@musiclady @Quix @aligncare @Sanguine @Smokin Joe @Bigun @CatherineofAragon@DB This ^^^^
Quix and I have had fairly extensive private discussions about this sort of thing. I do not fault Quix for defending Trump as Trump is right now. Heck, I now defend Trump, too.
TBR members will remember that I lobbied hard against Trump during the RNC nomination process because he was
extremely dishonorable at the time, because he presented himself as a Christian whereas he was obviously what a Trump
supporter delighted to characterize in 2016 as
only an
"over-the-top a_hole." Well, the situation has changed.
Don't get me wrong here: I don't think we should completely overlook the fact that some of Trump's misstatements after his election in November of 2016 are
not just examples of innocent or, at worst, exaggerative confusion. I personally believe that our POTUS did consciously lie on two occasions when he said shortly after his election that he had decided not to prosecute the Clintons. He probably felt that this was tactically appropriate for the early phase of his difficult tenure in the White House--but I don't endorse his decision in this regard. Nor do I endorse his narcissistic nonsense attacking the Freedom Caucus to deflect criticism from himself; nor do I endorse his asinine claim that, in theory, he could pardon himself out of a criminal prosecution. But having stipulated this negative stuff, I will point out that, like it or not, Trump is
now our POTUS.More to the point,
whether or not we regard our POTUS as surely a Christian by now, he is our POTUS. Most importantly of all, Trump is actually doing his best
at this time to defend Christian values and rights and simultaneously to root out incredible evils that permeate our godless, America-despising society.
All of this means that our POTUS is quite obviously
on our side. To flatfootedly oppose our POTUS when he is doing God's work, as it were, is to
oppose God. This is not disputable.
Romans 13
DEMANDS that we be as supportive as possible of our POTUS. Anyone who would like to cut that chapter out of the Bible is a heretic indeed. That is not disputable.
(Thus, many churchgoers who can only bash Trump may be in bigger trouble with God than Trump is. What kind of secondary gain are today's churchgoing Trump haters getting by only trashing him? The answer is pretty spooky, in my serious opinion. Hypocrisy is deadly, because it is self-deceptive.)
***
To appreciate fully the good things that Trump is doing now, you really ought to come up to speed with Q on the internet. Q's revelations about the depth and breadth of the Swamp are breathtakingly awful. And Trump is quietly engaged in the largely thankless process of draining that Swamp as he had promised.
He is a patriot who is quite literally risking his life. The Deep State would love to have him impeached, but they would prefer that he be
dead.
As an aside, I have often mused over how America has gotten so deep into the mire of today's societal and governmental filth. I have concluded that the salt of professing Christianity in America has largely lost its savor, has lost most of its efficacy in preventing our wholesale societal rot. Neither the doctrines or practices of our mainstream churches are as good as they should be. (I suspect that our founding fathers would be appalled at the Biblical ignorance of the average churchgoer [and not just Trump's].)
***
I would conclude this post by pointing out what I believe is the only disagreement I have had with Quix regarding Trump's present spiritual state (or, as I now surmise, with my friend
@aligncare). Whereas Quix hopes and perhaps even suspects that Trump has thoroughly, savingly repented unto life--i.e.,that Trump has moved via
real faith (the deeply repentant kind) through the strange, wonderful Doorway of the Once-Crucified Christ into the state of actually knowing God, I see no spiritually compelling need to reach that conclusion at this time. (I hope he has been dragged by the Spirit of God into a true union with God, but I will respectfully reserve judgment--balancing charity with caution, since I have not heard any recent testimony of a post-2016 conversion,
per se.)
It goes without saying that we don't need to have a genuine Christian as POTUS. (God works in mysterious ways for His glory and for His people. Some of America's best Presidents were not Christians.) In the Old Testament, Cyrus was a God-conscious fellow who worked stupendous good for God's people even though he
did not know God.
Then again, I will not flatly say that Quix is surely wrong to hope against hope that Trump has been converted out of his narcissistic, flagrantly unrepentant and therefore antichristian filth from 2016; by the same token, I will not say that we should never affirm that he
might now be a Christian. Most important of all, I am agreeing with Quix that we must not be judgmental against a poor sinner, must not be judgmental against someone who might even turn out to have been a weak but genuine Christian on the Day when we all stand before God.
We all have to exercise good judgment, but judgmental
ism is deadly to its practitioners. It produces a foul, unforgiving spirit of the religiosity of moral
ism in lieu of Christian charity. Therein consists its final deadliness.