Saturday, April 29, 2017, Jerry Falwell Jr., an influential evangelical leader and president of Liberty University, spoke with Fox News celebrating Donald Trump’s first 100 days of being president of the United States of America. In the interview Falwell said:
“I think evangelicals have found their dream president.”
Watch the interview here.
This almost leaves me speechless. Who are these so-called evangelicals? Donald Trump is the embodiment of total immorality. His words, actions, policies, and lifestyle are completely unlike Jesus Christ, whom they adamantly claim to follow and worship.
I’m tired. I am so exhausted from trying to make sense of this rabbit hole we have been in now for over a year watching the religious right continue day after day support and praise this president. I am tired of their silence. It is time they open their eyes and see how they are being manipulated. It is time they rise up and speak out.
I have to believe that there are people all over this nation that are sitting in their churches afraid to stand up and say “enough is enough.” They cannot all possibly be blindly drinking the Kool-aid of these so-called Christian leaders and so-called Christian politicians. They must be out there, but too scared to “come out of the Trump closet” in fear that they’ll be estranged from their church, family, and friends.
I know that fear. I have lived it. Luckily, through life experience, I lost all ability to care about what other people think. However, that religion can lock you in a cage of silence and throw away the key. They do it by manipulation. They do it by reinforcing week after week the rhetoric of guilt and shame.
I have to believe that they are having a crisis with this election, even if they aren’t courageous enough to admit it. I have to believe that there are those in regret, and those in confusion, wondering what has become of their faith. Those of us on the outside are watching the church fall apart. We are watching the message of Jesus become so unrecognizable that I am struggling to understand why anyone in their right mind would ever be enticed to become a Christian. It is completely unfortunate because I know how badly Jesus’ message of unconditional love is needed.
I would like to tell these scared evangelicals:
It is time for you to rise. Make a statement. Walk out if you have to. Your religion is falling away and the whole world is watching. Most importantly, you aren’t alone. There are so many of us out there who have been through this process. It is scary. It is lonely. But luckily, the numbers of people that aren’t standing for this are growing, and we will be there for you. Your friends, family, and congregation need you. They need to be pulled out of this fog and perhaps you are the one to lead them out.
Jesus tells us to love others. Does Donald Trump love others? Do his policies show love? Does his budget show love? Do his daily egotistical tweets show love? Do his daily lies show love?
If you aren’t going to speak out and stand up for the things Jesus was about, then please I beg you stop equating Jesus to the GOP. Stop equating Jesus to Trump. There is a hurting, dying world out there that needs the message of unconditional love, grace, acceptance, forgiveness, and freedom to begin again at any time.
Maybe even you need that message.
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I live in the UK, when they had the Women’s March I took my 12 yr old. Why? Because this president is now leader of the free world and what he stands for threatens a lot of people. My daughter and her friends at school were in shock at his election . I took her to the march because I wanted her to know that many people like her don’t agree with what he stands for.
Your post Kimberly hits the nail on the head. I have been a Christian since 1970 and am a conservative democrat…a now extinct political species. Far right conservative politics is far removed from biblical Christianity.
Most of the things we cherish now in this country…child labor laws, women’s right to vote, social security, the GI Bill, unemployment insurance, work safety laws, and disability insurance…among others…all started out as “liberal” ideas.
I do not think that Donald Trump is qualified to be president from any standpoint…character, knowledge, or experience.
If anything, Trump as president of the United States tells us that people will abandon our principles and our judgment if someone comes along and promises us “the moon” from a worldly perspective. This is not Christianity…conservative, moderate, or liberal.
I find your verbosity ridiculous. I am proud to have voted for Trump. As a liberal Democrat who was born again and realized my campaigning for Bill Clinton and a Democrat Congressman mattered little not only for eternity but even temporally, I place little hope in politicians. The previous president, with his great affinity for Islam, creating racial division, embarrassing and excluding veterans, military, Christians, Jews, Israel….while attacking our Constitution and promoting un-necessary redundant rights for people based on what they do with their sexual organs, makes Donald Trump a man to celebrate and a freedom to savor.
Trump is a sinner, I have no expectations of his being a Christian, but after seeing a Muslim degrade our economy, focus on attacking values, beliefs and heritage that are foundational to our nation and after examining the threats and crises facing our nation, adopt people wanting to change or eradicate gender as the central issue facing us, I am giddy to have Trump as our commander-in-chief. Trump does not appall me but liberals acting as fascists, seeking to bully a duly democratically elected President, or worst, those voters who elected him, attacking him and all his actions merely because they do not coincide with the minority’s extremist views, does.
I am more concerned that I may as a Christian, and American, live out my faith, unimpeded by Obama and his anti-Christian and anti-Constitutional views/actions/executive orders as intended by our founding fathers than I am with a President who has continually acted to embrace the constitution and defend the rights of all citizens as is his duty.
Reblogged this on biblebeltsite and commented:
As a Gay man ,I feel that there are a large group of pharisees ,and have been forever. We are seeing the same kind of religious hatred that is having families kill their Gay children in Chechnya- Bible Belted.
May God have mercy on his soul, and countless others like him, because they’re going to need that when they see our Lord. He’ll say, “I never knew you.”
But that doesn’t stop the damage they are doing here and now,…
Great post. Keep speaking Kimberly.
Back in the day of his father, we referred to those who followed Jerry Falwell as the immoral minority. It is sad to see that the tribe still exists. In my area, groups of young followers of Christ are no longer calling themselves Christians, lest they be confused with Falwell, Franklin Graham, and other opportunitists associating themselves Trump. Instead, they use Jesus followers.
As someone here said, young people are turning away from organized religion in droves — a trend that began over 20 years ago. The hypocrisy, the closed mindedness, the overt prejudice and lack of respect for anyone that is not like them is so blatantly against everything they espouse to believe. In addition, when one checks their bank accounts, one can’t help but wonder what they really worship, which leads to the question why are they really following Trump? It certainly has nothing to do with religion.
I would like to point out that there are many denominations working and speaking out against this hypocrisy. Many mainline denominations and their clergy such as my Evangelical Lutheran Church in America congregation are demonstrating loving our neighbors and working for social justice for the sake of the gospel. I understand the anxiety of leaving a church home, but churches abound that are outwardly focused and Christ centered, we just love us some liturgy and choral music too (and bluegrass liturgy in my congregation)
We Episcopalians and our Church are also in open opposition, not to the politics, but to the ungodliness masquerading as Christianity.
Did you support Hillary?
Reblogged this on ericspearsblog and commented:
Yes, this is the truth that many of us have been preaching for quite a while now and will never stop! The Pharisees that choose their ideology and idolatry over true faith in Christ are grinding their teeth as, deep down inside, they are convicted and know we’re right.
Escaping from them requires courage and integrity. Yes, we can tell you from experience that it is not easy or fun. In fact it can be scary, lonely and heartbreaking…but, it ‘s so worth it to know you are doing the right thing and are willing to make the sacrifice for Him! To be able to truly have His peace and rest deep down in your heart and soul is priceless. The devil is using Faux News, etc to keep folks on the koolaid and justify unrighteousness in their minds. The Apostle Paul clearly teaches and warns us about this in the scriptures.
If you are surrounded by this in your subculture (church, family, etc), realize the fallacy and want to escape, we would love to help you. We would love for you to join us in the pursuit of truly following Christ in every way. We would love to fellowship with you! Please HMU in private message! Love, Val and Eric
He is just a more noted example of all of the other white so-called Christians who have taken God’s word and twisted it to justify their hatred, bigotry, and ignorance.
It’s been stunning to watch the utter lack of discernment and even common sense that has been the cornerstone of the endorsement of Trump, someone’s whose every action and every word for the last 30 years, has revealed his values are the polar opposite of the teachings of Jesus. After 30 years of observing him in public life, I’ve yet to see even one positive human characteristic displayed. Certainly, the man has literally nothing to recommend him for the position he now holds, no applicable education, experience, knowledge or expertise even remotely related to the job, added to that his immaturity, poor character, unstable temperament, lack self control, lack of discretion, lack of decorum and profound dishonesty. It simply beggars the imagination. When people try to tell me he’s a Christian, I start to suspect that they are not, since they clearly don’t have a handle on what that means. Unfortunately now we will reap the fruit of this horrible decision for years to come. I’ve had people tell me, “just let him do his job”. My response is, if I walked into a room and saw a hairdresser attempting open heart surgery, I’d try to stop him. When you lack the requisite skills, it’s assured that you will do more harm than good. Despite what an apparently a large segment of our population believes, the presidency is not an entry level position. I was shocked when he was elected, and shocked at how many claiming Christ were at the front of the line, completely overlooking his complete lack of experience and poor character because he waved the proper dogma flag over his head and he was a man and not a woman. All this has made me grateful that my relationship with God isn’t based on what other people do, because it has certainly forever altered my perception of some people. The American church has, with this choice, forfeited any position of moral authority with the world. This whole thing has been kind of like an “anti-great commission”, and certainly hasn’t made it easier to reach the lost for Christ. What I’ve told my unbelieving friends is, “the true church is characterized by fearlessness, humility, love of others, including enemies, advocating for and being of service to “the least of these” and fruit of the spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control). If you’re not seeing these things, you’re not looking at the true church, no matter how many “Jesus” banners are flying overhead. Just a pale imitation or people walking around on dead bones.”
Hear, hear!
Katharine, may I copy your post for my timeline? I’m not a follower of religion but was raised in an evangelical environment. Yours is a clear, heart-centered, inspired message; so needed of being seen, heard and felt.
Please feel free.
Did you support Hillary?
I agree that we mustn’t give up on finding the truly Christian believers among the “Christian” Right. My mother was 92 and a rural Southern Baptist Republican, daughter, wife, and sister-in-law of Southern Baptist deacons. During the primary and general election campaigns, she quickly came to detest Trump, precisely because of the arguments made here. She said that he was “in no way a Christian” and a terrible example of self-centered greed. (Because the rest of the family had moved out of rural Appalachia, she was the only one who predicted his victory.)
She passed away peacefully in her sleep at 10:05 am on Inauguration Day. My brother commented that she had said she’d never live to see Trump as president. She just avoided it by 1h 55m. She was a woman of strong convictions.
And Hillary is a Christian. I guess supporting the death of Children is how Christians show love.
Hillary doesn’t support the death of children. Supporting choice to abort fetuses is CLEARLY not the same as turning a blind eye to refugee children, who are dying on a daily basis.
Supporting choice is love it is compassion. I’m guessing you’ve never been raped. I’m guessing you’ve never been victim of incest. I’m guessing you’ve never been 20 weeks pregnant and the dr tells you your baby will have no nose or half a brain developing.
Love is simply putting yourself in someone’s shoes. If I was raped by anyone and pregnancy resulted, I would get an abortion.
That’s all Christians care about though. Abortion. How about the refugees? How about cutting free school lunches? What about the death penalty?
You may think you all have some moral leg to stand on regarding the abortion issue, well, you don’t after this election. Not one.
Abortion is the excuse for everything. Dropping bombs on innocent civilians and hospitals, absolutely no outrage. The fact that 1 in 5 of our children go to bed hungry is apparently not a concern. The wholesale destruction of our environment, poisoning our children’s water and air, doesn’t even register. Defunding the public school system so the rich don’t have to pay for private school themselves and making sure that poor children are even less likely to get a quality education or succeed, you cheer. So forgive me if I’m completely unimpressed with your feigned concern for the unborn. It might be more convincing if your obvious political choices revealed any concern for the humans that are current out of the womb, but since the policy of the GOP removes every possible protection for the non-white, non-rich, and the environment to hand over more wealth to the 1%, your supposed concern can only be met with extreme scepticism. But hey, the GOP pretend to care about abortion, and that’s all you folks need. They’ve counted on this to raise lots of money and get people to vote against their own fiscal best interests. Even though in reality, their policies are guaranteed to increase the abortion rate. What this has shown me, is that most of the “pro-life”” folks actually don’t care about the abortion rate at all, they only care making abortion illegal regardless of the fact it won’t actually change the rate. What we know for a fact, from studies done in countries with restrictive abortion laws is that making abortion illegal does not change the rate of abortion at all. It just means more women die too. When you add to that, making contraceptives less accessible, the abortion rate goes up. So congratulation, your vote will result in the certain death of many more babies and women. Well done. What has been show to actually reduce abortion, is easy access to inexpensive contraceptives. It’s what has lead to our 30 year low abortion rate. That of course will be changing now. It too bad that those who claims such passion about this subject don’t bother to do even the slightest bit of research on what causes women to seek abortion and deal with the root causes, like not being able to feed the children you already have. There’s plenty of research out there for those that take the time to look, and by that I do not mean the Family Research Counsel, or as I like to call them “liars are us”, with their fake studies and penchant for showing a 6 month fetus and claiming it’s 8 weeks. In light of what I know at this point, the abortion ranting is just not credible.
Well said Katherine, I agree 100%.
Gives new meaning to Love thy enemies.
Isn’t it ironic that what passes for Christianity these days pretty much describes Anti-Christ to a “T” ???
Jesus would qualify by the standards of those supporting President Trump as being not just liberal but a far left liberal extremist. The faith is taking a serious hit amongst the young. They are not buying into the hate, hypocrisy, and intolerance of the Big Us Little You believers. They have traded Jesus for the silver of the illusion of political power.
It boggles my mind. I was warned over and over about false prophets in the coming age.
Hello???? Here they are! Oh how I wish they would wake up.
well its gonna happen, exactly as it was foretold to happen. it just makes more and more sense that THIS administration is the counterfeit christianity movement, even the very seat of the foretold antichrist. we just got to keep the faith in the real Jesus and set the best example possible. :/
If you are not a Christian, would you WANT to become a Christian by reading what the Christian right is saying? Do you see Jesus manifested anywhere in this administration? There is no love shown anywhere. NO. LOVE. SHOWN.
It’s heartbreaking!
These kind of people reflect the difference between being “christians” and being “Christ-like.” We should be living the values of Christ, who was inclusive and forgiving. Not condemning and judging.
Beautiful,thank you
Why do I have the feeling that you would have been at the front of the line of people condemning Jesus for eating with the tax collector?
I have no idea. That isn’t what I’m about.
Nah – hostility to tax collectors and prostitutes is a right-wing staple.
I think there is a distinct difference between aligning yourself with someone & making the point that their words & actions go against the teachings of Jesus.
I pray that Trump will have a change of spirit, but I don’t hate him. I don’t believe the writer does either. It seems to me that Trump has spent his life trying to feel a sense of worth. Something that power & money can’t authentically provide. I would live to see him turn and start showing a more loving & compassionate attitude towards others. Jesus are with the tax collector, but he didn’t exalt him as an example of a perfect role model.
Actually, Jesus did exalt a tax collector, Zaccheus, as an example.
Andy, Jesus did exalt Zaccheus only because he was humble and showed some repentance, mind openness and some responsibility in regard to his life and his relation to others … not because he was a tax collector … does Donald show that humilty ? I doubt it
What’s the matter with tax collectors. Taxes are how we support our democratic government, finance the programs and help needed for all the people and maintain a government that responds to the people. To remove taxes is to turn authority over to the oligarchy and the wealthy- which is, of course, where we are going because the GOP has been so effective in convincing us that government by the people and for the people is a bad thing.
That comment did not appear to come from a reasonable person. Maybe from someone who has buried a guilty conscience. Pretending the writer’s deep sorrow over so-called “Christian leaders” almost worshipful support for Trump is about Pharisaical hypocrisy and judgement. Frankly, I find your analogy false and disingenuous. Jesus forgave the tax collectors Matthew and Zacheus. What he didn’t do was enthusiastically endorse them as the greatest of all possible leaders with zero signs of life-changing repentance. Nice try, though.
I have a feeling , as far as Evangelicals are concerned, we are just talking to a brickwall.
Ugh:( I will keep trying!
You’ve got that right! I live in the area of liberty university. You can’t voice a dissenting opinion around here. Trump supporters refuse to open their ears to hear. Their minds are made up; don’t confuse them with facts. ?