Category Archives: Politics

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How Some Trump Christians are Losing Their Souls

And others better be careful or they may too

Trump Christians are largely good people. Not all of them are complicit. Many have simply been misguided by false or exaggerated right-wing media narratives or by Trump’s truth-stretching and false claims. They watch Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and Tucker Carlson, but ignore Shep Smith and Chris Wallace (the few on Fox News who critique the President). Or, they listen to Trump defenders on Christian outlets, such as Steve Strang at Charisma Media, who epitomizes tunnel vision when declaring Hillary as “bringing a level of corruption that we have never seen,” while he totally ignores Trump’s abuses of power. For Trump Christians, CNN and MSNBC are bastions of the left-wing that they ignore. So, they miss former Fox News analyst and retired US Army lieutenant colonel Ralph Peters’ many appearances on CNN, when he said Fox News has become a “propaganda machine” for the Trump administration and is “is assaulting our constitutional order and the rule of law, while fostering corrosive and unjustified paranoia among viewers.” [1] When confronted with Trump’s lies and misdeeds, Trump Christians believe each one these claims is largely a lie itself.

But out of all President Trump’s defenders, Trump Christians who claim spiritual authority are the ones that should know better (in addition to those in Congress). They claim to be people of integrity with higher standards. People of principle. People of faith in a just God who warns of seven detestable behaviors, including, “haughty eyes, a lying tongue… a heart that devises wicked schemes, a false witness who pours out lies, and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.” (Proverbs 6:16). These defenders are the Franklin Grahams, Jerry Falwells, Jr., Steve Strangs, Michelle Bachmanns, Ralph Reeds, Robert Jeffresses, Christians in Congress, and any evangelical pastors who defend Trump. They endorse an unrepentant man who practices detestable behaviors.

The Mueller report has shed new light

Any fair reading of the Mueller Report concludes although there is not enough evidence to establish “conspiracy” (“collusion” is not a legal term), there is plenty to establish serious wrongdoing, lies, abuses of power, and “unquestionable evidence of obstruction of justice by the President,” says Jill Winebanks, former Watergate Assistant Special Prosecutor. In fact, up to 800 former federal prosecutors signed a document that stated that if Trump were not president and thus unprotected by a DOJ policy not to indict a sitting president, he would be charged with obstruction. [2]

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What Was Right with Billy Graham But Wrong with His Children Preaching at His Memorial

At Billy Graham’s memorial service on March 2, 2018, in which 2,000 people attended, his children Franklin and Anne used the opportunity to preach to the crowd. “My father followed Jesus all the way to heaven,” Franklin said. “How about you? If this were your funeral, would you be in heaven?” [CNN]

Daughter Anne Graham Lotz speculated on a prophetic meaning behind her father’s death, saying she believed it was a “…shot across the bow from heaven. …I believe God is saying: ‘Wake up, church. Wake up, world. Wake up, Anne. Jesus is coming. Jesus is coming.’” [Charisma]

There is “no better place” to convert to Christ than this funeral, Franklin added. “The world with all of its political correctness would lead you to believe that many roads lead to God, but that’s just not true. Jesus is the only way.”

For me, the passing of Billy Graham on February 21 brought back many memories from my 25-year journey inside evangelicalism, including this kind of preaching. As a teenager, seven years before I formally “joined” the movement (in evangelical terms, when I “accepted Christ”), I saw Billy speak at a huge Jesus Festival in Dallas, Texas. Despite his typical-fundamentalism-of-the-day sermon, I found Billy to be very likeable. He had a magnetic personality and an authoritative, yet kind voice. The words he spoke that night in Dallas echoed in my life for years to come. In time, some of his other teachings also impacted me, particularly as his mindset became less fundamentalist.

Yet as the years rolled on and my own evangelical faith evolved (I ultimately left it behind), I came to realize something about this famous evangelist:

Billy Graham was an honorable man trapped in a dishonorable religion.

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How the Religious Right Lost Its Mind


Earlier this month, Charles Sykes, published his book “How the Right Lost Its Mind.” A long-time Republican, Sykes describes the gradual evolution of conservative ideas and politics from the likes of intelligent, fair-minded William F. Buckley to the narcissist, reckless, liar Donald J. Trump. His conclusion, on how things changed, almost exactly parallels how the Religious Right lost its mind as well, as “…a movement based on ideas had devolved into a new tribalism that valued neither principle nor truth.”

For clarification, it should be obvious that I’m not saying here that all individuals who consider themselves part of the Religious or Political Right have lost their minds. I have many evangelical family and friends who are kind, decent, and thoughtful people and some of them voted for Trump. I’m drawing attention to the religious and political movements (to which individuals belong) that often take on a mind of their own and then gradually lose that mind.

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How Can We Know Something is True?


The President of the United States recently declared that the mainstream media—NY Times, NBC, CBS, ABC, and CNN—are enemies of the American people. He routinely calls them “fake news.” Kellyanne Conway, Counselor to the President, introduced the concept of “alternative facts.” Stephen Miller, Trump’s 31-year-old senior adviser, insisted on national television that “this issue is widely known by anyone who has worked in New Hampshire politics,” speaking of the claim that thousands of people were bused from Massachusetts to NH to vote against Trump, which explains why Trump lost that state.

The reason why these kinds of dialogues are in our national discourse is because many of us have abandoned a reasonable approach to determine whether something is true or not. People have bought into certain ideological frames so that news from a particular “liberal” source, like the N.Y. Times, or news from a particular “conservative” source, like Fox News, are automatically deemed false. Suddenly, every news outlet is on par with a supermarket tabloid, like the National Enquirer, that routinely prints baseless stories.

In the day of supposed fake news, how can we know something is true?

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