Posted on 12/07/2019 11:12:11 AM PST by SeekAndFind
In a lengthy op-ed piece for The Christian Post titled "You foolish evangelicals, Trump has bewitched you," Chris Thurman claims that “evangelicals who support Donald Trump are being both blind and foolish to do so.” Therefore “labeling them as such is not sinful but appropriate and necessary.” Is there any truth to his charge?
Thurman explains that in using the word “support” he “was not referring to evangelicals who voted for Trump in 2016,” even though he believes they erred in voting for him.
Rather, he wrote, “I’m referring to those evangelicals who continue to hold Trump up as a great leader, say he is God’s chosen one for the presidency, applaud his appalling words and actions, ignore his glaring moral defects, and enable his dangerous presidency to continue by giving him their time, talents, and treasures.”
In Thurman’s view, prominent evangelical leaders who fall into this category are Ralph Reed, Jerry Falwell Jr., Franklin Graham, and Vice President Mike Pence.
According to Thurman, they are supporting a man who is “morally ill beyond normal standards of human decency.”
He writes, “Given how narcissistic and sociopathic Trump is, he fundamentally doesn’t believe that the rules of moral behavior or social norms apply to him.” And, whereas there was hope that, upon becoming president, he would change, “he has only grown more mentally and morally disturbed and defiant since assuming the powers of the presidency.”
Then, after raising a litany or serious accusations against Trump, Thurman quotes 2 Timothy 3:1-5, a dire passage indeed (do read it when you have a minute) and concludes: “I believe this passage is almost a word-for-word description of our current president and that it’s not in the Bible by accident. I believe this particular passage was written for the very times we live in. God, being all-knowing, knew ahead of time this godless individual would ascend to the presidency of our country. In light of what the passage says, could God be any clearer about who He doesn’t want Christians to support when it comes to choosing a leader?”
And so, he asks, “Given that Trump’s moral depravity has glaringly and dangerously been on display in public for three years now, how could any evangelical continue to support a man for president who is causing such great harm everywhere he goes?”
There is only one choice we have: “You foolish evangelicals, Trump has bewitched you. Stop calling him good when he is evil, light when he is darkness. Have nothing to do with him.”
My response to Thurman’s article is that he is just as guilty as the evangelicals he accuses, except from the opposite perspective. In short, while some evangelicals seem blind to his failings and his potential to hurt America deeply, Thurman seems blind to Trump’s strengths and his potential to help America greatly.
To be clear, I have frequently urged my fellow-evangelicals not to defend Trump when his words or actions are indefensible and not to sell our souls to him. And any reader of my columns knows of my book Donald Trump is Not My Savior: An Evangelical Leader Speaks His Mind About the Man He Supports as President.
These same readers will also remember how strenuously I opposed Trump during the primaries. And to this day, I have close and dear friends who would agree with many of the concerns raised by Thurman — and I’m speaking of committed evangelicals.
One respected friend insists that for evangelicals to preserve our testimony, we must find a conservative Republican to replace him. Another close friend who voted for Trump in 2016 plans not to vote at all in 2020.
So, I do understand the opposition to Trump and, to repeat, I was once part of it.
Yet as Trump defeated all his primary challengers, as unlikely as that seemed, and as solid Christian leaders began to support him, I said to myself, “I must be missing something.”
How is it, I wondered, that so many good people could be so duped? And what was it they saw in Trump, a man who was clearly not Christian in any serious sense of the word?
I felt like someone listening to a comedian telling poor jokes as the audience roared with laughter. At a certain point, you ask yourself, “Could it be that I’m not getting the jokes?”
To be sure, I cannot speak for Reed, Falwell, Graham, or Pence, nor do I want to. At times I have cringed at some evangelical defenses of the president, but I have no idea what these leaders say to him behind closed doors. I do not sit here as their judge.
At the same time, I’m looking at the bigger picture, and Trump really is engaged in some major, existential wars.
Never before in my memory have we seen the depths of the DC swamp. Or the bias and even dishonesty of the media (on both sides, actually, but especially on the left). Or the blood-thirsty nature of the pro-abortion camp. Or the extreme radicality of the left (including the new push for socialism and the attempt to silence opposing ideas, even violently). Or the danger of the internet giants suppressing conservative voices and influencing elections.
This is what Trump is fighting, and as flawed as he is, those of us who support him recognize that very few men would be able to withstand all this pressure without caving and compromising along the way.
Trump has also had a massive impact on the courts, to give just one important example of his major accomplishments. As Rolling Stone announced last month with some panic, “Trump’s Takeover of America’s Courts Just Hit a Terrifying New Milestone.
“Trump has now appointed one out of every four appeals-court judges — more than Obama did in eight years in office.”
This is already having a positive impact on some major, life and death rulings, with a potential impact that should positively affect the next generation.
That’s why the Democrats have been talking about impeachment virtually since the day Trump was elected. As a Vanity Fair article from December 15, 2016, stated: “DEMOCRATS ARE PAVING THE WAY TO IMPEACH DONALD TRUMP.”
And as I write these words from India, I think of the significance of Trump standing with the protesters in Hong Kong and his willingness to face down the giant that is China. That is massive.
I also think of those evangelicals who are close to the president, appealing to him to urge India’s Prime Minister Modi to stand down in his persecution of Christians. (I’ll have more to say about this persecution in a forthcoming article.)
It is these same evangelicals who are in the president’s ear when it comes to a compassionate and righteous solution to the immigration crisis. They are also encouraging him to take further steps in prison reform. And they are applauding his economic policies that are helping millions of Americans, including minorities.
As noted in a November 6, 2019, article on Bloomberg.com (did I say Bloomberg?), “Despite his reputation for being racially divisive, President Donald Trump’s approval ratings have drifted upward among nonwhites in the last two years. While it’s impossible to say exactly why, one reasonable explanation is that the U.S.’s long economic expansion has been particularly beneficial for minority workers.”
And since Trump has surrounded himself with evangelicals, both in his administration and in his circle of counselors, why should they stop giving him input? Why on earth walk out when he has left the door wide open?
For many evangelicals, it is Trump’s very evident shortcomings that mark him as a man raised up by God, meaning that: 1) his election was beyond unlikely; and 2) God delights in using fallen and flawed vessels.
But this hardly means he is beyond criticism (although some evangelicals, unfortunately, do feel that way). It simply means we see God’s hand at work in very positive ways in the Trump presidency while we recognize the potential damage he can do.
Ironically, Thurman rejects any possible notion that Trump is foreshadowed in the Scriptures (say, as a Cyrus figure, meaning a pagan king who did not know the Lord yet was chosen by God to help Israel). Yet he claims that 2 Timothy 3:1-5 is written as a warning about Donald Trump.
That’s why I say that he is making the same mistake as those he criticizes, just from the exact opposite perspective.
In my view, there is healthy ground between these two extremes, and it is what I have advocated for many months. The president gets our vote but not our soul.
And while we pray for him and support him, he is not our savior or our example or our guide.
Dr. Michael Brown (www.askdrbrown.org) is the host of the nationally syndicated Line of Fire radio program.
Idiots.
Donald Trump was the only man who could have prevented Hillary Clinton from becoming president. I thank God for that every day.
Yeah, a Hillary Clinton presidency would have been awesome for evangelical Christians. We all would have had “fun camps” to go to!
The ones who are the fools are the bitter Never Trumpers and Neo Pharisees pushing this ignorant nonsense
Romans 3:23 New International Version (NIV)
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Is Trump perfect? No, far far from it but then SO TOO are these bombastic poser using their pompous religiosity as an excuse to condemn him politically
Most of the Left anti God agenda has not been legislative, it been imposed by Courts. Most notable, Abortion and Gay Marriage.
On Judges alone Trump has done a better job of protecting Christians then the last 4 Presidents combined
Wow! Is there anything this author doesn’t know?!
He seems very judgy. Must have attended my old church.
We are not electing someone for sainthood. We are electing someone who will save America from becoming a hellhole, so that it doesn't become a hellhole for evangelicals. At this present time, no one else can do it.
[[Chris Thurman]]
What do you propose then Chris Thurman? Not vote and allow a screeching raving lunatic democrat to become our president?
What exactly has President Trump done that is so bad for our country Chris?
[[appalling words and actions, ]]
Appalling actions? What Chris? Name them!~
[[ignore his glaring moral defects,]]
Where in the bible does it say we need to hold out for a pure as the driven snow candidate in order to support this country? We are hiring a Commander in Chief- NOT a pastor in chief! Get that through your thick skull! Would you rather have had a godless screeching raving lunatic liberal as president? And you say you love this country? Then act like it and stop attacking the right for doing the RIGHT Thing!
[[“Given how narcissistic and sociopathic Trump is, he fundamentally doesn’t believe that the rules of moral behavior or social norms apply to him.”]]
Hey Chris- have you bothered to take a look at the left? Trump is St Andrew compared to most of them!
[[“Given that Trump’s moral depravity has glaringly and dangerously been on display in public for three years now,... causing such great harm everywhere he goes]]
Oh go crawl back in the liberal swamp you slithered out of you lying viper! You child of the Evil One-
And Michael Brown- you aren’t much better- What harm is {President Trump doing to this nation? Go suck an egg- you sound almost a liberal as Chris does-
What’s so “Christian” about the Christian Post?
not much in recent years it seems
And having read the entire article he does not give one single solitary example of these "indefensible" words or actions.
Of course it is Michael Brown. His books and articles are not to be tossed lightly aside.
They should be hurled with great force.
Preferably at his head.
It might knock some sense into him
As usual he is inventing solutions for imaginary problems.
As we have seen over the last three years, these radical judge-presidents would be issuing "ruling" after "ruling" that would be a boot in the face of evangelicals across the country.
I think the evangelicals chose wisely.
Who are these Christians? What type of God do they believe in that would want us to vote for and support reprobate evil; killing live babies, love of money and criminal behaviors that would make the Romans blush, and sodomites?
RE: And having read the entire article he does not give one single solitary example of these “indefensible” words or actions.
OK, I’ll give you one -— Accusing Ted Cruz’s father of colluding to kill JFK.
You can try again.
OK, so I as an “evangelical” should not have voted for Trump. So I should have voted for Hillary, or not voted at all which is basically voting for Hillary.
Remember, Hillary the lady who said in a speech to an international audience (not in the U.S.) that Christians must be forced to accept abortion. Hillary, the one who said that those with traditional Christian beliefs are “deplorable.” Hillary, who aided and abetted her husband a sexual predator. Hillary, whose party officially rejected God 3 times and accepted Satan in their 2012 national convention. The Democrats, the party of homosexuality, transgenderism, murdering children, mocking marriage, and embracing drugs. Do you think God would approve of ANY of that? What do you think Hillary would have done if she got in office? Christians in America would be going through persecution like never before. Many of us in licensed professions like medicine, law, pharmacy, etc. would probably have been forced out of our employment by now, and all Christians would have been banned from the public square. We already see it increasing substantially even with Trump as president.
The Bible clearly says you must CHOOSE. Joshua 24:14-15. You cannot just sit on the sidelines. Esther 4:14.
Well, I guess all of these reports are wrong?
https://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-36195317
Now, if you say they are the liberal media, what about this video of Trump NOT distancing himself from the allegation and in fact, putting more gasoline to the flames:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SRLYWLirJI
So, let me get this straight. Opposing Trump, which basically means supporting his Democrat rivals, who openly advance infanticide, is wrong and sinful?
Someone appears to be first in line for the great deception.
Names come to mind . . . David, Saul . . . et al."
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.