Liberty U, Baptists Divided On Trump, Fear Split
March 18, 2016 in News by RBN Staff
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Editor CEC observes:
Did Donald Trump start a giant split among the “evangelical” Republicans by his Liberty University appearance, as this story suggests? Or is Trumpamania part of a long-awaited revolution crossing all party lines, an anti-establishment tide penetrating Zionist-friendly Christian institutions, Liberty U, and probably every church and school in the US? This editor thinks so. We wonder, if the Liberty U youth were to be exposed to self-avowed socialist reformer Bernie Sanders, whether he too might receive standing applause for his words? Recall that Ron Paul garnered most of his support from the under 30 crowd, and in his 70’s was a college favorite four years ago. Was Paul a forerunner? Perhaps Trump and Sanders are popular despite flaws and weaknesses because they are the only anti-establishment kick-boxers in this ring full of establishment political animals from both parties. Please read this story and help consider the possibility that Sanders and Trump are both floating on a movement we will call ‘Anyone But the Establishment’. Maybe God is even in this in some odd way! We are glad to see this story–though we offer a slightly different conclusion than the author, we thank him.- CEC
Evangelicals accuse fellow believers of abandoning faith to support Trump
Excerpts from Yahoo Politics, 3/26/2016
Students at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., sing before Donald J. Trump delivers a speech on Jan. 18, 2016. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Donald Trump’s support from self-identified evangelical voters has sparked a debate among Christian leaders over what that term means, and a move to narrow the definition of this term or abandon it altogether.
The civil war within American Christianity that Trump’s candidacy has sparked is similar to the one going on inside the Republican Party, with a particularly large faction dead set against ever supporting Trump.
The split is between a subset of evangelicals best categorized as“creedal” believers — those who take their faith most seriously and who oppose Trump. Less devout Christians, often described as “notional” or “cultural,” are more open to the businessman and GOP frontrunner. The majority of national evangelical leaders are on the side of creedal believers.
Nonetheless, many anti-Trump Christian leaders believe that the American church has been in decline for decades, leaving many casual Christians — for whom faith is more of a cultural identity rather than a day-to-day experience — vulnerable to Trump’s appeals to anger and resentment.
And Russell Moore, head of the Southern Baptist Convention’s public policy arm, considers a vote for Trump “deeply inconsistent with an application of the Christian faith.” Moore wrote an op-ed in February for the Washington Post with the headline, “Why this election makes me hate the word ‘evangelical.’”
These Christian leaders see Trump as the antithesis of everything they and their faith stand for. Trump’s arrogance and brashness
Finally, evangelical leaders see Trump’s inclination toward bullying, his admiration for tyrannical governments and his disregard for the rule of law as indications he would seek to use power despotically himself.
True power and strength, according to the Christian faith, is found in service, self-sacrifice for others and in loving and forgiving one’s enemies.
