|1| The Archbishop and the Pope.
|2| Alex Salmond.
|3| John McCain.
|4| President Trump meets with Evangelicals.
|5| Australia’s ‘First Evangelical Prime Minister’ Scott Morrison.
|6| Hotel California.
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The Archbishop and the Pope
New York Times | The Man Who Took On Pope Francis: The Story Behind the Viganò Letter
OnePeterFive.com | The Amazing Story of How Archbishop Viganò’s Report Came to Be
Alex Salmond
BBC News | Nicola Sturgeon says Salmond inquiry ‘must be fair to all’
John McCain
CNN Politics | From 2008: McCain corrects woman calling Obama an “arab”
President Trump meets with Evangelicals
Christian Post | White House Hosts 100 Evangelical Leaders for State-Like Dinner: ‘This Is Spiritual Warfare’
Australia’s ‘First Evangelical Prime Minister’ Scott Morrison
The Times | Scott Morrison turns other cheek after TV comics lampoon Australian PM’s evangelical Christian faith
Hotel California
BBC News | Hotel California by the Eagles: What was it actually about?
Appeal for help
Mike Horton wrote a terrific article on our President’s dinner with evangelical leaders: https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2018/august-web-only/evangelicals-trump-elections-losing-everything.html
Your comments about John McCain are without merit. He was a traitor to his country, his first wife and his current president. Check out the various links on Youtube. This is just one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHF0yXrwr-0
I tend not to rely on ‘various links on YouTube’ – I find that people find what they want to and conspiracy theories abound. I’ve even had people send me links which ‘prove’ a flat earth. This particular video is classic conspiracy theory from a guy who just knows that Kennedy was assassinated by the CIA! I tend to be a little sceptical of such sources!
You make a good point about the meaning of songs and the meaning of the Bible. Alice Cooper, when asked to sum up his Christian beliefs, said that when the Bible says Jonah was in the belly of a big fish he believes it. Others may say this is just an illustrative story but Alice said, faced with the choice, he chooses the Bible.
The problem with your Trump comment is it doesn’t take into account the extent to which the Democratic platform is anti-Christian. The Democrats are openly in favour of abortion and same sex marriage and are generally in favour of the entire LBGTQ agenda. So therefore a Christian voting for the Democrat party is like the proverbial ‘turkey voting for Christmas’. If you also take into account the Democrats avowed aim to have liberal (in the worst sense of the word) judges on the Supreme Court then the choice for an evangelical Christian voter in the USA comes down to little or no choice at all.
Far more important than this is the issue of religious freedom which you quite rightly highlight often yourself. One has to ask the question is it Republicans or Democrats who pose the greater danger to free speech and religious liberty? It is very unfortunate that America has become divided along these lines but it is not the fault of the church that the Democrats have evolved into the party they are.
I do not agree with Trump on every issue but if I were an American pastor I would faithfully inform my congregation of the two platforms and although I would be ostensibly allowing them to make up their own minds it would be quite obvious who to vote for. God does not say ‘I set before you death and life’, do whatever you want; He says, ‘I set before you death and life, choose life that you and your seed might live’.
Leaders across the USA did this in the last election and it was partly why Trump won. As Christian leaders we have a responsibility not to one party or the other but to the truth and if one party aligns itself with unrighteousness then we would be at fault not to oppose them both privately and from the pulpit.
I’m afraid that is partly why the Church in the US is in so much trouble. It is NOT the job of a pastor to inform their congregation of political positions. People also see the hypocrisy of evangelicals condemning Clinton for his sexual immorality and saying he was not fit to be President – yet endorsing Trump. The Republicans have not stopped abortion and they are not going to. I think that it is very foolish for Christianity to become identified with one particular party. And it is having a devastating effect on the US church.
Thank you for replying. “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.” I can’t agree with you on the point about guiding the flock to make informed decisions. We are not yet a totalitarian dictatorship and being able to vote is still a precious privilege.
You didn’t really address my main point which was the it’s not so much the Republicans that deserve our undivided support as that the Democrats have become so unChristian in their ideological position that they cannot/should not be supported by evangelicals. I’m not referring of course to every individual Democrat but to the platform of the party as a whole.
For something like abortion to be challenged there must be conservative judges on the Supreme Court – it’s a necessary precursor. It is only the Republicans who have made that commitment. Trump is delivering on that promise.
I’m not at all sure that the church is ‘in trouble’ in America. We are more ‘in trouble’ here as we do not even have a single political entity here that is aligned with Christian principles, and religious freedom is in greater danger here than in Trump’s America.
I’m not quite sure why pastors not preaching politics from the pulpit and telling their congregation how to vote would mark the beginning of a totalitarian dictatorship! I would argue that both political parties as parties don’t deserve our support, but that evangelicals should vote for individual candidates. I also intensely dislike and regard as dangerous the politicisation of the legal system. Judges should enforce laws, not make them. The church is in enormous trouble in the US – but its worse here as we have been decaying longer.