President Trump spoke yesterday in Minneapolis to loud applause supplied by a large crowd of supporters, many wearing bright, red shirts emblazoned, “make American great again.”
If you didn’t see the speech, check out the excerpts and excellent response provided by The Young Turks here. It’s well worth watching.
I also encourage you to read my book, I Pledge Allegiance: A Believer’s Guide to Kingdom Citizenship in 21st Century America, if you haven’t already.
In the course of his rambling diatribe (the longest he has yet given), the president mocked and ridiculed individual Democrats and members of the House.
He targeted more lies and slander against Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Somali refugee from Minnesota. Rep. Omar and her family already receive around the clock security protection because of the regular death threats she receives, week in and week out, as she does her job for the people of Minnesota who elected her.
Omar also receives a surge in the number of threats against her life every time Trump mocks her in public, as he did again last night.
Trump then expanded his racist threats against the entire Somali refugee community in Minnesota, leading the crowd in cheers and applause as he bemoaned the horrible presence of hard-working, brown-skinned families finding refuge from their own war-torn country (partly facilitated by the U.S. military) in the bosom of white America.
The audience cheered again when the president promised that he will protect the good, white people of Minneapolis from the inconvenient threat of more dark-skinned refugees from Africa moving into their city.
How many of these red-shirted fans applauding Trump’s grotesque, racist drivel claim to be Christians? How many say they are evangelicals?
Well, it’s long past time to draw the line, folks.
And here’s the line:
People who follow Jesus will NEVER cheer or applaud for such wretched, verbal trash.
People who follow Jesus will NEVER endorse the inhumane policies – like closing our doors to refugees and asylum seekers, separating families and kidnapping children at the border – that are produced by this man’s dark and evil heart.
As I now listen to Trump speaking at the “Voters Values Summit,” he is
again falsely accusing Rep. Omar of saying things that she has never said. And he is being applauded by the audience!
We are witnessing the complete apostasy of American evangelicalism. It’s happening before our eyes.
If you or your friends voted for Trump in 2016 and now regret that decision, hallelujah! Confession your foolishness. Ask for forgiveness for facilitating the rise to power of this latest anti-Christ now spewing his putrid filth onto the American stage.
Pray for wisdom to do better next time as a well-educated voter.
But if you or your friends plan to vote for Trump in 2020, if you too applaud at his rally speeches, then you must face the truth.
You have driven the Holy Spirit from your heart, if, indeed, you ever knew Him.
You, too, are a racist.
You have become an idolater.
Your conservative politics are more important to you than Jesus Christ.
You are cheering for a fascist, a blasphemer, a sexual predator, a racist, and a career criminal.
It is impossible to be an obedient follower of Jesus of Nazareth and persistently endorse such wickedness.
You may have known Jesus at one time, but no longer.
You have become one of the choked, blighted, dying seeds woefully described in Jesus’ parable of the Sower in Mark 4:1-20. You have lost whatever connect to the Savior you may once have had.
You have become like the pompous “miracle workers” condemned by Jesus at the close of his Sermon on the Mount. Despite their protests of devotion, he says to these people boasting of their “godly” accomplishments, “Get away from me, you evil doers, for I never knew you” (Matthew 7:23).
It is LONG past time for faithful pastors to speak up and to speak out against the evangelical apostasy occurring before our eyes.
Pastors, your people need Biblical teaching and education in the ethics of God’s kingdom. Hiding behind the pretense of avoiding partisanship in the pulpit is and has always been a cop out.
The church desperately needs your help.
Where are the true, faithful shepherds who will risk giving offense by teaching the FULL counsel of God and emphasizing the radical, upside-down lifestyle demanded by Jesus Christ?
Within evangelical congregations, they seem to be few and far between…
