"Now, God, you have given us a gift, President Donald Trump."
Southern Baptist pastor and Fox News contributor Robert Jeffress, at National Prayer Breakfast
An ongoing theme of this blog is the connection between message and messenger. In the strongest, most absolute form of my argument, the messenger IS the message. Bernie Sanders' views cannot be separated from Bernie Sanders-the-person. Also with AOC. Especially with Donald Trump.
If Jesus were just a regular guy with some radical and controversial ideas about love, kindness, and generosity, then there is no Christian religion. Jesus would be just another itinerant Jewish rabbi. The Christian idea is that Jesus was very, very special, an embodiment of God. Jesus has a message and is the message.
I think it is a bad deal for them, but it's their party.
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At the secular, workaday level of national politics, the person of Trump has been elevated to a mixture of party leader, policy chief, spokesman, and the anointed faith leader of a religious and political movement. He has become the idol that the new pope warned about in his first homily as pope. Evangelical Christians pray over and praise him as the man sent by God to lead the triumphant church. The near-miss assassination was proof of God's special protection. People looking for a sign found one.
As Leslie Gore belted out in 1963, "It's my party and I'll cry if I want to." It is their party, their religion, their decision, and their consequences.
Trump isn't seeking guidance from Jesus. Trump is branding evangelical Christianity.
I think it is a bad deal for them, but it's their party.
2 comments:
I don't see Trump as a religious guy, nor do I see most politicians are religious people. Politicians use religion to make themselves look good, and to appeal to a special interest group (Christians). When the cameras aren't rolling, then religion is not a part of a politician's life. That includes Trump.
I guess it’s wrong of me, but I don’t think they are really Christians, it’s more like they are in name only, not how they behave. Trump as their leader? A guy who thinks and acts like that is more in the devil section in my mind. I hate that they represent Christianity for some people and misunderstanding of what it is to be a Christian.
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