Do Evangelicals really think Trump is the Messiah?

[apple1]

11 minutes ago, Howl said:

Apparently not all Evangelicals, including the one quoted in this article, drank the Trump Kool Aid: 

Christians Plan National Day Of Prayer To Support Trump Impeachment Inquiry

 

Wow. A ray of light in a dark time.

Amen and amen.

[formergothardite]

On 9/1/2019 at 2:45 AM, Conundrum said:

I just don't understand! Why? Why do Christians think he is sent by God? He has lied, cheated, been married multiple times, and it's even rumored he encouraged one of his mistress' to have an abortion. (I have no idea if that is true or not.) He is the LEAST moral man to be elected president but the hardcore Christians love him?!

He hates brown people and Muslims, which most of them hate too. He promises to strip away rights from the people who they want to have rights stripped away from. He promises to bring them back to the "good old days" when women stayed in their place and white people could crush minorities. Christians who support Trump are finally making it obvious who they have always been, they are a people filled with pure hatred.

They  use the excuse, "David was a man of God and he had an affair and murdered someone. " to justify all the terrible things Trump does. 

[Howl]

But then there's this:

GOD, VIA HIS EARTHLY REPRESENTATIVE RALPH REED, ORDERS ALL GOOD CHRISTIANS TO VOTE FOR THE COMPULSIVE PUSSY-GRABBER

1 minute ago, formergothardite said:

They  use the excuse, "David was a man of God and he had an affair and murdered someone. " to justify all the terrible things Trump does. 

Yes, and they cite several other Biblical characters who had...flawed lives, but God used them for something something something, therefore Trump OK.  

And by the way, the Trump machine and the religious persecution industry will continue to cynically use these credulous people and prey on their naivete, by sucking their money and support at the voting booth. 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

[3_and_counting]

I will fully admit to not reading any of this other than the comment I was tagged in. LOL

I have no idea why most christians are so obsessed with him.  Personally, the way so many go after him...it wouldn't surprise me in the least if he turned out to be the anti-christ, or his son-in-law.  They have won over crowds of people that I would have never thought would have gone for that type of person.  Most people I know go by the "we are electing a president, not a pastor".  I personally am not a fan of him.  I do believe he has done some good things, but I am not a fan of his.

Also, I have never heard anyone...from the people I interact with anyways who have ever said anything close to believing his a a messiah.  I "run" with a really conservative crowd that would never come close to thinking anything like that.  So to give insight on that aspect of things...I have no clue!

Edited October 17, 2019 by 3_and_counting

[Ali]

Trumpter evangelicals I know would never say he is the messiah and would become quite defensive if confronted about believing that he is a messiah, but their actions show that they think he is a messiah or the "New Jesus."

[formergothardite]

11 hours ago, 3_and_counting said:

I do believe he has done some good things,

I literally can't think of one good thing he has done, but I am biased. Good in comparison to all the horrible, horrible, horrible things he has done, though? Really?  He locks children in cages! He is allowing genocide to be committed. He is openly trampling on the Constitution and ever single thing this country was built on. He gushes over dictators. He is cruel and nasty. And the list could go on. 

Has any of your evangelical crowd shown a slight concern for the Kurdish people? Dead silence by the ones I know. The way I know Trump voters are cult members is that he can let a Christian minority group get slaughtered and they still worship him. They won't say a bad word against him. Don't believe me? Try and get them to criticize Trump. Not some half-hearted thing, but truly discussing the horrible things he does. They won't do it. I've tried. I've tried even using the Bible and they won't. They are cult members now, so they can't point out the flaws or the one they serve. 

At this point I have decided that a huge, HUGE amount of evangelical Christians have sold their souls for political power. They spent all this time saying the liberals were trying to destroy Christianity, but they are doing it themselves. They have no moral ground left, no morals left. Nothing. Much like Mike Pence they picked power over being decent, moral people. They now have a religion that is nothing but hate and racism because Trump is their true leader. If it really the Bible they wouldn't be voting for him. Because of Trump I really don't see the evangelical version of Christianity going on for much, much longer. Who wants to join a religious group who praises a man like Trump? Why would anyone do that? 

One good thing out of this is that anyone who votes for him will not be able to criticize people about "sinning" without being obvious hypocrites. They going to say gay people are sinners? They voted for the guy who cheated on his wife with a porn star and then paid her off and then lied about paying her off! Some of that while being president. And never apologized or admitted what he did was wrong. They going to go on about life being precious! What about those babies in cages. Or the murder of the Kurdish people? Liberals spending too much money? Look how much debt Trump and the GOP have added to America and how much tax payer money Trump is funneling into his own pockets. Everything they claimed they stood for ends up they were willing to toss aside when it comes to Trump. Not even taking the Lord's name in vain or openly violating the 10 commandments will get them to stop praising him, Their Great Leader. 

Christians who vote for Trump can't claim any morals now. Moral people wouldn't vote for a man like Trump. 

11 hours ago, 3_and_counting said:

Most people I know go by the "we are electing a president, not a pastor".

Where was this during the Obama years? Or the Clinton years? This is just an excuse because they truly worship Trump, and I hope you are able to see that for what it is. 

[apple1]

Oh my, @formergothardite , you nailed it.

Quote

At this point I have decided that a huge, HUGE amount of evangelical Christians have sold their souls for political power.

If I tried to distill the point of your post into a sentence or two, I guess it might be this one (above).

One more thing - while I personally identify myself as a Christian - I can't identify with that group. (I might be an Elijah Cummings kind of Christian - or some days a John Pavlovitz kind of Christian - I hope, anyway. I am very far from perfect personally, but I try to follow Christ.)

 

I also don't post a lot on FB, period, and try my best to avoid politics on FB. But I had posted this (below) 2 years ago and FB brought it up as a "memory" and it seemed very appropriate.

Quote

Because it's a good day to say this: If you identify yourself as a Christian (as I identify myself), your hope is not in politicians or politics - of any flavor. If it is - it's time to re-evaluate your faith.

 

 

None of my personal beliefs change the hypocrisy or the outright evil we were posting about.

[formergothardite]

5 hours ago, apple1 said:

One more thing - while I personally identify myself as a Christian - I can't identify with that group. 

I think that if I had not been raised evangelical Christian I probably would have stayed  a Christian. There is so much pure hate in evangelical Christianity. Not all of course, but it seems the majority of evangilical Christians thrive on hate, not love. And that is why they flocked to Trump, he made hate and evil okay and that is who they always were. 

I don't know if people inside the movement see it at all or if they are just basking in their worship of Trump, but from the outside looking in, it seems like they pretty much traded everything for Trump. How could they tell me, a non-believer, that I have no morals when they are okay genocide and putting children in cages? If one's God says that Trump is good, then hell looks like it will be a wonderful place since it will be Trump free. Why would I want to go spend an eternity with a Trump God or a God who says vote for Trump? 

The evangelical movement is dying off anyway, but their adoration of Trump is going to drive off more and more people. Who wants the God of hate and harm? 

[apple1]

Many would probably say that I was raised "evangelical" Christian. Although I guess I think that for decades that has both meant different things to different people.

I admit that I currently find myself not able to find the right place where I feel comfortable worshipping and fellowshipping, much of that due to these political issues.

I guess I wish I had better answers.

[SilverBeach]

On 10/17/2019 at 6:02 PM, 3_and_counting said:

I do believe he has done some good things,

What are these good things you speak of? By he, do you mean Trump?

16 hours ago, formergothardite said:

I literally can't think of one good thing he has done

Me either.

[Smee]

I’m somewhat confused by what the term “evangelical Christian” actually means. Pretty much all the churches I have attended since choosing faith in my teens have described themselves as “evangelical”, and they really do seem to use it as a theological descriptor so I’ve tended to just use that label too. Once I worked for an organisation that referred to the “4-legged stool of theology” whereby the 4 “legs” are scripture, reason, tradition and experience, and different flavours of churches tend to emphasise different areas. I distinctly remember my boss teaching this to a class full of people and saying that liberal churches placed greater focus on reason, conservative churches favoured tradition, charismatic/Pentecostal churches favoured personal experience, and evangelical churches placed the greatest emphasis on scripture. He then continued to explain why he felt scripture should get primary focus (it being to a greater degree external to the person and church politics, “from God” and less likely to become corrupted). I always liked those definitions because I feel like denominations are a less reliable descriptor than they perhaps once were. For what it’s worth, the churches I’ve been involved with who use the “evangelical” label have been Baptist, Presbyterian, Anglican, and Baptist again, and there’s a whole organisation called Emu, short for Evangelical Members of the Uniting Church, whereas the majority of the Uniting Church tends to be more liberal.

Anyway, I explain all this because the churches I’ve been a part of all place that primary emphasis on the bible and all call themselves evangelical, but when people talk about “what evangelicals believe” it’s nothing like my experiences of these people. There are lots of political conservatives in these “evangelical” churches but also a decent chunk of people, at least amongst the millennials and Gen Z, who are very left wing. Even the Christians I’ve known who I consider right wing and whom I strongly disagree with on Australian politics, are more likely to call Trump the Antichrist than a prophet - and DEFINITELY not the Messiah or second coming. Whereas in this thread (maybe just in the US in general?) “evangelical” seems to carry a really intense political meaning that makes me hesitant to use it to describe myself because it’s like a dirty word.

[formergothardite]

1 hour ago, Smee said:

Whereas in this thread (maybe just in the US in general?) “evangelical” seems to carry a really intense political meaning that makes me hesitant to use it to describe myself because it’s like a dirty word.

In the US it does. Evangelicals in America have been deeply involved in extreme right wing politics for decades. Some even go as far to say that it is impossible for someone to be a Christian and also be a democrat. American Evangelicals want to use politics to create their ideal world where they take rights away from anyone they don't agree with. 

This is why they worship Trump. He is given the okay for them to finally be open about their racism and hate. In the past they had to at least pretend to not approve of racism and openly hateful actions, but now they don't. 

[SassyPants]

Let’s not fool ourselves. Evangelicals do not worship Trump, but rather control and power. They see Trump as a vehicle for power and control to drive their agenda. If tomorrow Pence was POTUS, they’d drop Trump like a hot potato. Doesn’t Pence claim to be an “Evangelical” Catholic? That term was a first for me. 

Simply put, Trump is using Evangelicals and they intend to use him via his power.

Edited October 19, 2019 by SassyPants

[Howl]

Please, PLEASE let these people be raptured soon: 

Also, many people, when they aren't wondering about the Pool Boy, are wondering if that's Lev Parnas in the center front of the photo, or some other Russian mobligarch.  Apparently not, but the fact that people are wondering.....Also note Ms. Falwell's festive Naugahyde skin-tight dress. 

[Audrey2]

13 hours ago, Howl said:

Please, PLEASE let these people be raptured soon: 

Also, many people, when they aren't wondering about the Pool Boy, are wondering if that's Lev Parnas in the center front of the photo, or some other Russian mobligarch.  Apparently not, but the fact that people are wondering.....Also note Ms. Falwell's festive Naugahyde skin-tight dress. 

Oooh... What would Jill Rodrigues say about that... (I know, but fun to think about her response.)

[Ozlsn]

On 10/20/2019 at 12:56 AM, SassyPants said:

Let’s not fool ourselves. Evangelicals do not worship Trump, but rather control and power. They see Trump as a vehicle for power and control to drive their agenda. If tomorrow Pence was POTUS, they’d drop Trump like a hot potato. Doesn’t Pence claim to be an “Evangelical” Catholic? That term was a first for me. 

Simply put, Trump is using Evangelicals and they intend to use him via his power.

Trump is a means to the end goal of a theocracy. Pence is much more their man - at least to those driving the politics of this. I am really interested to see how the cult members will react when they decide to cut Trump loose - will the cult of personality override the new programming or will Trump need to be martyred for the cause?

[fraurosena]

4 hours ago, Audrey2 said:

Oooh... What would Jill Rodrigues say about that... (I know, but fun to think about her response.)

She’d start by saying their complexions are SEVERELY worrying. But! It’s nothing a little (ok, a lot) of eyeliner won’t fix. Oh! And they haven’t heard of the miracles of Plexus yet!!! Then she’d wonder if she should message them, or go bring the gospel of Plexus personally? With the kids singing to them, of course.

They’d be so grateful that she’d be granted an audience with Trump himself! Take that, Duggars!

[Audrey2]

17 hours ago, fraurosena said:

She’d start by saying their complexions are SEVERELY worrying. But! It’s nothing a little (ok, a lot) of eyeliner won’t fix. Oh! And they haven’t heard of the miracles of Plexus yet!!! Then she’d wonder if she should message them, or go bring the gospel of Plexus personally? With the kids singing to them, of course.

They’d be so grateful that she’d be granted an audience with Trump himself! Take that, Duggars!

I was thinking about their "sluttish" dresses, especially the pleather one.

And I'd love to see her get Trump hooked on Plexus!

[libgirl2]

On 10/17/2019 at 6:09 PM, Ali said:

Trumpter evangelicals I know would never say he is the messiah and would become quite defensive if confronted about believing that he is a messiah, but their actions show that they think he is a messiah or the "New Jesus."

I had someone tell me he was anointed by God.... close enough. 

On 10/18/2019 at 6:04 AM, formergothardite said:

Where was this during the Obama years? Or the Clinton years? This is just an excuse because they truly worship Trump, and I hope you are able to see that for what it is. 

I have seen people commenting on FB (some friends) about Michelle Obama being such a low class first lady and how Melania is true class. Now I dont' care that she posed naked but imagine if Michelle had done that??? 

[smittykins]

FB meme I’ve seen first-hand:  “Finally, a President with balls and a First Lady without them!”

[fraurosena]

20 hours ago, smittykins said:

FB meme I’ve seen first-hand:  “Finally, a President with balls and a First Lady without them!”

I'm guessing they haven't seen Melania's new kidney's then.