Tag Archives: politics

“as gold as the faucets in Trump tower”

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Stop the bus, I want to get off.

Other conservatives said that Ms. Palin serves as a particularly effective shield against Senator Ted Cruz, who is battling Mr. Trump for the lead in Iowa polls by courting the state’s evangelical voters.

“Palin’s brand among evangelicals is as gold as the faucets in Trump tower,” said Ralph Reed, the chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition.

“Endorsements alone don’t guarantee victory, but Palin’s embrace of Trump may turn the fight over the evangelical vote into a war for the soul of the party,” he said.

Wake me up when this bad dream is over

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Evangelicals See Donald Trump as Man of Conviction, if Not Faith

Strong support among conservative Christians could help Mr. Trump regain his lead in Iowa, where Mr. Cruz has pulled ahead in the polls. And Mr. Trump is making an effort to convert them. On Sunday, he assured CNN that he had “a great relationship with God.”

“I try and do nothing that’s bad,” he said. “I live a very different life than probably a lot of people would think.”

And on Monday, Mr. Trump spoke at Liberty University, the Lynchburg, Va., institution founded by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell. Mr. Trump has been wooing Jerry Falwell Jr., and Mr. Falwell lavished praise on him, comparing Mr. Trump to Jesus and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., for voicing unpopular thoughts.

Larry Ryman, a 74-year-old street preacher who lives near Findlay, Ohio, said he did not know whether Mr. Trump was a man of God. “I’ll tell you what,” said Mr. Ryman, a staunch supporter of Mr. Trump. “If he isn’t, he’s talking like it.”

Holy cow. . .

I’ve been wondering lately if the Lord is finally bringing some hot judgment down on us for the decades many of us in the American evangelical culture  spent foolishly looking to political power and the pseudo-saviors of our political class to fix what ails us. I’m not sure what else can explain the Trump phenomenon. This is like a bad dream.

I began having second thoughts several years ago about the efficacy of trusting in the political process. Now I’m in full-on repentance-mode. Never again. I think it’s good to vote and take part in the civic process, but trusting in chariots and horses is dumb.

Regarding Trump: there’s no way I’m voting for him if he somehow wins the nomination. I may not vote for his opponent either but I’ll probably be silently rooting for whoever that is.

We need to step back from the cliff here.

A better way

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I was talking recently with my friend (who’s also my oldest son’s father in law) Russell Minick about America. We were discussing some of the ugly things in our country’s past and present, how we should respond, things like that. He said the following:

“We have to come to understand that we are not King David in Israel. We are Daniel in Babylon.”

That has stuck with me, in particular as I face the increasingly likely scenario of a choice between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton next November. Seriously, can I vote myself off this island?

Daniel was exiled in Babylon. It was not his true home, but he was commanded, along with all the other exiles, to make it a home, to do good to it.

“Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. (Jeremiah 29:4-7 ESV)

There is a middle, balanced, better way between anger/frustration and apathy, between “protest” votes and staying home, between avoiding cultural engagement and the contention, bickering and partisan blindness of the political junky.

“Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf”

America has never been Israel, and we Christians are not the rulers here. We’re Daniel, the blessed exile, and we should be seeking to spread that blessing to the people around us, both our fellow exiles and our Babylonian neighbors.