Growing up I would no doubt be a Trump supporter but why do I now #Resist? My faith would have had a big reason in supporting him at first but now my faith is my the guiding reason why I stand with the resistance against Trump.
The biggest reasons for this is:
- Change of Heart. My moral compass was upgraded and the values I considered important are now different values.
- Change of environment (from rural to urban)
- Change of Social Influence (From hardly knowing a Democrat to a social circle that mostly consisted of Democrats / Progressives / Liberals)
Why I Would Support Trump Growing Up
Growing up in a small country town surrounded by farms, most likely 99% white and going to a school with no black people, I didn’t see any culture other Republican white culture. At the same time my family was very conservative Republicans, I myself was probably the most religious in the family. I even considered going to school for theology. I pleaded to go to church almost every time the doors was open.
It was this upbringing that makes relating to many democrat platforms so difficult. At the time I hated liberals and Democrats, I saw them as trying to ruin this great country. We had a local plant that made tanks, it was a given that you would have high respect for the military and police.
I worked in the local mall at a game store, I worked really hard and went to school and had very little free time but there were young black males every month bragging how their checks that came in and they could afford more and better stuff than me. I grew to be very angry about that. The town had a lot of low-income places and it seemed these black people had no respect for where they lived, each other and especially us. I learned to avoid “the black” areas of town. My parents both shared stories of black riots in the 60’s and having bricks thrown in the windows as they were in class.
I saw God as more of an angry father authoritarian figure.
Had Trump ran back then I would have supported him fully, he says it like it is, all my social circle was Republican. I avoided Democrats. I was totally party line. Even then though I preferred CNN over Fox News but I probably would have said Fake News for everything too.
I remember meeting a black lady once and just thinking how different her culture was than mine and I wanted to learn more. I liked George W. Bush compassionate conservative concept, I was like that is right as Christians to take care of the poor but we do it better as Republicans than those debt loving liberals.
In 2002 I moved to Nashville and little would I know by starting a new life in a new city and finding most of the new circle was Democrats it would slowly start changing my religious and political views.
Why I Resist Now
I was happy being rather conservative but also saw the Right side was well the Right side to be on, we had the facts and the most logic. It was only until around 2014 that I still was against gay marriage. What moved me over to the left-liberal side so fast was Obama and how my life improved under his watch and this guy named Trump became a bully on the scene. Trump destroyed what I respected in the Republican party, it no longer felt like home to me. Suddenly my fellow Republican friends throw facts out the window. The truth was considered liberal. We would believe a lie from a Republican but ignore a truth from a Democrat. My loyalty to the truth slowly pushed me over the party I never thought I would be on. I had an uncle tell me once that he would make a Democrat out of me. I laughed, I said I would never vote for a Democrat in my life.
The GOP and conservatives believe in a holiness or purity message as well as a literal Bible translation. There are really only seven passages in the Bible that refer directly to homosexual behavior, and none of them are associated with Jesus but they make it a staple of their platform to be against the gays and their ‘war on traditional marriage’ because of their religion.
Compare that to the more than 250 verses on the proper use of wealth or more than 300 on our responsibility to care for the poor and work for justice and this is where the Progressive Christians get their basis for their political involvement.
Why is Trump the hero of the Religious right and Conservatives now when it appears the he doesn’t know much about the bible, God and his life doesn’t live out its principles? I think as was the case with most liberals supporting Hillary Clinton, it comes down to the person on the ticket. If they are Republican or Democrat, they could be the anti-Christ and people would fully support that person. Party almost always “Trumps” country as seen with many supporters of Roy Moore saying it is no big deal he is a pedophile, it would be worst to vote for a Democrat.
I started to lose faith in my roots, my old Republican party of which I was proud to have been for so many years. What I didn’t understand is all these bathroom bills to keep transgender people because they “might” be a pervert or a predator. They didn’t want gay marriage because it ruined the traditional marriage. So they elected Trump who has been very sexist, cheated on his wife and has at least 16 women accusing him of sexually harassing them and yet the Republican party and Jerry Falwell rubber stamped him as a Christian and a conservative. I could no longer identify myself with the GOP if they would give up their morals just to “win”. So Trump followers feel like Champions of God’s will on the country while ignoring large themes of the Bible. Trump favorite verse doesn’t exist and when he has said scripture he doesn’t pronounce the name of the book correctly.
Had Trump been a Democrat I would have most likely voted Republican in 2016. I’m not married to a party but I do hold fast to moral convections such as:
Matthew 25:35-40 NLT
35 For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. 36 I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’
37 “Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing?39 When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’
40 “And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters,[c] you were doing it to me!’
The least of these, such a power statement and yet Christianity seems to be about power. At least with Trump, he brags about how rich he is, his policies are against helping the least of these. Poor people are poor because they are lazy and freeloaders on societies dime.d He is about America first, very prideful of himself and what he had done. He insults anyone that isn’t with him.
The left will devour their own when it comes to sexual harassment accusations, it don’t matter Harvey Weinstein, Anthony Weiner, Kevin Spacey and others, the left will condemn them. Yet from what I seen online at least many Republicans defended Bill Cosby, Roger Ailes, Bill O’Reilly, even Roy Moore saying it wasn’t much different Joseph being with Mary who was underage and of course Trump saying it is “Fake News” and the liberal media is out to attack them with lies from all these women and yet fully accepting and condemning anyone on the left accused with the same thing. Too often the victim is lying if it is on our side but they are telling the truth if it is on the other side. It amazed me as many people brought up Bill Clintons’ affair as a reason Hilliary is a bad person for staying with her husband and totally ok with Trump and his life of misogyny.
At least 16 women accused the president of sexually harassing them throughout the course of the campaign. In 2017, during a press conference in the Rose Garden, the president called these accusations ‘fake news.’ Is the official White House position that all of these women are lying?” “Yeah, we’ve been clear on that from the beginning, and the president’s spoken on it,” Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, before quickly pivoting to another reporter to ask a question.
Let us not forget Trump supported Roy Moore, a man accused by multiple women for wanting to date them underage and Bill O’riley who was accused by multiple women of sexual harassment and abuse.
Eleven women came forward during the 2016 campaign to accuse the then-Republican presidential candidate of unwanted touching or kissing. Other women accused Trump of walking in on them when they were undressing at beauty pageants he owned.
The party of traditional marriage leader Donald Trump said if he hadn’t been caught red-handed he likely would have kept on cheating on his first wife, he admitted in a 1994 interview.
“Well it’s interesting, because it’s possible that you know, maybe it would still be going on. I’m not sure” he said in an interview with ABC Primetime Live that aired in 1994 when the interviewer asked him if he would have “confronted that situation” of the affair. “My life was so great in so many ways. The business was so great… a beautiful girlfriend, a beautiful wife, a beautiful everything. Life was just a bowl of cherries,” he says later in the interview.
The comments are just one of many examples of Trump’s steadfast refusal to show any guilt or remorse for his marital infidelities and his seeming view that women were disposable. It also suggests the only reason Trump went through a divorce with his first wife, Ivana, was because his years-long affair with Marla Maples became public.
Trump’s repeated sexism and misogyny continued with a 2005 hot mic incident in which Trump later called “Locker Room Talk”. Mr. Trump was filmed talking to the television personality Billy Bush of “Access Hollywood” on the set of “Days of Our Lives,” where Mr. Trump was making a cameo appearance. They are later joined by the actress Arianne Zucker.
Trump: I moved on her, actually. You know, she was down on Palm Beach. I moved on her, and I failed. I’ll admit it. I did try and fuck her. She was married. No, no, Nancy. No, this was [unintelligible] — and I moved on her very heavily. In fact, I took her out furniture shopping. She wanted to get some furniture. I said, “I’ll show you where they have some nice furniture.” I took her out furniture — I moved on her like a bitch. But I couldn’t get there. And she was married. Then all of a sudden I see her, she’s now got the big phony tits and everything. She’s totally changed her look. Yeah, that’s her. With the gold. I better use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her. You know, I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything.
Someone who is conservative might focus on the start of Galatians 5:19 and say consensual gay sex and/or being transgender is wrong while ignoring the fact that Trump fulfilled most of the 19-21 and having none of the fruits of the spirit in 22 and 23. Early in the elections most Christians and Catholics had an issue with Trump on being married three times, all the women who accused him of sexual harassment. Then suddenly after his nomination, the same people said all these accusations against Trump are false and even with the Access Hollywood tape, dismissed anything negative against him as “Fake News” while at the same people were upset with Hilliary Clinton over his husband cheating on her back in the 90’s. It makes no logical sense. The left disowns and will arrest anyone who is guility of sexual abuse, the right seems to be ok with electing them. See Trump and Roy Moore.
Galatians 5:19-23 NLT
19 When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, 21 envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
22 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!
You will know them by their fruit, so here are the fruits of the spirit, let me know which one Trump has. If he is really a man of God and the word, should he not show all of them? Other than sorcery and drunkenness, I think Trump is gulity of the others, just look at his tweets, his speech is full of division, he loves the high life and parties thrown for him, he quarrels with everyone who doesn’t agree with him. He worships himself, money and power.
Matthew 4:8-9
Next the devil took him to the peak of a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 “I will give it all to you,” he said, “if you will kneel down and worship me.”
Trump has an obsession with power, being number #1 both for him and the country. I’m not saying it is bad to be the number #1 superpower but I think Christians want this power so they can influence others but it isn’t supported by the Bible. Jesus himself didn’t come for political power.
Ephesians 4:29 (NIV)
29 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.
Trump is well known for insulting anyone who doesn’t agree with him. In many ways, he sounds more like a middle-schooler bully than a president.
Here is a list updated on November 3, 2017, of The 394 People, Places and Things Donald Trump Has Insulted on Twitter so far
If Obama had spent 5 years lying about George Bush’s birth certificate, had 5 kids from 3 women, and his third wife was an immigrant who worked illegally in the US and posed nude in a magazine, he would never have passed the first primary. How is Trump in return seen as a Godly man? I’ve seen pictures of him praying but also seen many of Obama praying. Trump supporters say they are fake though. It was this huge disconnect in reality that started changing my opinions.
In 2015, During an appearance at the Family Leadership Summit last July, Moderator Frank Luntz asked Trump whether he has ever asked God for forgiveness for his actions. Trump said that he has never asked God for forgiveness but that he does take communion, which he described as “I am not sure I have. I just go on and try to do a better job from there. I don’t think so,” he said. “I think if I do something wrong, I think, I just try and make it right. I don’t bring God into that picture. I don’t.”
Trump said that while he hasn’t asked God for forgiveness, he does participate in Holy Communion. “When I drink my little wine — which is about the only wine I drink — and have my little cracker, I guess that is a form of asking for forgiveness, and I do that as often as possible because I feel cleansed,” he said. “I think in terms of ‘let’s go on and let’s make it right.'”
In 2016 he said to Columnist Cal Thomas, a well-known Christian conservative writer, “I will be asking for forgiveness, but hopefully I won’t have to be asking for much forgiveness. ”
My turn towards Progressive Christianity
Mixing religion with Politics plus nationalism I personally believe has been a horrible thing. Where being a Republican is a love for guns and Jesus and Democrats are God-hating liberals hell-bent on destroying America. There are Christian values in both Republican and Democrat platforms and they have changed over time.
How many times pride and rich are in Bible compared to homosexuality, pride is mentioned 64 times in NLT, 46 times in the KJV, 63 in the NIV. The word homosexuality is mentioned 4 times in the NLT, 1 times in NIV, 0 times in the KJV, granted it is just rephrased in other translations but I’m talking about the word itself.
29 “Yes,” Jesus replied, “and I assure you that everyone who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or property, for my sake and for the Good News, 30 will receive now in return a hundred times as many houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and property—along with persecution. And in the world to come that person will have eternal life. 31 But many who are the greatest now will be least important then, and those who seem least important now will be the greatest then.”
The Republicans party of God & country seemed to defend the rich people rather than the poor. They want to relax restrictions on wall street and take away health care from the poor. Republicans say every man for themselves, you want it, you earn it, don’t be lazy, no handouts. Yet the bible they confess with their lips to follow, honor and defend when they are against abortion and gay marriage says very different things in regards to dealing with the poor.
How can Republicans ignore the vast amount of verses speaking of pride and riches and to give to the poor and yet get completely focused on the very few regarding homosexual relations? Yet when researching this I found the translation to be wrong, the Bible doesn’t even speak specifically to abortion. What I was amazed by was the vast disconnect my political party had with the Bible. Some people said mission trips is for helping the poor but usually that was in a far-off country. The poor in our country, it is their own fault. To me, if you are going to follow the bible then you should look at what it talks about most. I’ve been told I’m going to hell so many times I’ve lost count but the fact I disagree with the translation of the word homosexual and I believe it to be more accurately translated a grown man with a boy relationship where it is not consensual but instead of basically a sex slave. I believe two men and two women of consenting and loving relationships would be considered odd back in Roman culture where sex orgies were more normal.
Matthew 7:5 New Living Translation (NLT)
5 Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.
I have to bring up the fact that affairs, child molestation and sexual seem to happen a lot in the church. You can easily find them in the news. Besides the fact that when the Dove awards are in Nashville that hotels report the highest rates of adult entertainment purchases as well as adult bookstores for the whole year.
You are certainly more likely to see a white Christian male rape a child than a gay or trans person. Just look in the news, many pastors have fallen from sex scandals. Yet we look past the whole porn, extramarital relationships and focus on a handful of what I believe are incorrectly translated verses but say they are correctly translated. Ok, assume I’m wrong on 4 occasions, how many times are you wrong when you justify your mistreatment of poor people because they are lazy and gross and if you want to make it in America then you need to work hard and get there yourself.
How many times are you wrong in justifying Trump as a man of God when even in the primaries Catholic, Mormon, and many conservative outlets were preaching against Trump for his prideful, immoral life. Suddenly when Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. has been a staunch supporter of Donald Trump has come out in full support of Trump then people declare him to be a Godly man despite the evidence.
Obama can’t be a Christian because he believes in gay marriage and abortion. How many bible verses are there on abortion? So a man that breaks entire theme in the bible is considered a Christian over a guy who might be breaking a handful depending on your translation and viewpoint.
This is why Christians now have a credibility problem, how can the world take them seriously anymore when the man they love can grab them by the pussy but you’re mad Hillary stood by her husband. Isn’t that what Christians want is for families to not fall apart and they work things out? Don’t Christians look down on divorce, it is ok with Trump cheated on his wife and got married three times but God would smite America if Hilliary who stood by her husband after he cheated on her would be elected. Do you not see the illogic in these beliefs? The irony of your justification. I didn’t even vote for Hillary but still see this as pretty bad logic on the GOP side.
Admit, most Republicans truly believe that a Democrat can’t be a real Chrisitan, as long as you are Republican God is smiling on you above, regardless of your words and actions. Many won’t admit but it is pretty obvious.
Victim mentality, the majority who has persecuted other races, cultures have now felt persecuted
Matthew 24:9 New Living Translation (NLT)
9 “Then you will be arrested, persecuted, and killed. You will be hated all over the world because you are my followers
They take a martyrium complex as they feel white culture is being attacked, they feel gay marriage is an attack on their faith and their tradition.
We Have a Truth Crisis
My evangelical Christian and Republican upbringing seemed to differ with this new world Republican brand that is developing. Where anything negative but plausible to be news is “Fake News” and real fake news is accepted as fact. I’ve always been a champion of the truth, no one party has it all the time. Yet fact-checking websites are pointless because people don’t care, it is “fuzzy math”, twisted facts to both sides. Neither is willing to be honest with themselves. Liberals will say Politifact and Snopes is a conservative website while Republicans will say they are liberal. Both sides only liking the articles that bring down the lies in the other party.
I found that my conservative friends were overwhelmingly sharing false articles and memes. Again I didn’t vote for Hilliary so I wasn’t standing up for her per say but standing up for truth. If you are going to insult her, do it with real facts.
180 Degree Flip of Insanity and the double standards
I was confused as my conservative patriots and my friends under Bush who loved and respected our President and hated Dixie Chicks when they talked negatively about President Bush then seemed to have no liking or respect for Obama. For years I saw many post and memes a day, how he is going to take our guns away, how he was the anti-Christ (no joke), thanks to the guy name Trump pushing the birther movement, many of them questioned wither Obama was even eligible to be President. I remember thinking why do the people who loved the government and had so much respect for the President before now appear to hate him. Whether you like the president or not, he is the commander in chief of the United States of America, a lot of people died for democracy but it seemed that only if the person was on your side would you show respect.
I had a few conservative friends fly the flag upside down and had profile pictures with the upside down flag. In the view of some Tea Party advocates, the upside-down flag displays a palpable reflection of bitter disappointment and, perhaps even worse, a sense of irrelevance towards Obama re-election.
When Trump won, the very people who have been sharing nothing positive about Obama, all of the sudden started sharing post like if you don’t support the President then you should leave the country or be tried for treason. Liberals started using the upside down flag and the same people that had no issue with the Tea Party doing it now claim liberals hate America and they are disrespecting the flag. It was like America became bi-polar. I was blown away by all you should get behind Trump or else you are what is wrong with the world post. Many of my anti-Obama friends unfollowed, unfriended or blocked me within the first month of Trump winning the election. I found it interesting that I could go years agreeing to disagree but they couldn’t go that long listening to any dissent and yet they called the liberals snowflakes.
It was this expectation that Trump should have the respect from the left when the right gave none to Obama just made my head exploded. Trump, in my opinion, didn’t earn my respect. He is a bully and I had a lot of experiences with bullies, I had physical bruises and verbal abuse that has lasted my entire life so when I see him talk it reminds me of some negative times in my life.
Trumps administration is full of strive, back talking, contradictions. A lot of people have quit in the first year of Trump’s administration despite many people lasting 8 years in other administrations. Sean Spicer/Sarah Sanders says one thing, Kellyanne Conway says another then Trump will tweet out something else. Just because you confidently say something doesn’t make it true. Trump said he knows only the best people but yet many of them are quitting within months. He seems to be putting in Cabinet members based on loyalty rather than actual merit and many of the people actually want to do away with the department they are leading like the EPA and Education department.
When discussing politics, especially with Trump supporters I find there is a game plan that is followed. They say something, you respond with something else, no matter how factual it is.
They respond by delegitimizing the media by calling any negative news
1. Fake News, facts are irrelevant.
2. What about deflection… something usually along the lines of Benghazi, what about her emails and what the DNC did to Bernie (as if they actually cared about him anyway) This is done to deflect from answering any real questions. The following people on the Republican side have used a private email while criticizing Hillary Clinton for the same thing. Vice President Mike Pence’s office confirmed March 2, 2017 that he used private email to conduct public business as governor of Indiana. During this time his personal AOL account was hacked. Colin Powell who gave the idea to Hillary Clinton, At least six of President Trump’s closest advisers occasionally used private email addresses to discuss White House matters such as Jared Kushner, Stephen K. Bannon, Reince Priebus, Gary D. Cohn and Stephen Miller, sent or received at least a few emails on personal accounts. Ivanka Trump, the president’s elder daughter, who is married to Mr. Kushner, used a private account when she acted as an unpaid adviser in the first months of the administration. In addition, Jeb Bush, Condoleezza Rice, Gov. Scott Walker, Marco Rubio, Chris Christie, Rick Perry and Bobby Jindal also did similar things.
Officials are supposed to use government emails for their official duties so their conversations are available to the public and those conducting oversight. But it is not illegal for White House officials to use private email accounts as long as they forward work-related messages to their work accounts so they can be preserved.
Just to be clear about this, I’m not suggesting the Clinton story is irrelevant. On the contrary, legitimate questions have been raised that deserve answers. What’s more, there are some differences between the Clinton story and the circumstances surrounding her Republican critics, most notably the fact that they seemed to operate two email accounts – one governmental, one private – while the former Secretary of State used one. Clinton exclusively used her private email account for work, something no secretary of state had done before. Mrs. Clinton stored classified information on a private server, and she exclusively used a private account for her government work, sending or receiving tens of thousands of emails. The content and frequency of the Trump advisers’ emails remain unknown, but Trump administration officials described the use of personal accounts as sporadic. The emails have not been made public. Still the hypocrisy matters, too.
3. Trolling, there is where Trump will say things like 3 million votes were illegal and Obama wiretapped his home then refuse to talk about it in interviews and just saying “Fake News” to anything that has been debunked. He is well known for attacking certain people, usually those in the media.
Sources
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/trump-cheating-ivana-marla-beautiful-1994-article-1.2822695
http://time.com/4361777/donald-trump-cal-thomas-forgiveness/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-lose/what-does-the-bible-reall_b_990444.html
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/trump-attacks-mccain-i-like-people-who-werent-captured-120317
http://progressivechristianity.org/resources/the-bible-and-homosexuality-a-faithful-look/