President Donald Trump: A Biblical Response

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President Donald Trump. Those words fill me with disgust, anger, and incredible disappointment in my country. What do I do now? There is a man whom I believe is utterly evil, unqualified, and exceptionally dangerous leading the nation I love. He has a history of encouraging physical attacks on people of color, bragging about rape, mocking people with disabilities, and showing contempt for the Constitution. He is conman who has swindled countless people. Even the week of his inauguration he paid $25 Million to settle a fraud lawsuit against him. Obviously God is not calling me to submit to this leadership, is He?

Romans 13:1-2 tells me God is demanding that I submit. “Let every person be subject to governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgement.” Frankly, I want to take a black sharpie to those verses right now.

The verse was written in 57 AD to a church in Rome so what does that have to do with us today? I’m sure they did not have a man like Donald Trump as their governing authority. Actually, they had an emperor named Nero who was heavily focused on foreign trade, the economy, and promoting Rome but he was largely viewed as his subjects as corrupt and was a wildly compulsive man. Most people of the day despised him but the neo-patriotic Romans of the East adored him. Sound familiar?

Nero in fact took Christians, dipped them in oil, and set them on fire. He took great joy in murdering the very people Paul was telling to submit to him. Paul was telling the church in Rome that the man killing them was appointed by God. Given that information, I have no choice but to be subject to President Trump. That brings up some challenges though. How do I obey the rest of Scripture?

In Proverbs 31 we read the advice King Lemuel received from his mother, “Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.” (Proverbs 31;8-9 ESV) Psalm 82:3 instructs “Give justice to the weak and the fatherless, maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.” (ESV) How is the world do I do this while being subject to man who is the personified opposite of these things?

Titus 3 gives some insight into just how this can be accomplished.

Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:1-7 ESV)

Paul again instructs the church through Titus to be submissive to authorities but this time he does so with additional instructions to be ready for every good work and to speak evil of no one. He lays out exactly who we were before Christ. Again, understanding the culture may help. Titus was in Crete and Titus 1:12 tells us that “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” Again, I’m reminded of our new presidential administration. Dishonest, evil, and lazy are all things many of us see in President Trump. Yet under similar circumstances the Bible called for submission. The same verses though command of us to do good work. Maybe the instructions are intrinsically tied together. We are to avoid quarrels as well, to be gentle and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. I picture Crete as a terrible place full of Trump cabinet nominees and a few Christians. The command to the Christians was echoed by First Lady Michelle Obama, “When they go low, we go high”. I want to stoop to the level of Trump and his followers and harshly rebuke them but I’m called to something more.

I am called to, “Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.”  (1 Peter 2:16-17 ESV) Again, both honoring the emperor and using my freedom for good coexist. 1 Peter was also written in Rome under evil rule of Nero.

So what will I do? I will follow the advice Paul gave Timothy from a Roman prison when he was being tortured and ultimately murdered by order of Nero. “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.” (1 Timothy 2:1-2 ESV) I will pray for President Trump. I will pray he repents of his heinous ways. I will pray he allows all Americans and people everywhere to live peaceful and quiet lives. I will pray he God reaches down and changes his heart.

As I finish writing this I am still dismayed at the thought of such an evil and capricious man leading my nation but I take comfort in knowing that I serve a God who is bigger than any President. I take courage in knowing that rules like Trump have come and gone and yet the world remains. I take responsibility to speak up for the oppressed and any my President tries to mock, ridicule, or harm. Finally, I take seriously my call to be a man of prayer. 

Scripture Should Trump Political Allegiance

I am profoundly troubled by the number of Christians supporting Donald Trump. Before anyone brings up Hillary Clinton, I find her reprehensible as well and her character to be just as deplorable as his. However, between the two of them I see more Christians supporting Trump so that is what I am going to talk about,

Trump is antithetical to everything Christian and most things conservative. He is a bully who calls names, degrades people, they cries foul when anyone says anything about him. Trump has repeatedly attacked Sen. Warren calling her “Pocahontas”, “Goofy Elizabeth Warren”, and “the indian” yet when she called him a, “thin-skinned, racist bully”, he responded by saying that she has a nasty mouth on her. He was shocked that anyone would speak that way. He has a long history of attacking people in terrible ways.

I get that we are not voting for a pastor here but there are some things that Christians simply should not tolerate and hatred and bigotry are chief among those.

“If I were running ‘The View’, I’d fire Rosie O’Donnell. I mean, I’d look at her right in that fat, ugly face of hers, I’d say ‘Rosie, you’re fired.” I don’t care for Rosie O’Donnell either but is attacking her physical appearance necessary? It is a low class bullying and it is antithetical to the gospel, conservative principals and the dignity required for the office of the President. She is a person made in the image of God. (Genesis 1:27)

“Our great African-American President hasn’t exactly had a positive impact on the thugs who are so happily and openly destroying Baltimore.” This is a terribly racist and uncalled for statement that unnecessarily brings President Obama's race into the discussion.

“You know, it really doesn’t matter what the media write as long as you’ve got a young, and beautiful, piece of ass.” Is this the kind of man you want as the President of the United States?

“Ariana Huffington is unattractive, both inside and out. I fully understand why her former husband left her for a man – he made a good decision.” Again, Mr. Trump stoops to personal attacks and personal attacks about people's appearance. This kind of nasty rhetoric from a President risks starting wars.

"If Hillary Clinton can't satisfy her husband what makes her think she can satisfy America?" Statements like these are below the office of the President.

Christians cannot vote for this man under the guise of "the lesser of two evils". A vote for Trump is not a vote against Clinton. It is an affirmative vote for hatred, bigotry, misogyny, and tyranny. If you are voting for those things, I'd encourage you to prayerfully search Scripture. 

Trump is an arrogant man and Proverbs 16:5 is clear, "Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the LORD; be assured, he will not go unpunished." (ESV) Do you really want to support a man whom God will surely humble?

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another." (Galatians 5:22-26 ESV)

I do not see a way to live in the fruit of the spirit and support and man who is the opposite of each of these and is self-admittedly unrepentant about it.

Here are a few quotes that show he is not a conservative for those who are non-Christians but conservatives:

“He’s [John McCain] not a war hero. He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.” This is NOT a man who is pro military. This is a man who has disdain for out military.

"I know Hillary and I think she’d make a great president or vice-president." Just a couple of years ago he was a Clinton supporter (maybe he still is). 

 Hillary Clinton. Hillary’s always surrounded herself with very good people, I think Hillary would do a good job.”  More of his support for Hillary.

He also supports universal healthcare with an individual mandate, eminent domain, and increasing taxes on the wealthy by a higher margin than even Sanders proposed. His position on abortion has been wobbly at best and he continues to praise Planned Parenthood while quoting the erroneous liberal talking points about them. He has been clear about his intent to crack down on the media as well and limit their freedoms. If you are a Trump supporter you are a liberal and there are now two ways about it.  

14 Things I'm Thankful for in 2014

"Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever!" Psalm 107:1 ESV

There are countless things I could give thanks to but since it’s 2014 I’ll limit myself to 14. Here are the top 14 things I’m thankful for in no particular order.

1. Jesus – I’m thankful that God loved me so much that He adopted me and picked me to be called His child and sacrificed His own Son that I might live, made pure by His righteous blood.  

2. My family – You can read more about my family on my last blog post. They are the greatest earthly gift I’ve ever received. I love these people more than anything. I am so incredibly thankful for the crazy group of people I get to do life with.

Photo Credit: Fort Vanity

3. My Church- You can read more about why I’m thankful for Mars Hill here. In short, my life has been forever changed my Mars Hill and though this is the last Thanksgiving that my church will even exist, I’ll forever be thankful for the ways God changed my life.

4. My pastor – God has used Pastor Mark to change my life over the past two decades. I’m thankful for Pastor Mark’s dedication to Jesus, solid theology and preaching the Bible. I dearly love this man and I look forward to one day sitting under his leadership again. 

5. Disneyland – I love Disneyland! We take a family vacation there about every 18-24 months and it really is the happiest place on earth.

6. My job – I have my dream job. I look forward to going to work every single day. I get to work with a great group of people at a job that is all about exotic cars. Seriously, I’m the luckiest guy alive!

7. My freedom – I live in the greatest nation on earth. My freedom and the freedom of every American is guaranteed in writing by our government and supported by a pretty bad ass military.  

8. Teaching the Bible – I’ve had the honor and privilege of teaching the Bible to teenagers over the past few years and I’m incredibly thankful for that. I learn far more than I ever teach by working with this great group of students and I’ll forever be grateful for this season.

9. My friends – I have a great group of friends. Those closest to me are some of the best people I’ve ever met. I am incredibly undeserving of the people God has put in my life but I sure am thankful.

10. My biological family – We certainly aren’t the closest family in the world but we are also far from the worst. I am thankful that my mother, a single mom, raised me as best she could. I’m thankful for my aunt and uncle who have sacrificed much to try to give me a good life.

Photo courtesy of Renus and ElTora Cabe (Mu aunt and uncle)

11. Sports – This seems trivial but sports matter to me. I enjoy relaxing (or freaking out) over a good athletic competition. Good teams or bad, winning seasons or garbage seasons, it’s a good way to unplug from the real world for a while.

12. My Bible – I have access to the Word of God. Unlimited access, no restrictions, no one will arrest me for it, it’s just there. I love reading my Bible, learning new things from it, teaching from it, sharing the truths it contains, and sometimes just praying through it.

13. Food and clean water – I’m super thankful that I live in a country where I have access to any food I want as well as clean and safe drinking water. There are many in the world without these blessings. I also just enjoy food, I love trying new things, gathering with friends to eat, finding a new restaurant, tacos, bacon, cookie, and well…. I just really like food.

14. The Perrigo family – I wrote about them in my blog on family but they are worth another mention. There is no family on the family that means more to me than them. I’ve never met a family where I have been so incredibly fond of each and every member. My life is truly better for knowing them. 

Photo: Courtesy of Alyssa Perrigo

Thankful To Be An American

I'm going to try to write a few blogs this week about things I'm truly thankful for. This first one is hopefully not too controversial, It is something that has been striking me lately as I see all the usual social media complaining change to thankfulness this month. I've found myself very convicted of my own complaining and lack of realization of my own privileged. 

This is the week when we American’s stop complaining about being cut off in traffic, Starbucks getting our drink wrong or the line at the store being too long. In fact this Friday, we’ll seek out bad traffic and long lines. Well some of us may still complain as well. The point is, it’s Thanksgiving week, the dedicated time to stop and give thanks.

Given all that we have in this great nation, it amazes me that we need to dedicate a day remember to give thanks. Even the poor in America live in abundance! We have more opportunity than any other place in the world. President Ronald Reagan said, “In America, our origins matter less than our destination, and that is what democracy is all about.”

Before you dismiss me as a rich guy who just doesn't get it, I am poor by American standards; my back account is currently overdrawn and I worry every month if I’ll have enough to make my bills. I struggle daily, but I’m in the best country on the planet to have these “problems”. I’m able to easily pick up side jobs and sell possessions whenever I need. When I look at my “poverty” compared to the rest of the world, I realize exactly how wealthy I am.

The media would tell you that I’m poor. If my income doubled, I’d still be making less than a “livable wage”. Yet, I have I home with heat, running water, food, and electricity. Many people in the world do not. My family owns two cars that we drive to the grocery store. Many in world walk miles in often empty hopes of finding scraps of food. All by basic needs are met and exceeded. This simply is not true for most of the planet.

Charity Water reports, “In Africa alone, people spend 40 billion hours every year walking for water. Women and children usually bear the burden of water collection, walking miles to the nearest source, which is unprotected and likely contaminated.” People are walking miles through horrible conditions to get filthy water and they are thankful, yet we have our day ruined by a referee blowing a call in a football game.

Even our homeless have places to get food and shelter. We have the greatest freedoms in the history of mankind. Our military is the toughest fighting force ever conceived. We have a raging immigration debate because people from all over the planet want to come to this land of opportunity. If you live in the United States of America, you have much to be thankful for every single day. The poorest among us, have much to be thankful for. The richest among us have much to be thankful for.

Please never forget the blessing we have as Americans. Please never forget the men and women who died to give us these blessings. Please never take for granted how rich you are. Please remember to give thanks today and every day for the blessings you have. Please stop complaining about the 1% and realize you are the 1%.