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Rationalizing Sin


Pilgrim

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Christian, don’t rationalize Trump’s sins

By Jack Wilkie

It’s already difficult to get people to believe the Bible these days. The last thing we need to do is make it more difficult by undermining its authority, and yet that’s what many Christians are doing by the way they’re responding to President Trump’s actions.

In 2011, the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) surveyed white evangelical voters on the topic of morality in political candidates. Only 30% said that a person who was immoral in their personal life could behave ethically as a politician. In 2016, just one month before the Trump/Clinton election, PRRI asked the same question. The number jumped from 30% to 72%. The C.E.O. of PRRI put it this way – “In a head-spinning reversal, white evangelicals went from being the least likely to the most likely group to agree that a candidate’s personal immorality has no bearing on his performance in public office. Honestly, that’s disgraceful. It’s an embarrassment.

But that 2016 research paved the path for what’s going on in current news, where one evangelical leader went on Fox News to claim that Trump’s alleged affair with a porn star is irrelevant. Robert Jeffress of Dallas’ First Baptist Church rationalized his continued support by saying, “Evangelicals knew they weren’t voting for an altar boy when they voted for Donald Trump. We supported him because of his policies and his strong leadership.” Similarly, when President Trump made his crude, derogatory comments about third-world countries a few months ago, his evangelical advisers refused to speak out. I know this sentiment isn’t isolated to Jeffress or a few denominational leaders, because every day I see Christians on Facebook sharing images and quotes about their unconditional support for the President, no matter what happens.

Brethren, it has to stop.

To illustrate why this does such damage to our Christian witness, let’s talk football for a minute. A few years ago, in response to all of the allegations of rule-breaking by his favorite team, a New England Patriots fan created a website named “Your Team Cheats” to show all of the ways that other NFL teams had broken rules. The point was to show that fans of other teams have little room to criticize the Patriots for rules violations, because those teams are guilty, too. The underlying, unintentional point that the site made, though, was that rules don’t matter. The fan was essentially saying, “It’s ok for my team to break rules, because breaking rules is just part of the game.”

As absurd as that is, that’s exactly how the political world plays out. People support the differing parties like teams and the different politicians like athletes, leading the people to always defend their teams and their players, regardless of how immoral or wrong they may be. We can’t get sucked into that game.

Christian, do you realize that if you demanded Bill Clinton resign for his affair with Monica Lewinsky but are content to look the other way as accusations of an affair continue to plague Trump, you’re proving that a political party is more important to you than biblical truth? Do you realize that when you respond to accusations against President Trump by falling back on “But Obama did ____________,” you’re casually endorsing moral relativism and undermining God’s word? Like the bitter Patriots fan, this kind of reply shows that the person doesn’t actually care about right and wrong. They care about their party and candidates getting away with as much or more as the other side.

This kind of moral relativism should be unacceptable and unthinkable for Christians, and yet many are caught right up in the middle of it with the rest of the country. We gather in our churches on Sundays and talk about the unchanging standard of God’s Word, and then we get on Facebook and explain why it’s no big deal when our parties or candidates do something wrong. Then we wonder why the world doesn’t take us seriously when we try to tell them about moral standards. It’s truly ridiculous.

As I’ve argued before, Christians are to be impartial referees in the world of politics. If a politician – Republican, Democrat, or otherwise – does something good, we give them credit for it. If they do something that is wrong, we stand against it. For example, Christians should have approved when President Trump spoke at the Rally for Life. On the other hand, we should have viewed it very negatively when he signed a budget that continued hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for Planned Parenthood. We must subject our politics to our biblical worldview, not the other way around.

Politics work hard to steal our soul. They beg us to put our trust in them rather than in God, and when we accept them as that idol, our morals are quick to go out the window. When our morals disappear, our ability to claim that we stand on an objective moral standard disappears, too. When that ability goes away, we can’t reach anyone. Put your trust in God, and keep the focus on souls at the forefront. Let the Bible determine what is good and bad, what we defend and what we reject. Don’t let a politician cost you your ability to reach people for Jesus.

 

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On 7/27/2020 at 7:42 AM, Pilgrim said:

Christian, don’t rationalize Trump’s sins

By Jack Wilkie

It’s already difficult to get people to believe the Bible these days. The last thing we need to do is make it more difficult by undermining its authority, and yet that’s what many Christians are doing by the way they’re responding to President Trump’s actions.

In 2011, the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) surveyed white evangelical voters on the topic of morality in political candidates. Only 30% said that a person who was immoral in their personal life could behave ethically as a politician. In 2016, just one month before the Trump/Clinton election, PRRI asked the same question. The number jumped from 30% to 72%. The C.E.O. of PRRI put it this way – “In a head-spinning reversal, white evangelicals went from being the least likely to the most likely group to agree that a candidate’s personal immorality has no bearing on his performance in public office. Honestly, that’s disgraceful. It’s an embarrassment.

But that 2016 research paved the path for what’s going on in current news, where one evangelical leader went on Fox News to claim that Trump’s alleged affair with a porn star is irrelevant. Robert Jeffress of Dallas’ First Baptist Church rationalized his continued support by saying, “Evangelicals knew they weren’t voting for an altar boy when they voted for Donald Trump. We supported him because of his policies and his strong leadership.” Similarly, when President Trump made his crude, derogatory comments about third-world countries a few months ago, his evangelical advisers refused to speak out. I know this sentiment isn’t isolated to Jeffress or a few denominational leaders, because every day I see Christians on Facebook sharing images and quotes about their unconditional support for the President, no matter what happens.

Brethren, it has to stop.

To illustrate why this does such damage to our Christian witness, let’s talk football for a minute. A few years ago, in response to all of the allegations of rule-breaking by his favorite team, a New England Patriots fan created a website named “Your Team Cheats” to show all of the ways that other NFL teams had broken rules. The point was to show that fans of other teams have little room to criticize the Patriots for rules violations, because those teams are guilty, too. The underlying, unintentional point that the site made, though, was that rules don’t matter. The fan was essentially saying, “It’s ok for my team to break rules, because breaking rules is just part of the game.”

As absurd as that is, that’s exactly how the political world plays out. People support the differing parties like teams and the different politicians like athletes, leading the people to always defend their teams and their players, regardless of how immoral or wrong they may be. We can’t get sucked into that game.

Christian, do you realize that if you demanded Bill Clinton resign for his affair with Monica Lewinsky but are content to look the other way as accusations of an affair continue to plague Trump, you’re proving that a political party is more important to you than biblical truth? Do you realize that when you respond to accusations against President Trump by falling back on “But Obama did ____________,” you’re casually endorsing moral relativism and undermining God’s word? Like the bitter Patriots fan, this kind of reply shows that the person doesn’t actually care about right and wrong. They care about their party and candidates getting away with as much or more as the other side.

This kind of moral relativism should be unacceptable and unthinkable for Christians, and yet many are caught right up in the middle of it with the rest of the country. We gather in our churches on Sundays and talk about the unchanging standard of God’s Word, and then we get on Facebook and explain why it’s no big deal when our parties or candidates do something wrong. Then we wonder why the world doesn’t take us seriously when we try to tell them about moral standards. It’s truly ridiculous.

As I’ve argued before, Christians are to be impartial referees in the world of politics. If a politician – Republican, Democrat, or otherwise – does something good, we give them credit for it. If they do something that is wrong, we stand against it. For example, Christians should have approved when President Trump spoke at the Rally for Life. On the other hand, we should have viewed it very negatively when he signed a budget that continued hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for Planned Parenthood. We must subject our politics to our biblical worldview, not the other way around.

Politics work hard to steal our soul. They beg us to put our trust in them rather than in God, and when we accept them as that idol, our morals are quick to go out the window. When our morals disappear, our ability to claim that we stand on an objective moral standard disappears, too. When that ability goes away, we can’t reach anyone. Put your trust in God, and keep the focus on souls at the forefront. Let the Bible determine what is good and bad, what we defend and what we reject. Don’t let a politician cost you your ability to reach people for Jesus.

 

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17 minutes ago, Pilgrim said:

Neither the author nor I are dictating who is worthy of God’s purpose. If that is what you got from this article you missed the message.

I got that the author is unrighteously judging an imperfect man while not revealing his own imperfections....... 

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3 minutes ago, WestHardinfan1 said:

I got that the author is unrighteously judging an imperfect man while not revealing his own imperfections....... 

It wasn’t about Trump or the New England Patriots, so yes, you missed the message. Have a nice day sir.

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14 minutes ago, Pilgrim said:

It wasn’t about Trump or the New England Patriots, so yes, you missed the message. Have a nice day sir.

Here is the TITLE: Christian, don’t rationalize Trump’s sins...

So you wanna try that again???

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