End Times and Current Events
March 29, 2024, 10:55:49 am
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
News: Welcome To End Times and Current Events.
 
  Home Help Search Gallery Staff List Login Register  

What The "Christian Right" Got Wrong About Donald Trump

Shoutbox
March 27, 2024, 12:55:24 pm Mark says: Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked  When Hamas spokesman Abu Ubaida began a speech marking the 100th day of the war in Gaza, one confounding yet eye-opening proclamation escaped the headlines. Listing the motives for the Palestinian militant group's Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, he accused Jews of "bringing red cows" to the Holy Land.
December 31, 2022, 10:08:58 am NilsFor1611 says: blessings
August 08, 2018, 02:38:10 am suzytr says: Hello, any good churches in the Sacto, CA area, also looking in Reno NV, thanks in advance and God Bless you Smiley
January 29, 2018, 01:21:57 am Christian40 says: It will be interesting to see what happens this year Israel being 70 years as a modern nation may 14 2018
October 17, 2017, 01:25:20 am Christian40 says: It is good to type Mark is here again!  Smiley
October 16, 2017, 03:28:18 am Christian40 says: anyone else thinking that time is accelerating now? it seems im doing days in shorter time now is time being affected in some way?
September 24, 2017, 10:45:16 pm Psalm 51:17 says: The specific rule pertaining to the national anthem is found on pages A62-63 of the league rulebook. It states: “The National Anthem must be played prior to every NFL game, and all players must be on the sideline for the National Anthem. “During the National Anthem, players on the field and bench area should stand at attention, face the flag, hold helmets in their left hand, and refrain from talking. The home team should ensure that the American flag is in good condition. It should be pointed out to players and coaches that we continue to be judged by the public in this area of respect for the flag and our country. Failure to be on the field by the start of the National Anthem may result in discipline, such as fines, suspensions, and/or the forfeiture of draft choice(s) for violations of the above, including first offenses.”
September 20, 2017, 04:32:32 am Christian40 says: "The most popular Hepatitis B vaccine is nothing short of a witch’s brew including aluminum, formaldehyde, yeast, amino acids, and soy. Aluminum is a known neurotoxin that destroys cellular metabolism and function. Hundreds of studies link to the ravaging effects of aluminum. The other proteins and formaldehyde serve to activate the immune system and open up the blood-brain barrier. This is NOT a good thing."
http://www.naturalnews.com/2017-08-11-new-fda-approved-hepatitis-b-vaccine-found-to-increase-heart-attack-risk-by-700.html
September 19, 2017, 03:59:21 am Christian40 says: bbc international did a video about there street preaching they are good witnesses
September 14, 2017, 08:06:04 am Psalm 51:17 says: bro Mark Hunter on YT has some good, edifying stuff too.
View Shout History
Pages: [1]   Go Down
  Print  
Author Topic: What The "Christian Right" Got Wrong About Donald Trump  (Read 497 times)
Psalm 51:17
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Offline Offline

Posts: 28357


View Profile
« on: October 24, 2016, 04:09:52 pm »

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/what-the-christian-right-got-wrong-about-donald-trump_us_580cc5a6e4b0f8715789fc93
What The Christian Right Got Wrong About Donald Trump

While Christian citizens should certainly engage in the political process, what’s missing for some is an understanding that government is for all the people, not a select Christian subset.
10/24/16

Even as evangelicals are now divided over the Republican presidential nominee, a handful of leaders and the majority of white evangelical voters still support Donald Trump. Surprisingly, many of them have abandoned the rhetoric of morals and values and have made a pragmatic turn to expectations about Supreme Court nominees and policies that embody conservative political principles. Somehow, these conservative Christian leaders and voters still attempt to couch that maneuver in meaningful Christian theological and ethical language, but, I think, there’s a lot wrong in those efforts to make Donald Trump right for conservative Christian voters.

1. The role of the church is not to impose its beliefs and values through government. Of course, the attempt to use government to enforce particular kinds of morality by the Christian right is nothing new. They had hopes for the alignment of government with Christian right values during the Reagan and Bush I and II administrations, especially on so-called “family values” issues like abortion and sexuality. Yet, even though Reagan and both Bushes spoke the language of family values to conservatives, the truth is their presidencies did little to advance the causes so dear to the right at the federal level.

“While Christian citizens should certainly engage in the political process, what’s missing for some is an understanding that government is for all the people, not a select Christian subset.

Both Jerry Falwell, Jr., and Ralph Reed have said that, more significant than Donald Trump’s morality, is the importance of his appointment of Supreme Court justices that will further the agenda of the Christian right. James Dobson and Pat Robertson have joined the chorus suggesting that Trump’s character is irrelevant, as long as his policies align with the Christian right’s agenda. Perhaps most astonishing is new research that shows a majority of white evangelicals now believe a person who acts immorally can still be ethical in a political position. This is a huge shift for the population who supported the impeachment of Bill Clinton.

While Christian citizens should certainly engage in the political process, what’s missing for some is an understanding that government is for all the people, not a select Christian subset. When some Christian voters see the role of government as imposing their particular vision of a theocratic United States, we have moved beyond a democracy that values and protects minorities toward a kind of authoritarianism that demands adherence to a defined set of conservative Christian propositions, behaviors, and policies. Trump’s willingness to say the words certain Christian right leaders want to hear has convinced them that somehow, despite his lies, unethical business behavior, overt racism, contempt for women, and lack of basic understanding of Christian beliefs, he will usher in a Christian government in line with their conservative vision.

2. Love of political power is not an expression of the Gospel. In many ways, the Christian Right has had an outsized influence on American politics, giving its leaders raw political power. While some of this political power has been wielded to try to force changes around conservative Christian moral issues like abortion, in this election we’ve seen that for some of the Christian right love of political power extends way beyond religious issues. For example, Jerry Falwell, Jr. supports Trump, arguing, “The bigger point is he is going to appoint the right justices to the Supreme Court. He’s going to control immigration. He’s going to bring our country back to a position of strength again. And that is why I’m supporting Donald Trump.” Falwell has now added immigration control and national strength to his religious agenda.

The Bible clearly warns against love of political power. It’s also pretty clear about its mandates for welcoming the stranger, freeing the oppressed, distrusting the wealthy, and embracing meekness, gentleness, and self-control.

3. Sexual assault is not a moral issue. It’s a crime. And it should not be overlooked for political expediency. Despite his earlier condemnation of Trump’s comments about groping women, Wayne Grudem still encourages evangelicals to vote for Trump. He explains, for example, “Yes, it is morally evil to commit adultery. It is also morally wrong to approve of committing adultery. But that does not mean it is morally evil to vote for someone who has committed adultery. In a world affected by sin, voting for morally flawed people is unavoidable. Voting for the candidate you think will be best for the country (or do the least harm to the country) is not a morally evil action, so this objection does not apply.”

The problem is Trump has not only committed acts the Christian right (as well as the Christian Left) would find morally objectionable, such as adultery. In the recently released Access Hollywood video, he describes sexual assault—groping women, forcing himself on them, because he can, because he’s rich and famous. Grudem and others claim he’s a changed man, he’s asked for forgiveness, it was just locker room talk, but now we have at least 10 women who have come forward saying Trump did to them exactly what he described in that video. And his response is to slander them and threaten to sue them. That hardly sounds like the response of a changed Christian heart to me.

4. Evangelical acceptance of Trump’s misogyny did not come from nowhere. While at last a number of evangelical leaders, including some important women, have spoken out about Trump’s sexism, they have not acknowledged the role they have played in creating a climate in which misogyny thrives. Many of these leaders have spent decades telling women they are responsible for the Fall, they are to submit to their husbands, they are to keep silent in the church, they are responsible for men’s sexuality, that their place is in the home. That so many evangelicals are willing to overlook Trump’s misogyny should not come as a surprise to any of these leaders. They marketed a slightly more subtle version of this misogyny for years, and their followers and congregants internalized the message. If they really want to challenge Trump’s misogyny, they need to challenge their own.

5. Racism still runs deep in white evangelical Christianity. Recent research suggests that evangelicals who support Trump express more racist views than other evangelicals. In many ways, the Christian right has yet to come fully to terms with its racist history. A great deal of white evangelical involvement in politics arose in opposition to the Civil rights Movement in the South. Trump’s race-baiting holds great appeal for white evangelicals voters already primed with a long history of theological justification for racism. So although a number of evangelical leaders have denounced Trump’s bigotry, a much longer history of covert and overt racism in the church informs evangelical voters who choose Trump.

Somehow, despite all of the problems with Trump’s candidacy for conservative Christians, some evangelical leaders still choose to believe he’s the best choice for evangelical Christians. For people who have held themselves up as moral authorities, in this time of genuine religious turmoil, these leaders have abandoned Christian principles of love and justice in the name of political expediency for ends that have more to do with their own political agendas than the gospel. I do appreciate those evangelicals who have spoken out against Trump—they will have much greater influence than people like me with these voters. As a former evangelical—and I do credit much of my passion for justice, equality, and peace to my evangelical roots—I hope this division can lead to some much-needed soul-searching among evangelicals about who they are and what they should be doing in the world to live the good news they proclaim.
Report Spam   Logged

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter

Mark
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Offline Offline

Posts: 21786



View Profile
« Reply #1 on: October 24, 2016, 08:56:41 pm »

Quote
Recent research suggests that evangelicals who support Trump express more racist views than other evangelicals.

really?  Roll Eyes this is a hit piece article. Sorry but it is the Liberal Dems that keep racism going.

enjoy the truth

http://www.blackandblondemedia.com/2009/01/14/democrat-race-lie/
Report Spam   Logged

What can you do for Jesus?  Learn what 1 person can accomplish.

The Man from George Street
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkjMvPhLrn8
Psalm 51:17
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Offline Offline

Posts: 28357


View Profile
« Reply #2 on: October 24, 2016, 10:17:43 pm »

really?  Roll Eyes this is a hit piece article. Sorry but it is the Liberal Dems that keep racism going.

enjoy the truth

http://www.blackandblondemedia.com/2009/01/14/democrat-race-lie/

Sure, that particular part was a hit piece - but the big picture of the "Christian Right" (and the deceptions they're pushing) is they're making Christianity look like Hypocritical Pharisees.

Seriously - if they went after Clinton for what he did in the 90's, then why are they giving Donald a free ride? (and for that matter too, they gave Jack Hyles a free ride for the same things he did as Bill) I really hate to say it, but the Huffington Post exposed what should have been all along. (unfortunately this anti-Christian, leftist site beat everyone else to it)

Bottom line - the big reason why today's local NT churches are rotten is b/c the average "Christian" household is in terrible shape. Strong households = strong local NT churches, and weak households = weak local NT churches. It has nothing to do with Democrat, Republican, or what not.

Ephesians 5:22  Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
Eph 5:23  For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.
Eph 5:24  Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.
Eph 5:25  Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
Eph 5:26  That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
Eph 5:27  That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
Eph 5:28  So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
Eph 5:29  For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:
Eph 5:30  For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
Eph 5:31  For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
Eph 5:32  This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
Eph 5:33  Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.
Report Spam   Logged
Psalm 51:17
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Offline Offline

Posts: 28357


View Profile
« Reply #3 on: October 24, 2016, 10:29:40 pm »

Another thing, I'm now seeing some of the "faces" of the KJB movement pushing Trump. Honestly, I really don't care who anyone votes for, it's a non-issue for me.

However, people like Sam Gipp are pushing fear-mongering over how if we allow Hillary and don't vote for Trump, then there's going to be violence, bloodshed, etc in the streets of America, and how America is going to go down. NOT ONCE did Gipp stress the imminent, blessed hope that is the rapture (which is right around the corner I believe, and sooner than everyone else thinks!), and how this present wicked world is NOT our home. Seriously - he came off like a post-trib survivalist!
Report Spam   Logged
Mark
Administrator
Hero Member
*****
Offline Offline

Posts: 21786



View Profile
« Reply #4 on: October 24, 2016, 11:45:05 pm »

Another thing, I'm now seeing some of the "faces" of the KJB movement pushing Trump. Honestly, I really don't care who anyone votes for, it's a non-issue for me.

However, people like Sam Gipp are pushing fear-mongering over how if we allow Hillary and don't vote for Trump, then there's going to be violence, bloodshed, etc in the streets of America, and how America is going to go down. NOT ONCE did Gipp stress the imminent, blessed hope that is the rapture (which is right around the corner I believe, and sooner than everyone else thinks!), and how this present wicked world is NOT our home. Seriously - he came off like a post-trib survivalist!

Its not so much pushing Trump as it is anti hillary and anti establishment. Just look at how he has screwed up there perfect system.  Cheesy
Report Spam   Logged

What can you do for Jesus?  Learn what 1 person can accomplish.

The Man from George Street
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkjMvPhLrn8
Psalm 51:17
Global Moderator
Hero Member
*****
Offline Offline

Posts: 28357


View Profile
« Reply #5 on: November 11, 2016, 01:05:34 pm »

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jack-levison/evangelicals-trump-and-a-_b_12891750.html

Evangelicals, Family Values, And The Rise Of Donald Trump
11/10/2016 03:18 pm ET

To grasp what happened this week, turn the clock back forty years. Exactly.

In 1976, evangelical Christians looked for a messiah, and one man fit the bill, down to the initials, J. C. A Sunday school teacher, born-again Christian, and family man with a likable Southern drawl hit the campaign trail for the 1976 presidential election. With endorsements from Pentecostal televangelist Pat Robertson, Civil Rights activist Jesse Jackson, and a welter of other Christian leaders, Jimmy Carter won the Democratic presidential nomination in 1976.

Carter’s messianic reign was short-lived. He supported the Equal Rights Amendment and waffled on abortion; personally opposed to abortion, he defended nonetheless a woman’s right to obtain one.

The real disaster occurred when Carter attempted to fulfill his campaign promise to deal directly with family values. His White House Conference on Families in 1980 was a failure from the get go, when he offended Catholics, in particular, by naming Patsy Fleming, a divorced mother of three, to lead the conference. Even the word, families, troubled many evangelical Christians, who worried that the term families communicated the acceptance of more than the traditional family. Were single-parent and same-sex households included alongside the traditional American family?

With the full-throated approval of Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority and other grassroots movements, presidential candidate Ronald Reagan surged to the top of the Republican ticket. With open arms and an explicit family values agenda, Reagan welcomed Christians who felt scorned by Carter and the Democratic Party. The divorced governor of California assured them, “I know that you can’t endorse me, but I want you to know that I endorse you and what you are doing.” In one fell swoop, evangelical Christians found their new home in the Republican Party.

The 1980 party platforms tell the story. The Republican Platform includes three straightforward statements on the “traditional family” and offers specific strategies for ways to protect the American ideal. The Democratic Platform includes a single ambiguous line: “The Democratic Party supports efforts to make federal programs more sensitive to the needs of the family, in all its diverse forms.” Federal programs and diverse forms did not appeal to many evangelical Christians, especially those of the Religious Right.

Reagan won the 1980 election. Carter went home to Georgia.

In the end, however, members of the Religious Right did not win with the election of Reagan.

Women would outnumber men on America’s campuses and begin to dominate segments of the work force.

Abortion would remain legal.

Same-sex marriage would become legal.


And Democrats would co-opt family values rhetoric that went straight to the heart of conservative evangelicals. In 2014, president Barack Obama used family values to justify an executive order loosening immigration policies: “America’s not a nation that should be tolerating the cruelty of ripping children from their parents’ arms. We’re a nation that values families, and we should work together to keep them together.” The American Family Association decried Obama’s appeal to family values on behalf of other nations’ children.

Then came election night, 2016, and we wonder how it happened.

How did it happen? This is where historical perspective matters. History should have taught the cultured despisers of the Religious Right that ignorance—ignoring them—should not be an option. Remember that single line in the 1980 Democratic Party Platform: “The Democratic Party supports efforts to make federal programs more sensitive to the needs of the family, in all its diverse forms.”

It didn’t work. It wasn’t enough.

I do not belong to the Religious Right, but I recognize that for forty years—a generation of biblical proportions—their yearning for an advocate has simmered on the stove of discontent.

Then, in what seems like one fell swoop to those of us with our backs turned, the pot boiled over.

But the pot had simmered for quite some time. Forty years, to be exact.
Report Spam   Logged
Pages: [1]   Go Up
  Print  
 
Jump to:  

Powered by EzPortal
Bookmark this site! | Upgrade This Forum
Free SMF Hosting - Create your own Forum

Powered by SMF | SMF © 2016, Simple Machines
Privacy Policy