In a recent FP post:
There so many issues that you raise here, that it is difficult to figure out which is best to respond to what I consider to be the most overarching question in the original post. Jesus was not the president of a country. He didn’t establish national laws and rules and policies. He told individual and groups of followers how to live their lives for God and His kingdom. Personal kingdom ethics was His focus. Using those to try to establish or justify national policy is simply putting words in His mouth…which is what I see most people doing when the try to establish a moral position by asking “what would Jesus do.” The typical answer I have seen, to be honest, is the the person to take their own morals and put them into Jesus mouth in order to give them more gravitas. Jesus number one job during His lifetime was to show people who His Father is. He knew very well that within a few short decades the nation of Israel would be destroyed by the Romans. Nations come and go, but human spirits last forever and the relationship they have with the Father determine the nature of that eternal state. This is what weighed heavily on the heart of our Lord. Trump is an elected leader. It is understood – by most persons in a society that democratically elects its representatives – that people know that who they vote for will not and cannot perfectly represent their individual values and priorities. All we can do is vote for someone that we think has a better chance of taking the county on a course we favor moreso than a different candidate. When Trump ran the first time, I doubt that a majority of his supporters considered him to be a born again Bible believing Christian. They simply embraced his vision for the future more than Hilary’s. If Hilary had gotten elected would people have been posting things asking her to align her policies with Jesus’ even though the Clintons held themselves out as Christians. She didn’t promise that and neither did Trump to my knowledge. Having said all that, I am open to discussing how individual policies Trump has put in place are appropriate, but i will make one caveat. I will not discuss them as a group. It gets too confusing and in my experience hardly ever leads to a meeting of the minds. One issue at a time is my preference.
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Jim