A few Christian friends have admonished me to vote for Donald Trump because he opposes abortion. I sympathize with their sentiments because if you believe sacred human life begins at conception the killing of millions of babies can seem more important than anything else. If only one candidate will try to change America to protect these babies that issue “trumps” all others and you have to vote for that candidate.
Many Christians exhibit extreme bias by saying Donald Trump is really a good man and we should forgive him for his past sins. They say all the negative media makes him look bad. At the same time they vilify Hilary Clinton and all third party candidates, believing every accusation leveled against them. This extreme bias from my fellow Christians is very disturbing to me. Most of them seem driven by their desire to protect pre-born babies from abortion.
Even though I believe sacred human life begins before birth I cannot support Donald Trump simply because he claims to be pro-life. Here I will attempt to summarize the many reasons why. The opinions below are just that, my opinions. I provide some evidence and reasoning to explain why I formed these opinions, but I’m well aware this is subjective opinion, not proof. I’d like to provide more concrete evidence, but I’ve run out of time with the election looming tomorrow. Still, I believe any reasonable, rational person will agree at least in part with my conclusions. The real Donald Trump might not be quite this bad, but he could actually be worse.
I cite a few examples of specific events backing up some of these opinions, but mostly I just make general references because the specific incidents are many and well publicized. This list would grow much longer and tedious if I supported every opinion with a long list of specific evidences. If you want to believe I’ve formed my opinions unfairly that’s your prerogative.
1. A likely tyrant. Early in the republican primary Trump stated that he would bring back waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques and do things “beyond waterboarding” and “a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding.” He indicated that he doesn’t care if people think we’re torturing our prisoners. Someone asked him what he’d do if military members refused to use these techniques because they considered them torture and couldn’t morally use them, or in fact they are illegal. Trump responded that as commander-in-chief all members of the military must do as he says. He simply stated that they will do what he says because he’s there leader.
Trump has displayed a disturbing ruthlessness many times that lead me to believe he’s a tyrant at heart. The example cited above is the most alarming one to me.
2. Abusive. Trump is well known for his name calling, angry outbursts, sharp criticism, and physical or emotional intimidation. He’s been accused multiple times of abusive physical and sexual conduct. People actually found it entertaining when he pointedly rebuked and fired individuals from his reality TV show. Such conduct violates American values of tolerance and respect, not to mention Christian values of speaking the truth in love, gentleness, and kindness. Such behavior gives failing evaluations to Kindergarten students and certainly aren’t suitable for the president. The way he treats people is beyond disrespect; it’s abusive.
This abusive response is his default reaction when he’s displeased, and he’s easily displeased. As a businessman and public figure he continuously launched into harsh tirades against people he didn’t like and the tirades have only grown more frequent and universal during his presidential campaign. If you believe Trump’s criticisms, every candidate who ran for president as well as any popular figure who spoke out in favor of his opponents is a liar, criminal, traitor, or complete moron. His over the top criticism spews in all directions.
3. Infidelity. My subjective opinion based on Trump’s statements and behavior combined with the accusations against him: he’s been unfaithful to his past wives, his current wife, and will continue into the future.
4. Egomaniac. Donald Trump claims unashamedly that some people are superior to others. He believes physical and mental differences make some people better than others. He believes he is one of the gifted ones, superior to the vast majority of people. “I had a good gene pool,” he boasts. The arrogant way he conducts himself and talks down about other people flows consistently from this paradigm.
5. Hypocrite. Over and over again when I read about Trump’s statements or listen to him speak I find him spewing harsh criticism at others that applies to him too. He’s called successful business people failures because some of their business ventures didn’t work out, while many of his own business efforts have ended in bankruptcy. He attacks Bill Clinton for past infidelities to take the heat off his own sexual misconduct. He condemns Hillary Clinton for criticizing her husband’s accusers while he viciously attacks his own accusers. He’ll target anyone he opposes for any weakness he can find or make up while excusing or dismissing to his own failures. When Trump was trailing in the republican primary when threatened to run as an independent candidate saying he wouldn’t support another republican who might win the nomination. Later when he was leading he changed his tune saying all republicans should support whoever wins the nomination. Then, after he won the nomination, he demanded that all republicans unite and support him, harshly criticizing leaders who wouldn’t. He boasted on a few occasions that he’s made many large political donations in the past expecting favorable government action in reciprocation. He’s been a political insider for decades, pulling strings to manipulate our government. Now he’s deceptively running as a political outsider and harshly condemning public officials and opposition candidates for accepting donations from wealthy businessmen.
6. Cry-baby. He can’t take critical opposition. When reporters question his outrageous behavior or statements he whines about biased reporting or unfair targeting. When he was an underdog in the republican primary he cried about opposition from the party leaders, whining that it wasn’t fair. Now, whenever poll numbers show him losing ground he complains that the system is rigged and threatens not to accept the result if he doesn’t win. He’s just like the whiny playground bully who pouts and cries and fusses whenever he doesn’t get what he wants.
7. Vulgar. Most Americans accept vulgar speech as a legitimate way to express themselves, but we believe it should be kept to private conversations where it won’t offend others. I disagree. The scriptures forbid vulgar speech as inappropriate for believers in any circumstance. (Eph 4:29; 5:3-5) In either case, Trump’s ubiquitous public vulgar outbursts should be a major strike against him as unfitting for a US President.
8. Presumption. Donald Trump makes stuff up off the cuff and states it boldly and repeatedly as if it’s obvious fact. The sad thing is, his supporters jump on board believing the stuff me makes up and repeating it. After every debate the media “fact checkers” consistently found more errors in Trumps assertions than other candidates. He pronounced his misstatements more emphatically and repeatedly and often persisted after the error was revealed. Trump has a habit of assuming that things that he thinks are true, or that he wishes were true, actually are true and he dismisses people who try to correct him. This is a terrible trait for any leader.
9. Sin Profiteer. Donald Trump has amassed a fortune from sinful businesses that no Christian should condone. Casinos and beauty pageants exploit our sinful bents for greed, lust, and vanity. They’re legal, but shameful. This is not the kind of experience I want serving in the White House.
10. Materialism, Greed, Power. When I first started hearing about this wealthy flamboyant businessman over 3 decades ago I perceived him as materialistic and greedy. Every time he’s in the news these impressions are reinforced, but recently I’ve noticed that he’s also a power monger. He seems to enjoy being in a position of influence, directing the actions of others. He likes it when people defer to him out of admiration or fear.
He’s known for not paying people he’s hired for a job if he’s not happy with their work. If someone’s work falls grossly short of what they promised that make sense, but my impression is that Trump is quick to find fault and heartless in business dealings. He doesn’t care what he does to the poor working stiff who suffers from his business gains—all he cares about is the growth of his own wealth and power. I’ll admit that this impression could be magnified by biased media reporting, but it’s a long standing impression that goes back way before he started his run for president and it’s reinforced by so many actions that I’m sure it’s true, even if the media has exaggerated it a bit.
11. Generous. I’ve heard people cite incidents of Trump’s generosity. I’m not going to dispute that maybe he is generous toward people he favors, but I’ve never heard of him helping people he doesn’t like. Abusive people almost always take impressively generous actions from time to time. Perhaps it eases their guilt. It certainly buys them some favorable will from others and helps deflect criticism for their abusive actions. I also believe that generosity stimulates egos, making people with gross flaws feel good about themselves. Only God can see Donald Trump’s heart to know if his generosity fits these categories or it it’s truly from love for others. Regardless, his giving is out of his excess, not sacrificial. (Mark 12: 41-44)
12. Prophetic Warning. My concern for the future of America if Donald Trump is our president spiked one day as I was reading a passage from a biblical epistle. (2 Tim 3:1-5) Not only do these ungodly traits flow freely from Mr. Trump, but he seems to draw them out of other people too. A very dangerous situation for a powerful leader.
13. Lacking Spiritual Fruit. Contrast the traits above against what we should see from a Christian leader and the alarm bells sound even louder. We’re told to evaluate leaders by their fruit (Matt 7:15-20) and given a list of fruit to look for in Godly leaders (Gal 5:22-23). Some fruit (patience, gentleness, kindness, self-control, peace) are all woefully lacking in Donald Trump, and he tends to stifle this fruit in others wherever his sphere of influence reaches.
14. Speaks without thinking. Donald Trump often makes alarming or stupid statements totally inappropriate for a presidential candidate. Most of these are when he’s speaking off the top of his head in criticism of someone.
Hillary Clinton. I want to be clear here that I’m not bashing Trump because I want another Clinton presidency. She has some major issues too.
So there you have it. The two parties that rule our nation have disgraced us. I believe there is no justification for Christians to support either the republican or democratic nominee. Any third party or write-in vote is a more righteous choice. I’d love to see this election invalidated by no candidate receiving even 20% of the vote. Unfortunately most Americans feel like they’re trapped in the 2 party system and they’ve resigned themselves to vote for an unsuitable candidate to try keeping an even more unsuitable candidate out of office. We do have a better choice if only Americans had the integrity to make it.