The Dallas Morning News published an opinion article back in 2016 entitled 10 reasons you can’t be a Christian and vote for Donald Trump. With the 2020 election coming soon, the article is circulating again on Facebook and other social media.
The subtitle is: One cannot really love Jesus and wish to follow him and also vote for a person who so clearly embodies the opposite of everything Christ taught, died for and demands of us.
I’m going to cite each of the ten reasons given as to why you cannot be a Christian and still support President Trump. The authors then quote the Bible verse on which they are basing their arguments against Trump. After the stated reason and the quoted Bible verse, I will give my analysis. As you’ll see, there are two or more sides to every coin.
1. He lacks compassion.
The Bible says: “As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.” (Colossians 3:12)
It’s true that the President doesn’t do a good job of displaying humility, meekness, and patience. However, I’ll argue that he does show compassion and kindness. In Colossians, Paul and Timothy are preaching to the people of Colosse. Indeed, they are speaking directly to the crowds, explaining the traits that make an individual pleasing to God. However, they are not speaking to the government or its primary leader, a king, president, or other potentate. Governments and their leaders cannot easily display meekness, humility and patience. Those that do are overthrown by those that are not meek and accommodating to those who hate and abuse them. It is the responsibility of a leader to protect his/her people, not to be nice to those who would destroy the nation. In the Old Testament, King David, the leader of the Hebrews, was held responsible by God for his personal sins, including infidelity and even murder, but not for the violent actions he took against enemies to protect Israel and its people. It is obvious that humility, meekness, and patience are the traits for good and faithful people, but they are not the traits of leaders of great nations.
Christopher Pieper and Matt Henderson, who wrote the op-ed for the Dallas Morning News, cite “many instances of inflammatory rhetoric against immigrants and Muslims, his record of discriminatory housing practices, his public cruelty to ex-spouses or his sensational and mean-spirited feuds with other celebrities” as evidence of his lack of compassion.
First, the President’s rhetoric against illegal immigrant and Muslims may be vehement and even venomous, but it has been taken out of context to portray him as a racist, white supremacist, and xenophobe. In fact, he is known by those who know him closely, including those of multiple races and religions, to be kind, open, and compassionate. His monumental efforts to keeps illegals out of the country and to destroy the threat of radical Islam are not signs of a lack of compassion. Instead, they are the hallmarks of a great leader: someone who is willing to bear the burden of criticism and hate to protect his people. Remember, it is the job of the President of the United States to support and protect the people of the United States. It is not his job, in the name of compassion, to open the borders and allow the rest of the world to flood into our country, which would destroy it in a short amount of time.
Time and again, the President has shown compassion toward those killed or harmed by illegal immigrants and to soldiers harmed in the line of duty. And he constantly shows compassion to the American people by protecting them from the evil forces that would destroy the United States if allowed by a weaker leader.
The President also stands out for his compassion to the unborn. All of the Democrats running against him believe that women have the right to choose to kill their unborn children, and sometimes even to kill them after they are born. President Trump believes that abortion should be very rare, to save the life of the mother, for instance. Who is the most compassionate, the President or his opponents?
Just as every other President has been, President Trump is an imperfect man. Indeed, he may or may not have displayed instances of “cruelty to ex-spouses” and mean-spirited actions. However, as noted, he is not perfect. If perfection is a qualification for running for President, I’ll never vote again. No one but Jesus would qualify, and come to think about it, not even Jesus would qualify, because he was not born in the United States.
2. He appeals to fear and anger.
The Bible says: “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.”(1 John 4:18)
Pieper and Henderson say “Mr. Trump has chosen to make immigration and the economy central themes of his campaign and his rhetoric surrounding these issues consistently appeals to fear and anger, absent appeals to love.”
Again, the Apostle John is speaking to a general audience, not to the leader of a great nation. It is the responsibility of a leader to warn the people of dangers they are facing.
The op-ed, speaking of Donald Trump, claims, “Most notoriously, he chose to characterize Hispanic immigrants as rapists. Regardless of our policy convictions around the place of undocumented immigrants, this broad characterization is cynically aimed to incite fear and anger.”
In fact, Donald Trump said: “”When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
It was Tim Kaine, Hillary Clinton’s vice presidential running mate who declared that Trump said “all Mexicans are rapists.” Trump never said it, but the liberal press chose to report the Kaine version rather than what was really said.
A President must speak to the American people about the challenges that face the country, even if the challenges cause fear or anger. If the issues don’t illicit a response, the President isn’t doing his job.
3. He is enamored with “greatness” and ego, but has no concern for “goodness” or service.
The Bible says: “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” (Matthew 5: 5-8)
I won’t argue that the President is not enamored with greatness and ego. It’s very obvious that he thinks very highly of himself, which is probably why he is able to accomplish as much as he has. However, to say that he has “no concern for goodness or service” is extremely dishonest. The President has worked to improve the economy and standard of living for all classes of Americans. Unemployment is now at an all-time low for all Americans, including blacks, Hispanics, and women. The stock market is booming. And President Trump is taking on challenges that other Presidents have talked about, but ultimately failed to address, including Iran, North Korea, China, illegal immigration and the drug crisis. If this doesn’t display a concern for goodness and service, I don’t know what does.
Again, when Matthew says “blessed are the meek,” he is not advising the leaders of great nations to allow themselves to be conquered. He is speaking of personal traits that enhance the human soul.
4. He lies — a lot.
The Bible says: “Beware then of useless grumbling, and keep your tongue from slander; because no secret word is without result, and a lying mouth destroys the soul.” (Wisdom 1:11)
Pieper and Henderson cite “Pulitzer Prize winning truth-checkers Politifact” as proving that Trump lies seventy-six percent of the time.
The ONLY example they give is: Among these is this infamous lie about 9/11: “I watched in Jersey City, N.J., where thousands and thousands of people were cheering as [the World Trade Center] was coming down. Thousands of people were cheering.”
The truth is that there was no reason for Donald Trump to lie about this. Maybe he was wrong, or misinterpreted, or saw it differently than others. Also, maybe he actually reported what he saw, but it was ignored by the liberal media. As far as “Pulitzer Prize winning truth-checkers” is concerned, winning an award doesn’t make you right. After all, Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize for doing nothing.
Also, President Trump did not promise “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.” President Obama did. Those forced onto Obamacare can tell you how true the statement is.
Investors Business Daily noted this about fact checkers:
Fact checkers also often “check” opinions, rather than factual claims, even though two people can form diametrically opposed opinions based on the same facts.
Worse, many media “fact checks” use other media sources to check facts, apparently forgetting that journalists get their facts wrong almost as often as politicians. (Take a look at the list of corrections on any given day in The New York Times.)
On top of this are legitimate complaints of political bias among fact checkers, who often seem to spend most of their time trying to debunk claims made by conservatives rather than liberals.
However, if you want to find liars, look at Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden, James Comey, and most of the liberal media.
This is Part One of A Two Part Article
— Mr. Evil