Trump in Context … Including His Sins

                Trump in Context … Including His Sins

               Published in Marietta Daily Journal 7/23/17

            If Donald Trump has committed more sins of the flesh than I have, I’ve probably committed more sins of the spirit than he has.  If we’re counting, I seriously doubt that the president’s sin list is any longer than mine or anybody else’s.

            I’ve been judgmental and covetous in my day.  I’ve gossiped, in spite of a biblical prohibition and one of my dear mother’s favorite sayings, “Now don’t talk about people.”  I’ve also withheld forgiveness.  Just how hurtful do you suppose my sins have been?  Certainly hurtful enough.

            I know.  Sin is an unpopular, laughable word these days, but since our nation was birthed in and has been shaped and informed primarily by Judeo-Christian morality, surely we can use the word a while longer without being scoffed at.

            A liberal friend tells me that because I support President Trump I am trafficking in “secular evil,” (a new expression to me).  “How can a professing Christian support this man?” he recently asked.  That friend went on to call Mr. Trump a groper, a charlatan, and a fake conservative.  Groper, I really don’t know about.  A charlatan Trump definitely is not.   A charlatan is a put-on, a pretender, an actor.  Seems to me Mr. Trump is pretty good at being himself everywhere he goes and is loved for it.  If he’s acting, he has acted consistently ever since he came on the scene: direct, confident, and clear.

            Along with these traits the president also exudes authenticity.  He shines light on the typical in-authenticity of politicians who are fence straddlers.  Trump, refreshingly, is not a typical political figure.  He claims not to be and his claim is verifiable.

            If he were a typical politician he would schmooze those around him with glaring insincerity, guard his words to the point of inanity, and side-step all the difficult issues for the sake of his own re-electability.  Trump does none of these.  His non-political countenance is one reason the billionaire was able to draw to himself so many middle class supporters and “working people.”  His stump speeches effectively set voters against the unreal, glamour-soaked media and the unreal, self-possessed career politicians.

            Politicians generally are not known for directness.  The re-electability factor, their moral compass, whispers to them constantly, urging caution.  Perhaps the reason so many congressional Republicans don’t care for Mr. Trump is that he reveals their caution.  Hesitancy and wind-testing are just not Trump’s forte.

            Though not chummy, Trump is not distant.  If not “intellectual,” he is certainly darn smart.  Though not a manual laborer, he connects with those who are.  Such skills make his political enemies envious.  Envy is a sin too, incidentally.

            As for fake conservative, can we not see that that the old liberal-conservative spectrum is fading?  Words and phrases come and go.  Liberals now prefer the word “progressive” (to which I want to respond, “Progressive toward what?”).  I’ve always preferred the words “traditionalist” or “constitutionalist” over conservative because they are slightly more focused and far more descriptive.  The question should not be what we call ourselves, but what we believe.

            If one of Mr. Trump’s sins is that he was not always a conservative, then I’ve sinned there also.  As a youth and young adult I could have been called and was called a liberal on race.

 Right, wrong, and truth don’t change though we try to change them with weasel words and slippery phrases (“alternative life styles”?).  No one can say the candid president weaseled or twisted himself into a pretzel to get elected.

            My friend’s charge of “trafficking in secular evil” shows he does not appreciate the quandary in which many social conservatives found themselves in last year’s general election.  In the face of bad options, one makes the best decision he can.

            Everything has a context, and the great divide brought on by Trump’s election bids us look back at other times in presidential history.  Given the bitter differences between Jefferson and Adams, Hamilton and Burr, and between the political left and right during the Vietnam era, today’s divisions seem a bit tame.

            Donald Trump is hardly the chiefest of sinners.  The love his children have for him speaks to this point.  Is it possible he could teach us something about being a dad?  CNN could  turn even his good fathering into a sin (he taught them to make money … taught them to be materialistic, … ).   

Long ago someone uttered these forever contemporary words: “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.”  Good words for me, Trump’s critics, Bill and Hillary, and everyone reading these lines.”     

Roger Hines

7/19/17