‘AMERICA’S PASTOR’ Went AWOL On Obama — But He Finds Donald Trump Indecent
First of all, and for the sake of “decency”, I must confess that I am a pastor and a Ted Cruz supporter. As a matter of fact, I co-founded Pastors for Ted Cruz. I am also opposed to a Trump presidency and have written multiple times on why Trump is a bad choice. But when I saw the joy-gasm that was going on over a Max Lucado blog post, I must say, I was a bit confused.
Deemed “America’s Pastor” by Christianity Today, best-selling author Max Lucado broke 30 years of silence on politics and politicians to come out and throw shade on Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump.
“We can only hope, and pray, for a return to decency,” wrote Lucado in a blog post entitled Decency for President, “Perhaps Mr. Trump will better manage his antics. (Worthy of a prayer, for sure.) Or, perhaps the American public will remember the key role of the president is to be the face of America. When he/she speaks, he/she speaks for us. Whether we agree or disagree with the policies of the president, do we not hope that they behave in a way that is consistent with the status of the office?”
So that’s it? Lucado doesn’t like Trump’s tone and demeanor? That’s what brought outrage to a pastor who has purposely and by his own admission remained silent politically? Surely it must be more than that? It must be that Pastor Lucado has information that Donald J. Trump is actually lying about being pro-life, or maybe he finds his position on sexual perversion to be too lax, but to come out of the shadows over a coarse personality? That would rule out George S. Patton and Winston Churchill by the way, but Ted Bundy who, by all admission, was modest and had a sense of propriety – he’d be good to go?
“My concern is not so much with his policies as with his tone,” admitted Pastor Lucado to Christianity Today, “My disagreement with his policies is what would cause me to cast my vote for someone else, but it’s my concern for the fact that he calls himself a Christian and has a certain tone, that would cause me to write the blog.”
One of the reasons that the Trump myth persists and his supporters dig in is that Trump’s detractors are so clueless. As GOP flunkies look into a 3rd Party poison pill, conservative bloggers hysterically compare Trump to Hitler and declare that this is “the devils favorite” election, and still others threaten to not vote if Trump gets the nomination.
And now “America’s Pastor,” Max Lucado, comes out of a 30-year hibernation breaking his sacred vow of silence after ignoring 8-years of Clinton, 8-years of Obama, and many years of GOP betrayal, to attack The Donald. Does that make any sense at all? Lucado must be reading Matt Walsh and channeling The Church Lady, but he’s not reading Bonhoeffer, Proverbs, or Basil Hart.
The more we sound like parents from the 50’s warning our children about listening to Elvis Presley, Trump’s popularity will grow and grow. Trump is not Elvis, he’s not The Beatles, so quit following the lead of El Chapo, drop the Church Lady tactic, and focus your criticism on his real weaknesses.
Mitt Romney comes out and hits Trump harder than he ever hit Obama. Lindsey Graham wishes Cruz was murdered. And establishment lackeys wonder why they’re losing?
But what of Pastor Lucado’s stunning admission? Gays in the military – not a peep. Transgenders in your daughters’ locker room – doesn’t bat an eye. Fellow pastors in Houston ordered to turn in their sermons – nothing to see here, just a passing through. Is Pastor Lucado mute to the most egregious anti-Christian policies as long as one is articulate and displays modesty? Vote to shelve babies born alive? – Well that’s just a policy, I’m only coming out of hibernation if you call Rosie O’Donnell a “pig!”
I guess the decency police are going to ask Donald to turn in his Christian card because he uses salty language and he botched his testimony. But shelving babies, mainlining sodomy, plundering wealth, funding terrorists, using the IRS to attack enemies, telling Chaplains they can’t pray in Jesus name, and turning your back when Christians are murdered around the globe is just peachy — as long as you have your manners about you.
“But boy, we have to call upon them,” said Lucado, “We pay a high price as a people if we don’t hold our leaders to a high standard.”
Well, pastor, let’s practice what you preach shall we? I hold the spiritual leaders of this country to a high standard as well. We are the Watchmen on the Wall and we are required to teach the whole counsel of God or we have blood on our hands; so where oh where have you been for the last thirty years, Pastor Max?
Is it really only a man’s tone that brought you out of your monastery and caused you to break your vow of silence? Hillary Clinton allowing four Americans to die in Benghazi and then lying, over four coffins, to the country and to the grieving relatives wasn’t enough for you? Or tell me, Pastor Lucado, was her tone just right? Did she display decency?
How about when the professing Christian, Barack Obama, said, “God bless Planned Parenthood,” and that abortion supporters are “doing God’s work”? Did that not rise to your Evangelifish level of outrage?
When John Kerry said that the Bible commands America to protect Muslims from Global Warming – “America’s Pastor” was silent. When Pelosi encouraged priests and pastors to use their pulpit to push Cap and Trade, Max Lucado was mute. When countless Democrats used “their faith” as an excuse to support same-sex “marriage,” Pastor Lucado bit his tongue and sat on his hands. But when Donald Trump was rude, he had to ride into the arena to save the rest of us from the Sith Lord who has us all spell-bound. Well bless his heart.
“I don’t even put a candidate’s bumper sticker on my car. People don’t attend church to hear my views on a presidential candidate,” says Lucado, “It would be none of my business, I would have absolutely no right to speak up except that he repeatedly brandishes the Bible and calls himself a Christian.”
Oh, you mean like Bill Clinton and Barack Obama have done over and over? Then again, thirty years ago “America’s Pastor” did speak out about Bill Clinton.
“… when Bill Clinton was in office in the late ’90s, I spoke out against it. I talked about what Jesus would say to Bill Clinton and what Jesus would say to Monica Lewinsky,” said Lucado, “I remember those sermons because those topics were just so much on people’s minds. So I spoke out against it.”
Those topics were “on people’s minds” so you spoke about it, pastor? Has nothing been “on people’s minds” since the stain on the blue dress, pastor? Is getting a Lewinski from a Lewinski in the oval office somehow more relevant than conspiring to confound, manipulate, and destroy the Constitutional Republic from the oval office?
This outrageous idea that the good pastor will only come to the Shire and stand against impropriety in tone but will ignore the actual behavior and attitudes that destroy life, liberty, and religious freedom, suggests that he would have been a Reich pastor in the age of the Confessing Church. Had Franklin Graham registered his distaste with the Donald over this, I’d have nothing to say because Graham has been battling in the arena, not in the bleachers selling moralistic therapeutic legalism.
What the good pastor is saying, if you listen closely, is that the only thing a Christian pastor should come out of the pulpit to confront is a lack of decorum. The holocaust of the unborn – not so much. The mainlining of sexual perversion in the marketplace, the courts, the schools, and the military – that doesn’t rise to the level of an un-Christian “tone.”
Sorry, but this guy would have his panties in a bunch after spending five minutes with Martin Luther, who often used the colloquialisms of the street. This guy would have preferred the moderate tone of Omar Bradley to the crass delivery of George S. Patton; Mr. Rogers to Billy Sunday. He probably would chastise John the Baptizer for his un-Christian tone in his criticism of Herod’s sexual peccadillos. Oh wait, maybe it was Herod’s tone that offended John?
Donald Trump has now faced attacks from IL Papa to El Chapo, from America’s pastor to Charlie Sheen- – quite an eclectic set of detractors. But any guy who inspires Al Sharpton and the lesbian hacktress from The View to flee the country if he’s elected/nominated, can’t be all bad. Certainly not worse than Bill, Hillary, and Barack.
My objection to Trump isn’t that he is not a good Christian. I know many “good Christians” that I wouldn’t want as my president. My objection to Trump is that he isn’t a good candidate, he doesn’t know the Constitution well enough to defend it, and there’s a much better man in the race – Senator Ted Cruz. It actually pains me to defend Trump at all. As we learned from Anthony Hopkins in The Edge, “Never feel sorry for a guy who owns his own plane.”
Jimmy Carter is a brother in Christ, his manners are impeccable, his tone and demeanor I’m sure would be approved by “America’s Pastor,” but the man was a train-wreck as a president.
Had Thomas Paine a time-machine and could have opposed Jimmy Carter for president, I would have voted for the atheist. If Penn Jillette opposed Jimmy Carter for president, I would have voted for the atheist. And if George S. Patton, in all his expletive-deleted glory, had run for president, I would have donated, volunteered, and worked for his campaign even against a candidate with excellent tone and manners.
Does Max Lucado think that Lucifer talks like Donald Trump? Isn’t it far more likely that he speaks with the gilded eloquence of the most esteemed creature genius?
If you take away from this column that I am defending Donald Trump, you are mistaken. If you take away from this that I am defending indecent speech and indecorous behavior, you are mistaken.
If you take away from this that a spiritual shepherd who only breaks his silence for petulance while remaining silent in the face of nefarious evil is a damn coward, you are spot, freakin’ on!
Excusez mon Français!