We expect it from every Muslim community when someone holds up a Quran while instigating violent crimes, so let's see it. But I'm not just posting this to make that point; quite a few leaders have actually condemned him, I'm sure, and I'd sincerely like to know who and how.
Christianity Today, an influential evangelical magazine, says Trump ‘should be removed from office’ https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wa...rump-should-be-removed-office/?outputType=amp
"This awful man, waving a book he hasn’t read in front of a church he doesn’t attend, invoking laws he doesn’t understand against Americans he sees as enemies, wielding a military he dodged serving, after failing to address a pandemic he was warned about, and building it all on a bed of constant lies and childish inanity. This is not partisan. It is simply about recognizing the moral vacuum that is now pretending to lead." - Rev Robert Hendrickson I thought that one was good. But there are others who are rowing in behind Trump.
Note that he doesn't technically distance himself from the President, much less explicitly does so on religious grounds. He even addresses him directly, as if they are of the same community and might listen to one another.
May not be a bad approach. I suspect the barbs and personal attacks, whilst clearly warranted, do run the risk of making him even more dangerous. The media mocking him over the bunker led, I suspect, to his "show of strength" walking to a church and tear gassing civilians. If he won't go then he needs to be manipulated by those who have his ear and that means painting this so the needs of the people and the needs of his ego appear to align. Then seriously destroy him at the ballot box. As in utterly, completely, without mercy, crush him. Not because Biden is in any sense a great or even promising leader, but because 51 to 49 is no way to denounce what we have seen. It needs to be a landslide of biblical proportions, a country united against the idea this could ever be acceptable.
I think the problem right now is that he doesn't seem dangerous enough. If this is how American democracy dies, it wasn't dead when he promised to deploy 'thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers' against peaceful protesters; it died when despite this, he was still President on the very next day.
Honestly? I don't trust it when they do. They've done it before, and gone right back to being horrible bigots. Look how they're already re-writing history about being for Bush, and Iraq, and torture. Nope, we have to be ready when they start saying they were never for Trump, we have to save the receipts, and tell them to go fuck themselves.
Since so much of American Christianity is rotten to its core, it would be intellectually and philosophically dishonest of their leaders to denounce Trump. This is the land not of Christ, but of the Prosperity Gospel. God wants you to be rich. Jesus is going to come back and deregulate the market forever and ever, amen. Trump isn't their antichrist. He's everything they've ever dreamed of.
I get that, but... Have they? Have they ever truly and clearly said, "This man is not a Christian, everything he believes is the opposite of what Christianity means, and nobody can be a Christian if they follow him." Because that is what Muslim leaders say all the time not just about terrorists, but about the least apologists for Islamic state violence, and yet we constantly hear that that is too little.
They may have done it, for all I know. But, I wish someone would follow the ideas presented in Matthew 18 and Titus 3. Go to the person in private, first. Confront them with their wrongdoing. If they refuse to repent, go back with a few witnesses. If they refuse to repent, go public and treat the person as if they were an unregenerate reprobate. The end.
I'm not sure what the version of going to the person in private is for a President or National Guard member.
There are people, that I trust theologically, that have the ear of the President of the United States. But, yeah, the chances of someone like me getting a private meeting with POTUS are nil.
"Have the ear of" may be a stretch. "Could probably get a phone call with" is the more likely outcome. There's no one left like Billy Graham that could show up at the White House unannounced and expect to be let in and served coffee. Maybe Billy's son, Franklin Graham. But, after seeing his behavior, I don't trust him any further than I can throw him.
You ascribe to a book that was ripped off from another book that was written by men who were wandering around the desert eating whatever they happened to find, and probably doing horrible things to each other. Where you are free to believe what you want, I am going to put your judgment in this area on the fail pile. Yes, I believe in something beyond this, but I am pretty sure your views are fucked. No I cannot prove it, and if you want to discuss things in a pleasant manner as to why I believe christianity is wrong I will participate, but I can only use reason and hypothesize on that which I cannot perceive. You brought up theological trust and your opinion on it and that is all I am commenting on.
