In White House Meeting With Evangelicals Trump Boasts of Accomplishments and Stokes Fears

The amount of deference evangelicals, and in particular, those who fancy themselves “evangelical leaders” give to an unrepentant, adulterous, profane, aspiring despot is the most atrocious, gut-wrenching thing to come out of the age of Trump.

American Christians – at least, those morally flexible “Trump Christians” – have gone to great lengths to prove that their moral foundations are situational, at best.

As I’ve said so many times, they are ruining their witness to the world, at a time when it most needs for them to be a light in the darkness, guiding them to the truth of Christ.

They’ve traded their witness for a cheap red cap and the kind of indulgences that tell them for the cost of their vote, they need not worry themselves with the uncomfortable parts of the Holy Bible.

Quite the tradeoff.

On Monday evening, President Trump hosted evangelicals at a private dinner, and after the press had been excused, he launched into his usual litany of lies, knowing the itching ears of those “Christians” in attendance were more than ready to swallow every word, without question.

Among topics addressed were the upcoming midterm elections and the Johnson Amendment, a law that prevents religious or non-profit organizations from acting as campaign arms for specific candidates.

Trump, knowing he was with his greatest bobbleheads, loosened his tongue and his brain, and let fly with the absurdities.

Two things he pressed: He killed the Johnson Amendment (a lie) and if Republicans didn’t win big in November, there would be violence and bloodshed in the streets, as Democrats and leftist groups rampaged into churches and attacked Christians. Only a Trump with power could save them and stave off the savage beasts, waiting to tear down the walls of Christianity in this nation.

Ok. I finessed the language a bit, but not by much.

“The level of hatred, the level of anger is unbelievable,” he said. “Part of it is because of some of the things I’ve done for you and for me and for my family, but I’ve done them. … This Nov. 6 election is very much a referendum on not only me, it’s a referendum on your religion, it’s a referendum on free speech and the First Amendment.”

If the GOP loses, he said, “they will overturn everything that we’ve done and they’ll do it quickly and violently, and violently. There’s violence. When you look at Antifa and you look at some of these groups — these are violent people.”

See what I mean?

And I get it. I really do. There are leftists in this nation who would love nothing more than to silence even the most vague vestiges of Christianty.

I’ll also agree the Antifa movement is one of several nasty little thug groups that need to be shut down, labeled domestic terrorists, and treated thusly.

What I don’t agree is that we need Trump, or any of his loyalists to protect us. We’ve got a Constitution that has been doing just fine in that area for several centuries, now.

Sure. We’ve had challenges, but nobody is going to tell us we can’t worship, and even a halfway competent constitutional lawyer can make the case, should the anti-God squad get too rowdy.

It seems to me, however, that if you want to build up your defenses, your best bet is to live your faith in the open. You don’t hang that hope on a spiteful, petty, corrupt man, who only needs you for as much as you can carry water for him.

I promise you. If these evangelical “leaders” were to publicly condemn Trump’s adulteries, foul language and abusive nature, as a unified body, they would see Trump’s public attitude towards Christianity change, quickly.

Trump persisted in his nonsense.

“Now one of the things I’m most proud of is getting rid of the Johnson Amendment,” the president said. “That was a disaster for you.”

Several things to note, here.

First of all, I’ve pushed, over and over again, that the Johnson Amendment doesn’t need to be tampered with. There shouldn’t have been a need for it, in the first place, since churches should have always known that their job is to preach Christ as the answer, not any political system.

Now that we have it, it really should be one of those laws that’s never tested because our churches should be less interested in campaigning for man and more interested in simply preaching the Word, as it relates to issues like abortion, gay marriage, or even guns. They should then encourage the people to go into the world and vote, based on their faith. They don’t need Trump’s protection for that. That was always their right – and their duty.

Secondly, Trump is lying. He didn’t get rid of the Johnson Amendment because he doesn’t have the power to do that. Congress can do it. The Supreme Court can do it, if a law is found to be unconstitutional. Someone would have to bring that case before them to make it happen, and that hasn’t happened, yet.

What Trump did – and he’s just dumb enough to not know what he was doing – was sign an executive order in May 2017 that sought to ease the regulations of the Johnson Amendment.

“It does almost nothing,” Gregory Magarian, a constitutional law professor at Washington University Law School.

Politifact, the nonpartisan fact-checking organization, rated Trump’s claim that he had gotten rid of the Johnson Amendment “mostly false” when he first made it publicly in July 2017.

That seems to happen a lot with Trump.

Trump’s executive order instructs the Treasury Department not to “take any adverse action against any individual, house of worship, or other religious organization on the basis that such individual or organization speaks or has spoken about moral or political issues from a religious perspective, where speech of similar character has, consistent with law, not ordinarily been treated as participation or intervention in a political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) a candidate for public office … ”

In other words, religious organizations can express their religious views, as they always could — but still cannot formally participate in political campaigns.

Yeah. Big accomplishment, there.

Still, Trump is taking that victory lap, patting himself on the shoulder and proclaiming himself the hero of Christianity.

Trump said to the religious leaders at the White House: “Now you’re not silenced anymore. It’s gone and there’s no penalty anymore and if you like somebody or if you don’t like somebody you can go out and say, ‘This man is going to be great for evangelicals, or for Christianity or for another religion. This person is somebody that I like and I’m going to talk about it on Sunday.”

On Sunday, they need to be talking about the Word of God.

KEEP THE SABBATH HOLY. It’s one of God’s top 10.

Yeah, technically, Saturday is the Sabbath, but you know most Christian denominations have chosen Sunday as their day of worship and rest, so don’t @ me.

Apparently, evangelicals (mainly) have been testing the limits of the Johnson Amendment, with 2,000 clergy going out of their way to defy the rules of the Amendment since 2008. None of them have faced any sort of punishment, with only one of them facing an IRS audit.

Trump “doesn’t have the legal authority to overturn the Johnson Amendment,” Magarian said.

“You would think,” Magarian added, “that the conservative religious leaders would get impatient at the continued repetition of that claim” that Trump has repealed it.

Nope. They love the repetition. They love the lies. The delusion of Trumpism is strong in the church.

And speaking of delusions – there is no war on Christmas. There has been no war on Christmas. I don’t know anyone who has been prevented from saying “Merry Christmas.”

“Little thing — Merry Christmas. You couldn’t say Merry Christmas,” Trump said. “I’m telling you — when I started running I used to talk about it and I hate to mention it in August, but I used to talk about it. They don’t say Merry Christmas anymore.”

Trump added, to applause: “They say Merry Christmas a lot right now. It’s all changed. It’s all changed.”

No. It seriously has not changed. Nothing has changed. You’ve had no effect on it, whatsoever. I’m not sure if these evangelicals in attendance were being polite, or if they actually bought what he was saying.

He also mentioned one of his more devoted evangelical foot soldiers, Rev. Robert Jeffress, of the First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas.

“I had the great Robert Jeffress back there. Hello, Robert. Who said about me: He may not be the perfect human being, but he is the greatest leader for Christianity,” Trump said to applause and laughter.

He added: “Hopefully I’ve proven that to be a fact in terms of the second part. Not the first part.”

How sad. The greatest leader for Christianity was Jesus Christ. I mean, c’mon. The faith bears his name. He ministered for three years and then died a horrible death, only to rise again in three days, just to bring humanity the truth of God.

Trump and his sycophants are hitting dangerous levels of cultism. Men like Robert Jeffress are frauds, and have no relationship with faith or adherence to that which is godly.

And if all of this wasn’t bad enough, Trump was presented with a Bible, signed by 100 of the false “leaders” of the Trump’s Temple church by the thrice married charlatan, Paula White.

Via @sarahmccammon, last night Paula White presented Trump with a Bible signed by 100+ evangelicals, with an inscription including the line, "History will record the greatness that you have brought for generations." Crowd at the White House was asked to say "Amen" to that. pic.twitter.com/T40GyNTFN5

— Ruth Graham (@publicroad) August 28, 2018

If you look at a world growing darker, seemingly getting worse, and wonder why the prayers of the church are not holding back the enemy at the gate, wonder no more.