industry for the good of workers and the environment.
5. For increasing the influence of big money in our political campaigns
6. Against gay rights and minority rights
7. In favor of granting increasing amounts of power to the office of the President (which upsets the very nature of the Constitutional checks and balances that the Founders intended us to have)
8. Fully support the legality of semi-automatic rifles in the hands of civilians (not that I’m necessarily against this one myself, under the correct circumstances)
9. For the rights of the Government to collect and store information on its citizens
10. Against Net Neutrality – In other words, they are against the idea of a “Free and Open Internet” where all websites and service providers have equal and free access to the Internet, preventing companies like Comcast from throttling access to certain websites without additional costs, etc.
If this is what you want, then okay (and I think you may need to read into some of these other issues some more), but you can’t say that this isn’t what your getting – I just went back and read up on Brett Kavanaugh’s stances towards all of these issues as a reference, and it pretty much lines up with what I’ve listed above.
Pro Constitution
I’d like to know what you mean by this, exactly. Looking at his track record, Trump has been about everything *but* upholding the Constitution.
Pro Jobs for Americans
We can get into a deep discussion about economics and the current state of the US economy… But doesn’t everybody say that they’re “pro jobs”, though? Without going into details right here and now, no matter how much he says that our economy is “doing great”, the truth is that it isn’t and that we’re probably on the verge of another recession to boot (it’s a natural cycle of the capitalist system in its current state). Yes, unemployment is low (though we can go deeper into that misleading statistic on its own), but saying that the economy is healthy just by looking at the unemployment rate is like having your doctor take your temperature, see that it’s 98.6, then saying that there is nothing at all wrong with you when you’re obviously dying of cancer.
Pro Small and Large Business
While he is certainly Pro Large Business, I’d like to know how any of his policies or the policies of his agencies have helped small businesses. I can tell you from personal experience that his trade wars have seriously hurt prospects for nearly every industry in the country. Between that and Brexit, the company that I work for (a pump manufacturer for agricultural and oil systems) is internally reporting massive unexpected costs and loss of business for this year and the upcoming year.
Pro Prosperity for Americans
See my above two points.
Pro Keeping America Secure
Again, everyone will say this, but what does that really mean? What do you expect that to mean? Are we “keeping America safe” by supplying Saudi Arabia with bombs and weapons so that they can commit genocide in Yemen, or by failing to do much of anything in regards to gun reform in a time when mass shootings (and just regular ol’ shootings) are more and more commonplace?
Lastly, regarding Trump and his personal life... this is a man who once bragged about being able to “Grab [women] by the p***y” and get away with it. He spreads hate of foreigners, intolerance of anyone with a different opinion, and fear of the unknown instead of love and compassion. Beyond that, he doesn't listen to his own advisors... why would he listen to God?
The contradictions between his character and the teachings of Jesus Christ seem to be miles apart, and yet many continue to support him. Maybe it feels good to have the bully in your corner, and it’s worth overlooking all of his flaws? I personally don’t get it, but okay.
Oh, and I'll just leave you with this: The GOP Jesus
An old friend/acquaintance of mine recently posted something in regards to President Trump and how he as a Christian would stand behind him, basically, so I politely asked him (and anyone else in the thread who wanted to) to explain why he thought that Christians should support a man like Donald Trump. One person (who shall remain anonymous) responded as follows, and this seemed like a fairly typical response that is probably somewhat representative of the protestant Christian community as a whole:
I wanted to offer a concise response to this, and there was no way that I would be able to in a format that would fit properly in a Facebook response, so I decided to edit it well and post it here on my blog (then link back to the article in the thread).
Let’s get started…
“Pro Israel”
This is a touchy subject, of course, and I suppose I can start off by saying that being Pro Israel isn’t a stance that is uniquely held by Republicans… that much should be obvious and not even in question. If you want to be President of the United States, you had better have the support of the Israeli lobby (AIPAC - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_lobby_in_the_United_States). On the other hand, for any public figure to even question or attempt to start a rational discussion about the treatment of the Palestinian people or the involvement of the financial relationships (i.e. weapon sales) between us and Israel is to bring an avalanche of criticism from both sides of the aisle… just look at what happened to Ilhan Omar when she dared to comment on the lobbying and money involved in our politics (she was publicly scorned by even Nancy Pelosi).
Next to String Theory, the Israel-Palestine question is considered to be one of the most complicated issues of our time. I won’t pretend to have all of the answers, but there is much about it that seems to just be outright ignored or not talked about by many people in the US – Likely because it isn’t covered in much detail in the media here, or the media is just really one-sided.
Yes, there are many references in the Bible where it speaks of Israel becoming a State (I found this: https://www.openbible.info/topics/israel_becoming_a_state – Although, it seems like most of these quotes are pretty vague interpretations to this effect). Most of these references talk about ‘all of the Jews returning’, and that certainly hasn’t happened as only a fraction of them actually live in Israel still (many are still in the US, Europe, the Middle East, etc.)… but we can ignore that for now.
I suppose you can look at this in a couple of different ways. If you are a Christian, you are taught to believe the following:
1. Israel was destined to become a State because it says so in the Bible. This was prophecy and the prophecy has been proven to be true.
2. Seemingly, the Israeli state has been put there by God and can do no wrong, or if it does do wrong then this is somehow the will of God and you can interpret that as you like.
3. For there to be a second coming of Jesus, the creation of Israel had to come to pass. This is a major reason why many Christians believe that we are indeed in the “End Times” and that the Rapture will happen soon (the whole subject of the Rapture is something else that we could address).
If you believe the above, then you probably can conveniently ignore the suffering that the Jewish state has inflicted upon the Palestinian people for half a century now. The Gaza strip has, last I heard, the highest population density of any place on the planet and they are currently living in abhorrent conditions. The Israeli government seems to find a reason to go to war with them every few years (brought to you by the US tax dollar), resulting in the destruction of what little power/water infrastructure is there and the loss of thousands of lives… Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has actually referred to this as “Mowing the Lawn” (keeping them in check). Every other nation in the UN apart from the United States has declared this situation to be Apartheid, comparing it to pre-Democratic South Africa.
Another obvious problem with this situation is the fact that this type of treatment of the Palestinians by the Jewish state has resulted in the calls for its outright destruction by neighboring Muslim States and has contributed to the high level of instability in the region, as well as a (arguably) near-universal hatred of the United States… though we’ve done plenty of other things to get to potentially reap said hatred.
I would just have to ask: Doesn’t this seem more like the “Old Testament” God to anyone else? What happened to “Love thy neighbor as thy brother”?
…Oh, that part is in the New Testament, which Judaism doesn’t recognize… nor do they recognize Jesus as the Messiah... or the book of Revelation, for that matter... something to seriously think about, yes?
Anyway, my main point is that it seems as though most Christians probably take it for granted that they (and any US President) should have unwavering support for the country of Israel, and I think that it may be good to at least take a step back and question their stance on this a little more.
“Pro life of the Unborn”
I don’t know if anyone has noticed, but I’m not a woman, and I can’t claim to completely own this discussion. Still…
We could talk about that ethics of abortions all day, but whether you are for or against abortion is pretty much completely beside the point. The fact is that there is no way to completely prevent women from getting abortions in this country or any country, ever (I don’t care how much praying you do, it isn’t going to happen). If you outlaw it entirely or even criminalize it, women who are desperate enough will seek out and find a (most likely, medically sub-standard) way to get one. We’ve seen this happen to a more extreme level in places like South America, and it’s pretty frightening.
A second point here would be regarding Planned Parenthood. Yes, they provide abortions, but that’s something like 1% of the work that they actually do. Mainly, they provide free or low-cost medical services to women who are without insurance and need them. More importantly, they hand out birth control like it’s candy (I remember taking trips there with a girlfriend when I was younger, and still know women who go there for that reason today).
It’s pretty safe to say that without an institution like Planned Parenthood around, we would have a much, much higher level of unwanted pregnancies in this country… not to mention women who go without regular breast exams, mammograms, etc… and the more sick people you have in the country, the more it winds up costing all of us in the long run.
To summarize this point, I’d say that being against the idea of abortions is totally fine (as President Trump seems to be these days, though he wasn’t always), but trying to turn that into political practice in the way that it’s been done has probably only made things worse for everyone as a society.
“Pro Conservative Supreme Court Judges”
Trump is most certainly in support of Conservative judges, yes. If that’s what you want, then great. I would just have to ask: What, exactly, does the word “Conservative” mean to you in this specific context? I mean, what boxes have to be checked in order to pass as a “Conservative”? By all means, correct me if I’m wrong, but:
1. Pro-Life and will do everything in their power to abolish Roe v. Wade
2. Pro-Guns (???)
3. Says that they believe in God and/or go to Church blah blah
…am I forgetting anything? I could be, but what other boxes are we checking which almost always go along with the ones above? Let’s see:
4. For limiting the liability of corporations. Against the regulation of industry for the good of workers and the environment.
5. For increasing the influence of big money in our political campaigns
6. Against gay rights and minority rights
7. In favor of granting increasing amounts of power to the office of the President (which upsets the very nature of the Constitutional checks and balances that the Founders intended us to have)
8. Fully support the legality of semi-automatic rifles in the hands of civilians (not that I’m necessarily against this one myself, under the correct circumstances)
9. For the rights of the Government to collect and store information on its citizens
10. Against Net Neutrality – In other words, they are against the idea of a “Free and Open Internet” where all websites and service providers have equal and free access to the Internet, preventing companies like Comcast from throttling access to certain websites without additional costs, etc.
If this is what you want, then okay (and I think you may need to read into some of these other issues some more), but you can’t say that this isn’t what your getting – I just went back and read up on Brett Kavanaugh’s stances towards all of these issues as a reference, and it pretty much lines up with what I’ve listed above.
Pro Constitution
I’d like to know what you mean by this, exactly. Looking at his track record, Trump has been about everything *but* upholding the Constitution.
Pro Jobs for Americans
We can get into a deep discussion about economics and the current state of the US economy… But doesn’t everybody say that they’re “pro jobs”, though? Without going into details right here and now, no matter how much he says that our economy is “doing great”, the truth is that it isn’t and that we’re probably on the verge of another recession to boot (it’s a natural cycle of the capitalist system in its current state). Yes, unemployment is low (though we can go deeper into that misleading statistic on its own), but saying that the economy is healthy just by looking at the unemployment rate is like having your doctor take your temperature, see that it’s 98.6, then saying that there is nothing at all wrong with you when you’re obviously dying of cancer.
Pro Small and Large Business
While he is certainly Pro Large Business, I’d like to know how any of his policies or the policies of his agencies have helped small businesses. I can tell you from personal experience that his trade wars have seriously hurt prospects for nearly every industry in the country. Between that and Brexit, the company that I work for (a pump manufacturer for agricultural and oil systems) is internally reporting massive unexpected costs and loss of business for this year and the upcoming year.
Pro Prosperity for Americans
See my above two points.
Pro Keeping America Secure
Again, everyone will say this, but what does that really mean? What do you expect that to mean? Are we “keeping America safe” by supplying Saudi Arabia with bombs and weapons so that they can commit genocide in Yemen, or by failing to do much of anything in regards to gun reform in a time when mass shootings (and just regular ol’ shootings) are more and more commonplace?
Lastly, regarding Trump and his personal life... this is a man who once bragged about being able to “Grab [women] by the p***y” and get away with it. He spreads hate of foreigners, intolerance of anyone with a different opinion, and fear of the unknown instead of love and compassion. Beyond that, he doesn't listen to his own advisors... why would he listen to God?
The contradictions between his character and the teachings of Jesus Christ seem to be miles apart, and yet many continue to support him. Maybe it feels good to have the bully in your corner, and it’s worth overlooking all of his flaws? I personally don’t get it, but okay.
Oh, and I'll just leave you with this: The GOP Jesus
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