Saturday, December 30, 2017

A New Year’s Resolution for Republican Evangelicals?


It’s time for the Evangelical community to do the country a favor; turn on Donald Trump. 
You got what you wanted out of his election; a supreme court justice, federal district judges, reduced regulations and a tax cut (my personal favorite).  Do the rest of us a favor, relieve the country of this daily nightmare.

Polls show that 80% of evangelicals voted for Donald Trump.  Does any devout evangelical think that Trump believes what they believe theologically or has behaved in his entire life or will behave for the next three years in a manner consistent with Christian values?  It was a tough decision for many, if not most of you.  But in the end, you decided that his narcissistic personality, questionable morals, and bad manners should be ignored for the good of the country.  And to prevent the Clintons from becoming President, but I repeat myself.

The Clinton’s, while not as obnoxious as Donald Trump on a personal level, have only a passing interest in truth.  But that is beside the point.  In your minds, this election boiled down to one thing, the Supreme Court.  The first response I get when I ask about Donald Trump’s accomplishments is the appointment of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.  Many anti-Trumpers will quickly say credit for that is misplaced, that it should go to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnel for refusing to conduct hearings on the replacement of Justice Antonin Scalia until after the election.  While there’s some merit to this point, it was the only thing he could do.  The effort required the election of a Republican for it to mean anything.  If the Clintons had been elected, the 5-4 conservative majority would have become a 4-5 minority and over the next three years perhaps even 3-6.  So, I get it.

The election of Donald Trump has kept the Supreme Court majority in the more “originalist” interpretation camp.  And with the rumored retirement of Justice Kennedy, that majority may well be extended.  But, we don’t need Donald Trump in office another three years to replace Justice Kennedy.  Mike Pence if perfectly capable of doing that.

Congratulate yourselves for saving the republic.  But, why not save the republic TWICE?  With the Clinton’s we would have had a Diarchy or sorts.  Trump would never share power with his wife or anyone for that matter.  You may have noticed, he seems to admire dictators (Putin, Xi Jinping) and it’s obvious he would like to be one.  But, thankfully, we have a constitution fully capable of preventing him from achieving that goal.  It won’t and hasn’t kept him from debasing confidence in the institutions of our republic, however.  The record is clear; he has little respect for the rule of law or the processes and norms of governing we’ve established over the last 250 years.  Drain the swamp?  OK, it needs some draining, but let’s not throw the baby out with the swamp water.  

In your heart of hearts, I suspect many of you don’t feel great about this situation.  That’s because your support of Trump has come at the cost of hypocrisy.  Far be it from me to preach, but hypocrisy is a sin. I don’t have to tell YOU what happened to Ananias and Sapphira.  They stood accused of deceiving the apostles about their level of spirituality and commitment to the church by holding back a portion of money from the sale of land.  I’m not sure how to compare that to this situation.  Is self-deception a sin?  How about putting politics before God?  Or perhaps presuming to know the Will of God?  I’ve seen posts on facebook where believers say Trump is anointed by God and was therefore elected to save the United States.  No one can refute what you believe, but if you believe this, you belong to very small minority.  And if you’re wrong….??

So, where’s the harm in his leaving office early?  Mike Pence, a man you all are proud to call a fellow traveler would become president.  The Republican Party might even retain the House and Senate when independent swing voters turn out in November of 2018 out of sheer gratitude. 

Think about it.  You can take credit for putting Trump IN the Oval Office AND for REMOVING him.  It’s a twofer.  The only constituency that can save us from him is you.  Only the abandonment of him by you might convince him to resign.  It would be, a MIRACLE.  And we’ll love you for it.  OK, some of us will.  I will.


p.s.  Here’s a link to some advice from Billy Graham about mixing religion and politics.  Advice Franklin doesn’t seem to be taking.http://www.charlotteobserver.com/opinion/op-ed/article186410053.html