Dear Conservative Christian, when did you decide that Donald Trump was the candidate that most reflects your values?
We’ve grown apart over the years. I moved away, and you switched from the quiet church you grew up in, to that big Megachurch that has services every day, a coffee shop in the atrium, and Heavenly Yoga on Saturdays and Thursday nights.
But we are still facebook friends, and I have noticed your posts changing from being pleas to help starving Ethiopian children to memes about lazy people on welfare. Now your profile pic is a “Make America Great Again” bumpersticker. I just have to ask: When did you decide Donald Trump was someone you admired? Does he embody your faith? How?
When we first met, you wore a WWJD bracelet- they were all the rage in certain groups. You knew I didn’t call myself a Christian, and you made a point of showing me your bracelet and telling me that you tried to make choices by thinking about What Would Jesus Do. So, tell me now, Would Jesus think Trump was a godly, worthy man? Would Jesus smile when he mocked disabled people, or less attractive women? When Trump called Mexicans rapists, and immigrants ‘terrorists’, would that have made Jesus, who called himself a stranger in a strange land, proud? What about Trump made you decide that you would put a sign for him in your yard?
Was it when he said that he would make this land, this land that Europeans stole from indigenous people, this land that is populated by first, second and third generation immigrants, this land that makes corporations rich on the backs of underpaid undocumented immigrants and the legalized slavery of prisoners, this land that was never all that great, but he would make it great again? Did you hear that and feel relief that he might protect you from those uncomfortable feelings you have when you see brown skinned people around you? Is that when you said to yourself, “This man reflects my values.”?
Dear Evangelical Pastor on my facebook page, when did you decide that Donald Trump was the candidate that most reflected your values? I know the friend that posted your article is trying to justify her vote. She sees things in black and white, good and bad, right and wrong. When she sees shades of gray that confuse her, she looks to you. She watches you on television, and attends a church with you on its staff.
Those gray colors are swirling in around Donald Trump’s run for presidency. His poor business dealings, his dishonesty to the small business people that helped him along the way, and now the sexual assault scandals. My friend, and thousands like her, read your words, and use them to decide what is black and what is white.
So, I need to ask you, when did you decide that Donald Trump most reflected your values? I’ve read your rants against gays and abortion. I know that you think the three or four references in the Bible that mentions those two topics are more important than all the others, because you preach on them the most. Those verses that come, not from Jesus’ teachings, but from Paul.
Jesus was all about inclusion, acceptance, forgiveness, healing the sick, giving to the poor, even to the point of becoming poor yourself. I find it telling that those parts of the Bible are not what you talk about, but instead the parts written by a wealthy man who came from a family that for generations was in politics, who worked for the ruling government, and never met Jesus. I look at your megachurch, and see that you demand a tenth of your church members’ income, and solicit even more on your TV and radio programs, and I think that you took one look at Donald Trump’s gilded home, gilded wife, gilded life, and thought, “This is what I want. This is what I want to follow.”
You found the richest man, and decided that this man reflects your values. He uses others that have less, much less, than he has to increase his wealth, just like you do. He emphasizes style, shine, flash, over substance, just like you do. He holds other people to higher standards than he holds himself. You would never let a gay, monogamous man be in your organization, but you have no problems letting child molesters, philanderers, and the morally bankrupt lead your church, as long as they don’t get caught. And if they do get caught, you’ll hush it up, make a show of reconciliation, and move people out of the spotlight to keep the cash flowing in. Is that what you see in Trump? Does it speak to you?
Dear Christian stranger at my door. Thank you for asking me to come to your church. I see the Trump sticker on your car. Tell me, why are you trying to get me to visit your church? That sticker tells me that you are full of hate. Hate for gays, hate for people who don’t worship like you do, hate for poor people, hate for brown skinned people, hate for women, hate for the disabled. Every one of those describes my family. When did your religion decide that it would be the faith of hate? I don’t want that.
I want a world full of hope, possibilities, and diversity. When did those become bad words to you? Is this who you wanted to become? Please tell me. When did you look at Trump, and say, “This man. This one here is the one I choose.” How did you get there?