It’s been difficult to watch the Christian community embrace a person like Donald Trump. Evangelicals have had to perform mental gymnastics to pretend Donald Trump felt about religion anything close to what they claim to feel. This was supposed to be the “family values” party. Mike Pence, who won’t even have dinner with a woman other than his wife, suddenly doesn’t mind that Trump had babies with three different women and said on tape that he liked to grab women by the p***y.
Trump might be a lying, scheming, narcissistic con-artist but he doesn’t pretend to be religious. Sure, he faked it a couple of times by holding up a Bible with pages looking like they’d never been opened. He also tried quoting some scriptures but that went horribly wrong when he said “Two Corinthians” instead of “Second Corinthians.” But he doesn’t claim to consult God before making decisions.
As for family values, Trump’s been married three times, dumping each wife for the woman he was having an affair with. His wives raise his kids for him. On the Howard Stern show, Trump said “I mean, I won’t do anything to take care of them. I’ll supply funds and she’ll take care of the kids. It’s not like I’m gonna be walking the kids down Central Park.” Other than his adult children who run his businesses, we never see Trump spending time with his kids. There are a couple of photo-ops with his 10-year old, Barron. But instead of golfing at his resorts, shouldn’t Trump spend time with his, um, you know, 10 year old? He also has another daughter who is around so infrequently most people don’t remember her name. Obviously, Trump will never be mistaken for the dad from Leave It To Beaver.
Trump’s vanity alone should prevent the religious folks from supporting him. His name is plastered on everything whether he owns it or not. His NY penthouse is so full of gold-plated furniture and decorations; it looks like a golden calf has been sacrificed in the middle of his living room. The Ten Commandments have a side note saying just don’t do what Trump does.
Still, there are people actually claiming that God sent Trump to clean up the mess that President Obama left as if God has so few people to choose from that he would choose someone like Trump. Say what you want about Obama, but he is a devoted husband and father. He went to church for over 20 years and has a genuine compassion for people. The same crowds who bashed Obama for going to a church where the preacher gave one sermon in which one line was “God damn America” suddenly didn’t care that Trump was calling America a hellhole while wearing a hat made in China.
Look, I’m not religious. My family goes through the bi-annual ritual of trying to get me to go to church on Easter and Christmas. Right now, there are claims on the family grapevine that I’m an atheist. I’m not, but I don’t want to stop my family from thinking this in hopes that they will stop trying to convert me. I think that black people would do better investing in businesses and home ownership than giving 10% of their income to churches. If Creflo Dollar thinks he needs a 65 million dollar private jet to save souls, there is something seriously wrong with Creflo Dollar, his parishioners who agreed with him and paid for the jet, anyone who has ever attended his church and gave money, and black religious people in general. 65 million dollars could have saved a lot more actual people than he will ever see while traveling in his private jet. And frankly, if you need the threat of eternal damnation to be a good person, you’re a pretty shitty person to begin with.
So while there are so many things I don’t like about Trump, I like that he just admits he is a shitty person to begin with. With Trump, right wing Christians have had to admit that their religion stops where their racism begins. As long as Trump will build the wall and keep those “others” out, they don’t care if he believes in their God.
