So, just this week, President Trump stated, on tape, that he made up facts in talking with President Justin Trudeau of Canada regarding trade with Canada. Read the article on USAtoday.com.
My reaction was two-fold:
- Eyeball-roll of the usual, “treat him like a two year old because this happens so frequently that it’s not unexpected” approach
- Bewilderment, not at Trump but at the relative silence from my fellow Christians who voted for him
81% of White Evangelicals voted for President Trump per this poll from Pew Research who I find to be generally trustworthy, unbiased and thorough.
I don’t hear even half of my friends in this category falling on their sword and expressing regret and remorse for voting for him.
This just seems odd because, I remember this same category of people being really upset that President Clinton had an affair with Monica Lewinsky.
To me the behavior of President Trump is much more frequent and overt than the behavior of President Clinton. AND, there is no remorse or even recognition from President Trump that he is even wrong. (Perhaps he truly believes he is never wrong?)
Even if Christians supported him because of the totality of the picture President Trump represents for them I believe they should still be calling out the patterns of behavior that don’t reflect Christian moral behavior.
“Thou shalt not lie” still seems like it should be morally applicable today in most circumstances (don’t start debates about the edge cases of spies, actors, entertainers, etc.!)
Apparently, not so for President Trump.
Shouldn’t the Christian Right be saying something much louder?
After all, do we not stand for the One who is the Way, the TRUTH and the Life?