The Price For Jesus In Trump's America
Souls for sale.
I'm struggling to understand everything I see happening in the Trump administration. What is more mind-boggling is how his unconstitutional, grotesque, selfish, and hateful actions are being supported by those who claim to be followers of the most compassionate historical figure and religious leader ever to walk the earth.
I'm wondering how low the price was for the collective group of television megachurch pastors or the religious political groupies who have aligned themselves with President Trump's wayward agenda? What bonus gift did Trump give that could make them freely abandon their convictions of upholding God's call to stand up for His holiness, righteousness, and justice? So easily they abandon their call for atonement; a time of soul searching, repentance, forgiveness, and a turning away from all of our transgressions - individually and as a nation. Yet, they have bowed so willingly before the altar of Baal in the name of Trump to use their voices as trumpets to herald his ascention to fill the space of god on earth.
Trump is everything the evangelical community preaches against, or at least once preached against, as they promoted a church pure and without blemish. I keep asking myself how some of the most conservative religious leaders can so willingly follow a man who openly boasted of not needing to repent. Repentance is the first step of salvation for every Christian denomination. To deny its importance is heresy and blasphemous, yet Trump has firmly stated that he is good and without need of forgiveness from God.
Tragically, what has become known as America's mainstream church has become adolatrous and greedy. The evangelical community has become more concerned with the appearance of blessings, things that shine and glitter, rather than focus on being the heart of compassion and mercy, the hands and feet of Jesus, the voices of hope, or the places of refuge for the stranger. We have come to equate God's favor with material goods and not the opportunity to be His representative daily. Our prophets' bellies have been filled, and their voices are controlled by their new spiritual king, just as in the times of Isaiah and Hosea. Many of our spiritual leaders speak whatever pleases the leadership of America, and persecute those who speak out against them and our corrupt national leadership.
So just how much did they sell the gospel of American christianity (the lower case "c" is intentional) or their soul for? How cheap was the price of integrity? Less than twenty years ago, these same religious leaders were holding President Obama's feet over the eternal flames of hell. But with the flick of a new candidate, who placed a simple "R" behind his name, the conservative right put aside their standards, which were supposedly based on the Bible, to accept a new leader whose lifestyle is in stark contrast to the teachings of Jesus or the letters of the Apostles.
Sadly, the cost of this wicked purchase has been the integrity of the message of the Gospel. While many of those who have become celebrated Christian television personalities have profited from this alliance and allegiance to President Trump, those who are committed to living out the teaching of the Bible are having to pay the expensive cost of cleaning up the trash that has perverted the true image of Christ and His Church. What should make many of us in the Christian community weep is the number of souls who have been turned off by what our religious leaders have been selling to benefit Trump and not the Kingdom of God. The cost of souls is too expensive.
I'm struggling to understand everything I see happening in the Trump administration. What is more mind-boggling is how his unconstitutional, grotesque, selfish, and hateful actions are being supported by those who claim to be followers of the most compassionate historical figure and religious leader ever to walk the earth.
I'm wondering how low the price was for the collective group of television megachurch pastors or the religious political groupies who have aligned themselves with President Trump's wayward agenda? What bonus gift did Trump give that could make them freely abandon their convictions of upholding God's call to stand up for His holiness, righteousness, and justice? So easily they abandon their call for atonement; a time of soul searching, repentance, forgiveness, and a turning away from all of our transgressions - individually and as a nation. Yet, they have bowed so willingly before the altar of Baal in the name of Trump to use their voices as trumpets to herald his ascention to fill the space of god on earth.
Trump is everything the evangelical community preaches against, or at least once preached against, as they promoted a church pure and without blemish. I keep asking myself how some of the most conservative religious leaders can so willingly follow a man who openly boasted of not needing to repent. Repentance is the first step of salvation for every Christian denomination. To deny its importance is heresy and blasphemous, yet Trump has firmly stated that he is good and without need of forgiveness from God.
"Trump is everything the evangelical community preaches against, or at least once preached against, as they promoted a church pure and without blemish."
The willingness to stand on public stages and declare that God has said He has blessed, anointed, and is pleased with that which is polluted and filthy, the equivalent of a slaughtered pig on the altar of God in Solomon's temple, is profane. To declare such a thing is to put God in contradiction with His Word. While God can indeed use the most wicked instrument for His purpose, which He did many times in the Tanakh, it does not signify God's approval. How many times can they lay their hands on a man who has made himself his god and they declare he is walking in the righteousness of God? How long can they do this without feeling any conviction?
Tragically, what has become known as America's mainstream church has become adolatrous and greedy. The evangelical community has become more concerned with the appearance of blessings, things that shine and glitter, rather than focus on being the heart of compassion and mercy, the hands and feet of Jesus, the voices of hope, or the places of refuge for the stranger. We have come to equate God's favor with material goods and not the opportunity to be His representative daily. Our prophets' bellies have been filled, and their voices are controlled by their new spiritual king, just as in the times of Isaiah and Hosea. Many of our spiritual leaders speak whatever pleases the leadership of America, and persecute those who speak out against them and our corrupt national leadership.
So just how much did they sell the gospel of American christianity (the lower case "c" is intentional) or their soul for? How cheap was the price of integrity? Less than twenty years ago, these same religious leaders were holding President Obama's feet over the eternal flames of hell. But with the flick of a new candidate, who placed a simple "R" behind his name, the conservative right put aside their standards, which were supposedly based on the Bible, to accept a new leader whose lifestyle is in stark contrast to the teachings of Jesus or the letters of the Apostles.
Sadly, the cost of this wicked purchase has been the integrity of the message of the Gospel. While many of those who have become celebrated Christian television personalities have profited from this alliance and allegiance to President Trump, those who are committed to living out the teaching of the Bible are having to pay the expensive cost of cleaning up the trash that has perverted the true image of Christ and His Church. What should make many of us in the Christian community weep is the number of souls who have been turned off by what our religious leaders have been selling to benefit Trump and not the Kingdom of God. The cost of souls is too expensive.
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