Posted on 12/17/2017 11:31:22 PM PST by Oshkalaboomboom
Among some of the religious conservatives who helped place Donald Trump in the presidency, there is a subtle but growing sense of buyer’s remorse. To them, Trump has not been ennobled by the office as they had hoped. He has not allowed his newfound but much touted commitment to faith to lift him above the crass brawler he has been most of his life.
For some of these religious conservatives, it is the pettiness that offends most. They had hoped for a healer, rather than the kind of man who would call protesting NFL players “sons of bitches” or who would feud with the beleaguered mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, while she stood elbow-deep in the waters of hurricane Irma. For other faith-based former Trump supporters, it is the sense that something is amiss in the president’s inner being, that perhaps TV host Stephen Colbert was right when he spoke of the president’s “anemic firefly of a soul.”
Then there are those who simply fear that the chaos in the White House and Trump’s bare knuckles approach to threats like North Korea will lead the nation into avoidable disasters.
They had hoped for a better man. In fact, they were promised one. During the 2016 presidential election, many conservative religious leaders, traumatized by the Obama years and terrified of a Hillary Clinton presidency, turned to Trump as the champion of their hopes. In doing so, they remade his campaign into a holy crusade, excusing behavior they had often derided in their pulpits.
It worked. By the time the dust settled, Donald Trump had won the votes of 81 percent of white evangelicals, more than half of all Roman Catholics, and more than half of all weekly church attendees in the United States.
In their defense, these religious conservatives believed themselves under siege. During the Obama years, they had endured bombardment of nearly everything they held dear.
It was candidate Obama who had once declared that working class white voters “cling to guns and religion” because they “get bitter” and are angry about people who “aren’t like them.” As president, Obama seemed never to have heard of an abortion he couldn’t support, unswervingly served an LGBT agenda, and used the weapons of his Justice Department against traditional faith and its practitioners time and again, even famously suing a small order of Roman Catholic nuns.
As the 2016 presidential race neared, Hillary Clinton seemed an equal threat. She had once told a global conference of women that abortion rights required “deep-seated ... religious beliefs” to be “changed.” As secretary of state, she proclaimed lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights a “priority” of American foreign policy. This in an era of global terrorism and nuclear threat. She was so subject to the prevailing political winds that though as first lady she had once championed the Defense of Marriage Act by citing Bible verses, no one celebrated the Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges ruling legalizing same-sex marriage as publicly as Hillary Clinton.
By the launch of the 2016 presidential race, then, religious conservatives were desperate. They longed for a candidate sympathetic to their sufferings. They hoped for someone who channeled their anger. They would settle for a conservative who could win.
They found all of this in Donald Trump — he of the racist campaign statements, the womanizing, the casinos, the misquoting of scripture, and the foul language. A religious rebranding soon began. He was, some said, like Lincoln — perhaps not an orthodox believer but guided by the better angels of his nature and the hand of a history-ruling God. Maybe he was Churchill — crass, blasphemous, gifted, and ordained. He might even be like Cyrus the Great — a vile pagan but a tool of God nonetheless.
It was all part of an audacious religious makeover. Yet victory has come with great risk. American religious conservatives are wed to Donald Trump now. They will be made to answer for the mores, the methods, and the machinations of the Trump administration.
Perhaps it is just this connection to their seemingly untethered president that is causing some religious conservatives to have second thoughts. Perhaps they sense that if Trump fails them, if he betrays their vision, the banner of religious conservatives may be forced from the field of American cultural battle for a generation or more.
There is still a chance for a change. There is still the possibility that religious leaders with access to Trump will dare to call him to the full implications of the faith he claims.
Perhaps then we shall see the better angels of our nation take flight, even during the tempestuous presidency of Donald Trump.
‘”Dry cods revolt...... Trump not sufficiently pure”
“Sanctimonious self righteousness drives some evangelicals back off the cliff”
oh, so they would rather have had hillary as president since January?
fools, can’t see how good it is compared to how much worse it WOULD have been, not just for Christians but for just about all americans.
Any one disappointed need only look at themselves and see what more THEY could be doing to make a difference. Don’t just look to president or some leader to fix it.
An anti-Trump deep state supporter attempting to gin up doubts about Trump amoung evangelicals.
It isn’t working.
Trump is delivering on his promises.
No remorse.
This guy cites ZERO examples of his thesis.
“causing some religious conservatives to have second thoughts.”
Did he pull this out of his ass? Where is the proof? I looked for stats/proof, but didn’t see any.
A TV host asked Rev. Jeffress about PDJT allegedly losing evangelicals’ support and Jeffress didn’t challenge the statement. I’m immersed in evangelicals all the time, and see no evidence of this. As far as I can see, support is stronger than ever.
The author has no idea why evangelicals and conservative catholics voted for Trump in such numbers.
He probably thinks Hillary is honest, trustworthy, and morally upright. And that Bill is a spiritual man because the bible he carried was so big.
Useless piece of trash writing with another weak attempt to sow division in support for President Trump.
WHEN YOU FIGHT A ROOM OF PUTBULLS DO YOU SEND IN A POODLE OR A MALE THAT CAN TAKE WHATS COMING.
Try to I imagine just 1 day in his shoes. Not many could take it and go on. Thank God you had the good sense to vote him in. Realize it takes time to accomplish goals with people who ADMIT to hamper his efforts.
And most of all get on your knees and pray for the protection safety and stamina to carry out God's fight.
This article is baloney. Trump is doing a great job, and Evangelicals support him.
“I don’t get this article.”
Totally agree. This was written well within the Beltway.
I, myself, did it without much hope that things would change. The really nice thing about being a pessimist is that you are never disappointed, and occasionally pleasantly surprised, as is now the case.
He does think that!! May he stay do deluded.
Fake evangelicals, who never voted for him to begin with
It strikes me that this article is more about causing friction between factions and fragmenting Donald Trumps support than about a real discussion about how Evangelicals feel about POTUS. IOW the work of the enemy.
Well, you people can always nominate Roy Moore next time around.
The author keeps using the pronoun “They”. he sounds like “They” and “Them” are people outside of his orbit whose views he is attempting to analyze and understand.
The article clearly is utilizing a divisive tone in a before and after critique of the POTUS.
I doubt there is a shred of evidence that this is actually remorse. More like a family member being evaluated for his manners. President Trump has been like a breath of fresh air for Christian people of faith. He has kept his promises, and is defending the Constitution as he said he would. He never promised he would stop tweeting or speaking his mind forthrightly.
IMHO it may be a case that people get tired of the constant criticism of him - but that can go two ways - right now it is favoring Donald Trump.
I spent an entire day at home searching for anything in the Christian world on line about the reaction by others to Trump. When the day was over, I was on the Trump Train to stay.
Today, I remain steadfast in my appreciation for the divine intervention of a loving God who prepared a very direct and forceful personality to intervene in the evil goings-on of what we now call the swamp.
Yes Mr. Trump has made some mistakes, but he is a fast learner, and he is probably the only one in our nation that could have completed the assignment that God gave him - To Make America Great Again!
The evening of 11/08/16. I did not watch the news, rather I watched as the New York Times tally board steadily shifted from their internal bias for HRC to the declared will of the people.
I was excited for the many testimonies I heard that went along the lines of - "I haven't voted in years, but this year I am all in for Donald Trump".
Folks, continue to pray for our nation, for the Peace of Jerusalem and Israel, hope for the unborn child and the hope our nation gives to a lost world without Christ.
. . . and I thought it was only the progressives, the cultural marxists, and the materialistic atheists who expected earthly perfection.
Same writer two months ago:
“I speak a lot at university campuses and spend lots of time with millennials. They’re often depicted as soft and privileged. But millennials have a strong social conscience and care deeply about justice. I knew Trump had been traumatic for them...
...Millennials have been left to conclude that people like Donald Trump, who only talk about cutting programs, are harsh and cruel.
Leaders like Franklin Graham and James Dobson, with their unwavering Trump support, have risked any sort of connection with millennials going forward. Millennials, with their passion for social justice, are very put off by him, and this is bound to produce some level of alienation from their churches and even their faith. If Religious Right leaders had shown more prophetic distance—if they had called on Trump to be a better man, with more compassionate policies—then their reputation among millennials might have been salvaged.
In certain white evangelical churches, we have a silo mentality: We’ll store up goods and wealth, live in a white enclave, and turn our churches into malls for the members—rather than making ourselves relevant to society in a biblical way. Pastors don’t need the Johnson Amendment overturned to speak the teachings of Jesus about racial reconciliation or helping the poor.
Churches where people are out there in the inner city or having joint worship services with African American congregations, or otherwise reaching across the divide—millennials are thriving within these churches, and they have an assured future.”
Me? I’m not interested in tickling the ears of millennials. I don’t follow Jesus Christ the Social Justice Warrior. And we need a President who fights instead of bloviates. Who refuses to worship at the Altar of Social Justice!
A basic rule of life: It is hard to lead when you focus on kissing butts!
The qualifications for POTUS are different than the qualifications for church elder. Not many men have the qualifications for both positions (Mike Pence being a noted exception). For me to vote for someone as POTUS, he must have a Christian worldview, even if his personal behavior isn't what I would desire.
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