Many of you who read my blog know that I have never held any love for President Donald Trump.
A few weeks ago, while talking with my mother, who similarly loathes him, I realized why: He reminded us too much of my father, a narcissistic bully whom she divorced in 1985; after 25 years of his tyranny, she finally moved out in August 1983 and I followed a few weeks later. The list of similarities between them is too long to mention here, so I’ll mention just a few instances.
Mom found Dad overly possessive, accusing her of sleeping with other men, among other things. He recognized himself as the only authority in his life, as well as ours. Even in private conversations his sentences were often peppered with "I" and "me."
Here’s the thing: He also disparaged my religious faith, threatening on three occasions to kick me out of the house for expressing it.
But because I realized that I had become in my own right as toxic as Dad was, in 1984 I asked God, in effect, “Please change me no matter what you have to do.” He did, although the process was painful, as I suspected it would be. That "cleaning up my life" drove us even farther apart, leading to my breaking with him, permanently as it turned out, in 1988. (He died five years later.)
I bring that up because Christians are making excuses for Trump's behavior, calling him “a baby Christian,” which, absent any changed behavior, I won’t believe for a second due to his constant prevarication, abuse of women and overt racism, among other things. I'm seeing absolutely no humility on his part, that he ever does anything wrong that needs to change, and blaming his troubles on the media, the "deep state" and even people in his own administration.
That leads to what I call spiritual sludge. A lot of Christians, under the delusion that Trump has a “Cyrus anointing,” believe without reason that he will kick off some big revival that they believe will simply sweep people into the church. (In fact, revival can start only with confession of one's own sin and a desire to have it removed by any means God deems necessary, something his apologists don't consider.)
Anyway, you simply can't lead a family with an iron fist the way my dad tried to do, nor can you run a country the same way. What these Christians apparently want is to push people around; all they're doing, however, is alienating people from not only them but, even worse, God. And He isn't glorified in the process.
When Jesus said in Matthew 10:37 that “Anyone who loves [his or her] father or mother more than me is not worthy of me," I had to take that literally. At some point Christian Trump supporters will have to make a similar choice:
Either Jesus or Trump.
A few weeks ago, while talking with my mother, who similarly loathes him, I realized why: He reminded us too much of my father, a narcissistic bully whom she divorced in 1985; after 25 years of his tyranny, she finally moved out in August 1983 and I followed a few weeks later. The list of similarities between them is too long to mention here, so I’ll mention just a few instances.
Mom found Dad overly possessive, accusing her of sleeping with other men, among other things. He recognized himself as the only authority in his life, as well as ours. Even in private conversations his sentences were often peppered with "I" and "me."
Here’s the thing: He also disparaged my religious faith, threatening on three occasions to kick me out of the house for expressing it.
But because I realized that I had become in my own right as toxic as Dad was, in 1984 I asked God, in effect, “Please change me no matter what you have to do.” He did, although the process was painful, as I suspected it would be. That "cleaning up my life" drove us even farther apart, leading to my breaking with him, permanently as it turned out, in 1988. (He died five years later.)
I bring that up because Christians are making excuses for Trump's behavior, calling him “a baby Christian,” which, absent any changed behavior, I won’t believe for a second due to his constant prevarication, abuse of women and overt racism, among other things. I'm seeing absolutely no humility on his part, that he ever does anything wrong that needs to change, and blaming his troubles on the media, the "deep state" and even people in his own administration.
That leads to what I call spiritual sludge. A lot of Christians, under the delusion that Trump has a “Cyrus anointing,” believe without reason that he will kick off some big revival that they believe will simply sweep people into the church. (In fact, revival can start only with confession of one's own sin and a desire to have it removed by any means God deems necessary, something his apologists don't consider.)
Anyway, you simply can't lead a family with an iron fist the way my dad tried to do, nor can you run a country the same way. What these Christians apparently want is to push people around; all they're doing, however, is alienating people from not only them but, even worse, God. And He isn't glorified in the process.
When Jesus said in Matthew 10:37 that “Anyone who loves [his or her] father or mother more than me is not worthy of me," I had to take that literally. At some point Christian Trump supporters will have to make a similar choice:
Either Jesus or Trump.
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