What have Trump’s evangelicals been saying since our last update?
Samuel Rodriguez is upset about the prohibition on singing in California churches.
You cannot permit tens of thousands to march in protest without masks and demand that 100 worshipers refrain from singing. That my friend is the very definition of discrimination. @GavinNewsom please stop discriminating! #inalienablerights
— Samuel Rodriguez (@nhclc) July 3, 2020
Jim Garlow agrees with Rodriguez:
You are exactly correct! And Newsom even demanded one cannot sing/worship in church. Despotic
— Jim Garlow (@JimGarlow) July 4, 2020
Here is how Dietrich Bonhoeffer would probably respond to Rodriguez and Garlow.
Meanwhile, court evangelical journalist David Brody loved Trump’s Mount Rushmore speech:
This speech at #MountRushmore tonight by @POTUS was excellent. It fully captured the cultural battle ahead for America. Why sugarcoat it? @realDonaldTrump tells it like it is. What he said tonight is a winning message in 2020.
— David Brody (@DavidBrodyCBN) July 4, 2020
Here is Brody again:
Memo to liberals who think @realDonaldTrump is going to lose: big celebrations at Mount Rushmore with military flyovers and patriotism galore resonate with the majority of Americans. I understand it doesn’t play well with far left latte sippers but you have a BIG blind spot
— David Brody (@DavidBrodyCBN) July 4, 2020
I don’t think you need to be a “far left latte sipper” to be troubled by what happened last night at Mount Rushmore. It was a “big celebration” during a pandemic with no masks or social distancing on a weekend in which the CDC warned people about gathering in large crowds. We already know that Don Trump Jr.’s wife tested positive for COVID-19. And don’t even get me started on Trump’s use of the American past to divide the country on Independence Day. I wonder what Frederick Douglass would have thought about Trump’s speech. By the way, I am not “far left” and have probably had ten latte’s in my life. I prefer the $1.00 large McDonald’s coffee on my way to campus. 🙂
Charlie Kirk, an evangelical Christian, bids his followers to come and die:
You must be willing to sacrifice everything for our country. America is worth putting everything on the line. Time to save America.
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) July 4, 2020
Does anyone want to help Kirk, the co-director of Liberty University’s Falkirk Center, reconcile the previous tweet (above) with the one below this paragraph? I am not sure he understands the meaning of “liberty requires responsibility.” As Christian moral philosopher Josef Pieper wrote, “It is the concern of the just man…to give others due rather than to obtain what is due him.” But what does Pieper, one of the great Christian intellectuals of the 20th century, know? He is not, after all, 26-year-old Trump wonder boy Charlie Kirk:
Liberty requires responsibility. If you are scared, stay home. Don’t make us stay at home. No more lockdowns. They don’t work, and do nothing but please tyrannical politicians. Open America!
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) July 4, 2020
And then there is this:
America needs four more years of Trump to survive.
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) July 4, 2020
Lance Wallnau is attacking another so-called “prophet” and, in the process, offers his own prophesy. He says the coronavirus, racial unrest, Christians “taking a knee,” and the tearing down of monuments are all judgments of God on America. If you have time, read the thousands of comments on the right of the video and then come back and let’s talk about my “fear” thesis.
Jenna Ellis, a spokesperson for Liberty University’s Falkirk Center, is getting into the “America was founded as a Christian nation” business.
If you’d like to know the true, full, legal and philosophical defense of our Judeo-Christian heritage in America’s founding principles and system of government, as provided in our founding documents, I invite you to read my book.https://t.co/FXthwWnlhh
— Jenna Ellis (@JennaEllisEsq) July 4, 2020
She also liked Trump’s Mount Rushmore speech:
This speech from @realDonaldTrump will be remembered as one of the finest & boldest defenses of America’s Judeo-Christian founding principles and our claim as one Nation & one people to our God-given freedom & liberty from an American President! ❤️🤍💙https://t.co/DQQVZDG9mQ
— Jenna Ellis (@JennaEllisEsq) July 4, 2020
I would like to hear how John Hagee uses the Bible to defend free speech, the right to assemble, the right to petition, the freedom of the press, the right to bear arms, etc.:
Our rights do not come from Washington…they come from God Almighty!
— Pastor John Hagee (@PastorJohnHagee) July 4, 2020
Like patriotic ministers have been doing since the time of the American Revolution, Hagee takes New Testament passages about liberty and freedom and applies them to political freedom:
For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. Galatians 5:13
— Pastor John Hagee (@PastorJohnHagee) July 3, 2020
Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. John 8:36
— Pastor John Hagee (@PastorJohnHagee) July 2, 2020
Tony Perkins is engaging in the same type of scriptural manipulation:
“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” – John 8:32 Consider the words of Jesus as we celebrate the 244th anniversary of our freedom as a nation. Our future freedom, both individually and as a nation depends upon embracing and upholding the truth.
— Tony Perkins (@tperkins) July 4, 2020
Gary Bauer throws thousands and thousands of hard-working American history teachers under the bus by telling them that they don’t love their country:
@realDonaldTrump speech at Mt Rushmore was historic. Filled with truth. He identified the major reason we see the attacks on our symbols and memorials. He said “Our children are taught in school to hate their own country” We must rescue our kids!#MtRushmore #independenceday2020
— Gary L Bauer (@GaryLBauer) July 4, 2020
Trump speaking at Mt Rushmore now, taking on left wing extremists who have declared war on our heroic Founders. This must be a major theme for November! @realDonaldTrump just said our children are being indoctrinated. He’s right! #America #4thofJuly2020 #KAGA2020 #BREAKING
— Gary L Bauer (@GaryLBauer) July 4, 2020
Robert Jeffress is back on Fox News defending his Lord’s Day morning political rally with a non-social-distanced choir. His defense if whataboutism:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjzFdXKn1gk&w=560&h=315]
The day before, Jeffress made his weekly visit with Lou Dobbs. Pretty much the same stuff:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-dXqgD_Qy8&w=560&h=315]
Focus on the Family is running an interview with Eric Metaxas about his book If You Can Keep It. I point you to my review of this seriously flawed book. If you want to take a deeper dive into this, here is a link to my longer review. I assume that this was taped a while ago (the book appeared in 2016). As I listen to Metaxas’s radio show today, and compare it with this interview, it is striking how far Trump and the aftermath of the George Floyd killing has pushed him even further into a Christian Right brand of Trumpism.
Franklin Graham is quoting the Declaration of Independence. Here is a question: Was Thomas Jefferson right? I think the Christian tradition certainly values life. It certain values spiritual liberty in Christ. But what about political liberty? What about the pursuit of happiness? Perhaps this is something to discuss with your friends and family over the holiday weekend.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” -Declaration of Independence, 1776 #IndependenceDay
— Franklin Graham (@Franklin_Graham) July 4, 2020
Until next time.
