The news of Trump’s appearance at Liberty University’s convocation is on my mind.
I’m concerned.
Dr. Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention had some things to say that I resonate with:
Politics driving the gospel rather than the other way around is the third temptation of Christ. He overcame it. Will we?
— Russell Moore (@drmoore) January 18, 2016
Evangelicals can love a golden calf, as long as Aaron promises to make Mexico pay for it.
— Russell Moore (@drmoore) January 18, 2016
I’ve gone back on forth on whether or not I think a person is disqualified from my vote for President (or other political office) if they are not believers in Christ. I landed on the opinion that I think it’s okay to vote for a person based on how well they can execute the job. If they share my faith, that’s frosting on the cake. When I need someone to repair my car, I don’t ask about their faith. I want to know how skilled they are and how fair a price they ask. You can be a Christian and lousy at your job. I also believe that character and truth telling is important.
So, it’s not so much that I doubt that Donald Trump shares my faith that causes me pause. It’s a combination of three things:
- I see no evidence, based his past behavior, that Donald Trump knows how to work toward the good of something beyond his personal ego.
- and, he makes a mockery of my faith. So much of what he has said and done is antithetical to everything I believe.
- It seems obvious that any claims of sharing my beliefs are nothing more than a way to get more votes.
Why does character only matter when it suits our political purposes? The same people who denounce the leading democratic candidate because they don’t trust her, are supporting a candidate that has a proven history of saying whatever benefits him at the time.
As Dr. Moore mentions in this interview, this is a person who has claimed to have nothing to seek forgiveness for, he has been unfaithful to several spouses, he’s has built his fortune based on money he earned from his gambling enterprises. And, yesterday, he stood before the students at Liberty University and claimed to be one of them while referencing Bible verse he clearly had no real understanding of. What an embarrassing display. I have no doubt, that if Christians stood up and called him out as a fraud, he would declare us all as idiots that were not useful to his cause.
Come on! We can do better than this! Do we believe that this is a person who knows how to make hard decisions for the good of anyone besides himself?
Can you actually trust that this person, who claims to stand with you on some of your hot button issues, actually is who they say they are? I don’t.