A Reality Check for Christian Supporters of President Trump by Dr Michael Brown
GNN Note – Where do you stand?
Do you recall the words of candidate Donald Trump, specifically, that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and he wouldn’t lose voters? Well, if you are a Christian supporter of Trump, as I am, you now have your “Fifth Avenue” moment. How will you respond?
Before I explain what I’m talking about, let me make my own viewpoints clear.
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After strongly opposing Trump in the primaries, I voted for him in 2016, and I support him as my president. I have also stated that, if the elections in 2020 were between Trump and one of the current Democratic candidates, he would get my vote.
I also believe that the Democrats have been intent on impeaching Trump since he was inaugurated (really, since he was elected). And I do not believe he has committed impeachable offenses.
So, I am not a Trump basher in any sense of the word. And while I will make an appeal to the president in this article, my focus is on my fellow-believers, in particular, those who claim to be Bible-believing Christians.
And that brings me to the “Fifth Avenue” moment of which I speak.
In his large rally in Michigan the night of the impeachment, President Trump related how he honored the late Democratic Rep. John Dingell, from Michigan, when he died earlier this year, lowering the flags to half-mast.
Trump then said that his widow, Debbie Dingell, now a Michigan Democratic Representative herself, called him. “That’s the nicest thing that ever happened,” she said. “Thank you so much. John would be so thrilled. He’s looking down. He’d be so thrilled.”
Then Trump spoke these words, which have created an instant firestorm and even deflected some of the attention from the impeachment: “Maybe he’s looking up,” Trump said. “I don’t know. … But let’s assume he’s looking down.”
What? The President of the United States suggests that John Dingell might be in hell? He cracks a joke at the expense of Dingell’s widow, who is about to experience her first Christmas without her husband since their marriage in 1981? He disparages a World War II veteran who served his country for years?
My appeal to the president, of course, is simple: “Please, sir, acknowledge how wrong this was and issue a public apology, without qualification. That, Mr. President, would be in keeping with the dignity of your office.”
My issue, however, is not so much with Mr. Trump as it is with Christians who found his comments funny. Who laughed at them and saw nothing wrong. Who may have even said, “Yeah, who knows? Maybe the man is in hell!”
This is the proof that you have drunk the Trump-can-do-no-wrong Kool-Aid (just as many on the left are suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome). This is the proof that your allegiance to Trump, in this instance, is greater than your allegiance to the Savior. This is the proof that, by finding this comment funny, you are in the flesh, not the Spirit.
You might say to me, “Get off your self-righteous horse! This is a battle for the soul of our nation, and this whole impeachment process is of the devil. This is when we need to stand with the president, not get into legalist nitpicking. Throw stones at the Democrats, not the president.”
