Why Would an Intelligent Christian Vote for Trump?

She is the perfect "faith" adviser to trump. She has been married three times (now married to Jonathan Cain of Journey), with scandals associated with her marriages and a relationship with married man (Bennie Hinns). She has bankruptcies and accusations of not paying bills. She is a proponent in prosperity theology.

 

That Evangelicals voted for a man who lacks morality.

DD

 

it seems that the majority of evangelicals have lost the plot. look at their low approval ratings for pope francis. he, by almost any measure, is the antithesis of donald trump. it's not a religious thing, it's tribalism...

 

I recently had the opportunity to drive a friends mom home from the park. She's in her 80's and a hard core catholic and an avid Trump supporter based on one issue. Abortion.

She said, "you have to protect the unborn to save the world"

When I asked her about protecting the kids at the border seeking asylum, or helping poor kids in the ghettos, she said, "those issues are too complicated. I only care about ending abortion"

I countered with, "if life begins at conception. god is the biggest abortion provider in the world"

I don't think i'm welcome at Thanksgiving dinner this year.

 

Well, and it's simply what is easy. Pope Francis is challenging: he encourages the most difficult parts of following Christ. Damn, I don't give enough of myself. I don't work on behalf of the poor every day. I'm not welcoming immigrants into my spare bedroom. And if you really listen to him, you have to account for these choices.

The easy part is just saying you follow Christ and then (sadly counter to Christ), hating other people (liberals) and protecting your own interests (comfort, homogeneity).

We are born in original sin -- boy do I believe that and the evidence is overwhelming -- and it's very comfortable to go back to it when feeling threatened.

 

and because we are now ruled by unelected judges they got 2 pro-life rulers on the supreme court.

 

As Bill MAher noted .. . .
because they feel like . . .


Rocket River

 

Cults gonna cult.

 

Evangelicals don't consider Catholics, let alone the Pope, Christian.

They might as well be Buddhist.

 

I'm curious what she'll have to say when Trump cuts her Medicare and Social Security benefits. It honestly continues to stun me the manner in which people do not vote their own economic interests in deference to an issue like abortion. People making decisions about whether they will eat or buy medicine because of these wedge issues.

 

https://theconversation.com/what-ma...hn-wayne-heroes-of-the-christian-right-141961

What makes Donald Trump and John Wayne heroes of the Christian Right?
August 26, 2020 8.21am EDT
Author. Kristin Kobes Du Mez
Professor of History, Calvin University

The Research Brief is a short take on interesting academic work.

The big idea
White evangelical support for Donald Trump has long puzzled observers. To many, it seems hypocritical that Christians who have long touted “family values” could rally around a thrice-married man who was accused by several women of sexual assault. Scholars have commented on his crassness, defined by historian Walter G. Moss as “a lack refinement, tact, sensitivity, taste or delicacy.” Others have observed how he has broken rules of civil political engagement.

But in my research on evangelical masculinity, I have found that Trump’s leadership style aligns closely with a rugged ideal of Christian manhood championed by evangelicals for more than half a century.

As I show in my book “Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation,” conservative evangelicals embraced the ideal of a masculine protector in the 1960s and 1970s in order to confront the perceived threats of communism and feminism.

Believing that the feminist rejection of “macho” masculinity left the nation in peril, conservative white evangelicals promoted a testosterone-fueled vision of Christian manhood. In their view, America needed strong men to defend “Christian America” on the battlefields of Vietnam and to reassert order on the home front.

Culture has played a critical role in shaping and sustaining this rugged vision of Christian manhood. In fashioning their masculine ideal, evangelicals have drawn liberally on Hollywood heroes – on mythologized warriors like Mel Gibson’s William Wallace in the movie “Braveheart” and on the heroic cowboys and soldiers played by John Wayne.

Reflecting the onscreen heroism portrayed by men like Gibson and Wayne, this masculine ideal condoned violence in the pursuit of righteousness and justified a vigorous, even ruthless assertion of power.

Why it matters
In 2016, exit polls revealed that 81% of white evangelicals voted for Donald Trump, a number higher than any other religious demographic.

I argue that the language evangelicals used to defend their support for Trump suggests that they were not betraying their values, rather that Trump embodied well the rugged and even ruthless ideal of evangelical masculinity.

“I want the meanest, toughest son of a you-know-what I can find,” explained Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Dallas. In their book “The Faith of Donald J. Trump,” Trump’s evangelical biographers David Brody and Scott Lamb concurred: Trump would “protect Christianity”; he would be their “ultimate fighting champion.”

With his poll numbers flagging, maintaining white evangelical support is critical to the president’s reelection efforts.

That support is likely to hinge not on his presumed morality or Christian virtue, but rather on his ability to project rugged strength and masculine power.
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more at the link

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Seems to make more sense here...

USA Today OpEd by Billy Graham's granddaughter (and member of the Lincoln Woman, an off shoot of the Lincoln Project....

I'm Billy Graham's granddaughter. Evangelical support of Donald Trump spits on his legacy.
By supporting Donald Trump, evangelical leaders are failing us and failing the gospel. Christian women must step up where our church leaders won't.

As the proud granddaughter of the man largely credited for beginning the evangelical movement, the late Billy Graham, the last few years have led me to reflect on how much has changed within that movement in America.

I have spent my entire life in the church, with every big decision guided by my faith. But now, I feel homeless. Like so many others, I feel disoriented as I watch the church I have always served turn their eyes away from everything it teaches. I hear from Christian women on a daily basis who all describe the same thing: a tug at their spirit.

Most of these women walked into a voting booth in 2016 believing they were choosing between two difficult options. They held their breath, closed their eyes, and cast a vote for Donald Trump, whom many of us then believed to be “the lesser of two evils,” all the while feeling that tug.


I feel it every time our president talks about government housing having no place in America’s suburbs. Jesus said repeatedly to defend the poor and show kindness and compassion to those in need. Our president continues to perpetuate an us-versus-them narrative, yet almost all of our church leaders say nothing.

I feel this tug every time our president or his followers speak about the wall, designed to keep out the very people scripture tells us to welcome. In Trump’s America, refugees are not treated as “native-born,” as scripture encourages. Instead, families are separated, held in inconceivable conditions and cast aside as less then.

The church honors Trump before God
Trump went so far as to brag about his plans, accomplishments and unholy actions towards the marginalized communities I saw my grandfather love and serve. I now see, through the silence of church leaders, that these communities are no longer valued by individuals claiming to uphold the values my grandfather taught.

A false gospel:Trump and the 'prosperity gospel' sell false promises to credulous evangelical Christians

The gentle tug became an aggressive yank, for me, earlier this year, when our country experienced division in the form of riots, incited in great part by this president’s divisive rhetoric. I watched our president walk through Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C., after the tear gassing of peaceful protesters for a photo op.

He held a Bible, something so sacred to all of us, yet he treated that Bible with a callousness that would offend anyone intimately familiar with the words inside it. He believed that action would honor him and only him. However, the church, designed to honor God, said nothing.

It seems that the only evangelical leaders to speak up praised the president, with no mention of his behavior that is antithetical to the Jesus we serve. The entire world has watched the term “evangelical” become synonymous with hypocrisy and disingenuousness.

American evangelist Billy Graham gestures as he preaches to over half a million South Koreans at a plaza on Yoido islet in Seoul, June 3, 1973, in the final day of a five-day crusade there.
My faith and my church have become a laughing stock, and any attempt by its members to defend the actions of Trump at this time sound hallow and insincere.

One of my grandfather’s favorite verses was Micah 6:8, in which we are told that the Lord requires of his people to do justly, to love kindness and mercy, and to walk humbly. These are the attributes of our faith we should present to the world. We can no longer allow our church leaders to represent our faith so erroneously.

Women of faith know better
I have given myself permission to lean into that tug in my spirit and speak out. I may be against the tide, but I am firm in my faith that this step is most consistent with my church and its teachings.

At a recent large family event, I was pulled aside by many female family members thanking me for speaking out against an administration that they, too, had been uncomfortable with. With tears in their eyes, they used a hushed tone, out of fear that they were alone or at risk of undeserved retribution.

How did we get here? How did we, as God-fearing women, find ourselves ignoring the disrespect and misogyny being shown from our president? Why do we feel we must express our discomfort in hushed whispers in quiet corners? Are we not allowed to stand up when it feels everyone else around us is sitting down?

The God we serve empowers us as women to represent Him before our churches. We represent God before we represented any political party or leader. When we fail to remember this, we are minimizing the role He created for us to fill. Jesus loved women; He served women; He valued women and we need to give ourselves permission to stand up and do the same.

If a plane gets even slightly off course, the plane will never reach its destination without a course correction. Perhaps this journey for us women looks similar. Perhaps you cringe at the president suggesting that America’s “suburban housewife” cares more about her status than those in need, but try to dismiss comments on women’s appearance as fake news.

When we look at our daughters, our nieces, our female students, and even ourselves, we feel the need to lean into that tug in our spirit. You may not have felt it four years ago; we do the best with what we know at the time. However, if we continue to ignore the tug we now feel, how will we ever be able to identify what is truly important to us?

I chose to listen to my spirit and speak out. Not because doing so feels comfortable, but because it feels like the right way to leverage the voice God has empowered me with. Now I am asking all of you that feel as I do, to embrace your inner tug, and allow it to lead you to use the power of your God-given voice and not allow Trump to lead this country for another four years.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opin...ort-donald-trump-hypocrisy-column/5625617002/

 

Intelligent Christian?

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/oxymoron

 

The answer to this has never been that difficult and hasn’t changed.

White Evangelical Christians view cultural change and societal liberalism as an existential threat. That threat is so earth shattering that it requires a blunt instrument like Trump as Gods anointed unlikely hero on par with King David and Moses.

This isn’t that difficult or confusing if you come from this culture like I do.

 

Questioning 'absolute' authority exposes the charade. The grifters stand together, any cracks of free thinking threaten them all.

 

Yet allegedly God gave us free will.

DD

 

I respect and value all religions to a certain degree. But lulz.

 

I'm sorry to report: not one embryo has ever freely chosen Jesus.