Rev. Peter Muhlenberg
It’s Trump or Never, white man.
In the middle of Thursday night’s hour-long, top-of-his-lungs speech detailing policy initiatives that will affect diverse constituencies including blacks, Hispanics, the white working class, women, cops, troops, Zionists, gays, school voucher supporters, and limited government conservatives, Republican nominee for president Donald J. Trump made a significant point regarding Christianity. Not to overstate the point, but I think it showed a window into the man’s soul.
At this stage of his Republican nomination acceptance speech, viewers would have seen him stop railing at the television cameras and lower his voice to a softer, modest tone.
I would like to thank the evangelical and religious community because, I will tell you what, the support they have given me — and I’m not sure I totally deserve it — has been so amazing, and has been such a big reason for me being here tonight.
Considering his upbringing as a churchgoing Presbyterian who developed as a young man in a military boarding school and grew into an intensely competitive businessman, his words lauding “religious” and “evangelical” people – while not counting himself among them – seem authentic. Honest. Not pandering, but genuinely from the heart. He was – and is – a mainline, Northern, early Baby Boomers-generation, WASP.
As he told Christian Broadcasting Network reporter David Brody last May before he had officially announced his candidacy for the presidency, “As you know, I am Protestant. I am Presbyterian. Most people don’t know that. They have no idea. I’m proud of it. I’m very proud of it.”
Referring to Christian refugees fleeing ISIS in Syria, he told Brody, “Believe me, if I run and I win, I will be the greatest representative of the Christians they’ve had in a long time.”
Trump grew up the son of a frugal Scottish mother and an ambitious German father in metropolitan New York City. Late in his speech Thursday night he praised them both. Can you see his parents teaching a young Donald J. Trump to think reverently of God and His people? Yes, you can. Could he still rebel against God when he deemed fit (e.g.., breaking the seventh commandment)? Of course – he is human, and strong-willed at that.
But the question is, regarding Christianity, is he trustworthy? Will he deliver on his promise to be “the greatest representative of the Christians they’ve had in a long time”?
Consider what came from his lips during his Cleveland speech: words that not even the most aggressive of evangelical lobbyists could have gotten a presidential candidate of his stature to utter even in the heyday of the George W. Bush years.
They have much to contribute to our politics. Yet our laws prevent you from speaking your minds from your own pulpits. An amendment pushed by Lyndon Johnson, many years ago, threatens religious institutions with a loss of their tax-exempt status if they openly advocate their political views. Their voice has been taken away. I am going to work very hard to repeal that language and to protect free speech for all Americans.
This proposal, the idea of which is anathema to the IRS and its zealous atheistical friends in the ACLU, ADL, SPLC, et al., should send the Ralph Reeds and James Dobsons of the Western world gyrating with hope and optimism. If a Trump Administration did enact this change, it would potentially turn white, Protestant pulpits into what they used to be in the days of Rev. Peter Muhlenberg, the Lutheran pastor who famously preached in support of American independence and then took off his robe to reveal his army uniform underneath. WASP churches could once again openly serve as the arsenals of biblical politics and culture.
I talked about the reasons why churches will be vital to any pro-white, Christian resurgence in a recent podcast.
Is Trump a Christian candidate? In some ways yes, in some ways, no. Is he the best candidate out of all possible candidates? Flatly, no.
But is he the best of all the actual candidates who have a shot to win (and there is only one other: Hillary Rodham Clinton)? Plainly, yes.
It’s Trump or Never, white man. Think about it.
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