[nathanbedford]

Yaelle, I have come to respect your contributions to this thread over the years and I certainly take your criticism very seriously. More, I think the issue you raise, the treatment of Christianity especially evangelical Christianity, is well worth exploring.

Let's assume for a moment that neither Trump nor Cruz pretends to Christian virtue. In other words, we must judge these candidates on the basis of their deeds alone without reference to whether or not they are Christian hypocrites. In post #117 I alleged the following about Donald Trump:

He tried to throw elderly people out into the street so they can convert their apartments into condominiums; he tries to evict little old ladies from their home so he can build parking lots for gamblers limousines; that he has hired illegal aliens; he has greased politicians; he has lied about the quality of his buildings; he has instituting frivolous lawsuits; he associates with convicted felons; he has fleeced vulnerable students; he has acted as a bully; and he has vilified, intimidated, sued, bankrupted and defrauded people; he has lied about his opposition to the war in Vietnam.

This is damning bill of particulars and I aver that many more peccadillos could be added to it. Against this indictment on this thread we are told that this is "old news", and other words, no attempt is made to defend Donald Trump on the substance of these charges.

Let us move to a consideration of Ted Cruz:

He is alleged to have behaved in a "sleazy" manner in the Ben Carson affair in Iowa; he is alleged to have distributed "sleazy" flyers in Iowa; (I would add for later consideration the following charge: in the biblical phrase, "he makes broad his phylacteries"(in other words he wears his religion on his sleeve and, in your words, that can be "embarrassing.")

Now if the charges against Donald Trump are true surely you would say that this is a man of dubious qualification to be the moral and secular leader of the nation. If these charges against Ted Cruz are true, you would surely say this is merely the rub and chaff of the political contest. I am prepared to indict and prosecute Donald Trump on the bill of particulars outlined above and I am prepared to defend Ted Cruz on these lesser charges as well. But what happens with these charges against both men is that Trump supporters move the goalposts, they change the standard, in fact, they apply almost no standard to Donald Trump even as they apply an impossible standard to Ted Cruz. How does the supporter of Donald Trump justify inverting these standards of judgment? They accuse Ted Cruz of making broad his phylacteries and they claim that because he is a prominent exponent of his religion, he is a hypocrite and therefore unworthy.

The Christian religion quite rightly points to forgiveness as you have accurately pointed out but then the Christian conception of man is of a fallen sinner in need of redemption, "all have sinned all fall short of the glory of God," hence the need for rebirth. As Paul said, it is the good that I would do that I do not and the evil that I would not do that I do, indicating that even the reborn Christian is subject to sin. A Christian familiar with his Bible is not surprised that Ted Cruz is not perfect but that same Christian does not lose perspective in the real world. He would ask, what is the nature and degree of sin this Ted Cruz? He would ask, is it Ted Cruz who is a disgrace to Christianity or is it the outsider who purports to be so put off because Ted Cruz is not 100% perfect while he proclaims his faith?

Ted Cruz has an absolute right to proclaim his faith, in fact he has a biblical obligation so to do in the great commission and it is not necessary for him to separate strictly his politics from his religion. Those who insist that he do so and claim they are put off when he declines to do so, are fixing a standard to him which is unreasonable. Worse, they pervert the standard and use it to forgive (as though they had that power) to forgive the far greater sins of Donald Trump. They claim they are segregating the religious from the political world but in fact they are perverting them both.

If Ted Cruz's religion is to be so deplored, why is it that he leadssuch an exemplary life? If Donald Trump's religion is so enlightened why does he leave so many victims in his wake?

[Yaelle]

You are a graceful, eloquent writer and it’s awfully fresh of me to even take you on, because you know your subject matter better than I do, both the details of the men’s lives as well as your religion. I guess my purpose in responding is out of respect for your response, and to still disagree on how the two men come off religiously.

I will stipulate that Trump has done those callous things in your post. I assume billionnaires do step on toes in their dealings and I doubt that even those who donate millions to charity and show multiple kindnesses avoid some of those bad deeds in their CVs. I assume many Christians have a lot of Acts they end up ashamed of.

Ted Cruz’s life is not as on display as the much older, more famous man, but I’d assume he has probably an equivalent number per year of sins as Trump. I assume both men have cared about doing good and have done their best but fell short year after year.

Sadly, the appearance of impropriety hurts more the reputation of the man who preaches his religion daily. This doesn’t seem fair but it just is. We are told in the Jewish religion that if you are dressed obviously as a Jew, you have MORE RESPONSIBILITY to your fellow Jews than if you are not. A man wearing a yarmulke seen walking into Tony’s House of Bacon just to use the restroom will give a false impression and may cause another Jew seeing him to sin. He should seek another restroom for appearance’s sake.

So a Ted Cruz, who is running on Christianity, should make more of an effort to run an honest, decent campaign.

Most of our presidential politicians over the years have been Christian. Most of them did not ask to be held to a higher standard. George W Bush had a compelling story of returning to the fold, and I’ll even give Kasich credit for his apparent religious growth. But only a few candidates really heavily spread their faith verbally over everything, and when they do dishonest things in the course of their “Christian campaigning,” the optics and the reaction to them stings. Huckabee is the perfect example.

I admire Trump frankly saying that he caused his marriages to fail, and admitting that in business you have to be “sharp” and work around laws, etc. He’s very matter of fact about it. I cringe when Cruz doesn’t do the same re his campaign tricks, because it would be easy for a good man to say, “I lost control of my team there, and the guy who did it is no longer with us. I see how that looks now.” Or “Now that I look at that photo, it does send the wrong message and I’m sorry I approved that ad.”

I don’t think wearing your Christianity on your sleeve means you can’t be forthright and humble, but often the two seem mutually exclusive.