All my posts, including this one, are my views and not necessarily the views of all the members of the First Coast Freethought Society. I offer this as food for thought.
A lot of people are posting memes on social media about Trump not being a Christian even though he claims to be one. I think the better tactic is to acknowledge that there are good Christians and bad Christians. There are good Muslims and bad Muslims. There are good Jews and bad Jews. There are good atheists and bad atheists. Good/bad are subjective terms and each of us can decide what that means.
Many Christians, who may be good people, are being misled by powerful Christian Nationalists such as James Dobson and Ralph Reed. If you don’t acknowledge that there are good Christians, then you’re denying a reality. Martin Luther King, Jr. had the strength at least partly inspired by his religious rituals such as prayer to lobby our elected officials and the American public calling on them to honor the ideals of our Constitution for all Americans.
If someone claims Trump isn’t a real Christian, then what about the other Christian Nationalists? The better tactic (in my view) is to say all these Christian Nationalists are bad Christians. Christian Nationalists are charlatans seeking power and wealth; they are not seeking the ideals of the Golden rule or the The Beatitudes as preached by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount and the Sermon on the Plain.
Excerpt from this article:
According to James Dobson [another Christian Nationalist], Trump is a “baby Christian,” In the evangelical faith, a mere admission of acceptance of Christ — particularly if you are person in power (Obama excluded) — and all is forgiven. The announcement of Trump’s newfound faith comes on the heels of a June 21st meeting where he met with 400 of the most influential leaders of the Christian Right. This meeting included James Dobson, Tony Perkins, Tim Wildmon, Penny Nance, Pat Robertson and Gary Bauer. Trump’s conversion was the only missing piece of the equation, which has now been confirmed by James Dobson. Naturally, the next step is to spread the good news to the faithful, announcing, “He is one of us! Everything will be ok. You can vote for him now.” The Christian Right leaders have millions of followers who send millions of dollars to their beloved organizations, believing and voting as told.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/donald-trump-is-a-christi_b_10689674
Excerpt:
The documentary is a sobering examination of the rise of Christian Nationalism in the United States. We don’t interview Christian Nationalists for the movie.
We have an array of experts, authors and pastors to dissect how a far-right fringe perverted the tenets of Christianity to build a frightening, militant national movement. Well-armed, well-funded and convinced of their holy cause, Christian Nationalists are a dangerously motivated minority determined to rule the rest of us, the Constitution be damned. People who don’t have a lot of connections to the Christian-conservative portion of the population aren’t understanding the size and scope of what’s out there. This is a leadership-driven movement. The leaders are becoming very politically powerful and, in many cases, very wealthy. The rank and file — the majority of the followers — are really just trying to be good citizens, good Americans and good Christians. But when you’re in an information silo, and you’re hearing these messages repeated again and again that there is only one way to be a good Christian in America, there’s a tremendous coercive pressure. The voices in the film are very diverse — I don’t agree with any one of them on [everything], and they don’t agree with each other on everything. One thing that unifies them is their concern about Christian Nationalism — the other thing is these are honest, informed, good-faith participants in our civic culture. I have so much admiration for all of them — it’s courageous to participate in something like this. They’re doing it because they [believe] that speaking out about this is necessary to preserve our democracy — and their faith, in some cases.
Excerpt:
A prominent evangelical advocacy organization plans to significantly ramp up political spending in the 2024 election with one goal in mind: returning Donald Trump to the White House
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/03/11/ralph-reed-army-spending-trump-00146170
The goal of the documentary is to wake up churchgoing American Christians — who number in the many tens of millions — to the threat of anti-democratic religious extremism in the United States.
That’s an excerpt from:
https://wapo.st/49fei6t
It’s important to realize that Trump, like Reed, is a Christian Nationalist. They are dangerous.
Excerpts from this article:
Trump’s personal and public life makes a mockery of the Christian ideals of evangelical voters. In Obama’s first term, Reed struck up an unlikely friendship with a guy named Donald Trump. He did for Trump what he does for every presidential candidate who comes calling for his advice: he explained how to win over evangelical voters, who make up about 60 percent of the Republican presidential primary electorate.
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/06/23/pbdd-6-23-23-00103044
