Trump and Religion

I can’t think of much that makes me angrier than politicians, on either side of the aisle, who try to use religion to advance their political careers. To a one, most (especially Republicans) claim to be “Christian,” but then behave nothing like a Christian. They do all they can to kill the social safety net, ignoring that whole Sermon on the Mount thing about “blessed are the poor,” and the many parts about caring the widow and orphan (according to the Bible, the real sin of Sodom). They agitate for war at every turn, ignoring that whole, “blessed are the peacemakers,” and loving your neighbor stuff.

Marco Rubio may be champion of it. His religion has changed frequently over time, depending on which denomination best suits his political aims the time. And now, Donald Trump has basically been caught in a lie about his personal convictions.

We start with him making a big thing in an interview about how religious he is, about how much he loves the Bible, about how he really likes both Testaments equally, and how he reads it all the time. I’d say, then the wheels come off, but they were never even actually on. Listen to the brief excerpt of the interview below:

What you quickly recognize is that he’s totally uncomfortable being asked anything specific about religion or the Bible, claiming it’s all personal. First, he took it out of “personal” realm when he started throwing it out there as part of his “profile” as a candidate. But mostly, it’s clear he doesn’t know how to talk the talk of a person who is devout in their religion.

The Presbyterian Church he claims to be active, says they don’t consider him active.

But the real give is that he doesn’t have a “favorite” verse…because that’s personal. He is the first person I’ve seen who claims to be “Christian,” but can’t seem to give a single quote from the holiest book of that religion. Then, when asked about his feelings on the Old and New Testaments, it’s clear he has to stop and think about what the interviewer is talking about.

We all know that Donald Trump is little more than a egomaniacal blow-hard. He’s not as successful a business person, and he’d like for the world the believe, and likely embellished his recently financial statements to bolster his personal wealth. Here he is, doing the same thing in regards to some supposed religion.

But the saddest part of it all is that there are those in the electorate who can’t see this is as the pandering it is, and believe him to be some sort of political savior. He’s hardly the worst of Republican stable, but he’s not the kind of person to successfully lead a nation, and this kind of bullshit is just further proof of that reality.