Posted on 03/01/2016 11:52:35 AM PST by Kaslin
The puzzling trend that has some evangelicals jumping on the Donald Trump bandwagon is puzzling to me. When I express my concern, I am sometimes given an argument that goes something like this: Were not electing a pastor, were choosing a president. The idea being that to expect the kind of saintly behavior, rhetoric, and demeanor demanded of the clergy in a politician is not a standard we should apply.
Thats partly true, particularly when it comes to purely theological and spiritual issues. But when it comes to things like character and integrity, standards highlighted in scripture for those who aspire to leadership in religious bodies also make sense in any context where someone is considered for a position of private or public trust.
For example, when the Apostle Paul instructed a young and emerging church leader in one of his letters, he profiled a good and decent person. And I think most Americans would agree that there are some very basic standards of goodness and decency that should be shared by all effective leaders.
Character matters.
So Paul listed some of these things in his admonition to young Timothy in the third chapter of his first letter to him. And I think what Paul described transcends the church and religion. There are universal qualities that can and should also apply to leaders everywhere.
A good leader should be blameless, which means above reproach and free from scandal. A leader should be faithful to his or her spouse, demonstrating through the capacity to keep his or her word in the most essential relationship, that he or she will be trustworthy in other contexts.
A good leader should be able to control his tongue. The old word is sober-minded, which denotes the trend toward serious reflection and careful articulation.
A good leader should be hospitable, according to Paul. Interestingly, the Greek root for that English word is the compound of xenos (stranger or foreigner) and philos (loving), or literally, a lover of foreigners or outsiders.
A good leader is not violent, but gentle and never quarrelsome.
And a good leader should never be a lover of money. Someone in charge must never be driven by personal gain, or use personal gain in a selfish way.
Yes, all of these matters of character apply to leadership in the church. But dont they also make sense in a larger context? I think so. I know some like Trump because he promotes himself as a man who can get things done. But this strikes me as something akin to the Mussolini made the trains run on time argument.
The presidency is a powerful job. Theodore Roosevelt called it a bully pulpit. But he also said: Speak softly and carry a big stick.
Sacrificing the good in the pursuit of great is a prescription for disaster. The Scripture reminds us, When the godly are in authority, the people rejoice. But when the wicked are in power, they groan. (Proverbs 29:2 New Living Translation)
I thought it was, and it was not exactly anti Trump, but panic overcomes them when they read Trump’s name. . I posted the article original in News/activism where it belongs but someone found it necessary to put it in Chat with the ridiculous topics Cheese, Moose, Sister that have absolutely nothing to do with the subject
Excellent point.
Until we see that Hitler didn’t make any promises to help Christians....
I have posted quite a few articles that were pro Trump. Guess who is missing in the reply posts. If you guessed the Trump bots than you would be 100% correct.
I’m a Trump “watcher” not a “bot” but anyhow I’m not sure who or what you mean.
He he he...
Cheese, moose, sister is a FR admin way of saying “this discussion is shortly expected to turn into nonsense.”
Thanks a lot Admin moderator /sarcasm>
Jesus was popular and drew large crowds also. (Remember how He fed the 4,000, and how He fed the 5,000, who came to hear what He had to say?)
What’s interesting is people seem to be completely invested in their candidate, at least if that candidate is Trump or Cruz. Trump fans, especially, seem to be willing to forgive or ignore or excuse any and all non-conservative positions their candidate takes. Trump seems to have no core values at all, at least none that aren’t negotiable. So, my question is, what happens if he completely reneges on everything he’s said during the campaign? No wall. No friend of the Second Amendment. No friend of the First Amendment. Etc. An authoritarian tyrant much like Obama. How many of Trump’s fans will then admit they were wrong?
Not positive this will happen, of course, but there’s plenty of possibility. It’ll just be interesting to see what happens if that plays out. My guess is they’ll continue to forgive or ignore or excuse his every behavior. At least that’s how it appears from these threads. He can literally do no wrong.
Sadly this is what they believe.
Well depends on who you are boosting, of course.
The problem is that we have two markedly imperfect leading candidates. The acid test of going up against Trump’s vitriol has reduced Cruz’s own apparent level which tells me he needs better spiritual preparation than he currently has, and which more worldly people don’t need to care about. I don’t think that it needs being either a Trumpbot or a Cruzbot to make that kind of valid observation, and truly we should be praying for the good of America. Bringing Rubio in as a serious contender may make us wish we had either Trump or Cruz, no matter who we had been boosting before. I just don’t get good vibes about his gay cruising past — we may be headed out of two frying pans into a very nasty fire.
A lot of folks may be sensing a move of God behind the troublesome Trump. I’m only one of those.
Trump can do a world of wrong, but God can’t. It’s called grace, and grace is given with a definite plan.
I’m even willing to surmise that the stealth trouble in this scene may be riding on Rubio. Which is why all the recent devouring behavior between Cruz and Trump.
He’s the very possible poofter. Now I believe in being merciful to poofters, and I will be the very first to say whatever you do, literally OMG don’t stone them! — but I also believe in the warning to “hate the very clothing stained by the flesh.” A sensible balance must be observed by the godly Christian facing this issue. Somehow do we want to hang it up on this spiritual battle now that they have “gay marriage”? I think that’s foolish. Caesar can neither damn nor save their souls. But we don’t want to usher someone embroiled in this sin, to the bully pulpit of a high office, while we are still woefully spiritually unprepared. Not if we don’t want to see BIG trouble.
And that’s, I guess, how we feed cheese to a moose and our sister.
But I just have a hunch that neither Cruz or Trump are the biggest trouble here. I think both would conduct themselves surprisingly well in office, because they are NOT kings and in their own ways they even let on that they aren’t. The big trouble is Rubio.
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