David French Article

The National Review wrote this just eleven years ago after Jerry Falwell died. It was not without any criticism but was much more multi-sided and balanced. Why the one-sidedness in the age of Trump?

The Moral Majority of the Story | National Review

 

I believe that the current association between Evangelical Christianity and the Republican party is doing a great deal of harm to the church and to the people who accept this association. As is noted in a comment, this did not start with Trump. It has been going on since Reagan or perhaps earlier.. But Trump is a giant leap in the disaster that this belief represents.

 

It's the controversy driven economics of media in this digital age.

Gotta get them clicks.

 

Do you think as Christians we should be scolding the president for his adulteries? When I learned about the adulteries, I thought to myself that they are between Donald, Melania, Stormy (or whoever), and God.

It's so hard to care about a fresh outrage every day especially when so many of them are lied about and exxaggerated.

Trump is not a perfect man, to put it mildly, but there will come a time when we'll have to look at him as what he became in office rather than what he was in the past. Melania too. Likely they are being transformed now that they are in office, whether we ever wanted them there in the first place or not.

Why are so many things being dredged up from his past? Has he been caught in any adulteries during his campaign or during his presidency?

How do you know he hasn't repented to God in private? I know it seems unlikely that he has. But does he owe us all a press conference or a tweet storm about it, if he has?

 

I don't think Christians should be attacking Christians just over criticism of Trump, either.

But the David French article was not about that topic.

I'm sorry you have been subjected to vile attacks. I scrupulously avoid Twitter, myself.

Well, then, criticize away. I will not attack you. (I have a limited attention span for rehashing stale talking points left over from the campaign, though.)

 

French is a #NeverTrump. Trump was not my choice. Some Republicans disliked Reagan because he was divorced and remarried, but the American people decided in the Clinton case that multiple adultries did not preclude a president from serving. Everyone knew that Trump was a playboy, a casino owner, and a wheeler dealer. Who defends those things except to say that no one cares?

French had a chance to run for president and he declined it. Why didn't he stand up?

 

What do you mean? Will Fundamentalists and Evangelicals be hurt for supporting Trump? Undoubtedly. Do #NeverTrump people such as French, who declined to run and who knew that Trump was a playboy, casino owner, and wheeler dealer, care? Not a bit. In 1964, the GOP was told that if they voted for Goldwater, there would be a war in Viet Nam; some of them did anyway, and sure enough there was a war in Viet Nam.

French is illogical.

 

I "get" the quixotic nature of #NeverTrump people like French, who didn't want to run when he had the chance. I have never said that Trump's business and personal life in the past were good so French has a real straw man there, which as a lawyer he should know. And I understand that Fundamentalists and Evangelicals will pay a price for voting for Trump. Some of them voted for Romney, too, and he is a cultist. Some of them voted for Hillary and she is an enabler. French would criticize people for voting for enablers, too--not to mention cultists.

Most #NeverTrump people are leaving the GOP.

 

If I remember rightly, Goldwater wasn't elected, & had nothing to do with the war in Vietnam, except for being widely misquoted for advocating the use of nuclear weapons.

Over here US Evangelicals are giving "evangelical" a bad name for their political support of Trump & Zionism.

 

I have to tell you I am flat out tired of being misrepresented and seeing Trump supporters in general being misrepresented. The quoted statement above is a clear dishonest misrepresentation and it is unChristian. What Trump supporter ever said do not criticize Trump? Can a single supporter of Trump be quoted as saying Trump should never under any circumstances be criticized?

I doubt a singe quote can be provided. What happens though is supporters see the type of criticism leveled and the manner in which it is done. The criticism has been nothing short of completely nasty. This coming from those who call themselves Christians. Take Russell Moore for instance. What in the world did he call evangelicals who voted for Trump? His name calling was "Trump supporters came from the “Jimmy Swaggart wing” of evangelicalism,". Further of leadership he said "Southern Baptist leaders who met with Trump were “drinking the Kool-Aid.”

What I am sick to death of is Christians who are anti Trump who pretend they are above the fray (like your post here) while ignoring all the criticism of Trump and his supporters. I find it dishonest and I find your post here dishonest. You and Moore and all the fake news folks over at SBC Voices aren't fooling anyone but yourselves.

 

Further, Moore lied, Trump never courted white supremacists.

 

I saw Richard Land and liked him but I never liked Moore so I agree with you 100%.

 

I like you lot, but be practical. The USA is bankrupt and moving our embassy to Jerusalem saves a couple of bucks.

Fundamentalists have been attacked hourly since they first began using that name. How do you account for their survival?

 

That was not the main theme of the article. Although you are making it the main theme of your OP, you also linked to the article, which said so much more.

I thought the article went well beyond accusing Evangelical Trump supporters of too much pragmatism. I thought it went so far as to implicitly advocate for separatism, quietism and antinomianism.

I think it's worth discussing these topics, but I don't like to argue about them in a way that sets up false dichotomies.

Jesus was both God and man.

The Lord's Prayer talks about God's will being done both on Earth and in heaven.

I don't want to go to either extreme: of denying the material world at the expense of the spiritual world, or denying the spiritual world at the expense of the material world.

I don't pray for him, but lately I've been thinking I should, because he sure has a lot of evil, powerful enemies arrayed against him; as well as quite a few hysterical mobs. That's good that you pray for him. I know the Bible tells us to pray for our leaders, and I should start doing it.