Inserting himself into the Republican presidential race, Pope Francis on Wednesday suggested that Donald J. Trump ‘is not Christian’ because of the harshness of his campaign promises to deport more immigrants and force Mexico to pay for a wall along the border.
[Trump responded immediately, denouncing the pope’s remarks as ‘disgraceful’ and warning that] ‘If and when the Vatican is attacked, the pope would only wish and have prayed that Donald Trump would have been elected president.’
(New York Times, February 18, 2016)
It might seem a contradiction, if not an apostasy, that this pope considers the Jewish candidate a better messenger of Christian values than any of the Christian candidates running for president. But this should come as no surprise to anyone who knows anything about the basic tenets of Christianity; to say nothing of the historical symmetry Bernie represents: Jesus was a Jew, after all.
More to the point, like Pope Francis, Jewish Bernie Sanders channels Jesus with his rhetoric about feeding the hungry, healing the sick, and urging the rich to show more concern for the poor. His campaign message clearly telegraphs his intent to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable (i.e., to do what Jesus would).
By contrast, like Rev. Ike, Christian Republicans channel Mammon with their rhetoric about the lack of money being the root of all evil, the rich being favored by God, and the poor getting nothing from welfare but more poverty. Their campaign message clearly telegraphs their intent make the rich richer and the poor poorer.
Republican presidential candidates would have you believe that Bernie is just peddling failed socialists policies. But the stump speeches he delivers are replete with the very Christian teachings most Republicans profess to follow – pursuant to the articles of their Christian faith.
As he does with everything, Trump boasts about the love Evangelicals have for him. But they have clearly lost their way. It’s a testament to just how far that more Evangelicals are filling stadiums to hear Trump boast about his wealth than are filling churches to hear pastors preach about their God…
Trump is brazenly exploiting his “relationship” with Evangelicals for all it’s worth. Never mind that their relationship is based primarily on Trump boasting about his wealth and evangelicals hailing it as a representation of the God who will help Trump lead them down the primrose path…
Evangelicals seem drunk with wonder as they hang on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of Trump. But I am constrained to ask: What will it profit an Evangelical if he gains Trump as president, but loses his own soul?
(“Evangelicals Supporting Donald Trump like Israelites Worshipping Golden Calf,” The iPINIONS Journal, January 20, 2016)
Frankly, the reason so many Christians support Trump as the Republican standard-bearer is that he personifies the newfangled prosperity gospel so many Evangelical pastors preach these days. Indeed, these pastors have so perverted the gospel of Jesus Christ, they have millions of Evangelicals believing that the easiest way to get into heaven is to get rich, or die trying.
Mind you, these same Evangelicals would have you believe that the surest sign of evil and the end of times is when people defy God to become:
Lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God — having a form of godliness but denying its power.
(2 Timothy 3-6)
Hell, I can’t think of a better, more comprehensive description of Donald J. Trump than this. Can you?
What’s more, the Bible warns that Christians should have nothing to do with such people – who will “worm their way into homes and gain control of [the] gullible.”
Republicans would do well to take heed.
Amen.
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Republicans are gullible fools…