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Politics

Why do evangelicals support Donald Trump?

Donald Trump is immodest, arrogant, foul-mouthed, money-obsessed, thrice-married, and until recently, pro-choice. By conventional standards, evangelical Christians should despise him. Yet somehow, the Manhattan billionaire has attracted their support.

According to the most recent polls, Trump is one of the top picks for president among evangelical Christians. One Washington Post poll even had him as the group’s favorite by a margin of six points. His first major rally in the Bible-Belt fortress town of Mobile, Alabama, drew an estimated 18,000 attendees. And on September 28, prominent televangelist Paula White will reportedly lead a delegation of evangelical leaders to meet with the mogul in Trump Tower.

“Why do they love me?” Trump replied when asked about the trend. “You’ll have to ask them. But they do. They do love me.”

It’s rare that the real estate mogul struggles to find an explanation, but in this instance, his puzzlement is understandable. There is little about The Donald that would seem to align with evangelicals’ values and beliefs. But when it comes to the famously coifed candidate, the faithful seem to be valuing style over substance or spirituality.

CONTINUE READING…

September 3, 2015by Jonathan
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Culture

Will Conservatives Unite Against the Death Penalty?

The Conservative Political Action Conference, or “CPAC,” started today in Washington, DC, and the list of speakers reads like a conservative who’s who. Former Governor Jeb Bush, Congressman Paul Ryan, Senator Rand Paul, NRA President David Keane, and the ubiquitous Donald Trump top the list of heavy-hitters scheduled to take the stage this weekend.

But a far less predictable entity than these will also be making an appearance at CPAC this year. Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty will be debuting as well. The group’s press release describes the coalition as “a national network of conservatives questioning the alignment of capital punishment with conservative principles.” Their website claims that though Americans have tinkered with the death penalty for more than three decades to make it more fair, accurate, and effective, the system continues to fail. In an attempt to debunk common myths about the death penalty, the group lists their reasons for concern:

  • The risk of executing an innocent person is real
  • The complicated process has drained our resources
  • The death penalty has failed victims’ families
  • The death penalty doesn’t keep us safe
  • Fairness in the death penalty is a moving target

The group is assembling a diverse group of supporters, but perhaps most surprising among the early list is Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, and Richard Viguerie, known as the “Funding Father” of the conservative movement.

In a statement, Sekulow specifically tied his position to his Christian faith:

I’m opposed to the death penalty not because I think it’s unconstitutional per se—although I think it’s been applied in ways that are unconstitutional—but it really is a moral view, and that is that the taking of life is not the way to handle even the most significant of crimes. Who amongst anyone is not above redemption? I think we have to be careful in executing final judgment.  The one thing my faith teaches me—I don’t get to play God. I think you are short-cutting the whole process of redemption…I don’t want to be the person that stops that process from taking place.

The CPAC event is an annual gathering of conservative politicians and activists from across the country. It is a project of the American Conservative Union and has traditionally served as a barometer for the conservative movement. It is far too early to predict if conservatives will unite in opposition to the death penalty in any substantive way, but one has to wonder if this new effort signals the genesis of a renewed debate in the coming years.

If you ask me, it is a conversation too few conservatives are actually having. And one that’s far too important to avoid.

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March 14, 2013by Jonathan
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  • Happy Valentine’s Day to the lonely and the left behind.

To the abandoned and the abused.

To the depressed and disappointed.

To the heartbroken and heartsick.

To the beat up, the beat down, the broken, the burned, and the betrayed.

To all those who liberally gave love to people who didn’t deserve it, who didn’t handle your heart with care.

To those who have waited a thousand nighttimes for love to arrive and are still empty handed.

Happy Valentine’s Day to YOU. Today, may you be seen and known.

You are worthy of the love you long for.

TAG SOMEONE WHO NEEDS TO BE REMINDED THAT THEY ARE LOVED. 📸: @zed.910
  • We live in a polarized world where there is very little tolerance for those standing on middle ground. If you fail to take a hard stance on a hot button issue or big decision, you’re labeled a “coward” and dismissed. There’s no time to think, pray, research, converse, investigate, or marinate.

Even still, there are many of us who embrace the ancient practice of discernment and are able to speak that holy phrase: “I don’t know.” In such a time, unleashing that utterance is courageous not cowardly. 
Good luck to all of you wrestling crocodiles today!

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But, just then, he remembered that new dreams are far better than dead ones.
  • The gospel according to #MarieKondo. 🗑 (Tag someone who needs to hear this!)
  • Every human is both the jailer and the inmate in their own life. We are incarcerated by our bad habits, dark tendencies, and hurtful propensities. Yet we all possess the power to disimprison ourselves.

But here is the catch: the incarcerated person has to WANT to be released.

A few years ago, a person stumbled into my life who, as it turned out, was imprisoned by a slew of bad behaviors—compulsive lying, chronic selfishness, a penchant for gaslighting, a general lack of empathy, and dangerous intimacy habits that placed their physical health at risk.

I knew this person was stuck, and I badly wanted them to be set free. I worked overtime to help them, but the situation left me depressed as I watched the person spiral—the loss of jobs, the loss of longtime friends, the loss of faith, the loss of any sense of identity.

My counselor says that my internal logic was similar to the thinking that ruins compulsive gamblers. You’re sitting at the table and the house is taking all of your money, but you don’t get up because, well, you’ve invested so much. Whether it is $5,000.00 or 5 years, a time comes when you may have to admit that you’re losing, not winning, and then find the courage to push back from the table and walk away.

Luckily, I woke up one day and realized a truth I’d missed all those years: I was not THEIR jailer; only mine. I didn’t possess the key to THEIR prison, only my own. They didn’t want to be let out, and there was nothing I could do to set them free.

A lot of you have people like this in your life. A cheating spouse, a friend who is a serial liar, a backstabbing coworker, a rebellious child, an emotionally abusive sibling or parent. It’s time for you to accept that you do not possess the power to disimprison people who are content living behind bars.

Stop pounding on another person’s prison door and set yourself free.
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“If we wake up to our current realities and return to our foundations... the faith's best days may yet lie ahead.” Jonathan Merritt, The Atlantic

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