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: “We’re not electing a pastor, we’re 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.
That’s 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 don’t 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)
In before....well, you know what.
HHmmmm....I think George W Bush was considered all of those....hhhmmmm...and NO, I haven’t chosen a candidate yet....just making an observation.
“The puzzling trend that has some evangelicals jumping on the Donald Trump bandwagon is puzzling to me. “
If it did not puzzle him, would he think it was a puzzling trend?
This genius is proving the point.
He is applying the qualifications of a church elder to secular elected officials.
All while trying to rebut the arguments of those who have no interest in electing a pastor...
Christ was so beyond reproach they crucified him. The rest of us are all too human. Casting stones?
The idea that we should not care about the moral character of our political leaders is a lie from the pit of hell.
The proof will be the GOPe deciding the vote for Hillary. It will be the only option to salvage the status quo. How will this manifest itself? GOP establishment will start walking back "support the GOP no matter who the nominee is..." quotes...
And calling everyone "racist," "Nazi." and "xenophobic," etc.
One mo’ time. Some history!!
WHY WOULD WE ELECT PRESIDENT A GUY WHO...?
Why would this country elect as president some guy who was known to regale friends with nigger* jokes, grew up with a boyhood hatred of slavery because his father regularly hired him out for heavy manual labor then confiscated his earnings, had a history of depression, was suicidal from time to time (in his defense, probably due to the death of his young son, but suicidal nonetheless) and eventually started an internecine war ostensibly to halt a slavery that was, due to its inherent inefficienty, fading out – and during which he thouroughly trampled the Constitution he claimed he was attempting to preserve – that took the lives of over 700,000 troops and civilians and...
What? Oh, yeah. That was LINCOLN! never mind!
*A corruption of another word now freely used by blacks around the world when referring to one another. To NOT have written the word here would be to accord the dark forces of political correctness an inappropriate and destructive victory of which Orwell’s Thought Police would be proud.
Why would we elect to the presidency and fellow who was well known for his hyperbolic and profane bluster during his campaigns and while in the office and..? That would have been Teddy Roosevelt who, when faced with a recurrance of the trouble with the muslims in the Med that plagued Mr. Jefferson, successfully backed them down.
Why would we elect president some guy who was not healthy and smoked 3 packs of cigarettes a day, married his fifth cousin then had a notorious affair with his secretary and...?
What? Oh, sorry, that was FDR!
And why would the American people put in the Oval Office a man who, while overseas running the war in Europe and another 3 pack-a-day smoker, was schtupping his secretary while his wife was back here tending to the family and just prior to D-Day, scheduled a poorly planned, ill-fated live-fire practice for the Normandy invasion (Exercise Tiger) that got over 700 American troops KILLED – HAD THEM BURIED IN A MASS GRAVE – THEN COVERED IT UP!
Oh, sorry. That was Republican DWIGHT EISENHOWER. Moving on...
How about another Democrat whose father was a bootlegger who thought fighting the Nazis was a bad idea but who, to his credit served honorably in the Pacific and managed to get his PT boat sliced in half by a Japanese destroyer but redeemed himself by getting his crew rescued. Running against Nixon in the 1960 race, this same married chap, whose handlers thought he was a bit “tense” before the first televised debate, took him out and got him laid. (That certainly relaxed him as he won the debate.) Once in office, this fellow had numerous extramarital affairs with mob molls and several Hollywood stars, Marilyn Monroe among them and...
Oh yeah. That was JFK. never mind.
(For an interesting aside re. that event and the role a leftist media type played in that debate, please see the footnote below. If you’ve watched the current debates, you understand that THEY STILL DO.)
And then there was this character from Texas who, after his friends counted the ballots and reported him barely ahead in a close race for the Senate, was shocked – just shocked –that the very night before the recount, would you believe it? — the courthouse burned down, destroying the ballots! Like Lincoln, “nigger” was a regular part of his crude vocabulary. This fellow was a notorious womanizer and drunk whose favorite technique for reprimanding errant subordinates was to call them into the lavatory while he moved his bowels. Classy, huh?
Then he...What? You say that was LBJ? never mind.
How in the WORLD could we elect to the presidency some guy who was a 60s socialist radical, later married one even more radical than himself, wangled multiple deferments from MILITARY SERVICE while other kids his age were humping through the bush in Vietnam dodging bullets and who was a woman abuser and engaged in sexual misconduct in the Oval Office with a young intern then, under oath, perjured himself about it and...
What? Oh, right, that was BILL CLINTON! never mind!
But why the heck would we elect some guy raised by grandparents and some pornographer — all three of whom were on FBI “Communist Watch” lists in the 50s and 60s (back when the FBI actually did its job of trying to protect US) – and whose mother posed nude for the pornographer before abandoning her kid and who has openly admitted to have been – and probably still is – a pot head and user of harder illegal substances and whose every action bespeaks a hatred for the nation he allegedly heads...
What? Oh, right. That’s BARACK OBAMA! never mind!
I haven’t researched all the other folks we elevated to the highest elected office in this country. If I did, I’m sure I’d find warts and blemishes on ALL OF THEM. And why would that be? BECAUSE, LIKE YOU AND ME, THEY’RE ALL IMPERFECT HUMAN BEINGS AND ALL FALL SHORT OF THE GLORY.
Until some leftist “journalist” comes up with a fully documented list of reprehensible things MY candidate – who doesn’t drink or smoke and has raised his kids to be responsible, successful adults – has done to other folks, I’ll stick with TRUMP. And until these same media mavens provide me with a list of associates, friends, employees, clients and others he has screwed over and, further, convince me that he is attempting to prevaricate his way into the presidency (as the last guy did!) or that his profession of LOVE for America is as egregious a lie as the last guy told us, I’LL HANG IN THERE WITH TRUMP.
But my support for The Donald is based more on how the current crop (or is that crAp) of political elites and their media lapdogs and handmaidens are GOING NUTS because he is articulating problems in terms WE USE IN OUR CONVERSATIONS OUT HERE IN “FLYOVER COUNTRY”, AND NOT TALKING ABOUT HOW BEST TO ARRANGE THE DECK CHAIRS ON THE FOUNDERING SHIP CALLED “AMERICA”. Add in that he’s the only candidate who doesn’t need the job but, more importantly, DOESN’T NEED DOUGH FROM THE K STREET RENT SEEKERS WHO ROUTINELY BUY YOUR ALLEGED “REPRESENTATIVES” ON CAPITOL HILL and the rough talking, very UNPC, sometimes crude and impolite (read that “imperfect”) and that he has the “establishment” incompetents who created this mess WETTING THEMSELVES, Trump will remain my guy.
A fellow Freeper recently pointed out ANOTHER, rather strong reason for Trump to NOT GO ROGUE once in office:
I posted this:
“That said, should Trump win and go on prove to be but another undercover Judas Goat sent forth to lead us to the final holding pen of the One World totalitarian abattoir, that “explosive reaction” will make the extreme unpleasantness between 1861 and 1865 look like a peace rally!”
To which he replied:”
That’s why, despite what people say what trump will do, I think Trump loves his children and grand-children too much for that to be his legacy to them.”
Might want to toss that into your current equation!
Because the entrenched forces he faces have a 3 way program for dealing with outsiders (1. IGNORE; 2. DISCREDIT; 3. ELIMINATE), all we have to do is pray he REMAINS ABOVE AMBIENT TEMPERATURE through the debates, the election and, hopefully, on to January 20th, 2017 and an inauguration.
Dick Bachert 9/26/2015 (Edited 2/29/2016)
FOOTNOTE:
The 1960 Nixon-Kennedy Debates were directed by one Don Hewitt, creator of CBS’ “60 Minutes”. Hewitt told Nixon, who had a serious “5 O’clock Shadow” (beard, for you youngsters not familiar with that phrase) that he didn’t need to shave just prior to the program. Hewitt then directed the studio lighting to flatter Kennedy while arranging Nixon’s to make him look like an extra from “The Walking Dead”. Not satisfied, Hewitt slowly tightened the shot each time Nixon spoke so that his head loomed and filled the entire screen on TV sets all over the country. And as we all know, things that “loom” are clearly dangerous and should be avoided. The voters did so and, as we all know, Kennedy won.
I need to add that, warts and all, Kennedy did a pretty good job. While he got it completely wrong at the Bay of Pigs, he defused the Cuban Missile show down with the Soviets. And he was moving in the direction of unhooking our monetary system from the Fed (to which we PAY INTEREST on the currency they create from THIN AIR!), had begun speaking out about lowering taxes and getting us out of Vietnam. Some of us believe that’s why some folks blew off the top of his head on November 22, 1963. As with so many events like these, we may never know the truth.
So… are people going to keep on with the torrent of anti-Trump articles all the way up through November, in the schadenfreudic hope of spoiling the outcome into a self-fulfilling prophecy and getting to say “neener, neener, we told you so”?
Looks like you found yet another limp-wristed pussy to tell us what a leader should be like.
Well, Obama fits many of these criteria, so I guess that’s why we haven’t been hearing about what a bad leader Obama is for these past 7 years.
Of course, that same Paul was helping to kill Christians, before he saw the light, and changed his evil ways.
Paul isn't talking about "leaders" in general. He's talking about elders and deacons in the church. The bible has a LOT to say about leaders and it's understood that they're not always men of God that do good and men of God don't always do good.
Think about it ...
So many people have been SAYING things for years with nary a question and now the way they think that brought them to all those conclusions over the years are NO LONGER VALID !!!+
It's like waking up after a lobotomy and a whole SLEW of thoughts no longer exist !
And what of all these Christian endorsements ?
Christians, true, born again Christians have a Spirit of discernment.
I'm not even going to try to explain it except, God has been faithful in guiding me with His thought processes and I trust Him
Those that are lost ... un-saved ... have no such dicernment
The foolishness of preaching confounds the wise
The government may be secular but the Bible is full of examples of the nation of Israel suffering greatly when they installed a wicked ungodly king. The idea that looking at the moral character of a candidate is not a good idea and the sneering reply “we are not electing a paster” is an extremely insulting and stupid argument that the left came up with to defend Bill Clinton. It makes me sick to hear it being used on Free Republic. That said these days Free Republic should probably be renamed Fascist Republic.
Israel in Biblical days was a theocracy.
We are not.
It’s clear what’s going on with Trump! The anger and resentment with the ruling class and the disrespect of the middle class by the elites is leading to a revolt and an attitude of ‘get even with them’. Sadly this is how wars and revolutions start. Let me remind you, revolutions and wars have uncertain out comes. It could and might get very much worse than now. So be careful what you wish for it may not be what you think!!!
I agree with you completely. The level of support for Trump makes me fear for my country.
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