Monday, September 4, 2017

To a Trump Supporter Who Calls Himself Christian

(I decided not to post this in Facebook comments, but liked it enough to save for this blog.)
You are part of a long line of people who wish to rewrite not only the law but historical fact itself to make it support you. To deal with some of your historical claims:
  1. Fred Clark reminds us that most US Protestants did not believe abortion was murder 40 years ago; this "biblical" "truth" is literally newer than the McDonald's Happy Meal. (It is also not in the Bible.) It was largely a belief of Roman Catholics, widely despised by the more radical Protestants. This was made into a widespread belief through extensive propaganda in the 1980s, and this was done because racism had lost much of its power.
  2. Somehow the Supreme Court did not find an unlimited firearms license in the Second Amendment for 200 years.
  3. The Constitution never was Christian. "Nature's God" in the Declaration of Independence refers to the distant Creator of Deists, nothing like the interventionist God your kind of Christianity believes in. The Constitution is deliberately non-religious.
None of the historical claims you make in support of your views are grounded in fact. Trump is a racist, probably a rapist, and a man with a long history of not paying his debts, which the Bible anathematizes. Against this, Hillary Clinton is a devout Christian and practices the Christian virtues, staying with her philandering husband despite his offenses against her and resolving their conflicts. If you were looking for a good Christian candidate, your side could have done much worse than to support her
  And, finally, don't you worry about the state of your own soul? In the Gospels, Jesus condemned pious hypocrisy in the strongest terms multiple times. As a public Christian you must know your views are considered hypocritical by others who profess Christianity. I suppose, in your view, they are the hypocrites and apostates. But have you considered the possibility that you might be wrong?

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